List of dukes and kings of Croatia


This is a complete list of dukes and kings of Croatia under domestic ethnic and elected dynasties during the Duchy of Croatia, the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia.
This article follows the monarch's title number according to Hungarian succession for convenience. For example, the Hungarian monarch Béla IV is according to Croatian succession correctly titled Béla III. This is because Hungarians had a king named Béla prior to the incorporation of Croatia under the Hungarian Crown but the Croats did not.

Early history

The details of the arrival of the Croats in the Balkans are sparsely documented by more or less reliable historical sources. Around late 6th and early 7th century, they migrated from White Croatia. According to a legend recorded in the 10th-century De Administrando Imperio, the Croats came to their present region under the leadership of five brothers and of two sisters, and successfully fought and expelled the Pannonian Avars influence in the Roman province of Dalmatia. The Croats started gradually converting to Christianity under the rule of Porga in the 7th century.

Early archons of Croats (7th century)

Dukes of Lower Pannonia (8th century–896)

The areas of modern-day Croatia located in the Pannonian plain had also been settled by Slavic tribes in the early Middle Ages, and history recorded some of their rulers.
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Vojnomirc. 790c. 810

Dukes of Croatia (8th century–925)

The common chronology of the dukes and kings of Croatia was conceptualized by Franjo Rački and Ferdo Šišić, but although generally accepted, has several controversial claims about the 9th and 10th century line of Trpimirović dynasty. In their interpretation of the De Administrando Imperio the rulers, including Trpimir known from other sources as ruling cca. 845–864, have actually ruled in the first part of the 10th century and invented Trpimir II whose not mentioned in historical sources.
  • Šišić's old chronology: Borna, Vladislav, Mislav, Trpimir I, his son Zdeslav, Domagoj, unnamed Domagoj's son, Zdeslav, Branimir, Muncimir, Tomislav, Trpimir II, Krešimir I, Miroslav, Michael Krešimir II with Helen of Zadar, Stephen Držislav, Svetoslav Suronja, Gojslav, Krešimir III, Stephen I, Petar Krešimir IV, and lastly Demetrius Zvonimir with brief rule of Stephen II and Petar Snačić.
  • Komatina's revised chronology : Borna, Vladislav, Mislav, Trpimir, Zdeslav, Domagoj, unnamed Domagoj's son, Zdeslav, Branimir, Muncimir, Krešimir I, Miroslav, Tomislav I, Michael Krešimir II with Helen of Zadar, Stephen Držislav, Svetoslav Suronja, Gojslav, Krešimir III, Stephen I, Petar Krešimir IV, and lastly Demetrius Zvonimir with brief rule of Stephen II and Petar Snačić.
  • Đaković's revised chronology : Borna, Vladislav, Mislav, Trpimir, Krešimir I, Miroslav, Domagoj, unnamed Domagoj's son, Zdeslav, Branimir, Muncimir, Tomislav I, Michael Krešimir II with Helen of Zadar, Stephen Držislav, Svetoslav Suronja, Gojslav, Krešimir III, Stephen I, Petar Krešimir IV, and lastly Demetrius Zvonimir with brief rule of Stephen II and Petar Snačić.
Višeslav of Croatia, who left behind a baptismal font day, which mentioned him being a duke, used to be considered by Croatian historiography as a duke of the Croats, but the evidence for most of the claims regarding him is too scarce.
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Kings of Croatia (925–1102)

In his letter from 925, Pope John X refers to Tomislav I of Trpimirović dynasty as Rex Chroatorum. All Croatian rulers after Tomislav I held the title of King of Croatia. This is confirmed by epigraphic inscription mentioning the earliest known Croatian queen Domaslava dated to first half of 10th century.

Under the Hungarian Crown (1102–1527)

From 1102, the reigning King of Hungary was also the ruler of the Kingdom of Croatia in agreement with the Croatian nobles. Croatia was governed on his behalf by a viceroy and a parliament. In 1409 Ladislaus of Naples sold his rights to Dalmatia to Republic of Venice for 100,000 ducats.

Under the Habsburg monarchy (1527–1918)

On 1 January 1527, the Croatian Parliament met in Cetin to elect Ferdinand I of Habsburg as the new King of Croatia. The Habsburg monarchy had annexed the lands of Dalmatia after the Napoleonic War of the First Coalition. The Kingdom of Dalmatia was a crown land of the Austrian Empire and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary.

Kings of Yugoslavia (1918–1945)

After the World War I and the breakup of Austria-Hungary, Croatia joined a newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs as declared in the Zagreb Resolution. Following a brief period of self-rule by National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, after the controversial Geneva Declaration that state became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes under the Karađorđević dynasty. After the Vidovdan Constitution, the Croatian Parliament temporarily ceased to exist. It was followed by the 6 January Dictatorship and the 1931 Yugoslav Constitution.
The name of the kingdom was changed in 1929, amid unitarianist reforms, to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920 Istria and parts of Dalmatia were annexed to Kingdom of Italy. On the basis of the Cvetković–Maček Agreement, and the Decree on the Banate of Croatia dated 24 August 1939, the Banate of Croatia was created. Under the Agreement was again elected Croatian Parliament and a crown-appointed ban would decide internal matters in Croatia.

King of the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1943)

In 1941, Croatia was occupied by the Axis powers along with the rest of Yugoslavia. The Independent State of Croatia was set as a puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Soon after its creation, the state government passed three laws on the creation of the Crown of Zvonimir, which made the country de jure a kingdom. Three days later the Treaties of Rome were signed. The Italian Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta was designated King of Croatia. Numerous Adriatic islands and a portion of Dalmatia were annexed by Italy, which all combined to become the Italian Governonate of Dalmatia. On 10 September 1943 Independent State of Croatia declared that the Treaties of Rome were null and void and annexed the portion of Dalmatia that had been ceded to Italy.

After WWII

The title Duke of Croatia has been used widely:
  • The Doges of Venice used it, with Byzantine approval, from c. 1100, when Hungary was in the process of absorbing the Kingdom of Croatia, until the Treaty of Zadar with Hungary in 1358.
  • The Dukes of Merania, whose territory bordered Croatia, were sometimes called Dukes of Croatia in contemporary chronicles.
  • Various Hungarian noblemen granted authority in the South Slav lands added Croatia to their title of Duke of Slavonia in the 13th and 14th centuries.