Hvalimir the Great

## Hvalimir Belojevic

Hvalimir Belojevic (Born December 26th 842) was the first King of Serbia founding the nation in 912. Was known for founding the Kingdom of Serbia and indirectly founding the Balkan League. He was also notorious for being very lustful cheating with many women well into his 90's.

## Early Life

Hvalimir Belojevic was born on December 26th 842 to Krajina Belojevic the count of Rama and Miljana Vlastimirovic the daughter of Mutimir Vlastimirovic who was the Duke of the Independent State of Rashka. His father died when he was only 6 however. When he was 16 it is unknown who he was married to but his wife died in labor giving birth to a boy named Cucimir.

## Rise to Power

At an early age Hvalimir wanting more conspired to take over the Duchy of Rashka via his mothers default claim on the duchy. However the problem was that he did not have a formidable force to match with Mutimir Vlastimirovic containing only about 450 men compared to Mutimir's 1200. But luck struck for Hvalimir as a war broke out between the Duchy of Croatia and the Duchy of Rashka in 883 with resulted in the total annihilation of Mutimir's army. After hearing word of this Hvalimir officially declared war on Mutimir stating his cause to put his mother on the throne. Within a couple months Mutimir heavily outnumbered surrendered his throne in favor of his Hvalimir's mother (his sister). Hvalimir thought that his mother already old would die any day being in her mid 60's but that was not the case. Hvalimir already in his late forties not believing he had much time left himself decided to kill his mother officially giving him the throne (as he was her only son) which was done in 885 making him the Duke of Rashka.

## Founding the Kingdom of Serbia

After his ascension to the throne of Rashka Hvalimir trained an army of 1600-1800 men with the intent of absorbing his less powerful neighbors namely the Duchy of Slavonia, Croatia, and Balaton. Over the course of two deacdes Hvalimir managed to absorb all three duchies (except for Balaton which had been split between Hungary and Rashka). Hvalimir still though from all sides was surrounded by powerful kingdoms. By 912 however (already 70 years old) he found Bulgaria in a large rebellion by now Hvalimir's Rashka and the Kingdom of Bulgaria were matched up with army sizes both having about 8000 men. Using the Rebellion to his advantage Hvalimir declared war upon Bulgaria and took the county of Belgrade in less than a year. He officially founded the Kingdom of Serbia on August 19th 912 which is celebrated in Serbia to this day.

## Religious Issues

Hvalimir who was born into the Slavic religion found it hard and unnecessary to switch to Christianity and refused to do so for a long while. Hvalimir even though surrounded completely by Orthodox Christians only switched to the catholic religion in 897 due to more marital options and risk of holy war.

## Later life and Death

After founding the Kingdom of Serbia, Hvalimir became quiet. He rarely waged war after mainly focusing on improving the Kingdom's army. By the 910's and 920's Hvalimir feared he would die any day and with that he feared that due to having many sons the Kingdom of Serbia would collapse due having Gavel Kind Succession. Due to this paranoia he gave his grandson Dmitar many possessions of counties and duchies believing his son Vlad would not live long, (Ironically he was right, after Hvalimir's death Vlad only ruled for one month before dying). he did this to cheat Gavel Kind Succession. Hvalimir at age 92, December 18th 935 (a week from 93) died in Belgrade, Serbia from natural causes.