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People of the World, Part I - Cresimir III
Cresimir III, affectionately named the Crusader by his allies and foes alike, had ruled for an unnaturally long period of time for a Croatian ruler. The long six and twenty summers had the man's mane of hair turn from light brown all the way to hardy silver, and his strength was tested too many times to count, most notably including the two crusades the man had led his people to in the name of Christendom.
The Trpimirović ruler's early life is shrouded in mystery and hearsay. Known by all as a man of few words and a man of many deeds, his past is a rather modestly documented affair. Most do not even candidly know the truth behind his parentage, and true to this description, Cresimir never made the effort to disclose it.
Some believe that Cresimir was a distant relative of the Trpimirović dynasty through Svetoslav the Cold's late brothers, some even said that he was the direct descendant of one of the Usurper Kings of yore and his Venetian wife, and some called him a fortunate bastard caught in the right place at the right time. Nevertheless, what many are sure of is the fact that Cresimir had spent most of the reign of his infamous predecessor Miroslav in the northern Croatian fortress of Sisak as part of the Silent Monks.
The religious order, founded after the end of the Rebellion of Whispers as Svetoslav's depraved way of warning his enemies never to rise against him ever again, became a rather popular organization in the years that had arrived following the Cold King's much-awaited demise, and in the wars that brought great destruction to the Croat realm not long after, the Silent Monks seemed like a miracle in those times of grave danger, offering warmth, comfort and safety as men lost their wives, women, children and homes to wanton violence of their enemies.
Rumours mention Cresimir was brought to the order's door as a mere babe, though there is no way to verify any of those claims, for even if any members of the disbanded order were around, the unofficial verbeage assumed to have been spoken by its members would once more ring true – Service above words. Silence above it all. Therefore, Cresimir was nigh certainly an unknown and unimportant entity, until the Great Succession Crisis of 1076.
At the time Michael II Slavian, King of the Croats, of the Dalmatians and of the Narentanians, passed from this mortal plain a relatively young man, being in his mid-forties at the time. Unfortunately for the ruling Trpimirović dynasty, Michael had no heirs to his name, not even bastard sons. His wife had passed some summers before him, and the venerable ruler could not rid himself of the grief that would soon render him utterly unable to hold most public functions. It only made sense when his lifeless husk of a body was found by his faithful servants in the Klis Fortress.
Ban Slavac of the Kukar Tribe, the King's right-hand man and most trusted adviser, called upon the representatives of the Twelve Noble Tribes of the Realm to attend the great council in Klis to decide the successor to Michael before the situation could possibly get out of hand and be exploited by the Venetians, who no doubt sharpened their swords in patient waiting after Michael's takeover of Dalmatia.
The Great Council of 1076, as it would come to be named, convened during the hot summer days and cold purple nights, and only a few men thought themselves worthy to wrap themselves in its ruling cloak. Yet, none of them could gain the support of the majority of its members, even after over a dozen unsuccessful rounds.
Out of nowhere, though, at the gates of Klis appeared a man of a rather warrior-like build whose face was hidden underneath the brown veil of his priestly cloak. He mentioned to have come from the far northern region of Slavonia all the way to the realm's capital in hopes of gaining an audience with the Ban.
What happened afterwards, though, remains a matter of legend. In front of the unimpressed tribal representatives, the priest gained the audience that he had wanted, though he remained wordless at every pointed accusation and unruly remark by the representatives. Unfazed, he merely procured a letter from his pocket bearing the seal of Michael II. To the shock of everyone, the Ban had read it out loud, he himself unable to maintain his calm and collected composure as certainty overcame him soon after – that truly was the late king's writing.
The letter had been a melancholy one, a sad man's final thoughts as he had expected to leave this world for the one in the skies, though the matter that was most peculiar was no cheap jape at all, for the crucial part of Michael II's letter read: „I am not long for this world. I send my finest regards to you, for you are my blood, and I hope that one day you will be able to become a better man than me on this throne. The wretched old thing has weighed far too heavy on my loins ever since I brought the Lecher down.“
The candidates for the throne slowly gave up their claims one by one as Radovan of the Konduran Tribe, son of former Headman of the Neretva and King of Croatia Vojnomir, forced everyone to accede to the letter's wishes. The only words attributed to the king-to-be that day were, thenceforth, written down in history as "I shall serve this realm as I have served its commoners for the past thirty summers – undeterred, uncompromising, unerring."
The most worrying matter of Cresimir III's first few years wearing the Crown was the destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary. The vast realm to the north had been fighting its own civil war since the death of Emeric the Peaceful in 1077, whose marriage remained heirless, meaning that the main branch of the ruling Árpád dynasty had gone from this Earth with him. Andrew, a distant relative of Emeric's, pressed his claim on the throne as the man who had the blood necessary to take it. He, much to his misfortune, was not the only one.
Michael II Slavian had long contemplated whether to back one of the factions on the eve of Emeric's own life, but decided against it, for he did not know who the King of Hungary's preferred successor would be. Cresimir shared much of his former King's sentiments, instead raising levies in the borderlands close to the Drava river to reinforce Croatian control of Slavonia. Then, however, the worst came to pass.
The origins of the Pannonian Crusade are too numerous to count, but with Papal approval, the nobles from all over Europe had readily raised their banners in defiance against Kanikaras and his pagan Patzinak hordes that swept over war-torn Hungary almost to the Drava River.
It would take nigh seven years to beat the barbarian back, yet the Crusaders would be successful all the same, with many obscure nobles making a name for themselves by showing their courage and honour on the bloody battlefields.
Cresimir, never being one to rest easy, occupied a large spot at the negotiating table regarding the future of the hopeless nation that the Árpáds had built only a couple of decades past and one that now lay in ruin before them. Because of his tremendous contribution to the war effort and his past as a Catholic monk. In spite of his predecessors' aversion to the Silent Monks, who had seen them as yet another heretical group, Urban II changed course and attempted to bring Cresimir into his orbit after the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary still recovered from the destructive decades past.
As such, Cresimir was allowed to expand his dominion onto all of the Hungarian territory on the right bank of the Danube while the rump Crusader State of Hungary was reformed into a newly fledged Kingdom.
This kind of expansion also provided the need for Cresimir to switch capitals because of the need to closely monitor the newly acquired northernmost territories of Transdanubia, or Zadunavlje in Cresimir's mother tongue. As such, with his royal decree, he moved his court to Sisak, citing its strategic importance on the confluence of the Kupa into the Sava River, but most attribute it to his nostalgia for the fledgling settlement, as he spent most of his youth serving there. Urban II elevated the Church of the Saint Cross in Sisak to Diocese in late 1088 as a way of showing his open support to Cresimir and his reign.
Using the tactic of division and conquest, Cresimir III expanded the power of the surviving lesser Hungarian nobles while working against the larger landholders of the north. Largely successful, he became a beloved figure with most of the leading members of the Hungarian nobility who would soon begin to integrate into the Croatian administrative system.
In 1092, another plea would arrive from Rome and from Constantinople. A new Crusade, a new attempt at rescuing Christendom from the pits of heresy. Cresimir, naturally, would answer the call, for his piety was obvious to all his courtiers and even the rulers of the Old World themselves. This one, however, provided much less prestige to the realm itself, as many deem the Asian Crusade to be Cresimir's selfish adventure and nothing more. Nevertheless, he had accrued several notable victories in liberating the Holy Land, working closely with other nobles to alleviate Rhoman Emperor Alexius' growing pains against the Muslims.
In 1099, after seeing the bickering and unfit nobles quarrel among themselves for the spoils of the Holy Land, Cresimir would once again return to his capital in Sisak a tired, old man, his beard as thick and as silvery as the stone of the Klis Fortress. His voice, already such a treasured and rare occurrence during the court proceedings, would wane in its final days, the weight of the invisible boulders in his throat and shoulders becoming too much for him to carry on his own.
He would retreat into his study, only allowing his servants and closest advisers inside to pray with him in front of the cross he had ordered be built to accommodate the rulers of his realm to come.
In the present, it is evident to many that Cresimir is counting his final days on this Earth, but none know who his heir may be, for he took no wives, no concubines nor consorts, likely an old vow reaching back to his days in the Monks before their dissolution. No outsiders may be aware of just what exactly is unravelling in the realm of Croatia, as no one may be sure to predict whether Radovan Konduran would make a move for the throne or if the Headman of the Neretva would uphold the Royal Succession Decree of 1030 that forbade this Trpimirović cadet branch from having any say in the matter of succession.
Another unpredictable turn of events is the fact that Cresimir III had legally allowed the lesser Hungarian noble families into the Great Council of the Noble Tribes, bringing their official number to Seventeen. No one is certain whether they will attempt to break Transdanubia away and return it to the orbit of Hungary, now under Mark I, also known as the Bastard. Ugrin of the Kukar Tribe, one of the dying king's most trusted advisers is also one that many suspect would attempt to position himself as the scion of a new dynasty on the throne of Croatia.
Who knows what the future holds, for the cards of fate will only show themselves once an old warrior mutters his last breath before the Holy Cross…
The Trpimirović ruler's early life is shrouded in mystery and hearsay. Known by all as a man of few words and a man of many deeds, his past is a rather modestly documented affair. Most do not even candidly know the truth behind his parentage, and true to this description, Cresimir never made the effort to disclose it.
Some believe that Cresimir was a distant relative of the Trpimirović dynasty through Svetoslav the Cold's late brothers, some even said that he was the direct descendant of one of the Usurper Kings of yore and his Venetian wife, and some called him a fortunate bastard caught in the right place at the right time. Nevertheless, what many are sure of is the fact that Cresimir had spent most of the reign of his infamous predecessor Miroslav in the northern Croatian fortress of Sisak as part of the Silent Monks.
The religious order, founded after the end of the Rebellion of Whispers as Svetoslav's depraved way of warning his enemies never to rise against him ever again, became a rather popular organization in the years that had arrived following the Cold King's much-awaited demise, and in the wars that brought great destruction to the Croat realm not long after, the Silent Monks seemed like a miracle in those times of grave danger, offering warmth, comfort and safety as men lost their wives, women, children and homes to wanton violence of their enemies.
Rumours mention Cresimir was brought to the order's door as a mere babe, though there is no way to verify any of those claims, for even if any members of the disbanded order were around, the unofficial verbeage assumed to have been spoken by its members would once more ring true – Service above words. Silence above it all. Therefore, Cresimir was nigh certainly an unknown and unimportant entity, until the Great Succession Crisis of 1076.
At the time Michael II Slavian, King of the Croats, of the Dalmatians and of the Narentanians, passed from this mortal plain a relatively young man, being in his mid-forties at the time. Unfortunately for the ruling Trpimirović dynasty, Michael had no heirs to his name, not even bastard sons. His wife had passed some summers before him, and the venerable ruler could not rid himself of the grief that would soon render him utterly unable to hold most public functions. It only made sense when his lifeless husk of a body was found by his faithful servants in the Klis Fortress.
Ban Slavac of the Kukar Tribe, the King's right-hand man and most trusted adviser, called upon the representatives of the Twelve Noble Tribes of the Realm to attend the great council in Klis to decide the successor to Michael before the situation could possibly get out of hand and be exploited by the Venetians, who no doubt sharpened their swords in patient waiting after Michael's takeover of Dalmatia.
The Great Council of 1076, as it would come to be named, convened during the hot summer days and cold purple nights, and only a few men thought themselves worthy to wrap themselves in its ruling cloak. Yet, none of them could gain the support of the majority of its members, even after over a dozen unsuccessful rounds.
Out of nowhere, though, at the gates of Klis appeared a man of a rather warrior-like build whose face was hidden underneath the brown veil of his priestly cloak. He mentioned to have come from the far northern region of Slavonia all the way to the realm's capital in hopes of gaining an audience with the Ban.
What happened afterwards, though, remains a matter of legend. In front of the unimpressed tribal representatives, the priest gained the audience that he had wanted, though he remained wordless at every pointed accusation and unruly remark by the representatives. Unfazed, he merely procured a letter from his pocket bearing the seal of Michael II. To the shock of everyone, the Ban had read it out loud, he himself unable to maintain his calm and collected composure as certainty overcame him soon after – that truly was the late king's writing.
The letter had been a melancholy one, a sad man's final thoughts as he had expected to leave this world for the one in the skies, though the matter that was most peculiar was no cheap jape at all, for the crucial part of Michael II's letter read: „I am not long for this world. I send my finest regards to you, for you are my blood, and I hope that one day you will be able to become a better man than me on this throne. The wretched old thing has weighed far too heavy on my loins ever since I brought the Lecher down.“
The candidates for the throne slowly gave up their claims one by one as Radovan of the Konduran Tribe, son of former Headman of the Neretva and King of Croatia Vojnomir, forced everyone to accede to the letter's wishes. The only words attributed to the king-to-be that day were, thenceforth, written down in history as "I shall serve this realm as I have served its commoners for the past thirty summers – undeterred, uncompromising, unerring."
The most worrying matter of Cresimir III's first few years wearing the Crown was the destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary. The vast realm to the north had been fighting its own civil war since the death of Emeric the Peaceful in 1077, whose marriage remained heirless, meaning that the main branch of the ruling Árpád dynasty had gone from this Earth with him. Andrew, a distant relative of Emeric's, pressed his claim on the throne as the man who had the blood necessary to take it. He, much to his misfortune, was not the only one.
Michael II Slavian had long contemplated whether to back one of the factions on the eve of Emeric's own life, but decided against it, for he did not know who the King of Hungary's preferred successor would be. Cresimir shared much of his former King's sentiments, instead raising levies in the borderlands close to the Drava river to reinforce Croatian control of Slavonia. Then, however, the worst came to pass.
The origins of the Pannonian Crusade are too numerous to count, but with Papal approval, the nobles from all over Europe had readily raised their banners in defiance against Kanikaras and his pagan Patzinak hordes that swept over war-torn Hungary almost to the Drava River.
It would take nigh seven years to beat the barbarian back, yet the Crusaders would be successful all the same, with many obscure nobles making a name for themselves by showing their courage and honour on the bloody battlefields.
Cresimir, never being one to rest easy, occupied a large spot at the negotiating table regarding the future of the hopeless nation that the Árpáds had built only a couple of decades past and one that now lay in ruin before them. Because of his tremendous contribution to the war effort and his past as a Catholic monk. In spite of his predecessors' aversion to the Silent Monks, who had seen them as yet another heretical group, Urban II changed course and attempted to bring Cresimir into his orbit after the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary still recovered from the destructive decades past.
As such, Cresimir was allowed to expand his dominion onto all of the Hungarian territory on the right bank of the Danube while the rump Crusader State of Hungary was reformed into a newly fledged Kingdom.
This kind of expansion also provided the need for Cresimir to switch capitals because of the need to closely monitor the newly acquired northernmost territories of Transdanubia, or Zadunavlje in Cresimir's mother tongue. As such, with his royal decree, he moved his court to Sisak, citing its strategic importance on the confluence of the Kupa into the Sava River, but most attribute it to his nostalgia for the fledgling settlement, as he spent most of his youth serving there. Urban II elevated the Church of the Saint Cross in Sisak to Diocese in late 1088 as a way of showing his open support to Cresimir and his reign.
Using the tactic of division and conquest, Cresimir III expanded the power of the surviving lesser Hungarian nobles while working against the larger landholders of the north. Largely successful, he became a beloved figure with most of the leading members of the Hungarian nobility who would soon begin to integrate into the Croatian administrative system.
In 1092, another plea would arrive from Rome and from Constantinople. A new Crusade, a new attempt at rescuing Christendom from the pits of heresy. Cresimir, naturally, would answer the call, for his piety was obvious to all his courtiers and even the rulers of the Old World themselves. This one, however, provided much less prestige to the realm itself, as many deem the Asian Crusade to be Cresimir's selfish adventure and nothing more. Nevertheless, he had accrued several notable victories in liberating the Holy Land, working closely with other nobles to alleviate Rhoman Emperor Alexius' growing pains against the Muslims.
In 1099, after seeing the bickering and unfit nobles quarrel among themselves for the spoils of the Holy Land, Cresimir would once again return to his capital in Sisak a tired, old man, his beard as thick and as silvery as the stone of the Klis Fortress. His voice, already such a treasured and rare occurrence during the court proceedings, would wane in its final days, the weight of the invisible boulders in his throat and shoulders becoming too much for him to carry on his own.
He would retreat into his study, only allowing his servants and closest advisers inside to pray with him in front of the cross he had ordered be built to accommodate the rulers of his realm to come.
In the present, it is evident to many that Cresimir is counting his final days on this Earth, but none know who his heir may be, for he took no wives, no concubines nor consorts, likely an old vow reaching back to his days in the Monks before their dissolution. No outsiders may be aware of just what exactly is unravelling in the realm of Croatia, as no one may be sure to predict whether Radovan Konduran would make a move for the throne or if the Headman of the Neretva would uphold the Royal Succession Decree of 1030 that forbade this Trpimirović cadet branch from having any say in the matter of succession.
Another unpredictable turn of events is the fact that Cresimir III had legally allowed the lesser Hungarian noble families into the Great Council of the Noble Tribes, bringing their official number to Seventeen. No one is certain whether they will attempt to break Transdanubia away and return it to the orbit of Hungary, now under Mark I, also known as the Bastard. Ugrin of the Kukar Tribe, one of the dying king's most trusted advisers is also one that many suspect would attempt to position himself as the scion of a new dynasty on the throne of Croatia.
Who knows what the future holds, for the cards of fate will only show themselves once an old warrior mutters his last breath before the Holy Cross…
*************
RIP Bruce Allpress, whose fearsome looks provided me with the idea and life of Cresimir III a year back. So long, Aldor…
- John_Smith
- Word Count: 2k