 | ||
The Triune Kingdom (Croatian: Trojedna kraljevina) was a formal Croatian entity within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Leaders of the 19th century Illyrian movement maintained that this kingdom existed for most of the second millennium. It comprised three Croatian realms, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and the which, despite their political and administrative separation, were united under a single king.
History
Prior to 1848, the Croatians claimed territories contested by both the Hungarians and the Vienna Court War Council, within the Austro-Hungarian empire, and also by the Ottoman Empire. During the Revolutions of 1848, Croatian nationalists proposed the establishment of the independent Triune Kingdom, which would be a Croatian cultural and political union. Political representatives of Croatia advocated the notion to the Emperor, and demanded the unification of the three kingdoms.
Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and the Croatian-Hungarian Settlement of 1868, the Hungarian claims on Slavonia, and the Austrian claims on the Military Frontier, were formally relinquished; but there was no change in the status of Dalmatia. In Article 1 of the Croatian-Hungarian Settlement of 1868, the territory known as "Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen" was officially defined as "a state union of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia".
In 1874, Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski published various findings from archival collections—in his work Codex Diplomaticus, now kept in the Croatian State Archives—documents from all periods that speak of the Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, consisting of:
By the end of the 19th century, recognition of the Triune Kingdom was the primary goal of the Independent People's Party, as well as the People's Party of Dalmatia. The term "Triune Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia" was used for the medieval Croatian kingdom and for the Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia up to the early 19th century. The term "Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia" was used for both the late period (first half of the 19th century) of the Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia, and its successor the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. The order in which Dalmatia was mentioned was a contentious issue, the order differing between the Croatian Hungarian versions of the 1868 Settlement.