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= Succession of Stephan IV "Alovac" = During Stephan "Alovac" IV's reign, which lasted from 1114 to 1200, all of his children whom were initially eligible to the Bosnian diarchial throne were at some point disinherited or killed, leading the line of succession to be shifted to his grandchildren, of which, there were 8 "valid" contenders to the throne and 7 "invalid" claimants, and an unknown amount of usurpers both within the House of Radogostić, and the Belojević dynasty in general, eventually, the firstborn son of Bohemond de Montmorency, husband to Andrijana the firstborn daughter of Stephan IV, was officially elevated as heir to the throne and named Stephan V "Corvav".

The uncertainty of Stephan IV's line of succession and its chaos led to several events which ultimately ended the Bosnian Golden Age, these include the attempted annulment of the Law and Ordinance by Nikola "Zloćno" Kristić, the murder of Marina Anatolese, and, possibly, the death of Vukmir "Secljani".

Background
Main article: Succession According to the Law and Ordinance

Radogothic Succession Law is defined minimally in the original Law and Ordinance, the sections which touch on succession which were already written by the time of Stephan IV, were written by Radogost II "the Great" in the first Law and Ordinance. "[43, ii] ... on the topic of death and succession, there is a clear cut; the man's domain goes to his first son. On the son's death, to his second son. Then third.

[44, i] A son can not be considered as heir if they were conceived out of marriage.

[43, iii] On all sons' death, disbarment or abdication, the line of succession will transfer to the women, in a manner so the realm is equally divided by their husbands. In the absence of any good children, the man's domain's heir will be one of the grandchildren, as if they were the children." Succession to Radogost "the Great" was not an issue, and he left the creation of more well defined and secure succession laws to his own successor. Though, his heir, Stephan I, which was tasked with this, only reigned for two years, during which, he was in military campaigns in France and Italy, and was unable to write such succession laws, his heir, Stephan II, didn't write the required succession laws either.

Since then, and until Stephan "Alovac"'s reign, none of the Elevaśi of Bosnia created official succession laws, and their own succession was formulated on a case-by-case basis, where the inheritance was set according to the Elevaś before his death, which was then legally based as an interpretation of the Law and Ordinance.

It was only during Petar II's reign (1103-1114), that succession laws were formally touched upon in his book, "Fundamonad Domanija". Though it is generally conceived to be irrelevant to Stephan IV's case, since it was inscribed with preference to specific characters and allies to Petar II, which had no relation to Alovac, nearly a century later. Despite this, several claimants to the throne used the Fundamonad as a basis to their personal claim, including Martin Ducovskiy, Grand Prince of Hungary.

Children with Nika the Polabian
Main Articles: Stephan IV "Alovac"'s Love Affairs

Early in his infancy, Stephan IV was arranged to betroth a daughter of King Hrana II "Sepôdnoban", he was then officially betrothed to Marija "Aćudna" (Queen Marija) of Poland in 1117. Marija was 10 years younger than Stephan. During his teenage years, he became romantically attached to Nika the Polabian, who is believed by contemporaries to have been Nika Kristić, Countess of Lubusz. With Nika, Stephan had 7 children in a period between 1127 to 1143, despite having officially married Marija "Aćudna" in 1132.

Before his marriage with Marija, three children had been born, these children are Andrijana, Batalo "Acraljevso", and Katarina "Amagrasa". The latter two were not displayed as Stephan's children until a much later date (though they were not realized as valid inheritors at any point during their life). Andrijana had been officially "adopted" by Stephan soon after her birth, which was the customary law for a firstborn, according to Pradjed Petar's "Leijagas Vrasevanija".

After 1132, the couple had four more children, these are Vladislav, Nikola "Zloćno", Kujava, and Margaret "Amelja". Of these, only Margaret was immediately publicly displayed as an adopted daughter of Stephan, of the three others, Kujava and Vladislav were adopted by Bosnian nobles, and Nikola "Zloćno" was raised as the son of Nika and her supposed husband, Radić of Lubusz.

Nika's Grandchildren
Nika and Alovac's 7 children had children of their own (other than Nikola "Zloćno" and Margaret), and these were the main beneficiaries of inherent bastard claims to the throne, the following are the aforementioned grandchildren:

Children of Andrijana (firstborn daughter): Andrijana Lotharingsa, Marina Anatolese, Stephan V "Corvav", Zdravomil Andrijanić, and Elizabeta.

Children of Batalo "Acraljevso" (firstborn son): Stephan "Onogośtso", Mara Batalić, Jelena, Ban Sanko "Tyrolso", Uskrskimir "Otacivan", and Ninoslav.

Children of Katarina "Amagrasa" (Royal Consort of Hungary): Hval, Grand Prince Vuk of Hungary, Prince Prijezda, Gruba "Majkivana" (also, wife of Uskrsimir "Otacivan"), Miliśa, and Vitaća.

Children of Vladislav: Andrijana Nikolić, Nika, Elizabeta Nikolić, Bogut "Frankso", and Vladislav "Médokso".

Children of Kujava: Mihajlo Kujavić, Miran, Sova, Senica, and Borislav.

Children with Marija "Aćudna"
Stephan officially married Marija in 1132 when she turned 16, the legal age for Bosnian royal marriage according to the Law and Ordinance. Alovac had only 3 children with Marija: Vojaća, Mateja, and Jelena "Straśina". Unlike Nika, none of these children were born valid due to their sex, despite that, they had the same level of validity as any child of Nika, other than her sons, Andrijana, and Margaret "Amelja".

Although two European royal houses (Hrvantić, and Sanković) claim partial descendance from Marija's grandchildren, they are generally undocumented, other than Dragonija, which was a son of Mateja, and five children of Jelena, which were Grand Princess Andrijana of Hungary, Radić "Meranso" (which was also a son of Ban Sanko "Tyrolso"), Queen Jelena of Lotharingia (which was also a daughter of Vuk of Hungary), Krsimir Srebreniko, and Vladislava.

Claims By Nika's Children and Their Families
The vast majority of claims imposed on the Diarchial throne were originally reliant on Nika having produced several inheritors with Alovac. Only two of their seven children forfeited their claims to the throne as a result of intense pressure by the more senior claimants; these are Vladislav and Kujava. In most cases, these claims were pushed by the the children's adopted families, other than Andrijana, which was adopted by Alovac as she was born.

Ban Sanko Tyrolso
The strongest and most popular claim was that of Ban Sanko Tyrolso. Tyrolso" was the son of Acraljevso, which had died in 1195, 5 years before the succession was to be executed. Acraljevso, and in extension, Tyrolso and his other children, were adopted by the Royal Eldership of Kljuć na Sani. Acraljevso was eventually erected by the Eldership as the Baron-Legat of the Province of Jajce.

Due to Acraljevso's proximity to the Orbjtel, both socially and familially, he spent much of his adult life pressing his father, Alovac, to legitimize him, as he did with his youngest sister, Margaret, in 1168, which by then, Tyrolso had already been born. Several additional statesmen supported Acraljevso and Tyrolso's motivations, which had been of legitimization of their branch of the family; these include Bohemond Montmorency (until 1187), Pantoleon of Leibach, Radivoj II, Duke of Verona, and most notably, King Riccardo II of Italy, and his regency. By 1198, 2 years before the succession, Tyrolso had become the most popular successor, and had the most military backing.

In 1219, Stephan V granted his Austrian territory to Ban Sanko, he also gave him the nickname Tyrolso, in relation to the Banate of Tyrol, which was the primary fief of Bosnian Austria, at the time, this was done in order to restrain Tyrolso, or his descendants, from ever claiming the Diarchial throne for themselves, and in the Leijagas Tyrolso, a manuscript written by Tyrolso in 1221, he formally annuls any claims of his descendants to the Diarchial throne.

Stephan V
Stephan V did not purse his claim until 1166, this was because he was promised territory in Austria by the Temporus of his time, which likely supported another claimant, possibly, Margaret Amelja, which died in 1166. Afterwards, with the aide of his mother, Andrijana, he forced the Diarchy to name him Crown-Legat in Italy. This gesture was done to move Italy's candidacy to him.

When Alovac had a stroke that rendered him incapable in 1195, the Kingdom of Italy established the First Diarchy with the help of the Crown-Legat, which by then was a delegate of Stephan V, which was already given said promised territory in Austria. In 1198, Stephan V visited Riccardo I's court in order to force their approval of him as the successor, Riccardo refused and denied Corvav's participation in the Diarchy's establishment, but the Dukes of Verona, Genoa, and Tuscany secretly agreed to support him.

Later that year, Riccardo I rescinded his support of Tyrolso, and retained a neutral attitude to the succession until well after it was executed, in 1214, when he was forced by Stephan V to swear fealty to him as the Executive Diarch during the War of the Italian Congress.

Nikola Zloćno
Main Article: The Annulment of 1185

The third most accepted claim was that of Stephan IV's thirdborn son, Nikola "Zloćno". Nikola was born in Polabia, which was then a Christian Catholic region of Germany, and had no immediate relations to Bosnia. Zloćno was raised to be a low magnate, in accordance to his family, the House of Kristić, which is believed to have been the royal house from which Zloćno's supposed father (and husband to Nika the Polabian) sprung from.

When his father died, in 1176, Nika confessed to Zloćno about his potential claim to the Diarchial throne, and they both spent the next 6 years drafting up the Lijegas Poniśtenija, which, in 1183, was presented to the Grand Eldership of Rama, in Visoko.

The appearance of Zloćno in Rama was considered heavily controversial, and many scholars and statesmen in Rama turned against Pradjed Stephan IV for not revealing Zloćno's existence publicly, in return, the Pradjed denied Zloćno being his son, although many still believed and supported Zloćno's case.

After several months of politicking and debates among the eldership, Zloćno was both found to be a rightful claimant to the Elevaśat, though not the whole Diarchy, and a criminal, for having pursued his claim in a deceitful and unjust manner. His success heavily outweighed his crime, and he was therefore only jailed for a year in the Castle of Gostok. The usual punishment for an offence of this magnitude was private execution.

After he was released from jail, he was granted the position of Royal Legate of the Pradjed in Vrbas by the Grand Eldership of Krajina, which supported him as a claimant to the throne. While in Vrbas, he operated under the care of the Tricorpolitan of Banja Luka, which was arguably the second most important vassal in the Diarchy, following the Kingdom of Italy. the Tricorpolitan supported him under the condition that he grants him the position of Pradjed, be it he is able to be instated as such by the Temporal.

In the following year, 1185, he used a second part of the Lijegas Poniśtenija that he never publicized, to formally annul Stephan IV's revisions to the Law and Order. Such an annulment would likely have been disastrous for the Pradjed's legitimacy and standing among the Grand Elderships of Bosnia. The Tricorpolitan then erected the Most Grand Eldership of Greater Bosnia, an ad hoc council of all elders and high magnates in Bosnia and Croatia, which possibly numbered 1200 men, he and Zloćno then presented their case for the annulment in front of the massive crowd. Afterwards, the Pradjed presented his counter-case. In the end of the debate, which is claimed to have lasted 4 hours, the Pradjed won by an overwhelming majority, and Zloćno was later exiled by the Tricorpolitan to Hungary, where he likely resided for the rest of his life.