Izvorni znanstveni članak
Border Between Split and Poljica and Conflicts Among Them in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century (First Part – Formation of Poljica as a Separate Territorial Unit and the Question of to Whom Primorje Belonged during the Middle Ages)
Ante Nazor
Sažetak
Defining the period when Poljica became a distinctive region with its own autonomous administrative organs is a precondition for any discussion of relations between Split and Poljica, but also a debatable scholarly issue in its own right. Namely, divergent opinions exist on this issue, and hypotheses on it in historiography range from the tenth or eleventh century until the middle of the fourteenth century. However, since Poljica and its comes are mentioned in historical sources from the thirteenth century, a certain distinctive nature of Poljica may be assumed at least from that time onwards. The end of the process resulting in the final formation of Poljica as a separate unit and the autonomous position of that region as regards other centres (Split, Klis and Omiš) depended on circumstances in these and neighbouring regions, and most probably also on the process of the final social formation of society in Poljica. Taking into account the general processes of development of Croatian areas, it may be assumed that the process of formation of Poljica society and the creation of its autonomy happened some time during the period of the reign of King Louis I the Great (1342-1382), at the latest. Sources from the fifteenth century confirm that the autonomy of Poljica in that period is not questionable. However, it remains questionable in which period the administrative and executive organs of Poljica, mentioned in the law code (statute) of Poljica from 1440 and in other documents from the second half of the fifteenth century, were finally developed.
Equally questionable is the issue of what exactly Poljica constituted. Among the numerous terms used in scholarship, the most acceptable appears to be the community or commune of Poljica, although Poljica was probably one among the counties (comitatus) of Croatia, the latter term also being found in the sources.
For a discussion of the territorial border between Split and Poljica in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it is necessary to discuss also the question of to whom the area between the rivers of Cetina and Žrnovnica, usually called Primorje of Poljica (Poljičko primorje), or Maritime or Lower Poljica (Primorska Poljica or Donja Poljica), belonged. It appears that these terms are anachronous for that area prior to the fifteenth century, because in historical sources earlier than 1482 there is no confirmation that all that area belonged to Poljica. Since in contemporary fourteenth and fifteenth-century sources this area is always called simply Primorje, it seems that this term is the most acceptable for denoting that area in the period earlier than 1482.
Sources show that Omiš (that is, its lords) had great influence in Primorje, and that at least one part of Primorje belonged to this county. Mentions of the borders of Poljica in Primorje in the sources appear only from 1444, when the noblemen of Poljica accepted Venetian rule. At that time the border between Poljica and Split was established in Primorje: Split received a small but, because of salt-pans and mills on the river of Žrnovnica, an economically important part of Primorje, situated from Žrnovnica to Bilapeć, while the villages of Jesenice, Mrčilokva and Podstrana belonged to Poljica.
Taking into account the data mentioned above, it may be argued that, in spite of the fact that certain privileges de iure confirmed all of Primorje to either Split or Omiš, nobody really enjoyed rule over the whole area between Žrnovnica and Cetina, but that its greatest part belonged to the lords of Omiš until 1444. From this there follows the hypothesis that before that date, except during some short periods of their temporary expansion towards Primorje, Split and Poljica could not have had any common border in that area.
Ključne riječi
Poljica; the Middle Ages; historiography; political history
Hrčak ID:
9390
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.3.2003.
Posjeta: 3.525 *