Norman Kingdom of Croatia - discussion

[Marko]

I have pondered for some time on various PoDs for early Croatian history and always chose an internal PoD. Then last night as I was reading some stuff for my masters paper a thought occured.

King Petar Krešimir IV was the king that was captured by Normans in 1074 somewhere between Nin and Rab (that was at that time besieged by the Normans). The leader of this Norman expedition was count Amico, relative of Robert Guiscard and father of the later Peter I count of Trani. In return for his release the Croatian king gave the Normans (it is unclear weather it was to Amico personaly or not) the costal towns of Split, Trogir, Zadar, Biograd and Nin (the last two were also locations of royal courts). Soon after Krešimir died and Ban Zvonimir of Slavonia (brother in law of Ladislav of Hungary) inherited the kingdom, because a few years earlier Krešimir (who was childless) made him his heir. The next year Venetians defeated Amico and took the coastal towns for themselves.

So here is the what if.

Amico manages to defeat the Venetians retaining control over the coastal towns. At the time there were several claimants to the throne: Dmitar Zvonimir, the named heir with support of Slavonia and Hungary; Stephen II, the nephew of Krešimir with support of Dalmatian cities(mostly held by the Normans) and Latin clergy, Prince Magnus of Denmark, one of the sons of Sweyn II of Denmark that pope Gregory VII wanted to make king of Croatia and a shadowy individual known as Slavac who was the leader of the Narentians who at the time part of the Kingdom of Croatia and it is said he had support from the Slavic clergy and the peasant. Since there are allready 4 claimants Amico makes his own with the support of Robert and other south Italian Normans. He defeats Zvonimir who had the strongest hold on power and takes the crown and is crowned king of Croatia with the court in Biograd. Magnus without any real support never arives to stake his claim, Stephens poor health betrays him and Slavac recreates an independent Narentian duchy that will soon be absorbed by Norman Croatia.

So my question to you is. What would be the short term and what would be the long term consequences of a stable Norman Kingdom of Croatia?


Cheers

 

[SavoyTruffle]

With Croatia under an independent king, it won't be subjugated to Hungary for a large part of its history. Also, with a Norman king, it could see increased ties with Norman Sicily.

 

[Arachnid]

That said Hungary and Austria to the north are always going to be stronger so the struggle will be keeping it from getting swallowed up by some one else.

 

[SavoyTruffle]

That said Hungary and Austria to the north are always going to be stronger so the struggle will be keeping it from getting swallowed up by some one else.

Perhaps the Sicilians could gain increased influence in the Balkans? And Austria, with an 11th century POD, won't be the power of Early Modern OTL - remember at this point it was only a march!

 

[Marko]

The greatest question that is bothering me is weather this butterflies Venetian naval acendancy and fall of Constantinople in 1204. As long as there was political stability on the east coast of Adriatic Venetians couldn't do project their influence and were under costant threat of piracy.

 

[SavoyTruffle]

The greatest question that is bothering me is weather this butterflies Venetian naval acendancy and fall of Constantinople in 1204. As long as there was political stability on the east coast of Adriatic Venetians couldn't do project their influence and were under costant threat of piracy.

If this Norman Croatia remains largely stable Venice can't gobble up Adriatic territories. And with your POD the Fourth Crusade's gonna be gone as we know it anyway.