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 nobles of Croatia, at the time, administered a group of eleven counties (županije) and one banate. Each of these regions had a fortified royal town administered by a member of the royal court charged by a noble. Croatian society underwent major changes in the 10th century. Local leaders, the župani, were replaced by the retainers of the king, who took land from the previous landowners, essentially creating a feudal system. 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. The rule of Krešimir's son Miroslav was marked by a gradual weakening of Croatia, and thus the powers of the nobility. Nobility marked their divine right to rule through intense violence that included setting entire villages on fire to reinforce fighting "fire with fire." 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. Each of the three brothers already firmly placed in the upper tier of the country's nobility required more power than was allocated to them. All three of them took hold of the armies under their jurisdiction and began to fight the armies of one another until Gojslav and Krešimir III decided to rule concurrently, with the third taking control of the Duchy of Croatia. 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. 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. Croatia under the at-the-time set up was composed of twelve counties and was slightly larger than in the previous kingdom. It included the closest southern Dalmatian duchy of Pagania, and its influence extended over Zahumlje, Travunia, and Duklja. As a result of this Dukedom