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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.
Saint Stefan Uroš V, known in historiography and folk tradition as Uroš the Weak, was the second Emperor (Tsar) of the Serbian Empire (1355–1371), and before that he was Serbian King and co-ruler with his father, Emperor Stefan Dušan.
Vukašin Mrnjavčević was King of Serbia as the co-ruler of Stefan Uroš V from 1365 to 1371. He was also a nobleman. Principal domains of Vukašin and his family were located in southern parts of medieval Serbia and northwestern parts of the modern region of Macedonia. He died in the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 with his brother, Jovan Uglješa.
John II Orsini, also John Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas, was count palatine of Cephalonia from 1323 to 1324 and Despot of Epirus from 1323 to 1335.
Nikephoros II Orsini Doukas, was the ruler of Epirus from 1335 to 1338 and from 1356 until his death in 1359.
Simeon Uroš, nicknamed Siniša (Синиша), was a self-proclaimed Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, from 1356 to 1370. He was son of Serbian King Stephen Uroš III and Byzantine Princess Maria Palaiologina. Initially, he was awarded the title of despot in 1346, and appointed governor of southern Epirus and Acarnania in 1347 by his half-brother, Serbian Emperor Stephen Dušan. After Dušan's death in 1355, the Serbian throne passed to Dušan's son Stephen Uroš V, but despot Simeon decided to seize the opportunity in order to impose himself as co-ruler and lord of all southern provinces of the Serbian Empire. That led him to conflict with his nephew in 1356, when Simeon started to expand his control in southern regions of the Empire, trying to take Thessaly and Macedonia. He proclaimed himself Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, creating a separate state, centered in regions of Thessaly and Epirus, where he ruled until his death in 1370. He was succeeded by his son Jovan Uroš.
Jovan Uroš Nemanjić or John Ouresis Doukas Palaiologos or Joasaph of Meteora, was the ruler of Thessaly from c. 1370 to c. 1373, retiring as a monk for the next half century thereafter. He died in 1422 or 1423. By birth, he was member of the Nemanjić dynasty, ruling family of the Serbian Empire.
The House of Angelos, Latinised as Angelus, was a Byzantine Greek noble family that produced several Emperors and other prominent nobles during the middle and late Byzantine Empire. The family rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. As imperial relatives, the Angeloi held various high titles and military commands under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1185, following a revolt against Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac II Angelos rose to the throne establishing the Angeloi as the new imperial family that ruled until 1204. The period was marked by the decline and fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire, culminating in its dissolution by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 under Alexios IV Angelos.
After the weakening of the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire in the middle and late 13th century, the northern territory of modern-day Albania became part of Serbia. Firstly, as part of Serbian Grand Principality and later as part of Serbian Empire. Serb control in southern Albania is unclear. Some suggest they acquired towns, but others believe they only obtained submission, possibly nominal, from Albanian tribes. Central and southern Albanian towns were not conquered until 1343–45. Between 1272 and 1368, some areas of the modern-day state were also ruled by the Angevins as the Kingdom of Albania. In the late 14th century, Albanian Principalities were created throughout Albania.
Sebastokrator, was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence. The word is a compound of sebastós and krátōr. The wife of a Sebastokrator was named sebastokratorissa in Greek, sevastokratitsa (севастократица) in Bulgarian and sebastokratorica in Serbian.
Dejan was a magnate who served Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan as sevastokrator, and Emperor Uroš V as despot. He was married to Emperor Dušan's sister Teodora, and possessed a large province in the Kumanovo region, east of Skopska Crna Gora. It initially included the old župe (counties) of Žegligovo and Preševo. Uroš V later gave Dejan the Upper Struma river with Velbužd (Kyustendil). Dejan rebuilt the Zemen Monastery, one of Dejan's endowments, among others, as he also reconstructed several church buildings throughout his province.
Between 1345 and 1371, the Serbian monarch was self-titled emperor (tsar). The full title was initially Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, later Emperor of the Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians in Serbian and basileus and autokrator of Serbia and Romania ["the land of the Romans"] in Greek. This title was soon enlarged into "Emperor and Autocrat of the Serbs and Greeks, the Bulgarians and Albanians". The Serbian Empire was ruled by only two monarchs; Stefan Dušan and Stefan Uroš V. Two other claimants of the title ruled in Thessaly, Central Greece.
The Battle of Achelous took place in 1358 or 1359 near the river Achelous in Aetolia, modern Greece, between the forces of the Despotate of Epirus under Nikephoros II Orsini and Albanian tribesmen under Karl Thopia. The Albanians defeated Orsini's troops and inflicted heavy casualties upon his forces, and Orsini himself was killed during the battle. Epirus was then divided amongst the Albanian clans, which resulted in the establishment of two despotates from regions previously part of the Despotate of Epirus: the Despotate of Arta and the Despotate of Angelokastron and Lepanto. Within Epirus, only the city of Ioannina remained under Greek governance and was not under the control of the Albanians.
Radoslav Hlapen was a Serbian magnate who served Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan and Stefan Uroš V as vojvoda. He took part in the conquest of Byzantine lands, and was given a region north of Thessaly to govern in the early 1350s.
John Komnenos Asen was the ruler of the Principality of Valona from c. 1345 to 1363, initially as a vassal of the Serbian Empire, and after 1355 as a largely independent lord. Descended from high-ranking Bulgarian nobility, John was a brother of both Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria and Helena of Bulgaria, the wife of Tsar Stephen Dušan of Serbia. Perhaps in search of better opportunities, he emigrated to Serbia, where his sister was married. There, he was granted the title of despot by Stephen Dušan, who placed him in charge of his territories in modern south Albania.
The Serbian nobility conflict in 1369 was a conflict between two powerful sides of the Serbian nobility, one supporting magnate Nikola Altomanović, and one supporting the Mrnjavčević family in Macedonia and Greece. In 1369, a battle was fought between the two sides at the Kosovo field, ending in the decisive victory of King Vukašin, confirming his supremacy, which would last until 1371 battle of Maritsa.
The fall of the Serbian Empire was a decades-long process in the late 14th century. Following the death of the childless Emperor Stefan Uroš V in 1371, the Empire was left without an heir and the magnates, velikaši, obtained the rule of its provinces and districts, continuing their offices as independent with titles such as gospodin, and despot, given to them during the Empire. This period is known as the dissolution or the beginning of the fall of the Serbian Empire.
The House of Dejanović or House of Dragaš originates from a medieval noble family that served the Serbian Empire of Dušan the Mighty and Uroš the Weak, and during the fall of the Serbian Empire, after the Battle of Maritsa (1371), it became an Ottoman vassal. The family was one of the most prominent during these periods. The family held a region roughly centered where the borders of Serbia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia meet. The last two Byzantine Emperors were maternal descendants of the house.
Thomais Orsini was the queen consort of the Serbian tsar and ruler of Epirus and Thessaly, Simeon Uroš Nemanjić.
References
- ↑ Thapar, Romila (2004). Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. University of California Press. p. 366. ISBN 978-0-520-24225-8.
The unobtrusive titles used by the early Chola kings were replaced with high-sounding ones, such as chakravartigal (emperor, the equivalent of the northern chakravartin).
