 |
|
|
|
****JavaScript based drop down DHTML menu generated by NavStudio. (OpenCube Inc. - http://www.opencube.com)****
|
|
|
 |
Konstantin Bodin (1081-1101)
Certainly one of the more colorful medieval Balkan historical figures - though
described by some chroniclers as a "very belligerent and rather
sinister" man - Bodin first appears during the 1072 anti-Byzantine Slavic
rebellion in Macedonia. Hailed by the rebels as the new Bulgarian tsar
Petar until their defeat, he was captured and imprisoned, only to be eventually
rescued by his father around 1078.
Immediately upon ascending to
the Zetan throne in 1081, Bodin got caught in the emerging Norman-Byzantine war.
Having initially pledged support for emperor Alexios' defense of Drac
(Durazzo), he remains on the sidelines during the decisive battle, thus
contributing to Norman success and consequent Byzantine wrath. However,
by supporting pope Clement III against the antipope, he managed to
consummate his father's effort of obtaining an archbishopric on his land,
in 1089. This put most coastal churches under the new archbishopric of
Bar, but left unafected most inland parishes that maintained allegiance
to the Orthodox line of Constantinople.
Byzantine armies, having
eliminated the Norman threat, turned subsequently to Zeta, and defeated
Bodin sometime around 1090. After this, he fades from the sources -
excluding the cordial 1096 meeting with the passing count Raymond de
Tolouse during the First Crusade - and is presumed to have died around
1101.
Thus, at the turn of the century, Zeta loses it political
importance, and under Bodin's feuding successors, also its independence
to Byzantium - although its monarchs are to be referenced as kings until
the mid-12th c. Other Serbian lands that had been incorporated into his
state - Bosnia, Zahumlje and most notably, Raska - now spin off. The
latter - initially under Bodin's relative Vukan, appointed by him to govern
as the grand zupan - gradually becomes the center of Serbian revival and
Balkan resistance to Byzantine rule.
|
|
|
|