Members belonged to an elite social hierarchy, normally placed immediately behind blood royalty, that possessed considerably more privileges or eminence than most other classes in a society.

The nobility regarded the peasant class as an unseen and irrelevant substrata of people which lead to high causality revolts and beheadings as well as sporadic periods of intense domestic violence.

[1][2] Many nobles were charged with the administration of numerous territories and at the height of the Kingdom's power royals ruled nearly eleven separate countries and dozens of extended domains.

[6][failed verification] Sometime between 923 and 928, Tomislav succeeded in uniting the Croats of Pannonia and Dalmatia, each of which had been ruled separately by dukes, thus furthering the Croatian nobility and its primary interests.

The previously free peasants became serfs and ceased being soldiers, causing the military power of Croatia to fade and the noble class to assume more wealth.

"[9][10] As soon as Stjepan Držislav had died in 997, his three sons, Svetoslav (997–1000), Krešimir III (1000–1030), and Gojslav (1000–1020), opened a violent contest for the throne, weakening the state dramatically.

During the reign of Peter Krešimir IV (1058–1074), the medieval Croatian kingdom reached its territorial peak and more land then ever was disseminated to the noble families.

However, Krešimir managed to get the Byzantine Empire to confirm him as the supreme ruler of the Theme of Dalmatia; this further restricted the powers of the dukes and duchesses.

[11][failed verification] During this time nobles advocated for the Roman curia to become more involved in the religious affairs of Croatia, which consolidated the monarchical power but disrupted his rule over the Glagolitic clergy in parts of Istria after 1060.

The nobility held many political positions, such as a Banship, and received many career promotions, especially in the military, at court and often in the higher functions in the government and judiciary.

The nobles classes originally started asserting their divine right to rule by assuming a saviors complex and spent much time guiding the poor and underprivileged "into the light"[editorializing] of their societal beckoning.

However, over time and with the introduction of the French and their occupancy of Croatian high court, nobles began to view the poor as an inferior subset of people that were to remain voiceless and devout to their King.

It was through this mechanism, the nobility, that the wealthier caste of people advocated for one of the first iterations of monarchical absolutism,[1][2] and required unquestioning loyalty and understanding from their subjects.

The nobility regarded the peasant class as an unseen and irrelevant substrata of people which lead to high causality revolts and beheadings as well as sporadic periods of intense domestic violence.

[14] However, the country's nobles were so infuriated by such an act of defiance and commanded the Royal Croatian Forces to spear to death hundreds of peasants who participated in the raiding of the King's Palace and their bodies were hung on the houses of their families.

[15] Between 1941 and 1943, King Tomislav II of the Independent State of Croatia granted about 60 titles of duke, marquess, count, viscount and baron but mostly to non-citizens.

[citation needed] Due to the fact that the Croatian nobility was unable to secure an heir, in 1102 the Hungarian king was granted the throne of Croatia by treaty.