Medieval Croatia Remains Independent

The Kingdom of Croatia enterd into a union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102, after over a decade of civil war caused by the death of King Dmitar Zvonimir and his son Radovan. This TL will focus on how Croatian, European and global history would be different had Croatia remained a independent country, with the POD being Prince Radovan surviving.

Certain more important rulers will be covered in more detail than others.

Timeline:

1085-1100

 * 1) Prince Radovan of Croatia, aged 20, son of King Dmitar Zvonimir and Queen Illona Arpad, contracts tuberculosis in May 1085, and is on the verge of death, but unlike in the OTL he survives and makes a full recovery by the end of the year, thus securing the continuation of Zvonimir's line.
 * 2) Radovan marries Projeta, daughter of Lord Dragoslav of Zagorje and Drid, in April 1087. Their first child, a son named Ivan. is born on the 4th of February 1088.
 * 3) King Dmitar Zvonimir suffers a fatal stroke and dies in July 1089, aged 52. Radovan, now 24, is proclaimed King by the nobles of Croatia and he sends a messanger to Pope Urban II, to send him a delegate to officialy crown him, as his father did before him. Howeaver his father's Ban (Croatian word for viceroy) the Lord of Kamičak Petar Snačić, refuses to recognise Radovan on the grounds that his father, who served as Ban under Petar Krešimir IV, betrayed his then liege to be killed by the Normans and grabbed his crown, under rather dubious claims of belonging to a cadet branch of the rulling Trpimirović dynasty. Petar Snačić rises in open rebellion in late December, supported by the Ban of Bosnia Stjepan Praska and members of House Kačić of Omiš, and the rebels proclaim elderly and childless Stjepan Trpimirović, the last male member of the deposed line of the dynasty, as king. Howeaver since Stjepan lives in seclusion in a monastery in Split, Radovan places him under house arrest before they can get to him.
 * 4) Papal Legate Theobald of Bavaria crowns Radovan as King of Croatia on the 15th of January 1090, in the Cathedral of Split, six months after his father had passed away. Immediatley the new King orders that Stjepan Trpimirović be poisoned, so that he can't be blamed for killing him outhright. This move howeaver does not deter the rebels, who already took control of large parts of the eastern and central parts of the relam, including all of Bosnia and southern Dalmatia, since Stjepan was only a exuse to rebel, so Petar Snačić proclaims himself as King. Radovan begins to assamble his armies and asks his maternal uncle, King Ladislaus of Hungary to send him aid. His uncle howeaver sends only some funds, as he is rather indifferent to the prospect of spending his manpower in keeping alliances with Croatia, while the Cumans and Pechengs loomed over the eastern side of the Carpathians.
 * 5) On the 5th of June 1090 the rebels defeat Radovan's armies at the Battle of Livno and capture Knin, the capital of the relam, cutting the loyalist forces of Lord Petar the Black of Mosor and Archbishop Lovro of Split from Radovan, who transfers his court to the fortress of Bišće (OTL Bihać), on the Una river. Heeding the advice of his uncle, Radovan creates the Zagreb Bishopric in the north, to cement the loyality of the Slavonian nobles. As soon as he captured the capital Petar Snačić had himself formally crowned by the rebel Bishop of Knin Grgur II.
 * 6) 1092; Archbishop Lovro of Split defeats the rebels in the Siege of Klis, but Peter the Black is killed in the fray.
 * 7) 1093; the First Crusade is called.
 * 8) Petar Snačić captures Nin and Šibenik, in July 1094. Projeta gives birth to the couple's second child, princess Jelena, later that year.
 * 9) As both the People's and the Prince's Crusades pass trough Croatia, some commoners and minor nobles join their ranks, but this all is insignificant as the civil war keeps raiging.
 * 10) Normans from Sicily attempt to take Brač, Split and Zadar, but Lovro's forces repel them.
 * 11) Antiking Petar marries his son Juraj to Zora, the daughter of Neda, the last member of the other line of the Trpimirović Dynasty, daughter of Petar Krešimir IV, to cement his claim on the throne in 1095. He also begins to negotiate in secret with the neighbouring Kingdom of Duklja, promising the Serb King Bodin all of Bosnia in exchange for his assistance against Radovan. Howeaver news of this reaches Bosnian Ban Stjepan.
 * 12) As Stjepan Praska learns that the Antiking has been plotting with the Serbs to betray him and grant Bosnia to Bodin's brother Stefan Vojislavljević, he defects to Radovan. Radovan comes in contact with Bodin's nephew Vukan, who ruled as Župan of Rascia and Lord Kočapar, promising them assistance in toppling Bodin in Duklja, if they help him. As the Dioclean army enters Croatia in mid-August 1096, both sides prepare for a final battle.
 * 13) Snačić and the Serbs spend winter in Knin mustering their forces and march northwards to Bišće in late April 1097. Radovan and Stjepan Praska assemble their armies and prepare to meet them.
 * 14) The two forces meet on the 6th of May 1097, at the foot of Mount Klekovača, halfway bettwen Knin and Bišće. As the battle commences neither side seems to be able to take the upper hand, but by the end of the day the scales start to tip in favour of the Antiking. This all changes as Vukan and Kočapar's forces decide to fufill their end of the bargain and turn on their leige and his ally. In the chaos of the moment Snačić and Bodin are cut off from their forces and killed in battle, ending the civil war.
 * 15) Radovan sends his brother-in-law Viniha Lapčanin to assist Kočapar and Vukan in taking control of Duklja.
 * 16) Stjepan Praska dies of old age in 1099, but not before Radovan rewards him with giving his family hereditary Banship of Bosnia, so his son Godimir succedes him.
 * 17) The First Crusade takes Jerusalem from the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate on 15 July 1099.
 * 18) Radovan builds a large Romanesque church in Nin, dedicating it to Saint Joseph.
 * 19) Queen Protjeha gives birth to twin sons, Josip and Radovan, in late 1099.

1100-1150

 * 1) 1100 rolls around with Jerusalem in Christian hands, Alexios Komnenos recovering Byzantine teritorries, Vukan rulling over the Serb lands and Radovan secured in his position in Croatia.
 * 2) Protjeha gives birth to a daughter Budislava in 1103.
 * 3) In 1105 Duke Almos of Nyitra rebels against Coloman of Hungary and Radovan sends troops to asist his cousin. With direct and ample Croatian assistance the rebellion is soon crushed and Radovan talks Coloman into executing his brother and his underaged son Bela, to prevent futher rebellions, but instead he decides to blind them and allow them to live.
 * 4) The Byzantine Empire looks unfavourably upon Vukan rulling Serbia, becouse of his dubious church allegiance and continous balancing bettwen Catholicism and Orthodoxy, expecially since the Serbian relam is mostly Orthodox, alinged with Constantinople, instead of Rome, so in 1107 the Byzantine forces invade Duklja and Rascia. Radovan sends aid to his ally, so the Byzantines are pushed back. Vukan definetly opts for Orthodoxy to avoid any further Byzantine incursions. In exchange, Vukan allows Radovan to impose his direct rule over the up until then semi-independent Duchy of Zahumlje, a border area between Croatia and Serbia, that kept swithching alligeance from one relam to another continously over the past few decades.
 * 5) King Radovan I of Croatia dies of cardiac arrest on July 5th 1111, at the age of 46. His son Ivan (23), succedes him and is crowned.
 * 6) King Ivan moves the capital from Knin to Split, as Split is a much larger and more prosperous city and to send a message to Venice that the eastern coast of the Adriatic belongs to him.
 * 7) Coloman attempts to invade the Pecheng-held region of Wallachia, but is repelled. Ivan marries Coloman's daughter Sophia in 1114. A son named Vladimir is soon born to the couple.
 * 8) Coloman dies in 1116 and is succeded by his son Stephen II.
 * 9) King Ivan's reign is characterised by relative peace and economic prosperity and by the strenghtening of royal authority in Slavonia and Bosnia, where Ivan granted lands to feudal lords loyal to him.
 * 10) The Kingdom of Jerusalem strenghtens in the third decade of the 12th century.
 * 11) Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos defeats the Pechengs at the Battle of Beroia in 1122. The battle is a complete defeat of the Pecheng tribal confederacy and they stop existing as a independent people as a result. The power vaccum in Wallachia and Moldavia is immediatley contested bettwen Constantinople, Hungary and the Cumans.
 * 12) Imad ad-Din Zengi becomes the Atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo in 1127.
 * 13) Aided by Ivan and the Germans, Stephen II manages to defeat a Byzantine army at the other side of the Danube near Vidin in 1128, thus securing his hold over western and central Wallachia, while the Cumans manage to control the rest.
 * 14) In 1128 Stephen II fell ill and proclaimed his blinded cousin Bela as his succesor, to prevent his half-brother Boris from taking the crown. Boris was the son of Coloman and Euphemia of Kiev, whom Coloman banished for infidelity, but Boris claimed to be legitimate. Stephen died in 1131 and part of the nobility that had proclaimed his half-brother Boris as king three years earlier, eventough he was Orthodox having grown up in Rus, now called on him again, expecially after Bela's wife Helen of Rascia begane to execute their political opponents. Boris was supported by the Kievan Rus, Poland, Byzantium and Croatia, while Bela recieved support only from Austria and Serbia. Croatia had interest in Boris being king, since Radovan's support of Coloman led to the blinding of Bela. Thus the Hungarian War of Succession begane.
 * 15) King Ivan mobilized his armies and marched into Hungary in mid-March 1132. He quickly crossed over the Mura river, pillaging his way to Veszprem and besieged the city with some 6 000 men. Another Croatian army besieged Pecs, while the Poles entered the Nyitra region and the Rus forces with Boris crossed the Carpathians. Austrian Duke Leopold III arrived at Szekesfehervar in July to assist Bela. Bela's father-in law Uroš I of Rascia started attacking Croatian territories in southern Dalmatia, while King Ivan ordered Pribko Praska, Ban of Bosnia, to launch raids into Serbia.