Stefan Dušan
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, also known as Dušan the Mighty, was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians from 16 April 1346 until his death in 1355. Dušan is considered one of the greatest medieval Balkan conquerors.
Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs of the era. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the most powerful state in Southeast Europe and one of the most powerful European states. At the time, Serbia was an Eastern Orthodox, multi-ethnic, and multilingual empire that stretched from the Danube in the north to the Gulf of Corinth in the south, with its capital in Skopje. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a patriarchate, completed his father's mausoleum Visoki Dečani Monastery, and founded the monastery of the Holy Archangels, among others. Under his rule, Serbia reached its territorial, political, economic, and cultural peak.
Stefan Dušan worked to forge a coalition with Venice to address the advancing threat of the Ottoman Turks into Europe. However, his efforts were interrupted by his sudden death in December 1355 at his court in Prizren. After his death, the Serbian Empire began to weaken significantly. With the death of Dušan's successor, Emperor Stefan Uroš V, the empire was definitively divided into numerous independent Serbian states, marking what is historically referred to as the Fall of the Serbian Empire. He was originally buried in his foundation near Prizren, but his remains were later relocated to the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade, where they rest to this day.
Background
In 1314, Serbian King Stefan Milutin quarreled with his son, Stefan Dečanski. Milutin sent Dečanski to Constantinople to have him blinded, though he was never totally blinded. Dečanski wrote to Danilo, the bishop of Hum, asking him to intervene with his father. Danilo wrote to Archbishop Nicodemus of Serbia, who spoke with Milutin and persuaded him to recall his son. In 1320 Dečanski was permitted to return to Serbia and was given the appanage of 'Budimlje', while his half-brother, Stefan Konstantin, held the province of Zeta.Milutin became ill and died on 29 October 1321, and Konstantin was crowned king. Civil war erupted immediately, as Dečanski and his cousin, Stefan Vladislav II, claimed the throne. Konstantin refused to submit to Dečanski, who then invaded Zeta, defeating and killing Konstantin. Dečanski was crowned king on 6 January 1322 by Nicodemus, and his son, Stefan Dušan, was crowned "young king". Dečanski later granted Zeta to Dušan, indicating him as the intended heir. Since April 1326 Dušan appears in written sources as the "young king" and ruler in Zeta and Zahumlje. From that fact and the "Old Serbian genealogies and annals", in recent works, some Serbian historians write that Dušan was 14 years old probably in March, or April 1326, and that he was born in 1312, not around 1308.
In the meantime, Vladislav II mobilized local support from Rudnik, the former appanage of his father, Stefan Dragutin. Vladislav proclaimed himself king, and he was supported by the Hungarians, consolidating control over his lands and preparing for battle with Dečanski. As was the case with their fathers, Serbia was divided by the two independent rulers; in 1322 and 1323 Ragusan merchants freely visited both lands.
In 1323, war broke out between Dečanski and Vladislav. Rudnik had fallen to Dečanski by the end of 1323, and Vladislav appeared to have fled north. Vladislav was defeated in battle in late 1324 and fled to Hungary, leaving the Serbian throne to Dečanski as undisputed "king of All Serbian and Maritime lands".
Biography
Youth and usurpation
Dušan was the eldest son of King Stefan Dečanski and Theodora Smilets, the daughter of emperor Smilets of Bulgaria. He was born, or in 1312, in Serbia. In 1314 Dušan's father was exiled, and the family lived in Constantinople until his recall in 1320. Dušan became acquainted with the Byzantine Empire during his stay in its capital, learning cultural customs and the Greek language. He was interested in the arts of war; in his youth he fought exceptionally in two battles, defeating Bosnian forces in 1329 during the War of Hum, and the Bulgarian emperor Michael III Shishman in the 1330 Battle of Velbužd. Dečanski appointed his nephew Ivan Stephen to the throne of Bulgaria in August 1330.File:Icona di san nicola tra maria, gesù e i donatori, donata nel 1319 dai re di serbia.jpg|thumb|260x260px|Stefan Dečanski with his son Stefan Dušan on the icon of St. Nicholas in the Basilica di San Nicola, Bari, Italy
Dečanski's decision not to attack the Byzantines after the victory at Velbazhd, when he had an opportunity, resulted in the alienation of many nobles, who sought to expand to the south. By January or February 1331, Dušan was quarreling with his father, perhaps pressured by the nobility. According to contemporary pro-Dušan sources, advisors turned Dečanski against his son, and he decided to seize and exclude Dušan from his inheritance. Dečanski sent an army into Zeta against his son; the army ravaged Skadar, but Dušan had crossed the Bojana river. A brief period of anarchy took place in parts of Serbia before father and son concluded peace in April 1331. Three months later, Dečanski ordered Dušan to meet him. Dušan feared for his life and his advisors persuaded him to resist, so Dušan marched from Skadar to Nerodimlje, where he besieged his father. Dečanski fled, and Dušan captured the treasury and family. He then pursued his father, catching up with him at Petrich. On 21 August 1331 Dečanski surrendered, and on the advice or insistence of Dušan's advisors, he was imprisoned. Dušan was crowned King of All Serbian and Maritime lands in the first week of September.
Personal traits
Contemporary writers described Dušan as unusually tall and strong, "the tallest man of his time", very handsome, and a rare leader full of dynamism, quick intelligence, and strength, bearing "a kingly presence". According to contemporary depictions, he had dark hair and brown eyes; in adult age he grew a beard and longer hair.Early reign
Serbia made some raids into the Macedonia region in late 1331, but a planned major attack on Byzantium was delayed as Dušan had to suppress revolts in Zeta in 1332. Dušan's ingratitude toward those who had aided his rise – the Zetan nobility may have been neglected their promised reward and greater influence – may have been the cause of the rebellion, which was suppressed in the course of the same year.The struggle between Dušan and Stefan Dečanski prevented Serbian intervention in Bulgaria on behalf of Anna and Ivan Stephen and they were overthrown by Ivan Alexander in March 1331, however Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria was aware of future danger from Serbia and immediately sought peace with Dušan. The two rulers concluded peace and formed an alliance, sealed with Dušan's marriage to Ivan Alexander's sister Helen of Bulgaria. Good relations with Bulgaria continued during Dušan's reign and though Bulgaria was weaker then Serbia, it did not suffer any legal dependence.
In 1333 after negotiations with Ragusa, Dušan sold Ston and its envisions, including the Pelješac peninsula and the coastland between Ston and Dubrovnik for eight thousand perpers and an annual tribute of five hundred perpers, the so-called tribute of Ston. Ragusa also had to guarantee freedom of worship for Orthodox believers in this territory.
Dušan began campaigning against the Byzantine Empire in late 1333, when Syrgiannes, a leading Byzantine general, requested Serbian assistance in his revolt against Andronikos III. The Serbs attacked Byzantine Macedonia in the spring of 1334; Syrgiannes contributed his strategic abilities and knowledge of Byzantine positions, and his allies surrendered fortresses to the invaders. Peace was concluded on 26 August 1334, with the Byzantines recognizing Serbian gains in Ohrid, Prilep, Strumitsa, Siderokastron, Chermen and Prosek. Meanwhile Charles I of Hungary, supported by Stephen II of Bosnia, mobilized to attack Serbia from the north. Knowing of Dušan's involvement in the south and not expecting any serious resistance, they penetrated deep into Serbia, reaching the neighborhood of Žiča monastery. Dušan marched north to face the invaders, who quickly withdrew. Charles I was wounded by an arrow but survived. As a result, the Hungarians temporarily lost Mačva and Belgrade in 1335.
Dušan exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between the regent of the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos, Anna of Savoy, and his father's general John Kantakouzenos. Dušan and Ivan Alexander picked opposite sides in the conflict but remained at peace with each other, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war to secure gains for themselves.
Dušan's systematic offensive began in 1342, and in the end he conquered all Byzantine territories in the western Balkans as far as Kavala, except for the Peloponnesus and Thessaloniki, which he could not besiege due to his small fleet. There has been speculation that Dušan's ultimate goal was no less than to conquer Constantinople and replace the declining Byzantine Empire with a united Orthodox Greco-Serbian Empire under his control. In May 1344, his commander Preljub was stopped at Stephaniana by a Turkic force of 3,100. The Turks won the battle, but the victory was not enough to thwart the Serbian conquest of Macedonia. Faced with Dušan's aggression, the Byzantines sought allies in the Ottoman Turks, whom they brought into Europe for the first time.
In 1343, Dušan added "of Romans" to his self-styled title "King of Serbia, Albania and the coast". In another instance, in a charter issued to the fortified city of Krujë, Dušan referred to himself as "King of the Bulgarians". In 1345 he began calling himself tsar, equivalent of Emperor, as attested in charters to two athonite monasteries, one from November 1345 and the other from January 1346, and around Christmas 1345 at a council meeting in Serres, which had been conquered on 25 September 1345, he proclaimed himself "Tsar of the Serbs and Romans".