Kulin Ban

Ban Kulin ruled Bosnia from circa 1180 to 1204 during an era remembered in folk memory as an age of peace and prosperity ('Od Kulina bana i dobrijeh dana'—'Since the days of Ban Kulin and good times'). Skilled in European statecraft, he asserted autonomous sovereignty between the Byzantine Empire, Hungary, and the Papacy.

On August 29, 1189, written in the indigenous Bosančica script, he issued the celebrated Charter of Ban Kulin (Povelja Kulina bana), guaranteeing free trade and security throughout Bosnia to the merchants of Dubrovnik (Ragusa). In 1203, at the assembly of Bilino Polje, he deftly protected the indigenous Bosnian Church (Krstjani) from Papal crusader extermination.