Lazar of Serbia
Serbian Orthodox Christian | |
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Signature |
Lazar Hrebeljanović (
Lazar was killed at the Battle of Kosovo in June 1389 while leading a Christian army assembled to confront the invading Ottoman Empire, led by Sultan Murad I. The battle ended without a clear victor, with both sides enduring heavy losses. Lazar's widow, Milica, who ruled as regent for their adolescent son Stefan Lazarević, Lazar's successor, accepted Ottoman suzerainty in the summer of 1390.
Lazar is venerated in the Orthodox Christian Church as a
Life
Lazar was born around 1329 in the
Courtier
Pribac was awarded by Dušan in yet another way: his son Lazar was granted the position of
Tsar Dušan died suddenly in 1355 at the age of about 47,
Uroš was weak and unable to counteract these separatist tendencies, becoming an inferior power in the state he nominally ruled. He relied on the strongest Serbian noble, Prince
In 1361, Prince Vojislav started a war with the Republic of Ragusa over some territories.[9] Ragusans then asked most eminent persons in Serbia to use their influence to stop these hostilities that were harmful for both sides. In 1362 the Ragusans also applied to stavilac Lazar and presented him with three bolts of cloth. A relatively modest present as it was, it testifies that Lazar was perceived as having some influence at the court of Tsar Uroš. The peace between Prince Vojislav and Ragusa was signed in August 1362. Stavilac Lazar is mentioned as a witness in a July 1363 document by which Tsar Uroš approved an exchange of lands between Prince Vojislav and čelnik Musa. The latter man had been married to Lazar's sister, Dragana, since at least 1355. Musa's title, čelnik ("headman"), was of a higher rank than stavilac.[4]
Minor regional lord
Lazar's activities in the period between 1363 and 1371 are poorly documented in sources.
The book Il Regno de gli Slavi [The Realm of the Slavs] by Mavro Orbin, published in
Prince
It is uncertain since when Lazar had borne the title of
Rise to power
The
After the demise of the Mrnjavčević brothers, Nikola Altomanović emerged as the most powerful noble on the territory of the fragmented Serbian state. While Lazar was busy taking Priština and Novo Brdo, Nikola recovered Rudnik from him.[18] By 1372, Prince Lazar and Tvrtko, the Ban of Bosnia, formed an alliance against Nikola. According to Ragusan sources, the Republic of Venice mediated an agreement between Nikola Altomanović and Djuradj Balšić about their joint attack on Ragusa. Nikola was to gain Pelješac and Ston, the Ragusan parts of the region of Zahumlje, which was divided between Nikola's domain, Bosnia, and Ragusa. Louis I, the King of Hungary, sternly warned Nikola and Djuradj to keep off Ragusa,[21] which had been a Hungarian vassal since 1358.[22] By conspiring with Venice, a Hungarian enemy, Nikola lost the protection of Hungary.[23] Lazar, preparing for the confrontation with Nikola, promised King Louis to be his loyal vassal if the king was on his side. Prince Lazar and Ban Tvrtko attacked and defeated Nikola Altomanović in 1373. Nikola was captured in his stronghold, the town of Užice, and given in charge to Lazar's nephews, the Musić brothers, who (according to Orbin with the secret approval of Lazar) blinded him.[24] Lazar accepted the suzerainty of King Louis.[18]
Ban Tvrtko annexed to his state the parts of Zahumlje which were held by Nikola, including the upper reaches of the Drina and
Major lord in Serbia
After the demise of Nikola Altomanović, Prince Lazar emerged as the most powerful lord on the territory of the former Serbian Empire.
The last patriarch of the Serbian Church in schism, Sava IV, died in April 1375.
Lazar extended his domain to the Danube in 1379, when the prince took Kučevo and Braničevo, ousting the Hungarian vassal Radič Branković Rastislalić from these regions.[33] King Louis had earlier granted to Lazar the region of Mačva, or at least a part of it, probably when the prince accepted the king's suzerainty.[26] This suggests that Lazar, who was himself a vassal of Louis, had rebelled, and indeed Louis is known to have been organizing a campaign against Serbia in 1378. However, it is not known against whom Louis was intending to act. It is also possible that it was Radič Branković Rastislalić and that Lazar's attack had the approval of Louis.[33]
Lazar's state, known in literature as Moravian Serbia, was larger than the domains of the other lords on the territory of the former Serbian Empire. It also had a better organized government and army. The state comprised the basins of the Great Morava, West Morava, and South Morava Rivers, extending from the source of South Morava northward to the Danube and Sava Rivers. Its north-western border ran along the Drina River. Besides the capital Kruševac, the state included important towns of Niš and Užice, as well as Novo Brdo and Rudnik, the two richest mining centres of medieval Serbia. Of all the Serbian lands, Lazar's state lay furthest from Ottoman centres, and was least exposed to the ravages of Turkish raiding parties. This circumstance attracted immigrants from Turkish-threatened areas, who built new villages and hamlets in previously poorly inhabited and uncultivated areas of Moravian Serbia. There were also spiritual persons among the immigrants, which stimulated the revival of old ecclesiastical centres and the foundation of new ones in Lazar's state. The strategic position of the Morava basins contributed to Lazar's prestige and political influence in the Balkans due to the anticipated Turkish offensives.[26][34]
In charters issued between 1379 and 1388, the prince named himself as Stefan Lazar. "
A Turkish raiding party, passing unobstructed through territories of Ottoman vassals, broke into Moravian Serbia in 1381. It was routed by Lazar's nobles Crep Vukoslavić and Vitomir in the
Battle of Kosovo
Since the encounter at Pločnik in 1386, it was clear to Lazar that a decisive battle with the Ottomans was imminent. After he made peace with Sigismund, to avoid troubles on his northern borders, the prince secured military support from Vuk Branković and King Tvrtko.
Information about the course and the outcome of the Battle of Kosovo is incomplete in the historical sources. It can be concluded that, tactically, the battle was a draw. However, the mutual heavy losses were devastating only for the Serbs, who had brought to Kosovo almost all of their fighting strength.[34][38] Although Serbia under Prince Lazar was an economically prosperous and militarily well organized state, it could not compare to the Ottoman Empire with respect to the size of territory, population, and economic power.[34] Lazar was succeeded by his eldest son Stefan Lazarević. As he was still a minor, Moravian Serbia was administered by Stefan's mother, Milica. She was attacked from the north five months after the battle by troops of the Hungarian King Sigismund. When Turkish forces, moving toward Hungary, reached the borders of Moravian Serbia in the summer of 1390, Milica accepted Ottoman suzerainty. She sent her youngest daughter, Olivera, to join the harem of Sultan Bayezid I. Vuk Branković became an Ottoman vassal in 1392. Now all the Serbian lands were under Ottoman suzerainty, except Zahumlje under King Tvrtko.[38]
Cult
Under Serbian rulers
After the Battle of Kosovo, Prince Lazar was interred in the Church of the Ascension in Priština, the capital of Vuk Branković's domain.
In a medieval state with a strong link between the State and the Church, as in Moravian Serbia, a canonization was not only an ecclesiastical act. It also had a social significance. After two centuries of rule of the Nemanjić dynasty, most members of which were canonized, Lazar was the first lay person to be recognized as a saint. During his lifetime, he had achieved considerable prestige as the major lord on the territory of the former Serbian Empire. The Church saw him as the only ruler worthy and capable of succeeding the Nemanjićs and restoring their state.[43] His death was seen as a turning point in Serbian history. The aftermath of the Battle of Kosovo was felt in Serbia almost immediately,[41] although more significant in the long run was the Battle of Marica eighteen years earlier, as the defeat of the Mrnjavčević brothers in it opened up the Balkans to the Turks.[15]
Lazar is celebrated as a saint and martyr in ten cultic writings composed in Serbia between 1389 and 1420;[44] nine of them could be dated closer to the former year than to the latter.[45] These writings were the principal means of spreading the cult of Saint Lazar, and most of them were used in liturgy on his feast day.[46] The Encomium of Prince Lazar by nun Jefimija is considered to have the highest literary quality of the ten texts.[32] Nun Jefimija (whose secular name was Jelena) was a relative of Princess Milica,[45] and the widow of Jovan Uglješa Mrnjavčević. After his death she lived on with Milica and Lazar. Jefimija embroidered her Encomium with a gilded thread on the silken shroud covering Lazar's relics. Stefan Lazarević is regarded as the author of the text carved on a marble pillar that was erected at the site of the Battle of Kosovo.[32] The pillar was destroyed by the Ottomans,[32] but the text is preserved in a 16th-century manuscript.[47] Patriarch Danilo III wrote Narration about Prince Lazar around the time of the translation of Lazar's relics. It is regarded as historically the most informative of the ten writings,[45] though it is a synthesis of hagiography, eulogy, and homily. The prince is celebrated not only as a martyr, but also as a warrior.[48] The patriarch wrote that the Battle of Kosovo ended when both sides became exhausted; both the Serbs and the Turks suffered heavy losses.[49] The central part of Narration is the patriarch's version of Lazar's speech to Serbian warriors before the battle:[50]
You, O comrades and brothers, lords and nobles, soldiers and vojvodas—great and small. You yourselves are witnesses and observers of that great goodness God has given us in this life... But if the sword, if wounds, or if the darkness of death comes to us, we accept it sweetly for Christ and for the godliness of our homeland. It is better to die in battle than to live in shame. Better it is for us to accept death from the sword in battle than to offer our shoulders to the enemy. We have lived a long time for the world; in the end we seek to accept the martyr's struggle and to live forever in heaven. We call ourselves Christian soldiers, martyrs for godliness to be recorded in the Book of Life. We do not spare our bodies in fighting in order that we may accept the holy wreathes from that One who judges all accomplishments. Sufferings beget glory and labours lead to peace.[51]
With Lazar's death, Serbia lost its strongest regional ruler, who might have been seen as the last hope against the expanding Ottomans. This loss could have led to pessimism and a feeling of despair. The authors of the cultic writings interpreted the death of Lazar and the thousands of his warriors on the
Lazar's son and successor, Stefan Lazarević, was granted the title of despot by the Byzantine Emperor, and he ceased to be an Ottoman vassal in 1402.[53] At least during his reign, the Holy Prince Lazar was probably venerated throughout Moravian Serbia, as well as in two monasteries on Mount Athos, the Serbian Hilandar and the Russian St. Panteleimon, in which the prince had funded some construction works.[32] During Despot Stefan's reign, only one image of Lazar is known to have been painted. It is in a fresco in the Ljubostinja Monastery, built around 1405 by Princess Milica. Lazar is represented there with regal attributes, rather than saintly ones.[52] His next image would not appear until 1594, when it was painted among images of numerous other personages in the Orahovica Monastery in Slavonia (then under Ottoman rule).[54] For his cult, more important than iconography was the cultic literature.[46]
Despot Stefan Lazarević suddenly died in July 1427. He was succeeded by Despot Đurađ, Vuk Branković's son and Lazar's grandson.[55] At the beginning of his reign, Đurađ issued a charter in which he referred to Lazar as a saint. When he reissued the charter in 1445, he avoided the adjective свети "saint", in reference to Lazar, by replacing it with светопочивши "resting in holiness". The avoidance to refer to the prince as a saint can be observed in other documents and inscriptions of that period, including those authored by his daughter Jelena.[56]
During Ottoman rule
The Serbian Despotate fell to the Ottomans in 1459.[57] The veneration of the Holy Prince Lazar was reduced to a local cult, centred on the Ravanica Monastery.[58] Its monks continued to celebrate annually his feast day.[59] The prince had granted 148 villages and various privileges to the monastery. The Ottomans reduced its property to a couple of villages containing 127 households in all, but they exempted Ravanica from some taxes.[60] Italian traveller Marc Antonio Pigafetta, who visited Ravanica in 1568, reported that the monastery was never damaged by the Turks, and the monks practiced freely their religion, except that they were not allowed to ring bells.[61]
Saint Lazar was venerated at the court of
Lazar's cult in his Ottoman-held homeland, reduced to the Ravanica Monastery, was given a boost during the office of Serbian Patriarch Paisije. In 1633 and several ensuing years, Lazar was painted in the church of the
After the Great Serb Migration
During the
The Ravanica monks established contacts with Serbian monasteries in the Habsburg Monarchy, and with the Russian Orthodox Church, from which they received help. They considerably enlarged their library and treasury during their stay at Szentendre. In this period they started to use printing to spread the veneration of the Holy Prince: they made a woodcut representing Lazar as a cephalophore, holding his severed head in his hand.[67] In 1697, the Ravanica monks left their wooden settlement at Szentendre and moved to the dilapidated Monastery of Vrdnik-Ravanica on Mount Fruška Gora in the region of Syrmia. They renovated it and placed Lazar's relics in its church, after which this monastery became the centre of Lazar's cult. It soon came to be more frequently referred to as Ravanica than Vrdnik. By the mid-18th century, a general belief arose that the monastery was founded by Prince Lazar himself.[67] Its church became too small to accommodate all the devotees who assembled there on holidays.[68]
The Treaty of Passarowitz, by which Serbia north of the West Morava was ceded from the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburg Monarchy, was signed on 21 July 1718. At that time, only one of the original Ravanica monks who had left their monastery 28 years ago, was still alive. His name was Stefan. Shortly before the treaty was signed, Stefan returned to Ravanica and renovated the monastery, which had been half-ruined and overgrown with vegetation when he came. In 1733, there were only five monks in Ravanica. Serbia was returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1739, but the monastery was not completely abandoned this time.[66]
After the Great Serb Migration, the highest clergy of the Serbian Church actively popularized the cults of canonized Serbian rulers. Arsenije IV Šakabenta, Metropolitan of Karlovci, employed in 1741 the engravers Hristofor Žefarović and Toma Mesmer to create a poster titled "Saint Sava with Serbian Saints of the House of Nemanja", where Lazar was also depicted. Its purpose was not only religious, as it should also remind people of the independent Serbian state before the Ottoman conquest, and of Prince Lazar's fight against the Ottomans. The poster was presented at the Habsburg court. The same engravers produced a book titled Stemmatographia, published in Vienna in 1741. Part of it included copperplates of 29 rulers and saints, among whom were two cephalophores, Jovan Vladimir and Lazar. Stemmatographia was very popular among the Serbs, stirring patriotic feelings in them. The Holy Prince would often be represented as a cephalophore in subsequent works, created in various artistic techniques.[68] An isolated case among the images of Lazar is a 1773 copperplate by Zaharije Orfelin, in which the prince has a parading appearance, without saintly attributes except a halo.[69]
Lazar's relics remained in the Monastery of Vrdnik-Ravanica until 1941. Shortly before Nazi Germany attacked and overran
Tradition
"Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,
And of Serb blood and heritage,
And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo,
May he never have the progeny his heart desires,
Neither son nor daughter!
May nothing grow that his hand sows,
Neither dark wine nor white wheat!
And let him be cursed from all ages to all ages!"
– Lazar curses those who do not take up arms against the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo, from a poem first published in 1815.[71]
In Serbian epic tradition, Lazar is said to have been visited the night before battle by a grey hawk or falcon from Jerusalem who offered a choice between an earthly kingdom—implying victory at the Battle of Kosovo—or a heavenly kingdom—which would come as the result of a peaceful capitulation or bloody defeat.[72]
- "...the Mother of God that told him the choice was between holding an earthly kingdom and entering the kingdom of heaven..."[73]
- "...the
According to the epics, Lazar opted for the eternal, heavenly kingdom and consequently perished on the battlefield.[74] "We die with Christ, to live forever", he told his soldiers. That Kosovo's declaration and testament is regarded as a covenant which the Serb people made with God and sealed with the blood of martyrs. Since then all Serbs faithful to that Testament regard themselves as the people of God, Christ's New Testament nation, heavenly Serbia, part of God's New Israel. This is why Serbs sometimes refer to themselves as the people of Heaven.[75]
Jefimija, the former wife of
Titles
It is uncertain since when Lazar had borne the title of
In the period between 1374 and 1379 the Serbian Church recognized Lazar as the "Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje" (господар Срба и Подунавља).[77] In 1381, he is signed as "knez Lazar, of Serbs and Podunavlje" (кнезь Лазарь Срьблѥмь и Подѹнавїю).[78] In an inscription from Ljubostinja dated to 1389, he is mentioned as "knez Lazar, of all Serbs and Podunavlje provinces" (кнезь Лазарь всѣмь Срьблемь и подѹнавскимь странамь господинь).[79] In Hungary, he was known as the "Prince of the Kingdom of Rascia".[80]
In charters issued between 1379 and 1388, he named himself as Stefan Lazar. "
Issue
Lazar and Milica had at least eight children, five daughters and three sons:
- Mara (died 12 April 1426), married Vuk Branković in around 1371[82]
- Teodora (died before 1405), married Hungarian noble
- Jelena (died March 1443) married firstly Zetan lord Đurađ II Balšić,[87] secondly Bosnian magnate Sandalj Hranić[88]
- Dobrovoj. Died at the birth.
- despot (1402–1427)[90]
- Vuk, prince, executed on 6 July 1410[90]
References
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Academia, 2003;
Serbian Studies, Том 13 Предња корица. North American Society for Serbian Studies, 1999. - ^ Mihaljčić 1984, p. 15
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- ^ Fine 1994, p. 335
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 345
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- ^ a b Fine 1994, p. 379
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- ^ Fine 1994, p. 380
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- ^ Mihaljčić 1985, p. 58-59
- ^ a b c Fine 1994, pp. 392–93
- ^ a b c d e Fine 1994, pp. 387–89
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- ^ Popović 2006, p. 119
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- ^ a b c d e Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 175–79
- ^ a b Mihaljčić 1975, pp. 217
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- ^ Stijović 2008, p. 457
- ^ Reinert 1994, p. 177
- ^ Fine 1994, pp. 395–98
- ^ a b c d e Fine 1994, pp. 409–14
- ^ a b Fine 1994, p. 408
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 410: Vuk Branković charged him with being in secret contact with the Turks. When Lazar faced Miloš with the charge, Miloš denied it, saying, "Tomorrow my deeds will show that I am faithful to my lord." To prove his loyalty, shortly before dawn on 28 June (the day on which the battle occurred) Miloš slipped out of the Serbian camp and announced himself to the Turkish sentries as a Serbian deserter. Taken to the sultan, he pulled out a knife he had secreted in his garments and stabbed Murad, fatally wounding him. We do not know whether there had actually been any accusations in the Serbian camp before the battle, but it is a fact that a Serb named Miloš Obilić (or Kobilić) did desert and murder the Sultan.
- ^ a b c Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 155–58
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 166–67
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 153–54
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 135
- ^ a b c Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 140–43
- ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, p. 173
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 278
- ^ Mundal & Wellendorf 2008, p. 90
- ^ a b Emmert 1991, pp. 23–27
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 145
- ^ Emmert 1991, p. 24
- ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, p. 184–85
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 500
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 193, 200
- ^ Fine 1994, pp. 525–26
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 188–89
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 575
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 193,195
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 204
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 207–10
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 212, 289
- ^ a b c Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 196–97
- ^ Purković 1996, p. 48
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 96–97
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 200–1
- ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 214–16
- ^ a b c Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 220–25
- ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 226–29
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 230
- ^ Medaković 2007, p. 75
- ^ Duijzings 2000, pp. 187–88
- ^ Macdonald 2002, p. 69
- ^ "Insight: Legacy of Medieval Serbia". Archaeological Institute of America. October 1999. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ^ Macdonald 2002, p. 70
- ^ Graubard 1999, p. 27
- ^ Crnković 1999, p. 221
- ^ Blagojević 2001, "У периоду између 1374. и 1379. године Српска црква је прихватила кнеза Лазара као „господара Срба и Подунавља".
- ^ Miklosich 1858, p. 200.
- ^ Miklosich 1858, p. 215.
- ISBN 9788682657019.
Prince Lazar is for Hungary the "Prince of the Kingdom of Rascia"
- ^ Miklosich 1858, p. 212.
- ^ Veselinović & Ljušić 2001, p. 82-85.
- ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 116–118.
- ^ Pavlov 2006.
- ^ Árvai 2013, p. 106.
- ^ Fine 1994, pp. 374, 389.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 389.
- ^ Fine 1975, p. 233.
- ^ Uluçay, M. Çağatay (1985). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Türk Tarih Kurumu. pp. 24–5.
- ^ a b Ivić, Aleksa (1928). Родословне таблице српских династија и властеле. Novi sad: Matica Srpska. p. 5.
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(help) - ISBN 978-86-83639-01-4.