- published: 24 Feb 2009
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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 of Serbs. At the time of his birth, Serbia was ruled as an Oligarchy by 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 Bulgar 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.