Stefan the First-Crowned
Serbian Orthodox Christian |
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Stefan Nemanjić (
Early life
Stefan Nemanjić was the second-eldest son of
The Byzantines attacked Serbia in 1191, raiding the banks of the South Morava. Nemanja had a tactical advantage, and began to raid the Byzantine armies. Isaac II Angelos summoned a peace treaty, and the marriage of Nemanja's son Stefan to Eudokia Angelina, the niece of Isaac II, was confirmed. Stefan Nemanjić received the title of sebastokrator.
Conflict over succession
Throughout the 12th century, Serbs were at the center of war events between Byzantium and Hungary for dominance. In such circumstances, Serbs had no chance of gaining independence. Their only chance was to look for an ally on third side.
In 1190, the German Emperor
The concluded peace envisages that the grand zoupan Nemanja will be succeeded by his middle son Stefan, who received the Byzantine title of sebastokrator and the Byzantine princess Eudokia for a wife, and not the firstborn Vukan.
In 1196, at the state assembly near
The new
In the meantime, control of the newly formed crusade army was taken over by the powerful Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo, who, to the surprise of all, including the pope himself, in the Fourth Crusade first sent an attack on Hungarian Zara in 1202, and then on Byzantium, whose capital Constantinople crusaders conquered in April 1204. Stefan uses this situation and in the counter-offensive, with the help of Prince Kaloyan, he returns to the throne in Ras in 1204, while Vukan retreats to Zeta. The fighting between the brothers was stopped in 1205 and relations were established as they were before the outbreak of the conflict. Meanwhile, in November 1204, the Hungarian king Emeric died and the Kaloyan of Bulgaria was crowned for king by the Pope.
Numerous states were created on the ruins of Byzantium, which were almost equal in strength. The Crusaders founded the
Later rule
After the death of Kaloyan, there was a succession war in Bulgaria. Tsar
Đorđe of Zeta, in order to secure his lands from Stefan, accepted Venetian suzerainty, possibly in 1208. Đorđe may have done this due to tensions between the two, although this must not be the case. Venice, after the
Đorđe promised Venice military aid in case of a revolt by another theoretical Venetian vassal,
Despot Michael I of Epirus conquered
Coronation and autocephaly
Having long wanted to call himself king, Stefan set about procuring a royal crown from the papacy. It is not clear what Stefan promised in regard to the status of the Catholic Church, which had numerous adherents in the western and coastal parts of his realm, but a papal legate finally arrived in 1217 and crowned Stefan. In 1217 Stefan Nemanjić declared his independence from Byzantium and was crowned as king, adopting the title: "Crowned King and Autocrat of all Serbian and coastal lands".
The disagreements surrounding Stefan's coronation were definitively resolved in 2018 by finding evidences that the papal legate never came to Serbia and that Stefan was actually crowned by his brother Sava in 1219. [21][unreliable source]
Marriage, monastic vows, and death
Stefan was married, around 1186, to
- King Stefan Radoslav, ruled 1228–1233
- King Stefan Vladislav I, ruled 1233–1243
- Archbishop Saint)
- Countess Kruja
Stefan remarried in 1207/1208, his second wife was Anna Dandolo, granddaughter of Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo. They had one son and one daughter:
- King Stefan Uroš I, ruled 1243–1276
He built many fortresses including Maglič. At the end of his life, Stefan took the monastic vow under the name Symeon and died soon after. He was canonized as his father was.
Legacy
Local tradition, related to the Reževići Monastery claims that it was king Stefan who built (in 1223 or 1226) the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Serbian: Црква Успења Пресвете Богородице).
In fiction
- The 2017 television series Nemanjići - rađanje kraljevine (Nemanjić Dynasty - Birth of a Kingdom) features him as the main protagonist.[22]
See also
References
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 38-56.
- ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 33-38.
- ^ Curta 2006, p. 389-394.
- ^ Curta 2019, p. 662-664.
- ^ Curta 2006, p. 381.
- ^ Sweeney 1973, pp. 323–324.
- ^ Madgearu 2016, p. 133.
- ^ a b c Fine 1994, p. 94.
- ^ a b Curta 2006, p. 385.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 53.
- ^ a b c d e f g Fine 1994, p. 50.
- ^ a b c d Ducellier 1999, p. 786.
- ^ a b c Fine 1994, p. 68.
- ^ Nicol 1984, p. 48.
- ^ a b Nicol 1984, p. 156.
- ^ Polemis 1968, p. 93.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 136.
- ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 39.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 116.
- ^ Ferjančić & Maksimović 2014, pp. 37–54.
- ^ "Марко Пејковић, Милан Бојић: Свети Стефан Првовенчани није добио краљевску круну из Рима[1] – ЕПАРХИЈА РАШКО-ПРИЗРЕНСКА У ЕГЗИЛУ" [Marko Pejković, Milan Bojić: Saint Stephen the First Crowned did not receive the royal crown from Rome].
- ^ Šentevska 2018, pp. 343–361.
Sources
- ISBN 9782825119587.
- Ćirković, Sima; Korać, Vojislav; Babić, Gordana (1986). Studenica Monastery. Belgrade: Jugoslovenska revija.
- ISBN 9781405142915.
- ISBN 9780521815390.
- ISBN 9789004395190.
- Ducellier, Alain (1999). "Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria". The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 779–795. ISBN 9780521362894.
- Ducellier, Alain (2008). "Balkan Powers: Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria (1200-1300)". The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c. 500–1492. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 779–802. ISBN 9780521832311.
- .
- ISBN 0472082604.
- Ivanović, Miloš (2019). "Serbian Hagiographies on the Warfare and Political Struggles of the Nemanjić Dynasty (from the Twelfth to Fourteenth Century)". Reform and Renewal in Medieval East and Central Europe: Politics, Law and Society. Cluj-Napoca: Romanian Academy, Center for Transylvanian Studies. pp. 103–129.
- Madgearu, Alexandru (2016). The Asanids: The Political and Military History of the Second Bulgarian Empire, 1185–1280. BRILL. ISBN 978-9-004-32501-2.
- S2CID 96483243.
- Mileusnić, Slobodan (1998). Medieval Monasteries of Serbia (4th ed.). Novi Sad: Prometej. ISBN 9788676393701.
- ISBN 9780521261906.
- ISBN 9780351176449.
- Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- Polemis, Demetrios I. (1968). The Doukai: A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography. London: The Athlone Press. ISBN 9780485131222.
- Popović, Svetlana (2002). "The Serbian Episcopal Sees in the Thirteenth Century". Старинар (51: 2001): 171–184.
- Šentevska, Irena (2018). "Populistički podtekst igranog TV programa - serija "Nemanjići - rađanje kraljevine"". Mediji, kultura i umetnost u doba populizma. Beograd: Institut za pozorište, film, radio i televiziju. pp. 343–361.
- Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521770170.
- Stojkovski, Boris; Kartalija, Nebojša (2019). "Serbia through the Eyes of Contemporary Western Travelers in the Age of Nemanjić Dynasty (1166-1371)" (PDF). Deseti međunarodni interdisciplinarni simpozijum Susret kultura: Zbornik radova. Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet. pp. 305–321.
- Sweeney, James Ross (1973). "Innocent III, Hungary and the Bulgarian Coronation: A Study in Medieval Papal Diplomacy". Church History. 42 (3): 320–334. S2CID 162901328.
External links
- Media related to Stefan the First-Crowned at Wikimedia Commons