And Then He Was King
It takes a great man to turn a Duchy into a Kingdom, and for the medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina that man was Tvrtko I.
Not that the lead up to his crowning was uneventful or easy; on the contrary, Tvrtko overcame enormous odds sandwiched between two great powers to wrest away the wild and mountainous Balkan area he would rule over. He gained and lost power, fought for multiple suzerains, and expanded Bosnian territory to its most expansive borders.
Although he was well regarded as a leader in war, Tvrtko’s abilities as a diplomat served him just as much in creating, expanding, and maintaining his kingdom a his martial prowess.
It was that diplomacy that made his coronation at the Bosnian city of Mile on October 26, 1377 seem fully natural and uncontested – as though the Kingdom of Bosnia had always existed and the coronation were a mere formality.
Read more about Tvrto I and medieval Bosnia here:
- October 26, 2020
- History , Interesting