13th Century (The Three Stories)

The 13th century saw the devastation of Eurasia by the rising Mongol Empire, the closer internal integration of the Orthodox relams, more holy wars and several large-scale conflicts bettwen the three major Christian Churches.

Events

 * 1) King Ivan II of Croatia died on the 12th of January 1200, after rulling Croatia for 37 years. He lefts no living male heirs, as both his daughters, whom he married to influental Croatian nobles, could not inherit the throne, eventough some in the relam were calling for the legalization of female succession. Vuk, the bastard son of Ivan I and half-brother to the deceased king, was proclaimed as the succesor and was legalized by the Sabor - the Croatian parliament of nobles, as the rightfull king and he was crowned later the same year. As he was the head of the still lay Brothership of Saint Sebastian, this did not sit well with certain elements within the nobility and coupled with his bastardness, led the second in the hierarchy of the Brothership, Borko Hrvatinac, to start to plot his downfall. He allied himself with Pribina Šubić, Lord of Bribir, who was the great-grandson of Bogdanac of Bribir and great-nephew of the late Queen-Consort Nada.
 * 2) The Bulgarian Empire, wich achieved it's independance from the Byzantines in the late 12th century, as it did in the OTL, started to engage the Hungarians for dominance over Wallachia, in 1201. The strenghtening of the Bulgarians also meant that the Serbian Kingdom broke off from Byzantine overlordship, wich brought the perks of independance, but left the relam much more exposed to Croatian invasion.
 * 3) King Vuk learns of the plan to topple him and sends both Borko Hrvatinac and Pribina Šubić into exile to Naples in 1203. Howeaver, they managed to aquire much support trought the relam and, with German mercenaries and elements of the Brothership of Saint Sebastian wich took up arms, they set sail from Otranto in early June of 1204, landing unopposed at Dubrovnik, wich immediatley sided with them. Trekking trough Croatia they gathered more and more support and met the forces of King Vuk near the city of Jajce, in central Bosnia. The Battle of Jajce saw the victory of the rebel forces and Vuk lost his life in the battle. The Croatian nobles who supported Vuk plead for peace and so the Sabor proclaimed that by the right of Nada Šubić's marriage to Ivan II, Pribina Šubić has aquired blood rights to the throne. Pribina was crowned on October 3, bringing an end to over three centuries of rule of the Trpimirović Dynasty over Croatia and ushering in the rule of the Šubić Dynasty.