Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, its total population is 42,615. In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites; the prosperity of the city was based on maritime trade. In 1991, after the break-up of Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik was besieged by Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army for seven months and suffered significant damage from shelling. After repair and restoration works in the 1990s and early 2000s, Dubrovnik re-emerged as one of the top tourist destinations in the Mediterranean; the names Dubrovnik and Ragusa co-existed for several centuries. Ragusa, recorded in various forms since at least the 10th century, remained the official name of the Republic of Ragusa until 1808, of the city within the Kingdom of Dalmatia until 1918, while Dubrovnik, first recorded in the late 12th century, was in widespread use by the late 16th or early 17th century.
The name Dubrovnik of the Adriatic city is first recorded in the Charter of Ban Kulin. It is explained as "dubron", a Celtic name for water, akin to the toponyms Douvres and Tauber; the historical name Ragusa is recorded in the Greek form Ῥαούσιν in the 10th century. It was recorded in various forms in the medieval period, Lavusa, Raugia, Rachusa. Various attempts have been made to etymologize the name. Suggestions include derivation from Greek ῥάξ, ῥαγός "grape". A connection to the name of Sicilian Ragusa has been proposed. Putanec gives a review of etymological suggestion, favours an explanation of the name as pre-Greek, from a root cognate to Greek ῥαγή "fissure", with a suffix -ussa found in the Greek name of Brač, Elaphousa; the classical explanation of the name is due to Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio. According to this account, Ragusa is the foundation of the refugees from Epidaurum, a Greek city situated some 15 km to the south of Ragusa, when that city was destroyed in the Slavic incursions of the 7th century.
The name is explained as a corruption of Lausa, the name of the rocky island on which the city was built. According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus's De Administrando Imperio, Ragusa was founded in the 7th century, named after a "rocky island" called Lausa, by refugees from Epidaurum, a Greek city situated some 15 km to the south, when that city was destroyed in the Slavic incursions. Excavations in 2007 revealed a Byzantine basilica from parts of the city walls; the size of the old basilica indicates that there was quite a large settlement at the time. There is evidence for the presence of a settlement in the pre-Christian era. Antun Ničetić, in his 1996 book Povijest dubrovačke luke, expounds the theory that Dubrovnik was established by Greek sailors, as a station halfway between the two Greek settlements of Budva and Korčula, 95 nautical miles apart from each other. After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the town came under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. Dubrovnik in those medieval centuries had a Roman population.
In 12th and 13th centuries Dubrovnik became a oligarchic republic, benefited by becoming a commercial outpost for the rising and prosperous Serbian state, specially after the signing of a treaty with Stefan the First-Crowned. After the Crusades, Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice, which would give its institutions to the Dalmatian city. In 1240, Ragusa purchased the island of Lastovo from Stefan Uroš I king of Serbia who had rights over the island as ruler of parts of Hum. After a fire destroyed most of the city in the night of August 16, 1296, a new urban plan was developed. By the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358, Dubrovnik achieved relative independence as a vassal-state of the Kingdom of Hungary. Ragusa experienced further expansion when, in 1333, Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan, sold Pelješac and Ston in exchange for cash and an annual tribute, thus the city became Slavic-speaking city at the moment when her connection with the rest of Europe, specially Italy, brought her into the full corrent of the Western Renaissance.
Between the 14th century and 1808, Dubrovnik ruled itself as a free state, although it was a vassal from 1382 to 1804 of the Ottoman Empire and paid an annual tribute to its sultan. The Republic reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its thalassocracy rivalled that of the Republic of Venice and other Italian maritime republics. For centuries, Dubrovnik was an ally of Ancona, the other Adriatic maritime republic rival of Venice, itself the Ottoman Empire's chief rival for control of the Adriatic; this alliance enabled the two towns set on opposite sides of the Adriatic to resist attempts by the Venetians to make the Adriatic a "Venetian Bay" controlling directly or indirectly all the Adriatic ports. Ancona and Dubrovnik developed an alternative trade route to the Venetian (Venice-Austria-Germany
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church the Orthodox Catholic Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with 200–260 million members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops in local synods, although half of Eastern Orthodox Christians live in Russia; the church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the Bishop of Rome, but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by all as primus inter pares of the bishops. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Near East. Eastern Orthodox theology is based on the Nicene Creed; the church teaches that it is the One, Holy and Apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles. It maintains, its patriarchates, reminiscent of the pentarchy, autocephalous and autonomous churches reflect a variety of hierarchical organisation.
Of its innumerable sacred mysteries, it recognises seven major sacraments, of which the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in synaxis. The church teaches that through consecration invoked by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ; the Virgin Mary is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the God-bearer, honoured in devotions. The Eastern Orthodox Church shared communion with the Roman Catholic Church until the East–West Schism in 1054, triggered by disputes over doctrine the authority of the Pope. Before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, the Oriental Orthodox churches shared in this communion, separating over differences in Christology; the majority of Eastern Orthodox Christians live in Southeast and Eastern Europe, Cyprus and other communities in the Caucasus region, communities in Siberia reaching the Russian Far East. There are smaller communities in the former Byzantine regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Middle East where it is decreasing due to persecution.
There are many in other parts of the world, formed through diaspora and missionary activity. In keeping with the church's teaching on universality and with the Nicene Creed, Orthodox authorities such as Saint Raphael of Brooklyn have insisted that the full name of the church has always included the term "Catholic", as in "Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church"; the official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the "Orthodox Catholic Church". It is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the church as Catholic; this name and longer variants containing "Catholic" are recognised and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the church, "Eastern Orthodox Church", is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use. From ancient times through the first millennium, Greek was the most prevalent shared language in the demographic regions where the Byzantine Empire flourished, Greek, being the language in which the New Testament was written, was the primary liturgical language of the church.
For this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as "Greek" before the Great Schism of 1054. After 1054, "Greek Orthodox" or "Greek Catholic" marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople, much as "Catholic" did for communion with Rome; this identification with Greek, became confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. In addition, struggles between Rome and Constantinople to control parts of Southeastern Europe resulted in the conversion of some churches to Rome, which also used "Greek Catholic" to indicate their continued use of the Byzantine rites. Today, many of those same churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin, do not use Greek as the language of worship. "Eastern" indicates the geographical element in the Church's origin and development, while "Orthodox" indicates the faith, as well as communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
There are additional Christian churches in the east that are in communion with neither Rome nor Constantinople, who tend to be distinguished by the category named "Oriental Orthodox". While the church continues to call itself "Catholic", for reasons of universality, the common title of "Eastern Orthodox Church" avoids casual confusion with the Roman Catholic Church; the first known use of the phrase "the catholic Church" occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. The letter states: "Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be as where Jesus may be, there is the universal Church." Thus from the beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the "One, Holy and Apostolic Church". The Eastern Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same early Church. A number of other Christian churches make a similar claim: the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox.
In the Eastern Orthodox v
Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek rump states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade. Founded by the Laskaris family, it lasted from 1204 to 1261, when the Nicaeans restored the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. In 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexios V Ducas Murtzouphlos fled Constantinople after crusaders invaded the city. Soon after, Theodore I Lascaris, the son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos, was proclaimed emperor but he too, realizing the situation in Constantinople was hopeless, fled to the city of Nicaea in Bithynia; the Latin Empire, established by the Crusaders in Constantinople, had poor control over former Byzantine territory, Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire sprang up in Epirus and Nicaea. Trebizond had broken away as an independent state a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople. Nicaea, was the closest to the Latin Empire and was in the best position to attempt to re-establish the Byzantine Empire.
Theodore Lascaris was not successful, as Henry of Flanders defeated him at Poimanenon and Prusa in 1204, but Theodore was able to capture much of northwestern Anatolia after the defeat of Latin Emperor Baldwin I in the Battle of Adrianople, Henry was recalled to Europe to defend against invasions from Kaloyan of Bulgaria. Theodore defeated an army from Trebizond, as well as other minor rivals, leaving him in charge of the most powerful of the successor states. In 1206, Theodore proclaimed. Numerous truces and alliances were formed and broken over the next few years, as the Byzantine successor states, the Latin Empire, the Bulgarians, the Seljuks of Iconium fought each other. In 1211, at Antioch on the Meander, Theodore defeated a major invasion by the Seljuks, who were backing a bid by Alexios III Angelos to return to power; the losses suffered at Antioch, led to a defeat at the hands of the Latin Empire at the Rhyndacus River and the loss of most of Mysia and the Marmara Sea coast in the subsequent Treaty of Nymphaeum.
The Nicaeans were compensated for this territorial loss when, in 1212, the death of David Komnenos allowed their annexation of his lands in Paphlagonia. Theodore consolidated his claim to the imperial throne by naming a new Patriarch of Constantinople in Nicaea. In 1219, he married the daughter of Latin Empress Yolanda of Flanders, but he died in 1222 and was succeeded by his son-in-law John III Ducas Vatatzes; the accession of Vatatzes was challenged by the Laskarids, with the sebastokratores Isaac and Alexios, brothers of Theodore I, seeking the aid of the Latin Empire. Vatatzes prevailed over their combined forces, however, in the Battle of Poimanenon, securing his throne and regaining all of the Asian territories held by the Latin Empire in the process. In 1224, the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica was captured by the Despot of Epirus Theodore Komnenos Doukas, who crowned himself emperor in rivalry to Vatatzes and established the Empire of Thessalonica, it proved short-lived, as it came under Bulgarian control after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230.
With Trebizond lacking any real power, Nicaea was the only Byzantine state left, John III expanded his territory across the Aegean Sea. In 1235, he allied with Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria, allowing him to extend his influence over Thessalonica and Epirus. In 1242, the Mongols invaded Seljuk territory to the east of Nicaea, although John III was worried they might attack him next, they ended up eliminating the Seljuk threat to Nicaea. In 1245, John allied with the Holy Roman Empire by marrying Constance II of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Frederick II. In 1246, John attacked Bulgaria and recovered most of Thrace and Macedonia, proceeded to incorporate Thessalonica into his realm. By 1248, John had surrounded the Latin Empire, he continued to take land from the Latins until his death in 1254. Theodore II Lascaris, John III's son, faced invasions from the Bulgarians in Thrace, but defended the territory. A conflict between Nicaea and Epirus broke out in 1257. Epirus allied with Manfred of Sicily when Theodore II died in 1258.
John IV Lascaris succeeded him, but as he was still a child he was under the regency of the general Michael Palaeologus. Michael proclaimed himself co-emperor in 1259, soon defeated a combined invasion by Manfred, the Despot of Epirus, the Latin Prince of Achaea at the Battle of Pelagonia. In 1260, Michael began the assault on Constantinople itself, which his predecessors had been unable to do, he allied with Genoa, his general Alexios Strategopoulos spent months observing Constantinople in order to plan his attack. In July 1261, as most of the Latin army was fighting elsewhere, Alexius was able to convince the guards to open the gates of the city. Once inside he burned the Venetian quarter. Michael was recognized as emperor a few weeks restoring the Byzantine Empire. Achaea was soon recaptured; the restored empire faced a new threat from the Ottomans, when they arose to replace the Seljuks. After 1261, Constantinople once more became the capital of the Byzantine Empire; the territories of the former Empire of Nicaea were stripped of their wealth, used to rebuild Constantinople and to fund numerous wars in Europe against the Latin states and Epirus.
Soldiers were transferred from Asia Minor to Europe, leaving the old frontier undefended. Raids by Turkish ghazis were
History of Albania
The history of Albania forms a part of the history of Europe. During the classical times, Albania was home to several Illyrian tribes such as the Ardiaei, Amantini, Enchele and many others, but Thracian and Greek tribes, as well as several Greek colonies established on the Illyrian coast. In the 3rd century BC, the area was annexed by Rome and became part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Moesia Superior. Afterwards, the territory remained under Roman and Byzantine control until the Slavic migrations of the 7th century, it was integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century. In the Middle Ages, the Principality of Arbër and a Sicilian dependency known as the medieval Kingdom of Albania were established; some areas became part of the Venetian and Serbian Empire, but passed to the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. It remained under Ottoman control as part of the province of Rumelia until 1912, when the first independent Albanian state was founded by an Albanian Declaration of Independence following a short occupation by the Kingdom of Serbia.
The formation of an Albanian national consciousness dates to the 19th century and is part of the larger phenomenon of the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire. A short-lived monarchical state known as the Principality of Albania was succeeded by an shorter-lived first Albanian Republic. Another monarchy, the Kingdom of Albania, replaced the republic; the country endured an occupation by Italy just prior to World War II. After the collapse of the Axis powers, Albania became a communist state, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, which for most of its duration was dominated by Enver Hoxha. Hoxha's political heir Ramiz Alia oversaw the disintegration of the "Hoxhaist" state during the wider collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s; the communist regime collapsed in 1990, the former communist Party of Labour of Albania was routed in elections in March 1992, amid economic collapse and social unrest. The unstable economic situation led to an Albanian diaspora to Italy, Switzerland and North America during the 1990s.
The crisis peaked in the Albanian Turmoil of 1997. An amelioration of the economic and political conditions in the early years of the 21st century enabled Albania to become a full member of NATO in 2009; the country is applying to join the European Union. The first traces of human presence in Albania, dating to the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic eras, were found in the village of Xarrë, near Sarandë and Mount Dajt near Tiranë; the objects found in a cave near Xarrë include flint and jasper objects and fossilized animal bones, while those found at Mount Dajt comprise bone and stone tools similar to those of the Aurignacian culture. The Paleolithic finds of Albania show great similarities with objects of the same era found at Crvena Stijena in Montenegro and north-western Greece. Several Bronze Age artefacts from tumulus burials have been unearthed in central and southern Albania that show close connection with sites in south-western Macedonia and Lefkada, Greece. Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that these regions were inhabited from the middle of the third millennium BC by Indo-European people who spoke a Proto-Greek language.
A part of this population moved to Mycenae around 1600 BC and founded the Mycenaean civilisation there. Another population group, the Illirii the southernmost Illyrian tribe of that time that lived on the border of Albania and Montenegro neighbored the Greek tribes. In the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age a number of possible population movements occurred in the territories of modern Albania, for example the settlement of the Bryges in areas of southern Albania-northwestern Greece and Illyrian tribes into central Albania; the latter derived from early an Indo-European presence in the western Balkan Peninsula. The movement of the Illyrian tribes can be assumed to coincide with the beginning Iron Age in the Balkans during the early 1st millennium BC. Archaeologists associate the Illyrians with the Hallstatt culture, an Iron Age people noted for production of iron, bronze swords with winged-shaped handles, the domestication of horses, it is impossible to delineate Illyrian tribes from Paleo-Balkans in a strict linguistic sense, but areas classically included under "Illyrian" for the Balkans Iron Age include the area of the Danube and Morava rivers to the Adriatic Sea and the Shar Mountains.
The Illyrians were a group of tribes. The territory the tribes covered came to be known as Illyria to Greek and Roman authors, corresponding to the area between the Adriatic sea in the west, the Drava river in the north, the Morava river in the east and the mouth of Vjosë river in the south; the first account of the Illyrian peoples comes from the Coastal Passage written by Periplus, an ancient Greek text of the middle of the 4th century BC. Several Illyrian tribes that resided in the region of Albania were the Ardiaei and Albanoi in central Albania, the Parthini, the Abri and the Caviii in the north, the Enchelei in the east, the Bylliones in the south and several others. In the westernmost parts of the territory of Albania, along with the Illyrian tribes, lived the Bryges, a Phrygian people, in the south lived the Greek tribe of the Chaonians. In the 4th century BC, the Illyrian king Bardylis united several Illyrian tribes and engaged in conflicts with Macedon to the south-east, but was defeated.
Bardyllis was succeeded by Grabos by Bardylis II, by Cleitus the Illyrian, defeated by Alexander the Great. Around 230 BC, the Ardiaei attained military might under the reign of king Agron. Agron extended his rule ove
Durrës
Durrës known as Epidamnos and Dyrrachium, is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania. The city is the capital of the surrounding Durrës County, one of 12 constituent counties of the country. By air, it is 165 kilometres northwest of Sarandë, 31 kilometres west of Tirana, 83 kilometres south of Shkodër and 579 kilometres east of Rome. Located on the Adriatic Sea, it is the country's economic and historic center. Founded by Greek colonists from Corinth and Corfu under the name of Epidamnos around the 7th century BC, the city developed to become significant as it became an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire; the Via Egnatia, the continuation of the Via Appia, started in the city and led across the interior of the Balkan Peninsula to Constantinople in the east. In the Middle Ages, it was contested between Bulgarian and Ottoman dominions. Following the Albanian Declaration of Independence, the city served as the capital of the Principality of Albania for a short period of time.
Subsequently, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Nazi Germany in the interwar period. Moreover, the city experienced a strong expansion in its demography and economic activity during the Communism in Albania. Durrës is served by the Port of Durrës, one of the largest on the Adriatic Sea, which connects the city to Italy and other neighbouring countries, its most considerable attraction is the Amphitheatre of Durrës, included on the tentative list of Albania for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Once having a capacity for 20,000 people, it is the largest amphitheatre in the Balkan Peninsula. In antiquity, the city was named Epidamnos and Dyrrhachion in Greek, corresponding to Latin Epidamnus and Dyrrachium; the name Dyrrhachion is explained as a Greek compound from δυσ-'bad' and ῥαχία'rocky shore, roaring waves', an explanation hinted at in antiquity by Cassius Dio, who writes it referred to the difficulties of the rocky coastline, while reporting that other Roman authors linked it to the name of an eponymous hero Dyrrachius.
The modern names of the city in Albanian and Italian are derived from Dyrrachium through the Medieval Slavic form Дърачь, from the era when the city was held by the Bulgarian and Serbian empires. This is the root of the Ottoman Turkish name Dıraç. In English usage, the Italian form Durazzo used to be widespread, but the local Albanian name Durrës has replaced it in recent decades. Though surviving remains are minimal, as one of the oldest cities in Albania, the city was founded as Epidamnos in the ancient region of Illyria in 627 BC by ancient Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra, modern-day Corfu; the Romans replaced the rule of Teuta with that of Demetrius of one of her generals. He lost his kingdom, including Epidamnus, to the Romans in 219 BC at the Second Illyrian War. In the Third Illyrian War Epidamnus was attacked by Gentius but he was defeated by the Romans at the same year. For Catullus, the city was Durrachium Hadriae tabernam, "the taberna of the Adriatic", one of the stopping places for a Roman traveling up the Adriatic, as Catullus had done himself in the sailing season of 56.
After the Illyrian Wars with the Roman Republic in 229 BC ended in a decisive defeat for the Illyrians, the city passed to Roman rule, under which it was developed as a major military and naval base. The Romans renamed it Dyrrachium, they considered the name Epidamnos to be inauspicious because of its wholly coincidental similarities with the Latin word damnum, meaning "loss" or "harm". The meaning of Dyrrachium is unclear, but it has been suggested that it refers to the imposing cliffs near the city. Julius Caesar's rival Pompey made a stand there in 48 BC before fleeing south to Greece. Under Roman rule, Dyrrachium prospered. Another lesser road led south to the city of the modern Butrint; the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus made the city a colony for veterans of his legions following the Battle of Actium, proclaiming it a civitas libera. In the 4th century, Dyrrachium was made the capital of the Roman province of Epirus nova, it was the birthplace of the emperor Anastasius I in c. 430. Sometime that century, Dyrrachium was struck by a powerful earthquake which destroyed the city's defences.
Anastasius I rebuilt and strengthened the city walls, thus creating the strongest fortifications in the western Balkans. The 12-metre-high walls were so thick that, according to the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene, four horsemen could ride abreast on them. Significant portions of the ancient city defences still remain, although they have been much reduced over the centuries. Like much of the rest of the Balkans and the surrounding Dyrraciensis provinciae suffered from barbarian incursions during the Migrations Period, it was besieged in 481 by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, in subsequent centuries had to fend off frequent attacks by the Bulgarians. Unaffected by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city continued under the Byzantine Empire as an important port and a major link between the Empire and western Europe; the city and the surrounding coast became a Byzantine province, the Theme of Dyrrhachium in the first decade of the 9th century. The city remained in Byzantine hands until the late 10th century, when
Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)
The Kingdom of Serbia, or Serbian Kingdom, was a medieval Serbian state that existed from 1217 to 1346, ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty. The Grand Principality of Serbia was elevated with the coronation of Stefan Nemanjić as king by his brother, archbishop Sava, after inheriting all territories unified by their father, grand prince Stefan Nemanja; the kingdom was proclaimed an empire on 16 April 1346. The coronation of Stefan Nemanjić in 1217 was not unheard of in Serbian history, since there had been a long tradition of kingship among previous Serbian rulers centered in Duklja. During the Nemanjić era, the previous Serbian kingdom in Duklja was referred to as the "Old Kingdom of our forefathers" and such views were reflected in the royal titles of Stefan Nemanjić and his successors, who styled themselves as kings of all Serbian Lands, including Duklja. Realizing the importance of royal heritage, grand prince Stefan Nemanja, father of Stefan Nemanjić, granted his elder son Vukan Nemanjić rule in Duklja, with the title of king.
By that time, the "Old Kingdom" of Duklja and its former rulers from the Vojislavljević dynasty were regarded as royal predecessors to the Nemanjić dynasty, that branched from the previous Vukanović dynasty in Raška. Older relations between the two dynasties and the two regions were close. In 1083, king Constantine Bodin of Duklja appointed his nephews Vukan and Marko vassals in Raška, one of the inner provinces of his realm; each province had its own nobility and institutions, each acquired a member or relative of the Vojislavljević dynasty to govern as župan. Between 1089 and 1091, the Byzantine Empire launched a campaign on Duklja. An internal war broke out in the realm among Bodin's relatives weakening Duklja. Vukan of Raška took the opportunity to assert himself and broke away, claiming the title of Grand Prince of Serbia. Up to the end of 11th century, Duklja had been the center of the Serbian realm, as well as the main state resisting Byzantium. From that time, Raška became the most powerful of the Serbian states, under the rule of the Vukanović dynasty, it remained so throughout the entire 12th century.
Raška replaced Duklja as the main opponent of the Byzantine Empire. Bodin's heirs were forced to recognize Byzantine overlordship, now held only the small territories of Duklja and Travunia. During the reign of Vukan's successors, the Byzantines sought to conquer Raška on several occasions, but through resistance, diplomatic ties with Hungary, that Serbian principality kept its independence. By the time when Stefan Nemanja became the grand župan of Raška, old Duklja was half conquered by the Byzantines reduced to a small principality. Soon after 1180, Stefan Nemanja liberated Duklja thus reuniting Serbian lands, invested his son Vukan with rule over Duklja with the traditional title of the king. Since Nemanja's second son Stefan became grand župan in 1196, rivalry occurred among brothers, culminating in 1202 when Stefan was overthrown. In 1204, Stefan Nemanjić regained his rule in Raška and made peace with his brother Vukan of Duklja, who died in 1208; the actual peacemaker was their youngest brother Rastko, former prince of Zahumlje who renounced his rule to became a monk, took the name Sava, turning all his efforts to spreading Eastern Orthodoxy among his people.
Since the Roman Catholic Church had ambitions to spread its influence to the Southeaster Europe as well, Stefan used these circumstances to obtain the recognition of kingship from the Pope, thereby becoming Serbian king in 1217. In Byzantium, Sava managed to secure autocephaly for the Serbian Church and became the first Serbian archbishop in 1219. In the same year Sava published the first constitution in Serbia — St. Sava's Nomocanon; the Nomocanon was a compilation of Civil law, based on Roman Law, Canon law, based on Ecumenical Councils. Its basic purpose was to organize the functions of the Serbian church, thus the Serbs acquired both religious independence. In 1220, grand assembly of the realm was held in Žiča, were Stefan was crowned by the Orthodox ritual and coronation was performed by archbishop Sava; that act served as a precedent for all their successors: all Serbian kings of the Nemanjić dynasty were crowned in Žiča, by Serbian archbishops. The next generation of Serbian rulers — the sons of Stefan Prvovenčani, Radoslav and Uroš I — marked a period of stagnation of the state structure.
All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighbouring states — Byzantium, Bulgaria, or Hungary. The ties with the Hungarians played a decisive role as Uroš I was succeeded by his son Dragutin, whose wife was a Hungarian princess; when Dragutin abdicated in favour of his younger brother Milutin, in 1282, the Hungarian king Ladislaus IV gave him lands in northeastern Bosnia, the region of Mačva, the city of Belgrade, whilst he managed to conquer and annex lands in northeastern Serbia. Thus, some of these territories became part of the Serbian state for the first time, his new state was named Kingdom of Srem. In that time the name Srem was a designation for two territories: Lower Srem; the Kingdom of Srem under the rule of Stefan Dragutin was Lower Srem, but some historical sources mention that Stefan Dragutin ruled over Upper Srem and Slavonia. After Dragutin died in 1316, his son, king Vladislav II, became king and ruled until 1325. Under Dragutin's younger brother, King Milutin, Serbia grew stronger despite having to fight
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III, born Roland of Siena, was Pope from 7 September 1159 to his death in 1181. Pope Alexander III was born in Siena. From 14th century he is referred to as a member of the aristocratic family of Bandinelli, although this has not been proven, he was long thought to be the 12th-century canon lawyer and theologian Master Roland of Bologna, who composed the "Stroma" or "Summa Rolandi"—one of the earliest commentaries on the Decretum of Gratian—and the "Sententiae Rolandi", a sentence collection displaying the influence of Pierre Abélard, but John T. Noonan and Rudolf Weigand have shown this to be another Rolandus, he studied at Bologna, where Robert of Torigni notes that he taught theology. In October 1150, Pope Eugene III created him Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Cosma e Damiano, he became Cardinal-Priest of St Mark. In 1153, he became papal chancellor and was the leader of the cardinals opposed to German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, he negotiated the Treaty of Benevento, which restored peaceful relations between Rome and the Kingdom of Sicily.
On 7 September 1159, he was chosen the successor to Pope Adrian IV, the only Briton to hold the office. A minority of the cardinals, elected the cardinal priest Octavian, who assumed the name of Victor IV and became the German Emperor's antipope; the situation was critical for Alexander III, because according to many chronicles of the time, Barbarossa's antipope received the approval of most of the kingdoms of Europe, with the exception of the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. However, in 1161, King Géza II of Hungary signed an agreement and recognised Alexander III as the rightful pope and declared that the supreme spiritual leader was the only one who could exercise the rite of investiture; this meant that Alexander's legitimacy was gaining strength, as soon proved by the fact that other monarchs, such as the king of France and King Henry II of England, recognized his authority. Because of imperial strength in Italy, Alexander was forced to reside outside of Rome for a large part of his pontificate.
When news reached him of the death of Victor in 1164, he wept, scolded the cardinals in his company for rejoicing at the end of the rival antipope. However, the dispute between Alexander III, Antipope Victor IV and his successors Antipope Paschal III and Antipope Calixtus III continued until Frederick Barbarossa's defeat at the Legnano in 1176, after which Barbarossa recognized Alexander III as pope. On 12 March 1178, Alexander III returned to Rome, which he had been compelled to leave twice: the first time between 1162 and 23 November 1165; when Alexander was arrested by supporters of the imperialist Antipope Victor IV, Oddone Frangipane freed him and sent to safety in Campania. Alexander again left Rome in 1167. At first he went to Benevento moving to various strongholds such as of Anagni, Ferentino and Veroli. Alexander III was the first pope known to have paid direct attention to missionary activities east of the Baltic Sea, he had created the Archbishopric of Uppsala in Sweden in 1164 at the suggestion of his close friend Eskil, Archbishop of Lund – exiled in Clairvaux, due to a conflict with the Danish king.
The latter appointed a Benedictine monk Fulco as a bishop in Estonia. In 1171, Alexander became the first pope to address the situation of the Church in Finland, with Finns harassing priests and only relying on God in time of war. In the bull Non parum animus noster, in 1171 or 1172, he gave papal sanction to ongoing crusades against pagans in northern Europe, promising remission of sin for those who fought there. In doing so, he legitimized the widespread use of forced conversion as a tactic by those fighting in the Baltic. Besides checkmating Barbarossa, Alexander humbled King Henry II of England for the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, to whom he was unusually close canonizing Becket in 1173; this was the second English saint canonized by Alexander, the first being Edward the Confessor in 1161. Nonetheless, he confirmed the position of Henry as Lord of Ireland in 1172. In March 1177, on his way to Venice to meet the Emperor, Alexander spent four days in the city of Zadar on the Dalmatian coast.
Zadar was at that time a vassal of the Republic of Venice. Through the Papal bull Manifestis Probatum, issued on 23 May 1179, he recognized the right of Afonso I to proclaim himself King of Portugal – an important step in the process of Portugal becoming a recognized independent Kingdom; as a fugitive, Alexander enjoyed the favour and protection of Louis VII of France. In 1163 Alexander summoned clergy and prelates from England, France and Spain to the Council of Tours to address, among other things, the unlawful division of ecclesiastical benefices, clerical usury, lay possession of tithes. In March 1179, Alexander III held the Third Council of the Lateran, one of the most important mediaeval church councils, reckoned by the Catholic Church as the eleventh ecumenical council, its acts embodied several of the Pope's proposals for the betterment of the condition of the Church, among them the law requiring that no one could be elected pope without the votes of two-thirds of the cardinals. The rule was altered in 1996, but was restored in 2007.
This synod marked the summit of Alexander III's power. Soon after the close of the synod, the Roman Republic forced Alexander III to leave the city, which he never re-entered, on 29 September 1179, some nobles set up the Antipope Innocent III. By the judicious use of money, Alexander III got him into his power, so that he was deposed in January 1180. In 11
