Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Silni ("the Mighty") (Serbian: Стефан Урош IV Душан Силни) (c. 1308 – December 20 1355) was king of Serbia (September 8 1331 – 1346) and emperor (tsar) (1346 – December 20 1355).

Dušan was one of only two true emperors (tsar) of Serbia (*note that Serbia has known for 3 emperors in its history: Lazar of Serbia and Emperor Jovan Nenad of today's Vojvodina). Under Stephen Dushan's rule Serbia reached its territorial peak and was one of the larger states in Europe in form of Serbian Empire. Apart from territorial gains, in 1349 and 1354 he made and enforced Dušan's Code. He is also the only ruler from the house of Nemanjić perhaps not canonised as a saint soon after his death. He was also a man of gigantic proportions, and according to Papal ambassadors he was the tallest man of his time, probably being close to 7 ft. tall.

Biography

He was the eldest son of Stefan Uroš III Dečanski and Theodora, the daughter of Smilets of Bulgaria. Early in his life he visited Constantinople, where his father had been exiled, and he spent around seven years there (1314–1320). There he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Byzantine life and culture, and got a clear sense of the Byzantine Empire. He himself was more a soldier than a diplomat: as a youngster he excelled in two battles: in 1329 he defeated the Bosnian ban Stjepan Kotromanić, and in 1330 the Bulgarian emperor Michael Asen III in the Battle of Velbužd.

'' In part because his father did not significantly expand Serbia after the Battle of Velbužd, he rebelled and overthrew him with the support of the nobility, crowning himself king on September 8 1331. In 1332 he married Helena, the sister of the new Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander, a woman of strong will, who had a large influence on him and bore him a son, Stefan Uroš V, and two daughters, who died young.

In the first years of his reign, Dušan started to fight against the Byzantine Empire (1334), and warfare continued with smaller and larger interruptions until his death in 1355. Twice he became involved in larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these battles were mostly defensive. He was at peace with the Bulgarians, who even helped him on several occasions, and he is said to have visited Ivan Alexander at his capital. He exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between the regents for the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos 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 conquer because he had no fleet.

After these successes he proclaimed himself in 1345 emperor (tsar) in Serres and was solemnly crowned in Skopje on April 16 1346 as "Tsar and autocrat of Serbs and Greeks" by the newly created Serbian Patriach Joanikie II with the help of the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon and the Archbishop of Ohrid, Nicholas. He had previously raised the Serbian Orthodox Church from an autocephalous archbishopric to a patriarchate, and he took over sovereignty on Mt. Athos and the Greek archbishoprics under the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate (The Ohrid Archbishopric remained autocephalous). For those acts he was anathematized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Faced with Dušan's aggression, the Byzantines sought allies in the Turks whom they brought into Europe for the first time. The first conflict between the Serbs and the Turks on Balkan soil, at Stefaniana in 1345, ended unfavourably for the Serbs. In 1348 Dušan conquered Thessaly and Epirus. Dušan eventually saw the danger posed by the Turkish presence in the Balkans and searched for ways to push them back but was interrupted by Hungarians, who attacked Serbia. Because of them he fought with the Hungarian protegé ban Stefan II in Bosnia in 1350, wishing to regain formerly lost Zahumlje.

Dušan had grand intentions but they were all cut short by his premature death on December 20 1355, possibly from poisoning by Hungarians who were afraid from Stefan's Serbia. He was buried in his foundation, the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren. Today his remains are in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade. He was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V.

Dušan was the greatest Serbian medieval ruler, under whom the incredible impulse and strength of Serbs have expressed. His state was really a great force, but in that greatness there was a weakness: Serbia was enlarged too quickly for gains to be joined to old Serb reign. Besides, Dušan conquered a lot of purely Greek lands and their inhabitants, who expressed national awareness, higher culture than the Serbs at the time, and so were constantly hostile. By nature a soldier and a conqueror, Dušan did not intend to stabilise his work systematically. That is why the dissolution started right after disappearance of his strong personality.

References

John V.A. Fine, Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1987.
George C. Soulis, The Serbs and Byzantium during the reign of Tsar Stephen Dusan (1331-1355) and his successors, Athens, 1995. ISBN 0884021378

Sources

Translated with small changes from small encyclopedia Sveznanje published by Narodno delo, Belgrade, in 1937, which is now in the public domain. This article is therefore written from the point of view of that place and time and may not reflect modern opinions or recent discoveries.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

Alexander Soloviev

Sources

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

Alexander Soloviev

Sources