GOLIKLIN – NEPOZNATO MESTO BORAVKA KRALjA MILUTINA U LETO 1308. GODINE

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the ubication of the toponym Goliqueline, which appears in the verification document of the French King Philip IV from 1313 as the place where the Serbian King Milutin received the French embassy on July 25th, 1308 and ratified the treaty directed against Byzantium, previously concluded with the titular Latin Emperor Charles of Valois. According to the initial agreement, signed on March 27 of the same year, in the Lys Abbey near Melun, not far from Paris, Štip was in the sphere of interest of Charles of Valois. During the ratification of the treaty, which he carried out in his tents near Goliqueline, King Milutin emphasized his power over Štip, which he obviously took over from Byzantium in the period between the conclusion and ratification of the treaty. Based on the preserved reports about the Serbian-Byzantine conflicts, the earlier attempts to identify Goliqueline, as well as the position of two other toponyms of the similar name, it seems certain that this place should be sought in the vicinity of Štip. It was concluded that the toponym Goliqueline most probably refers to the Golak hill (560 m) on the western side of the Kočani valley, between the villages of Vrbica and Sokolarci at the foot of the Osogovo mountain. In the immediate vicinity of the Golak hill (French: Golak colline), which is located 25 km north of Štip (approximately an hour's ride on horse back), passed important medieval roads, leading directly to Štip. It is assumed that after the conquest of the city, King Milutin, together with his army, withdrew to the interior of his lands, more precisely to Golak hill, where he could have monitored the newly conquered territory, and from where, in the case of the Byzantine counterattack, he could have reached Štip quickly and easily through the valleys of Zletovska and Bregalnica river.