Died 835 AD Name Ratimir, of | Occupation Bulgar vassal Religion Slavic | |
Duke [of Lower Pannonia] fl. 829–838 | ||
Ratimir (Latin: Ratimarus) was a Slavic prince that ruled the Duchy of Lower Pannonia as a Bulgar vassal between ca. 829 to 838. His origin is unknown.
In 827, the Bulgars under Great Khan Omurtag invaded and conquered Lower Pannonia and parts of Frankish territories to the north. In 829 the Bulgars imposed a local Slavic prince, Ratimir, as the new ruler of Pannonia. His province is believed to have been the territory of Roman Pannonia Savia, and is known in modern historiography as Lower Pannonia; earlier, Sigismund Calles (1750) called him "Slavic duke of the Drava".
In 838, nine years later, following the Bulgarian conquest of Macedonia, the Danubian count Radbod, prefect of the East March, deposed Ratimir and restored Frankish rule in Pannonia. Ratimir fled the land, and the Franks instated Slavic princes Pribina and Kocel as rulers of Pannonia.
Unlike his predecessors, Ratimir experienced a rift in relations with the Christian Byzantine Empire.
According to the South Slavic Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, rejected by historians, one of Ratimir's descendants was Svatopluk. According to modern Croatian historiography, Ratimir was a Croat prince.