Ratimir was a Croatian duke or prince (knez), Bulgarian

First Bulgarian Empire

The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...

-imposed Duke of Pannonian Croatia

Pannonian Croatia

Pannonian Croatia was a medieval duchy from the 7th to the 10th century located in the Pannonian Plain approximately between the rivers Drava and Sava in today's Croatia, but at times also considerably to the south of the Sava. Its capital was Sisak...

 from ca. 829 to 838. His name contents the word "rat", meaning "war", and "mir", meaning "peace". It is believed that Ratimir descends from a royal dynasty that provided rulers for Moravia and Croatia.

In 827, the Bulgars

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

 under Great Khan Omurtag

Omurtag of Bulgaria

Omurtag was a Great Khan of Bulgaria from 814 to 831. He is known as "the Builder".In the very beginning of his reign he signed a 30-year peace treaty with the neighboring Eastern Roman Empire which remained in force to the end of his life...

 invaded and conquered the Croatian Principality of Southern Pannonia (Savia)

Pannonian Croatia

Pannonian Croatia was a medieval duchy from the 7th to the 10th century located in the Pannonian Plain approximately between the rivers Drava and Sava in today's Croatia, but at times also considerably to the south of the Sava. Its capital was Sisak...

 and parts of territories to the north of Savia, that were a part of Frankish kingdom. In 829 they imposed a local Prince Ratimir as the new ruler of Pannonia in their name. Nine years later (838) after the Bulgarian conquest of Macedonia

Macedonia (region)

Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...

, the Danubian Count Ratbod, Head of the East March, deposed Prince Ratimir and restored Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 rule in Pannonia.

After the attack of Ratbod, Ratimir fled, and in Pannonian Croatia, in the name of the Franks

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

, ruled Slav dukes Pribina

Pribina

Pribina was a Slavic prince whose adventurous career, recorded in the Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians , illustrates the political volatility of the Franco–Slavic frontiers of his time...

 and Kocelj from today's western Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 Blatnograd/Zalavar

Zalavár

Zalavár is a village in Hungary, located in the Zala county. It is located around southwest of the Lake Balaton.-Name:In Hungarian, it is known as Zalavár, in Slovak as Blatnohrad, in Croatian: Blatnograd , in Serbian: Блатноград, and in German as Moosburg. It was also known as Mosapurc and Kolon...

 or Keszthely

Keszthely

Keszthely is a Hungarian city of 21,100 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It's the second largest city by the lake after Siófok....

.

Unlike his predecessors, Ratimir experienced a rift in relations with the Christian Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

.

Sources

• Annales regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi. Herausgegeben von Friedrich Kurze. XX und 204 S. 8°. 1895. Printed in 1950.
• Rudolf Horvat, History of Croatia I. (from ancient times to year 1657), Zagreb, 1924. (hr.)
• Nada Klaić
  Nada Klaic
  Nada Klaić was a Croatian historian. She was influential and controversial Croatian medievalist of the 20th century.-Academic career:...
  
  , History of Croats in Early Middle Ages, Zagreb, 1975. (hr.)

External links

• Annales regni francorum - original text in latin