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Paulus de Breberio banus Croatorum dominus et Bosne

Neven Budak

Pavao, count of Bribir, Ban of Croatia and Lord of Bosnia was the most outstanding figure of the Croatian High Middle Ages, one of the few whose actions and visions crossed the borders of medieval Croatia. In spite of that, there is no contemporary report about his life and deeds, and we have to draw our knowledge mostly from charters or other administrative sources. Only a few preserved artifacts add to the picture. Nevertheless, we can present a portrait of a lord skillful in both war and politics. What remains blurry is his private life.

Ever since the peace treaty of Aachen (812), which stopped the Carolingian-Byzantine war, the former Roman province of Dalmatia was separated in two. Coastal towns like Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik, and Trogir, together with most of the islands with the towns of Krk, Osor, and Rab, stayed under Byzantine authority. Although in the eleventh century they became politically integrated with their Croatian hinterland in what was to be known as the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia, they remained to a large extent autonomous. Such a position was supported by the politics of Venice, which tried from the very end of the tenth century to dominate Dalmatia in order to control the sea route along the eastern Adriatic coast, which was of vital importance for its commercial activities. The other part of former Roman Dalmatia, which came under Carolingian domination after 812, developed into the duchy, and later kingdom, of Croatia. A major political goal of its rulers was to incorporate Dalmatia into their realm. Apart from that, they supported the development of new coastal towns, like Šibenik and Nin (which was actually a ruined Roman town), on their own territories. These towns, however, were soon subsumed into the rest of Dalmatia, taking over the social and political structures of the older centers.

The third party that got involved into the struggles over the coastal towns and islands were the kings of the Arpadian dynasty. Coloman, who was the first Hungarian king to be crowned as king of Croatia, conquered Dalmatia in 1105, but his heirs were less interested in the province or less successful in keeping it. Thus, Venice first gained control over the northern islands and later also over most of the others. Zadar resisted for a long time, raising four mutinies against the Venetians and finally surrendered into the hands of King Bela III (1182). In 1190 the Zaratine navy won a decisive victory over their enemies, but the luck turned on the side of the Venetian Doge Henry Dandolo in 1202 when he used the knights of the Fourth Crusade to take the city. This put an end to any serious resistance for the next century. Three years later Dubrovnik, until then at least formally recognizing Byzantine sovereignty, was also forced to accept a Venetian count. In this way only Split and Trogir of Dalmatia proper, together with Nin and Šibenik, remained under royal control.

Two more centers on the coast followed their own destiny. One was Skradin, a developing town on the mouth of river Krka, since the thirteenth century a possession of the Bribirski family, and Omiš, on the mouth of river Cetina, a stronghold of the Kačići kindred and an old piratical naval base.

This was the political framework, within which the kindred of the counts of Bribir tried to build up its power, using the weakness of the kings, the ambivalent relationship of the Dalmatian towns towards Venice and the mutual conflicts of Slavic lords. Paul was the most efficient among his relatives, able to recognize the right moment for action and capable of using the heritage of his ancestors in the best way.