History of Medieval Serbia
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Тhe medieval history of Serbia begins in the 5th century AD with the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans, and ends with the occupation of Serbia by the Ottoman Empire in 1459 with the fall of the Serbian capital Smederevo.
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[edit] The arrival of the Serbs in the Balkans
The Serbs are descendants of Slavs, who migrated from White Serbia. Heraclius invited the tribe of White Serbs to Thessaly, in the Byzantine Empire, but the Serbs resettled in their present territory early in the 7th century AD , settling in six distinct tribal delimitations:
- Rascia/Raška (present-day southern Serbia and northern Montenegro),
- Bosnia/Bosna (present-day south-central and southeastern Bosnia),
- Zachumlie/Zahumlje (western Herzegovina),
- Trebounia/Travunija (eastern Herzegovina),
- Pagania/Paganija (middle Dalmatia) and finally
- Duklja/Zeta (predecessor to Montenegro).
These districts were mostly under the control of the Byzantine Empire.
[edit] Early State
The early days of the Serbian state are mostly unknown. The first recorded Serb princes were Vlastimir, Višeslav, Radoslav and Prosigoj. By that time, the country had entirely accepted Christianity,and was under the suzerainty of the Byzantium Empire. In Zeta, today's Montenegro, Mihailo was crowned by the Pope, and his son Bodin reclaimed the throne. The rulers kept changing and the country accepted supreme protection from the Byzantine Empire rather than the First Bulgarian Empire although Serbia frequently warred with the Byzantine Empire. Throughout the early middle ages, smaller Serbian states (the strongest of which was Dioclea) were present. Although subject to the Byzantine Empire, they remained largely independent, ruled by ethnic Serbs, and recognized in historical maps. The first unified Serb state emerged under Caslav Klonimirovic in the mid-10th century in Rascia, but the state was still subordinated to the Byzantium empire. This state would last until the 12th century when Serbia tried to free itself, but without success . But in 1166 Stefan Nemanja came to power. He too, like the former rulers of Serbia, tried to find a way to make Rascia independent. During the Byzantium-Venice wars, Stefan Nemanja declared independence, but Byzantium managed to end the war with Venice, and invaded Serbia. Stefan Nemanja surrendered and was taken away to Constantinople and later reigned as a puppet king. But with the death of the Byzantium emperor, Stefan Nemanja managed to conquer Zeta (present day Montenegro), then Kosovo, parts of Macedonia and the eastern parts of today's Serbia. Byzantium tried to recapture the lands, but failed. Stefan Nemanja ruled until 1195 when he stepped down from the throne and appointed his son, Stefan I, as the ruler of Serbia.
[edit] The reign of the Nemanjic
Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan, whilst his first-born son Vukan was given the rule of the Zeta region (present-day Montenegro). Stefan Nemanja’s youngest son Rastko became a monk and took the name of Sava, turning all his efforts to spreading religion among his people. Since the Curia already had ambitions to spread its influence to the Balkans as well, Stefan used these propitious circumstances to obtain his crown from the Pope, thereby becoming the first Serbian king, in 1217. In Byzantium, his brother Sava managed to secure autocephaly for the Serbian Church and became the first Serbian archbishop in 1219. Thus the Serbs acquired both forms of independence: temporal and religious.
The next generation of Serbian rulers — the sons of Stefan Prvovencani — Radoslav, Vladislav and Uroš I, marked a period of stagnation of the state structure. All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighbouring states — Byzantium, Bulgaria or Hungary. The ties with the Hungarians played a decisive role in the fact that Uroš I was succeeded by his son Dragutin whose wife was a Hungarian princess. Later on, when Dragutin abdicated in favour of his younger brother Milutin (in 1282), the Hungarian king Ladislaus IV gave him lands in northeastern Bosnia, the region of Mačva, and the city of Belgrade, whilst he managed to conquer and annex lands in northeastern Serbia. Thus, some of these territories became part of the Serbian state for the first time. His new state was named Kingdom of Srem. In that time the name Srem was a designation for two territories: Upper Srem (present day Srem) and Lower Srem (present day Mačva). Kingdom of Srem under the rule of Stefan Dragutin was actually Lower Srem, but some historical sources mention that Stefan Dragutin also ruled over Upper Srem and Slavonia. After Dragutin died (in 1316), the new ruler of the Kingdom of Srem became his son, king Vladislav II, who ruled this state until 1325.
~ 1350 AD
Under the rule of Dragutin’s younger brother—King Milutin, Serbia grew stronger despite having to occasionally fight wars on three different fronts. King Milutin was an apt diplomat much inclined to the use of a customary medieval diplomatic expedients — dynastic marriages. He was married five times, with Hungarian, Bulgarian and Byzantine princesses. He is also famous for building churches, some of which are the finest examples of Medieval Serbian architecture: the Gračanica monastery in Kosovo, the Cathedral in Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos, the St. Archangel Church in Jerusalem etc. Because of his endowments, King Milutin has been proclaimed a saint, in spite of his tumultuous life. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Stefan, later dubbed Stefan Decanski. Spreading the kingdom to the east by winning the town of Nis and the surrounding counties, and to the south by acquiring territories on Macedonia, Stefan Decanski was worthy of his father and built the Visoki Decani Monastery in Metohija—the most monumental example of Serbian Medieval architecture—that earned him his byname. Stefan Decanski defeated the Bulgarians in Battle of Velbužd in 1330.
Medieval Serbia reached its apex in the mid-14th century, during the rule of Tzar Stefan Dušan. This is the period of the Dušanov Zakonik (Dušan's Code, 1349), a juridical achievement unique among the European states of the time. Tzar Dušan opened new trade routes and strengthened the state's economy. Serbia flourished, becoming one of the most evolved countries and cultures in Europe. Some of Serbia's greatest Medieval arts were created during this period, most notably St. Sava's Nomocanon. Medieval Serbia enjoyed a high political, economic, and cultural reputation in Europe. It was one of the few states that did not practice the feudal order. Dušan doubled the size of his kingdom seizing territories to the south, southeast and east at the expense of Byzantium and conquered almost the entirety of today's Greece without Peloponnesia and the islands. After he conquered the city of Ser, he was crowned as the Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks by the first Serbian Patriarch in 1346. Before his sudden death, Stefan Dušan tried to organize a Crusade with the Pope against the threatening Turks. He died in December 1355 at the age 47. Modern inspection of the emperor's body revealed that he was poisoned.
[edit] The downfall of the Serbian empire
Tzar Stefan Dušan was succeeded by his son Uroš, called the Weak, a term that might also apply to the state of the kingdom, as it slowly slid into feudal anarchy. This is a period marked by the rise of a new threat: the Ottoman Turk sultanate, which gradually spread from Asia to Europe and conquered Byzantium first, and then the other Balkan states. Serbia was divided between the feudal lords. The most powerful was Vukašin Mrnjavčević, who was the right hand of Stefan Uroš, but he died in the Battle of Marica in his campaign to drive the Turks out of Europe. Tzar Uroš died several months later, and with his death, the Nemanjić dynasty was over. However, a new figure emerged - Lazar Hrebeljanović, who managed to unite most of Serbia with war and diplomacy. Some feudal lords were too powerful, but a new threat was Ottoman Empire. The first raids on Lazar's territory began in 1381, but the real invasion came in 1389. Lazar managed to gather every soldier he could, and on the 28th of July 1389 the two armies met in Kosovo, in what became known as the Battle of Kosovo. The attack began with the Serbs penetrating the first 2 lines of the Turkish army, and completely destroyed the right flank, under the command of the sultan's son, Yakub. At one point in the battle, a Serbian knight Miloš Obilić managed to assassinate the Ottoman sultan, Murad I. His son, Bayezid I, took command of the army and managed to defeat the Serbs and to capture Prince Lazar and execute him. The losses are unknown, but it is said that the Serbian army fought to the last man. Turkish losses were also very high, and the Turkish army did not advance into Serbia. Instead they turned back to face the rebellions in Asia Minor. Serbia managed to recuperate under despot Stefan Lazarević, surviving for 70 more years, experiencing a cultural and political renaissance, but after Stefan Lazarević's death, his successors from the House of Branković did not manage to stop the Ottoman advance. Serbia fell under the Ottomans in 1459, and stayed under their occupation until 1882, when Serbia was finally recognised as an independent state.
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