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Europe · High and late Middle Ages

Kingdom of Duklja

drawn on the map 1072–1138

Duklja (later called Zeta), on the Adriatic in modern Montenegro, was the most powerful early Serbian principality. Jovan Vladimir (c. 990–1016; ruled c. 1000–1016) is venerated as a saint (feast 22 May) and is regarded as the first Serbian/Slavic saint of the region; he was captured by Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, married Samuel's daughter Theodora Kosara, and was martyred in 1016.

Shown on the map
1072–1138
Peak area
50k km²
Region
Europe

Overview

Duklja (later called Zeta), on the Adriatic in modern Montenegro, was the most powerful early Serbian principality. Jovan Vladimir (c. 990–1016; ruled c. 1000–1016) is venerated as a saint (feast 22 May) and is regarded as the first Serbian/Slavic saint of the region; he was captured by Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, married Samuel's daughter Theodora Kosara, and was martyred in 1016. Mihailo Vojislavljević (r. 1046–1081) received a crown from Pope Gregory VII in 1077, who in a letter of 9 January 1078 addressed him as "King of the Slavs" (Sclavorum regi). His son Constantine Bodin (r. 1081–1101) extended Duklja's reach over Raška and Bosnia. Between 1113 and 1149 Duklja became a battleground of Serbian-Byzantine conflict; it was then incorporated as a crown land (Zeta) of the Grand Principality of Serbia under the Vukanović/Nemanjić line, remaining so until the fall of the Serbian Empire.

Common questions

What was the Kingdom of Duklja?
Duklja (later called Zeta), on the Adriatic in modern Montenegro, was the most powerful early Serbian principality. Jovan Vladimir (c. 990–1016; ruled c. 1000–1016) is venerated as a saint (feast 22 May) and is regarded as the first Serbian/Slavic saint of the region; he was captured by Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, married Samuel's daughter Theodora Kosara, and was martyred in 1016.
When is the Kingdom of Duklja shown on the map?
The border data draws the Kingdom of Duklja 1072–1138. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large was the Kingdom of Duklja?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Duklja covered about 50,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, academic works (John Fine on the Balkans, Halperin and Martin on Muscovy, Rady and Veszprémy on Hungary) and, for a few entries, the medieval Livonian Chronicle of Henry itself. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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