| Dmitar Zvonimir |
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Information AboutDmitar Zvonimir |
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During the reign of king Petar Krešimir IV , Zvonimir's relative by Orseolo / Urseolo family, Dmitar Zvonimir ruled, from about 1065 , as the '' Ban '' in northern Croatia between rivers Drava and Sava (today Slavonia ). Petar Krešimir IV designated Zvonimir as his heir and successor. At the beginning of 1075 , Zvonimir became ''by the mercy of God Duke of Dalmatian Croatia''. He was crowned as ''King of Croatia'' on October 9 , 1076 at Solin in the Basilica of Saint Peter and Moses , by a representative of Pope Gregory VII . Dmitar Zvonimir was not a member of royal House Of Trpimir . Some Hungarian sources portrait him ''Svinimir Uroš'' as a brother of Urso, and son of Urso, who might have been related to Peter Orseolo , and have perished in a Hungarian civil war of 1040s. Their descendants bore the title Uroš and became župa ns, Bans and leaders of regions in Croatia, Bosnia , Montenegro and Serbia . Zvonimir was married to his distant relative Jelena Lijepa (the Beautiful), the sister of King Ladislaus I of Hungary . Jelena had excellent family connections, being a daughter of Arpad King Bela I , a grand-daughter of Polish King Mieszko II Lambert himself the uncle of Canute The Great King of Danes and England, a great-grand-daughter of Csar Samuil and the aunt to Ladislaus' daughter Piroska > christened Irene, the mother of future Byzantine Emperor Manuel I and the wife of Byzantine Emperor Ioannes II Komnenos , brother of the historian Anna Komnena . During Zvonimir's rule, slavery was abolished in the kingdom. He was also an ally of Normans in wars against Byzantine Empire . Dmitar Zvonimir died with no heir (his son Radovan died earlier, his daughter Claudia being married to Vojvoda of Lapcani Lika who was not eligible as a successor) to succeeded him on the throne. Zvonimir's brother-in-law Ladislaus I became, after the death of Stjepan II in 1091 and last member of Trpimirović dynasty, the strongest candidate for the throne of Croatia, through his sister Jelena, Zvonimir's widow. Dmitar Zvonimir probably died of natural causes. By one acount, probably legend, he was killed in a rebellion against him, that broke out at the sabor of Kosovo Polje near Knin in 1089 . By this source, rebellion broke out because of discontent of nobles and essentailly pagan Slavic population against Zvonimir's policies, that were mostly dictates by the Pope. The culturally and historically significant Baška Tablet was inscribed shortly after his death and contains references to him and a number of his nobles of XI century.
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