Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22586/ss.21.1.1
To whom did „old“ Slavonia belong in the 11th Century
Körmendi Tamás
; Sveučilište Eötvös Loránd, Filozofski fakultet, Budimpešta
Abstract
The paper is an attempt to show how historical research in Hungary nowadays sees the political situation of the area between the Drava and the Gvozd Mountains in the 11th century. After the Croatian-Hungarian compromise of 1868, the scholars of the two countries had some sharp discussions that went beyond professional arguments about whether the „old” Slavonia belonged to the Hungarian or Croatian state before Ladislaus I of Hungary invaded Croatia in 1091. With the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, this exchange was interrupted without any convincing conclusions. Since then, Hungarian and Croatian historiography have mostly shown the early history of the region between the Drava and the Gvozd in radically different ways. Our paper presents and analyses the relevant sources: we focus mainly on the achievements of Hungarian historians, but try as well to encompass the most important points of view held by Croatian scholars as well. At the same time, we aim to contribute to the debate with some observations based on the critical analysis of our narrative or diplomatic sources and on the history of administration in Slavonia in the 13th century. The available data – and especially our knowledge of the 13th century Slavonian castle counties (Lat. comitatus castri, Hung. várispánságok) – suggest, in our opinion, that until the middle of the 11th century only a part of Slavonia in the late medieval sense, on the left bank of the Sava, could have been under strong Hungarian rule, the right bank at that time still belonged to the sparsely inhabited border zone (Lat. indago, Hung. gyepű), and only later (perhaps in the time of Ladislaus I, but in any case before 1091) did Hungarian rule strengthen here as well.
Keywords
medieval Kingdom of Hungary; medieval Croatian Kingdom; medieval Slavonia; 11th century history; Hungarian-Croatian relations
Hrčak ID:
266526
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2021.
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