Ratimir () was a duke or prince ('' knez'') of the

Slavs in Lower Pannonia Early Slavs settled in the eastern and southern parts of the former Roman province of Pannonia. The term ''Lower Pannonia'', was used to designate those areas of the Pannonian Plain that lie to the east and south of the river Rába, with the ...

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 The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic peoples, Turkic Nomad, semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region between the 5th and 7th centu ...

under Great Khan Omurtag 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 Pannonia Savia or simply Savia, also known as Pannonia Ripariensis, was a Late Roman province. It was formed in the year 295, during the Tetrarchy reform of Roman emperor Diocletian, and assigned to the civil diocese of Pannonia, which was attac ...

, which is located in modern-day

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Earlier, Sigismund Calles (1750) called him "Slavic duke of the Drava". In 838, nine years later, following the Bulgarian conquest of

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

, 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 Slavs, Slavic prince whose adventurous career, recorded in the ''Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians'' (a historical work written in 870), illustrates the political ...

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 known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. According to the South Slavic

Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja The ''Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea or Duklja'' ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ljetopis popa Dukljanina, Љетопис попа Дукљанина; ) is the usual name given to a medieval chronicle written in two versions between 1295 and 1301 by an eccles ...

, 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 Bulgarian people Year of birth unknown 9th-century people from East Francia Slavic warriors