Red Croatia - Origins of The Term

Origins of The Term

Red Croatia was first mentioned in the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea which was written by a Roman Catholic priest in Doclea. His work is not preserved in original, but only in copies since the 16th and 17th century, and has been dated from as early as the late 13th century to as far as the 15th century. It is most likely that it was written ca. 1300. There were numerous erroneous guesses and other plain errors regarding the identity of the writer, the most known being referring to him as "Archbishop Gregory" of a non-existent Archbishopric.

Most recent and detailed research identifies him as a member of the Cistercian order by the name of Rudger, of Bohemian ethnic origins, working in the Archbishopric of Split and for Croatian Ban Paul Šubić who was from 1298 to 1301 Archbishop of Bar. If the Priest of Doclea didn't take the term from some unknown and unpreserved source while rewriting his work for a second edition and he is its inventor, it is believed that he did partially in political aspirations of the Šubić family over all Croat lands, which would also explain the lack of Red Croatia in the first version, which centered on Bosnia, the second one being written after Paul had taken the title "Lord of Bosnia".

Croatian linguist Petar Skok has defined that this misinterpretation on the Priest's part is a result of transliteration of the Crmnica - Crvnica area in Montenegro, which also translates to Red Land.

According to the Dioclean priest imaginary kingdom of Slavs was divided into two regions: Maritima ( Littoral ) between Dinaric mountains and the Adriatic sea which was also defined as the area where the rivers from the mountains flow south into the sea and Serbia which encompassed everything between Dinaric mountains and the river Danube or as defined in the chronicle as the region where the rivers flow from the mountains to the north into the mighty river of Danube . Thus the Maritima encompassed only the areas in the Adriatic sea drainage basin while Serbia encompassed areas in the Black sea ( Danube ) basin . Maritima was further divide in two areas: White and Red Croatia with latter encompassing present day Hercegovina, southern portion of Montengro and northern Albania. On the other hand Dioclean's Serbia would encompass most of present day Serbia, northern part of Montenegro, most of the Bosnia and Croatia north of the Dinaric mountains.