King Vukasin and the disastrous Battle of Marica


Essay, 2007

16 Pages


Excerpt


KING VUKASIN AND THE DISASTROUS BATTLE OF MARICA

by Vladislav Bošković, 2007

There at Črnomen on the Marica river, on 26 September, the first really decisive battle in the Turkish conquest of eastern Europe was fought and lost by the Christians.[1]

Donald M. Nicol

During the reign of Tsar Stefan Dušan the Powerful, Serbia annexed all Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus and Thessaly, reduced Bulgaria to dependency and pushed its dominions to the Mediterranean coast opposite Corfu and to the Aegean at Salonica.[2] Thereby Dušan assumed the title “Tsar of the Serbs and the Greeks.”[3] During his rule, “individual parts of Macedonia were governed by feudal vassals of high rank.”[4] For instance, what is today known as central Macedonia came under the sway of the able though aggressive statesman Vlkašin Mrnjavčević.

The fourteenth century was also a century of internal social conflicts in Serbia, caused by unruly, unreliable and self-interested feudal magnates, giving a typical example of abuses of power by the powerful. The Serbian state as such was in full dissolution and it “disintegrated into dozens of small independent and semi-dependent states and principalities”[5] after the premature death of Tsar Stefan Dušan the Powerful in 1355, “at the age of forty-six, while on his way to take Constantinople.”[6] There was always a strong will for power. This and similar individual moral and social failings were most apparent in the nobles. As a consequence, there was a series of hypocrisies, violations, depositions and political upheavals, “achieved sometimes by the most cruel means and acts of treachery.”[7] After Stefan Dušan died his son Stefan Uroš V, whom posterity has remembered as “Uroš the Weak”, inherited the throne, but he lacked his father’s spirit, energy and undertaking. He ruled his empire chaotically, his reign being dominated by inner turmoil. Stefan Uroš allowed his ministers to pillage the country, and he could not find an adequate solution or policy for his misfortunes in his own homeland. Euphemistically speaking, he was neither able to fit into his father’s shoes nor was he capable of taking up burdens so far beyond his strength, and so he eventually fell prey to his many enemies. The realm split up into several independent principalities ruled by various potentates. Deaf to the proverb “united they stand, divided they fall,” the powerful nobles were divided against each other and too preoccupied in either extending or preserving their individual possessions. Also, territorial and political pretensions were motives for continuous mutual disagreements and local wars.

The Ottoman Emir Mūrad I, nick-named Hüdavendigâr, “the God-liked one,” saw his chance in this disunity among the Balkan powers. Faced with the dissolution of the whole South-eastern Europe, the Ottomans were able to defeat one Balkan state after another.[8] Meanwhile, there is a common perception in regard to causes and effects that the great conquest achieved in the Balkans in Mūrad’s time were largely due to the strife between the Serbs, the Bulgarians and the Greeks.[9] That says, Slavic and Greek princes were simply unable to present a perennial common front against the common enemy.

The origins of Vlkašin (Влъкашинъ, Serbian Вукашин Мрњавчевић, Vukašin, Bulgarian Вълкашин, Volcassinus) and his younger brother John Uglješa (Јован Угљеша, Iowaн Углеша; Jovan/Ivan Uglješa) “are obscure, though by some accounts they came from a modest family in the Hum-Trebinje region and were forced to emigrate to central Serbia following border altercations with Bosnian nobles.”[10] According to the Croatian historian and Benedictine Mavro Orbini, their father was a certain provincial nobleman called Mrnjava.[11] This idea and the assumption that Mrnjava had a third son named Gojko is supported by Šafařik; however, both Mrnjava and Gojko are unknown to the more reliable modern history. The Mrnjavčević brothers were successful at the court of Stefan Dušan.[12] From “about 1350 we can witness Vlkašin Mrnjavčević’s rise through several imperial offices (ranks) […].”[13] He had great power in the southern part of the domain of Stefan Dušan. He became the Lord (Župan) of Prilep in 1350 and soon afterwards he was even elevated to be the Ruler (Despot).[14]

The Mrnjavčevićs had notable support from Emperor Uroš’s own mother Jelena.[15] It is said that she supported the Mrnjavčević brothers solely because of her own selfishness and self-centeredness. Most likely, she was hoping that through Vlkašin she would have greater influence on her son. And so it happened that they cooperated wholeheartedly, waiting for the right opportunity for Vlkašin to take over the position which Knez Vojislav had successfully mastered for many years. Vlkašin was then expanding his territory in Macedonia and through marriage negotiations he managed to win over a considerable part of the landed gentry. He married his daughter Olivera to Đurađ Balšić and his son Marko to Jelena, the daughter of Radoslav Hlapen, the Serbian lord of Edessa (Vodena) and Berroia, who was related to Tsar Stefan Dušan.[16] Uglješa got married to a daughter of a Serbian commander of the city of Drama named Vojihna, who was also adorned with the Byzantine title of Caesar.

After the death of Knez Vojislav Vojnović (January 1364),[17] Vlkašin became the most powerful nobleman. As a consequence thereof, Uroš became an easy prey to Vlkasin’s ambitions. According to Constantin Jireček, many felt the necessity for giving a resolute and competent regent to the weak and childless Uroš as support.[18] As a coregent with Tsar Uroš V, the “king next to the tsar,” all of a sudden there appears none other than Vlkašin. How this came into being, no one knows. It is known that the Serbian princes and high clergy met at a state convention in Skopje in 1356 and made Vlkašin a regent to the heir Uroš.[19] By the year 1365 Vlkašin had himself associated on the throne as king by Stefan Uroš; at least in his historical/ideological Il Regno degli Slavi (The Realm of the Slavs) Mavro Orbini relates that the procedure occurred in a peaceful manner and that it was Tsar Uroš who bestowed the royal title to Vlkašin (gli diede etiandio il titolo del Rè).[20] Uroš received the title “Dominus Imperator Sclavoniae” and Vlkašin the title “Rex Imperator Sclavoniae.” Moreover, Uroš acknowledged Vlkašin’s brother Uglješa as despot.[21]

[...]


[1] See Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 (Cambridge, 2002 [¹1972]), p. 275.

[2] Paul Coles, The Ottoman Impact on Europe (London, 1968), p. 22.

[3] He titled himself "Car Srba i Grka" in Serbian, βασιλεύς και αυτοκράτωρ Σερβίας και Ρωμανίας in Greek, and Imperator Rasciae et Romaniae in Latin.

[4] See “King Marko – A Legend and Reality.” Macedonia.org. 1996-2000. 19 Oct 2007 <<http://faq.macedonia.org/history/11.5.html>>.

[5] See Tatyana Popović, Prince Marko: The Hero of South Slavic Epics (New York, 1988), p. 2.

[6] Michael Boro Petrovich, A History of Modern Serbia 1804-1918, vol. I (New York and London, 1976), 6.

[7] Woislav M. Petrovitch, Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians (London, 1914). Perhaps one may even argue that similar faults caused the decay of aristocracy throughout the Balkans.

[8] Of course, Osmanli military supremacy over their Christian foes played an equally important role.

[9] See commentary on Memoirs of a Janissary by Konstantin Mihailović, transl. by Benjamin Stolz; historical commentary and notes by Svat Soucek (Michigan, 1975), 206 n 1.

[10] Vukasin Mrnjavcevic (1366-1371) Serbian Unity Congress 1996-2007. 20 Oct 2007 <http://serbianunity.net>.

[11] See Mavro Orbin, Kraljevstvo Slovena, trans. Zdravko Šundrica (Beograd, 1968), 274. Mikhail Khalanskii claims his name to be Nenad with the nickname Mrnjava. See E. M. Халанский. Южно-славянские сказания о Кралевиче Марке в связи с произведениями русского былевого эпоса. Сравнительные наблюдения в области героического эпоса южных славян и русского народа. Варшава, 1893. (Варшава, 1893 - 1896); 63.

[12] Popović 16.

[13] Vukasin Mrnjavcevic (1366-1371) Serbian Unity Congress 1996-2007. 20 Oct 2007 <http://serbianunity.net>.

[14] As reported by Constatin Jireček, Geschichte der Serben, 2 vols. (Gotha: F.A. Perthes, 1911-18), 1:423; his authority is Ljubomir Stojanović, Zapisi 1 nro. 97. See also Stojan Novaković, Srbi i Turci XIV I XV veka (Beograd, 1893), p. 144.

[15] Helena of Bulgaria – sister of Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria, at that period of time already known as Nun Jelisaveta. After Dušan’s death “she inherited Serbia’s Greek lands between the lower Vardar and the Mesta as well as the Chalcidic peninsula, basing her court at Serres. She recognised her son’s supremacy only until 1360 when her dominion of Serrai became more and more independent.” See Serbia Medieval Lands: A Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families by Charles Carwey 2000-2006. 20 Oct 2007 < http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SERBIA.htm>.

[16] Elizabeth A. Zachariadou. “Mount Athos and the Ottomans c. 1350-1550”. In: Angold 160.

[17] A powerful nobleman during and after Dušan’s reign. He was in strife with Hungary and Ragusa between 1360-1362.

[18] Jireček 1:430.

[19] Popović 16.

[20] Orbini 269. See also Jireček 1:430 and Popović 191.

[21] See Momir Jović and Kosta Radić, Srpske zemlje i vladari (Kruševac, 1990), 83.

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Details

Title
King Vukasin and the disastrous Battle of Marica
Author
Year
2007
Pages
16
Catalog Number
V139232
ISBN (eBook)
9783640492640
ISBN (Book)
9783640492435
File size
537 KB
Language
English
Keywords
King, Vukasin, Battle, Marica
Quote paper
M.A. Vladislav Boskovic (Author), 2007, King Vukasin and the disastrous Battle of Marica, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/139232

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