Duchy of Croatia

The Duchy of Croatia was the medieval state of the White Croats who settled the former Roman Dalmatia around the seventh century after helping crush the Pannonian Avars. It held the Adriatic littoral and its mountain hinterland without Istria, and lived squeezed between the Carolingian and Byzantine empires, paying vassalage to one or the other while guarding the Byzantine coastal cities it coveted. Duke Borna fought the rebel Ljudevit for the Franks, Trpimir founded the dynasty that with the Domagojevic house ruled until 1091, and Branimir won recognition as an independent ruler from Pope John VIII in 879. The dukes moved between seats at Nin, Knin, Klis, Solin and Bijaci as war and diplomacy required. Rivalry with Venice began in the ninth century, wars with the Bulgarian Empire and the Arabs tested the young state, and Bulgar-Croatian relations improved greatly afterwards, until Tomislav, around 925, lifted Croatia from a duchy into a kingdom.