Stephen II, Ban of Bosnia
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| Stephen II | |
|---|---|
Kotromanić | |
| Father | Stephen I, Ban of Bosnia |
| Mother | Elizabeth of Serbia |
| Religion | krstjanin,[1][2] from 1347
Roman Catholic[2] |
Stephen II (
Early life
A member of the Kotromanićs, Stephen II was often labeled a "
When his father died in 1314 and
was against the marriage since both families were related, but it would give Stephen certain advantages, so he convinced the Pope to allow it.Reign
Ascent
Until 1319 Mladen's II army had already entirely retreated from Bosnia, as he had found himself stuck in numerous troubles and conflicts with revolting cities in
Early reign and other marriages
Immediately after the death of
When his uncle Vladislav died, he gained some parts of his realm of
In 1323 Hungarian King Charles Robert wanted to increase influence over Ban Stephen II Kotromanić. He offered Stephen the hand of his wife's distant relative,
Conflicts in Dalmatia
The Hungarian king
Ivan Nelipić immediately pushed the fight against Ban Stephen II, and managed to capture city of Visuća, but Stephen's shrewd politics and willingness to bestow his nobility with privileges had paid off, as Vuk of Vukoslavić family had helped him to retake the city. Although Stephen's military ambitions were only relatively successful he continued to wage war against the enemies of the Šubić. His target was the city of Trogir which was one of the major supporters of Nelipić's campaigning. Stephen adopted a harsh tactic. His forces raided Caravans from Trogir, which eventually forced its denizens to humbly sign a peace and addressed him as the high and mighty lord Stephen free ruler and master of Bosnia, Usora and Soli and many other places and Prince of the Hum. It is because of this that Stephen started a conflict with the Republic of Ragusa regarding trade. Stephen was shown as a very tough negotiator and the negotiations finally ended in 1326.
After seeing that Ban Nikola Omodejev was unable to weaken the position of Nelipić, Hungarian King Charles I deposed him. The new man for the job was one of his most trusted men, Ban Mikac Mihaljević. Ban Mikac advanced toward Croatia in the summer of 1325. Bosnian Ban Stephen II sent several squadrons to assist him in his offensive. In 1326, after taking Babonić family cities Mikac advanced deeper into Croatia, where he meet Stephen's reinforcements. The expedition eventually had little success, so Mikac sent a portion of his army to Bihać which would serve as defence against Nelipić's possible counterattacks and retreated to Hungary.
Ban Stephen II gained territories, expending his realm to the coast by annexing space between mouths of the
Conflict with Serbia
By 1326 Ban Stephen II attacked Serbia in a military alliance with the
These parts of the province of Hum, that Ban conquered and annexed for Bosnia, were ruled by the Serbian vassalage family the
In 1329, Ban Stephen II Kotromanić pushed another military attempt into
Although the Zahumljans mostly accepted the Ban's rule, some resisted, like Petar Toljenović who ruled the Seaside from his capital in
The Ban's vassal that governed Hum started to raid Ragusa's trade routes, which worsened Bosnian-Ragusan relations that were very high during the conquest of Hum. To make matters worse, he (Ban's vassal) asked Ragusa to pay him the old traditional mogorish tax that it traditionally paid to the Hum and Serbian rulers and even asked it to recognize his supreme rule. The Republic of Ragusa refused outright.
Religious tensions in Bosnia
The
In 1334, the
Soon, Ban Stephen II would finally stop the constant threat of the Western Crusades to the Bosnian Church. In 1339, during
After the final peace between the Bosnian Ban and the
Changes in the throne
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In 1342, Hungarian King Charles Robert died and so did Stephen II's past ally, Mikac of Slavonia in 1343. This gave rise to a new idea. The opportunity arose to detach Bosnia from the Kingdom of Hungary and for Ban Stephen II to rule it independently. He immediately sought help from Hungary's greatest foe, the Republic of Venice. In the summer of 1343 he sent an emissary to Venice, proposing an alliance. The Venetians wanted to act only if victory was certain, so they wanted another member in their alliance; their traditional ally, Serbia. The Serbian King was, unfortunately for the Venetians, busy with other matters. Venice was just waging war against Prince Nelipac, so it only agreed to arm and help build up Bosnia's military, but begged Stephen II not to move against Hungary without it. It became evident that the Venetians only wanted to push Ban Stephen II against Nelipac for additional support.
In 1344, Nelipac himself unexpectedly died, which prompted Hungarian nobility to ordered the new Slavonian Ban to seize
Upon the numerous changes,
The Hungarian King was amassing forces for a new strike against the Venetian positions, but both parties had elected the new Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan to assist Ban Stephen II and form a mediation party to decide a truce between the two warring sides. Eventually, all agreements failed. In the spring of 1346 the Hungarian King arrived with his vast Royal Army of 100,000 men of whom more than 30,000 were cavalry and men-at-arms and 10,000 soldiers under Ban Stephen II arrived. The Venetians had attempted to bribe several Hungarian generals, including Ban Stephen II, who gave away the positions of the Hungarian troops for a handsome sum of money, thereby earning the nickname "Devil's Student". On 1 July 1346 a fierce clash occurred, which the Hungarian side eventually won only due to numerical superiority and achieved a pyrrhic victory with more than 7,000 Hungarian troops killed in battle. The Hungarian King lost trust in Ban Stephen II and, losing confidence as well, returned to Hungary.
Ban Stephen II played Venice and Hungary against each other, slowly ruling Bosnia more and more independently and soon initiated a conspiracy with some members of the Croatian and Hungarian nobility against his Hungarian liege. In 1346 Zadar finally returned to Venice, and the Hungarian King, seeing that he had lost the war, made peace in 1348. Ban of Croatia
Continued conflict with Serbia
The Serbian Emperor
Ban Stepen's Bosnia was weaker than the
were razed during his military operations. Venice attempted to make another peace between the warring sides, but the Serbian emperor agreed only to stall his counterattack a little.In October 1350, Tsar Stefan Dušan crossed the river of Drina with 50,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry. Ban Stephen II did not have the strength to meet his army in open battle, so he decided to use a guerrilla tactic. Using timber and rock he blockaded all major roads in Bosnia and slowly withdrew his forces to forests and mountains, using impervious topography of his realm and forts to defend against advancing invader. He planned the defense of Bosnia, splitting his forces enough to defend every possible entryway into his realm. His plan soon started to break, as Dušan was able to bribe several of Ban's most trusted servants who abandoned their posts.
Losing control over the conflict, Ban Stephen II retreated with his most trusted men to the most unreachable mountains of Bosnia. He no longer knew whom he could trust, so he regularly dismissed and recruited new men to serve him. His older daughter
Both failed siege of Bubovac and attempt to catch up with Ban Stephen II eventually compelled Dušan to abandon Bosnia and order his troops to retreat. Ban Stephen II therefore won the war, even though he lost most of the battles. This encouraged the Ban to refuse all suggestions from Dušan to share Hum as joint rulers. Dušan forces that remained in Hum tried to keep at least this region, however Ban Stephen II soon launched a military campaign and reconquered all the territories that he had previously lost to Dušan. The
Last years
The rest of Ban's reign passed mostly in peace. The only conflict that he had was a dispute with the
Elizabeth of Poland, the mother of the King of Hungary, wanted to arrange a marriage between her son and Stephen's daughter Elizabeth. She insisted immediately on bringing her to the Hungarian court for fosterage. Stephen was reluctant at first, but eventually dispatched Elizabeth. After three years of life at the Hungarian court, the King's mother invited Stephen to Hungary for the wedding. The Bosnian Ban became gravely ill and could not be present at the ceremony.
Stephen II Kotromanić died in September 1353. He was ceremonially buried in his own foundation, the Roman Catholic Church of
Edicts
Stephen withdrew all demands as can be seen in his edict to the Republic from 1332 in which he guaranteed future friendships between the Banate of Bosnia and the Republic of Ragusa. In the edict he called his people Bosnians (Bošnjani).[8]
Ban Stephen II issued several edicts to Ragusa in 1333. There were four documents. Here is an excerpt of the documents edict' copies:[9]
| Original version | English translation |
|---|---|
|
да имамо и дрьжимо до конца свиета непомачно. и за то |
to have and hold to the end of the world moveless. And for that |
Of 60 words in the excerpt:
- 29 (48.3%) are completely the same in contemporary Bosnian — or, for that matter Croatian or Serbian
- 15 (25%) differ only in slightly changed sound of a letter (usually through iotation, or loss or it, or by transfer of "ou" to "u")
- 8 (13.3%) differ in one phoneme
- * 8 (13.3%) differ more but are fully recognisable
Title
- "Lord of all Bosnian lands, and Soli, and Usora, and Donji Kraji, and the Hum land"[10]
Marriages and children
He was married to:
- a Catholic lady, a cousin of some sort, dispensation requested in 1318.Ortenburg in Carniola (concluded from sources, this remained an engagement only, the couple not having come to live together)[citation needed]
- daughter of Tsar Michael Shishman of Bulgaria, in 1329[12]
- Ladislaus the Short, king of Poland, since June 1335.[13]
According to Dominik Mandić he had at least four children.[13]
- Herman II, Count of Celje. Born out of the marriage with the Ortenburg countess (Mandić[13]). She may have been his niece rather than daughter.
- Vuk, who died during his father's lifetime. Born out of the marriage with the Ortenburg countess (Mandić[13]).
- Stjepan. Born out of the marriage with Elizabeth (Mandić[13]).
- Elizabeth (1340–1387), who married Hungarian King Louis I the Great on 20 June 1353. Having become the regent of Hungary, she was murdered. Born out of the marriage with Elizabeth (Mandić[13]).
See also
- List of rulers of Bosnia
References
- ^ a b Boris Nilević (1990). Srpska pravoslavna crkva u Bosni i Hercegovini do obnove Pećke patrijaršije 1557. godine. Veselin Masleša.
фамилије Котроманића. Тој вјери припадао је и његов брат Влади- слав.16 Постоје подаци који говоре да је Стјепан II Котроманић био патарен. Они се налазе у старосрпским црквеним текстовима, гдје се босански бан проклиње ...
- ^ a b Fine 1994, p. 281.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 284.
- ^ Klaić, Nada (1989). Srednjovjekovna Bosna: politički položaj bosanskih vladara do Tvrtkove krunidbe, 1377 g. (in Croatian). Zagreb: Grafički zavod Hrvatske.
- ^ a b Fine 1994, pp. 209–216.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 20.
- ^ Fine 1994, pp. 266–267.
- ISBN 978-0-631-20471-8.
- ^ Miklosich, Franz (1858). Monumenta Serbica spectantia historiam Serbiae, Bosnae, Ragusii. Viennae Braumüller.
- ^ *Mrgić, Jelena; Živković, Tibor (2008). Северна Босна: 13-16. век. Историјски институт.
Стјепан II је син господина бана Стјепана, по милости божијој госпо- дин свим земљама босанским и Соли и Усоре и Доњим Крајима и Хумској земљи господин. Веома је уочљиво да је титула „господина" употребљена чак три ...
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 277.
- ^ Milan Vasić (1995). Bosna i Hercegovina od srednjeg veka do novijeg vremena: međunarodni naučni skup 13-15. decembar 1994. Istorijski institut SANU.
... вероватно и раније, био у сукобу с краљем Стефаном Дечанским.5 Сарадња измећу Босне и Бугарске учвршћена је склапањем династичког брака; Стјепан II Котроманић оженио се ћерком бугарског цара Михаила 1329. године.
- ^ a b c d e f Dominik Mandić (1960). Bosna i Hercegovina: Državna i vjerska pripadnost sredovječne Bosne i Hercegovine. Croatian Historical Institute.
195 Vjerojatnije je, da je prvoga i drugoga sina rodila grofica Ortenburška, a trećega i četvrtoga poljska knjeginja Elizabeta. Ova je rodila Stjepanu i kćer Jelisavu, buduću ženu kralja Ljudevita Velikoga.196 Stjepan II oženio se po treći put u lipnju 1335 (3). Ako je držao korotu za drugom ženom godinu dana po starom hrvatskom običaju, to je vjerojatnije, da je poljska knjeginja Elizabeta rodila Jelisavu prije muškoga djeteta, o kojemu dubrovački ...
Bibliography
- Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472100793.
Additional readings
Srednjovjekovna Bosna: politički položaj bosanskih vladara do Tvrtkove krunidbe, 1377, Nada Klaić, Grafički zavod Hrvatske, Zagreb 1989