Ratimir ( la, Ratimarus) was a duke or prince ('' knez'') of the Slavs in Lower Pannonia between ca. 829 to 838. It is believed that Ratimir descends from a royal dynasty that provided rulers for Moravia and Croatia. In 827, the Bulgars under Great Khan

Omurtag Omurtag (or Omortag) ( bg, Омуртаг; original gr, Μορτάγων and Ομουρτάγ', Inscription No.64. Retrieved 10 April 2012.) was a Great Khan ('' Kanasubigi'') of Bulgaria from 814 to 831. He is known as "the Builder". In the v ...

invaded and conquered Lower Pannonia and parts of Frankish territories to the north. In 829 the Bulgars imposed a local prince, Ratimir, as the new ruler of the territory. His province is believed to have been the territory of the former Roman Pannonia Savia, which is located in modern-day

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. Earlier, Sigismund Calles (1750) called him "Slavic duke of the Drava". In 838, nine years later, following the Bulgarian conquest of Macedonia, the Danubian count Radbod, prefect of the East March, deposed Ratimir and restored Frankish rule. Ratimir fled the land, and the Franks instated dukes

Pribina Pribina (c. 800861) was a Slavic prince whose adventurous career, recorded in the '' Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians'' (a historical work written in 870), illustrates the political volatility of the Franco–Slavic fronti ...

and Kocelj to rule Pannonian area in the name of the Franks. Unlike his predecessors, Ratimir experienced a rift in relations with the Christian

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. According to the South Slavic

Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja The ''Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea or Duklja'' ( sh, Ljetopis popa Dukljanina) is the usual name given to a purportedly medieval chronicle written in the late 13th century by an anonymous priest from Duklja. Its oldest preserved copy is in La ...

, rejected by historians, one of Ratimir's descendants was Svatopluk.

Annotations

References

Sources

* * ''Annales regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi''. Herausgegeben von Friedrich Kurze. XX und 204 S. 8°. 1895. Printed in 1950. * Rudolf Horvat, ''History of Croatia I. (from ancient times to year 1657)'', Zagreb, 1924. (hr.) * Nada Klaić, ''History of Croats in Early Middle Ages'', Zagreb, 1975. (hr.)

External links

Annales regni francorum - original text in latin
* "Duke Ratimir", chapter of "Povijest Hrvatske" by Rudolf Horvat
in Croatian Wikisource
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratimir Dukes of Croatia 838 deaths 9th century in Croatia History of Slavonia 9th-century Slavs 9th-century Bulgarian people Year of birth unknown 9th-century people from East Francia Slavic warriors