| Ljudevit/Liudewit | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Lower Pannonia[1][b] | |
 | |
| Reign | c. 810 – c. 823 |
| Successor | Ratimir |
| Died | 823 Dalmatia |
Ljudevit (pronounced[ʎûdeʋit]) orLiudewit (Latin:Liudewitus), often alsoLjudevit Posavski, was theDuke of theSlavs in Lower Pannonia[1][b] from 810 to 823. The capital of his realm was inSisak (today inCroatia). As the ruler of the Pannonian Slavs,[2] he led a resistance toFrankish domination. Having lost the war against the Franks, who were aided byBorna duke ofGuduscani, Dalmatia and Liburnia, Ljudevit fled first to an unknownSerbianžupa (a topic of historical debates) and killed the presidingSerbianžupan there.[3] He then fled to the Dalmatian dukeLjudemisl, who then killed him.[4]
In 818 Ljudevit sent his emissaries toEmperorLouis inHeristal. They described the horrors conducted byMargraveCadolah of Friuli (800-819) and his men inPannonia, but the King ofFranks refused to make peace. Ljudevit raised a rebellion against his Frankish rulers in 819 after he was seriously accused by the Frankish court.[5] TheEmperorLouis the Pious (814-840) sent Cadolah to quell the rebellion. The Frankish Frontier forces led by Cadolah have raided the land and tortured the population, most notably the children. As the Pannonian Slavs were amassing forces, so did theFranks led by Cadolah return in 819. But the Frankish forces were soon defeated; and Cadolah himself had to retreat back to his homeFriuli, where soon he died of disease.
In July 819 on the Council inIngelheim Ljudevit's emissaries offered truce conditions, but Emperor Louis refused; demanding more concessions to him. Ljudevit started to gather allies for his plight. His original ally wasDuke Borna (Dux Dalmatiae et Liburniae) - the leader of theGuduscani (Gačani), but the Frankish ruler had promised Borna that he would make himPrince of Pannonia if he helped the Franks to crush Ljudevit's rebellion; so Borna accepted. Ljudevit found assistance among theCarantanian andCarniolan Slavs who, as neighbours of the margravate ofFriuli, were jeopardized the same as the Pannonians. TheTimočani (living around the valley ofTimok) also joined him, because they were jeopardized by the neighbouringBulgars.[citation needed]
The Franks sent a large army led by the newMargrave of Friuli, dukeBaldric of Friuli to meet Ljudevit in autumn, the same year while he was conscripting more Carantanian troops along theDrava river. The Frankish forces had numerical advantage, so they pushed Ljudevit and his men from Carniola across the Drava. Ljudevit had to fall back to central parts of his realm. Baldric didn't chase Ljudevit, since he had to pacify the Carantanians. Borna moved with Ljudevit's father-in-law Dragomuž and their forces from the south-west. At the heat of theBattle of Kupa, his own Guduscani abandoned Borna and crossed to Ljudevit's side; while Dragomuž was killed. Borna escaped from the battlefield with the help of his bodyguards.
Ljudevit seized the opportunity and breached into and raidedDalmatia in December. Borna was too weak, so the Dalmatians defended themselves through sneaky tactics and usedattrition as their best ally to exhaust the Pannonian forces. Harsh winter came to the hill areas, forcing Ljudevit to retreat. According to Borna's reports to the Frankish Emperor, Ljudevit suffered heavy casualties: 3,000 soldiers, over 300 horses and much food.
In January of 820, Borna made an alliance with the Frankish Emperor inAachen. The plan was to crush Ljudevit's realm with a joint-attack from three sides. As soon as the winter retreated, massive Frankish armies were being amassed inItalia,East Francia,Bavaria,Saxony andAlemannia that were going to simultaneously invade Ljudevit's lands in the spring. The northern Frankish group moved from Bavaria across Pannonia to make an invasion across the river of Drava. Ljudevit's forces successfully stopped thisArmy at the river. The southern group moved across theNoric Alps, using the road fromAquileia toEmona.[citation needed] Ljudevit was successful again, as he stopped them before crossing the Alps. The central group moved fromTyrol toCarniola. Ljudevit attempted to halt its advance three times, but every single time would the Franks win, using numerical advantage. When this Army reached theDrava, Ljudevit had to fall back to the heart of his realm.
The Franks have opened ways for the southern and northern Armies, so they launched a total invasion. Ljudevit concluded that all resistance would be futile, so he retreated to a stronghold that he built on top of hill that was heavily fortified; while his people took shelter in localforest andswamps. Ljudevit did not negotiate with the Franks. The Franks eventually retreated from his lands, with their ranks thinned by disease which the northern forces caught in themarshes ofDrava. TheSlavs fromCarantania lost their internal independence and were forced to recognize the Friulian margrave Balderic as their ruler, while some remained loyal to Ljudevit. Prince Borna died in 821, and was succeeded by Ljudevit's nephew,Vladislav. Emperor Louis recognized asPrince of Dalmatia and Liburnia in February 821 at theCouncil of Aachen.
The Emperor discussed again about war plans against Ljudevit on that Council. The Franks decided to repeat the progress, and push towards Ljudevit from three sides again. Ljudevit saw that it was obvious that he couldn't fight the Franks on open field, so he began to construct massivefortifications. He was helped by theVenetianPatriarch Fortunat who sent himarchitects andmasons fromItaly.
During the last and final Frankish invasion of 822, the Patriarch from Grado, Fortunat, who was a supporter of Ljudevit, fled toZadar into exile with theByzantines.
According toEinhard, the writer of theRoyal Frankish Annals, following the final Frankish attack, Ljudevit fled from his seat inSisak to theSerbs in822 (Siscia civitate relicta, ad Sorabos, quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur, fugiendo se contulit; "abandoned the city of Siscia and sought refuge among the Serbs, who, as they say [agent of information], rule over a large portion of Dalmatia"[6]).[7][8] In the contemporaryVita Hludovici that description of the Serbs is omitted.[9] Ljudevit later killed the local Serbian župan who took him in and temporarily took over the rule in his župa.[3]
The location and nature of these Serbs mentioned in the primary sources has been a topic of interest for historians since the 19th century.Tadija Smičiklas did not attempt to define the area where Ljudevit fled, whileVjekoslav Klaić wrote it was beyondSava andBosna.[7]Ferdo Šišić put thead Sorabos to the southeast of Sava andVrbas, near the Dalmatian Croats.Vladimir Ćorović mentioned the flight to the Serbs, but didn't expound on it. The 1953 "History of the peoples of Yugoslavia" published byŠkolska knjiga added apparently fictitious details to the original story.Anto Babić discussed the original text and whether it was a reference to a single fort or a territory.[10]Svetislav M. Prvanović tried to connect Ljudevit and the Guduscani with the Roman city of Guduscum in eastern Serbia, but using only the interpretation of a single comma inFranjo Rački's text and conjecture.Sima Ćirković thought there was a consensus that the place was somewhere inBosnia, but called the claims of exact locations speculation.Relja Novaković considered that the argumentation about Bosnia is "pointless" and couldn't be related to Bosnia.[11]Nada Klaić thought that the place Ljudevit fled to was actually the medieval county ofSrb by the riverUna.[12]Ivo Goldstein acknowledged and accepted the theory that it was located in Srb, but advocated against misinterpreting the scarce historical records.[13]Radoslav Katičić argued against the theory, andTibor Živković concurred with him,[14] concluding such an idea is "misleading" and "not well established", because the source talks about Serbs not Srb, as holding a large part of Dalmatia and not some "small area around the town of Srb" among others, that "much more accurate to understand that Ludovicus escaped from Siscia by the river Sava to the mouth of Vrbas into Sava".[15] According toMladen Ančić, the mentioning of "Dalmatia" in 822 and 833 as an old geographical term by the authors of Frankish Annals wasPars pro toto with a vague perception of what this geographical term actually referred to.[16]
According toJohn Van Antwerp Fine Jr., it was hard to find Serbs in this area since the Byzantine sources were limited to the southern coast, but it is possible that among other tribes existed a tribe or group of small tribes of Serbs.[17] However, opposing to Fine, Tibor Živković says that the second-hand accounts given to the Franks by their agents in Siscia and Croatia establish the existence of some sort of a Serbian claim to rule and have political power over parts of (Roman) Dalmatia, similar to the analogous Frankish claim, but not necessarily settlement outside of places already known from other sources.[18] According toNeven Budak, it's difficult to pinpoint a place within the former Roman province of Dalmatia, but most probably was in central or eastern Bosnia.[19]
Soon after the incident with the Serbs, Ljudevit sent an envoy to the Frankish court, claiming that he is ready to recognize the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious as his supreme ruler.[19] However, he again fled, now toLjudemisl, Borna's uncle in Dalmatia which was the time ruled by new dukeVladislav. In the end Ljudemisl killed him.[3][4]
... in the unsuccessful rebellion of Ljudevit of Posavia (Ljudevit Posavski), leader of the Pannonic Slavs, against the Franks, the semi-independence of the land was definitely at an end. From 828 onward it was administered by Bavarian counts.
The report refers to the uprising of Liudewitus, dux Pannoniae inferioris (Ljudevit Posavski), which was joined by the inhabitants of Carniola (Annales regni Francorum, ad a. 818 — 823).
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