Petar Gojniković

Petar
Map of Peter's Serbia
Prince of Serbia
Reign	892–917
Predecessor	Pribislav
Successor	Pavle
Born	ca. 870 Ras
Died	after August 917
Burial	Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
Full name Petar Gojniković Vlastimirović
Dynasty	Vlastimirović
Father	Gojnik
Religion	Christian

Petar Gojniković or Peter of Serbia (Serbian: Петар Гојниковић, Greek: Πέτρος;ca. 870 – 917) was Prince of the Serbs from 892 to 917. He ruled and expanded the First Serbian Principality (Rascia), and won several wars against other family members that sought the crown. He was the first Serbian monarch with a Christian (non-Slavic) name.

Petar was the son of Gojnik, the youngest son of Vlastimir (r. 831–851) of the first Serbian dynasty (ruling since the early 7th century).

Petar was born between 870 and 874, as the son of the Prince Gojnik, the youngest son of dynastic founding father Vlastimir. His Byzantine Christian name, in relation to the previous generation of pagan names, shows the spread Christianization among the Serbs. At the time of his birth, Serbia was ruled as an Oligarchy of the three brothers Mutimir, Gojnik and Strojimir, although Mutimir, the oldest, had supreme rule.

In the 880s, Mutimir seized the throne, exiling his younger brothers and Klonimir, Strojimir's son to the Bulgarian Khanate; the court of Boris I of Bulgaria. This was most likely due to treachery. Young Petar was kept at the Serbian court of Mutimir for political reasons, but he soon fled to Branimir of Croatia.

Mutimir died in 890 or 891, leaving the throne to his oldest son, Pribislav. Pribislav only ruled for a year when Petar returned in 892, defeating him in battle and seizing the throne, Pribislav fled to Croatia with his brothers Bran and Stefan. Bran later returned and led an unsuccessful rebellion against Petar in 894. Bran was defeated, captured and blinded (blinding was a Byzantine tradition that meant to disqualify a person to take the throne). In 896, Klonimir returned from Bulgaria, backed by Tsar Boris, and invaded Serbia, taking the important stronghold Dostinika (Drsnik, in Klina). Klonimir was defeated and killed.