The Kingdom of Croatia entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102, after a period of rule of kings from the Trpimirović and Svetoslavić dynasties and a succession crisis following the death of king Demetrius Zvonimir. With the coronation of King Coloman of Hungary as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102 in Biograd, the realm passed to the Árpád dynasty until 1301, when the (male) line of the dynasty died out. Then, kings from the Capetian House of Anjou, who were also cognatic descendants of the Árpád kings, ruled the kingdoms. Later centuries were characterized by conflicts with the Mongols, who sacked Zagreb in 1242, competition with Venice for control over Dalmatian coastal cities, and internal warfare among Croatian nobility. Various individuals emerged during the period, such as Paul I Šubić of Bribir, who was representing the most powerful Croatian dynasty at the time, the Šubić noble family. These powerful individuals were on occasion able to de facto secure great deal of independence for their fiefdoms. The Ottoman incursion into Europe in the 16th century significantly reduced Croatian territories and left the country weak and divided. After the death of Louis II in 1526 during the Battle of Mohács and a brief period of dynastic dispute, both crowns passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg, and the realms became part of the Habsburg monarchy.
Knin is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as the capital of both the medieval Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina within the newly independent Republic of Croatia for the duration of Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995.
Vrlika is a small town in inland Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The closest large towns are Sinj, Knin, and Drniš. Vrlika was given the status of town in 1997. Vrlika is an underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.
The Uskoks were irregular soldiers in Habsburg Croatia that inhabited areas on the eastern Adriatic coast and surrounding territories during the Ottoman wars in Europe. Bands of Uskoks fought a guerrilla war against the Ottomans, and they formed small units and rowed swift boats. Since the uskoks were checked on land and were rarely paid their annual subsidy, they resorted to acts of piracy.
Bukovica is a geographical region in Croatia. It lies in northern Dalmatia, with Lika to the north, Kninska Krajina to the east, and Ravni Kotari to the southwest.
The Klis Fortress is a medieval fortress situated above the village of Klis, near Split, Croatia. From its origin as a small stronghold built by the ancient Illyrian tribe Dalmatae, to a role as royal castle and seat of many Croatian kings, to its final development as a large fortress during the Ottoman wars in Europe, Klis Fortress has guarded the frontier, being lost and re-conquered several times throughout its 2,000-year history. Due to its location on a pass that separates the mountains Mosor and Kozjak, the fortress served as a major source of defense in Dalmatia, especially against the Ottoman Empire. It has been a crossroad between the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkans.
Prozor Fortress is a medieval fortress situated in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, in inland Dalmatia, just above the town of Vrlika in Croatia. From its origin as a small stronghold built by the ancient Illyrian tribe Dalmatae, it developed into a fortress in the 15th century, during the reign of Bosnian feudal lord Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić.
St. Nicholas Fortress is a fortress located at the entrance to St. Anthony Channel, near the town of Šibenik in central Dalmatia, Croatia.
The Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War was a sequence of conflicts, mostly of relatively low intensity, between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Croatia, and the later Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia. Besides periods of small-scale borderland warfare, the conflict also saw episodes of major conquest campaigns of Croatian land undertaken by the Ottomans especially during the 16th century.
The siege of Klis or Battle of Klis was a siege of Klis Fortress in the Kingdom of Croatia within Habsburg monarchy. The siege of the fortress, which lasted for more than two decades, and the final battle near Klis in 1537, were fought as a part of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars between the defending Croatian–Habsburg forces under the leadership of Croatian feudal lord Petar Kružić, and the attacking Ottoman army under the leadership of the Ottoman general Murat-beg Tardić.
Fort Nečven or Nečven City is a medieval Croatian fortress from the 14th century, and one of the most important fortified buildings in Croatia in terms of size and degree of preservation. It is on the west side of Promina mountain, on the edge of the high cliffs of river Krka, 3 kilometres (2 mi) south of Miljacka Falls, where the Krka National Park begins, by the eponymous village.
The term Vlachs was initially used in medieval Croatian and Venetian history for a Romance-speaking pastoralist community, called "Vlachs" and "Morlachs", inhabiting the mountains and lands of the Croatian Kingdom and the Republic of Venice from the early 14th century. By the end of the 15th century they were highly assimilated with the Slavs and lost their language or were at least bilingual, while some communities managed to preserve and continue to speak their language (Istro-Romanians).
Ostrovica Fortress is a ruined medieval fortification on a solid rock jutting from the top of the hill above the village of Ostrovica in Zadar County, Croatia. It is located between the two historical and geographical regions, Bukovica and Ravni Kotari. It was once an important stronghold, known as the "Key to the City of Zadar", as it was a key defense of the city. It was destroyed during the Ottoman–Venetian Wars in the second half of the 17th century, leaving only a few remains.
The battle of Knin was a major Yugoslav Partisan operation during World War II in Yugoslavia launched by the 8th Dalmatian Corps from 7 November to 9 December 1944 with the purpose of destroying German, Ustaše and Chetnik formations in North Dalmatia and the city of Knin, then part of the Independent State of Croatia. It was the final part of the 8th Corps offensive for the liberation of Dalmatia which began on 12 September 1944. The Knin operation had three phases: Initial battles on approaches to Knin from 7 November to 25 November, main battle and liberation of Knin from 26 November to 4 December, and final battles and pursuit of retreating Axis forces to Otrić in Lika from 5 December to 9 December.
Venetian Dalmatia refers to parts of Dalmatia under the rule of the Republic of Venice, mainly from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Dalmatia was first sold to Venice in 1409 but Venetian Dalmatia was not fully consolidated until 1420. It lasted until 1797, when the Republic of Venice fell to the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte and Habsburg Austria.
The siege of Knin was a siege of the city of Knin, the capital of the Kingdom of Croatia, by the Ottoman Empire in 1522. After two failed attempts in 1513 and 1514, Ottoman forces led by Ghazi Husrev Bey, sanjak-bey (governor) of the Sanjak of Bosnia, launched a major offensive on southern Croatia in the spring of 1522. In May, his forces, reinforced with troops from the Sanjak of Herzegovina and Constantinople, besieged the Knin Fortress.
The Barone Fortress in Šibenik, Croatia, is an early modern fortress constructed in 1646 on Vidakuša hill above the city. Together with the remaining three city fortresses, it is a part of the Šibenik fortification system. It played a significant role in city's defense from the Ottomans during the Cretan War. For a long time, it carried the name of its main defender, Baron Christoph Martin von Degenfeld. At the start of the 20th century, along with the surrounding neighborhood, it was renamed Šubićevac, after the medieval patrician family Šubić.
Udbina Castle is a ruined medieval fortified structure in the town of Udbina, Lika-Senj County, Croatia. Built on the top of a hill at the northern end of the town, it overlooks a large part of the Krbava field, just above the place where the fierce and bloody Battle of Krbava between the army of the Kingdom of Croatia and the Ottoman Empire was fought in 1493. Once property of the powerful Kurjaković noble family, the castle was captured by the Ottomans in 1527. It was recaptured in 1689 by Habsburg-Croatian army, but later, by the end of the 19th century, uncared-for, the castle slowly turned into a ruin.
The Great Turkish War of 1684–1689 saw conflict between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire in territories of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, which significantly eased the Ottoman grip on Croatia.
Siege of Bihać (1697) was a Habsburg siege of the Ottoman fortress town of Bihać in Bosnian Krajina. The siege was planned as a diversionary attack from main Habsburg offensive on Danube river, and was called off after several failed storming attempts.
