Stefan Lazarević

Stefan Lazarević (; – 19 July 1427), also known as Stefan the Tall (), ruled as a Serbian prince (1389–1402) and despot (1402–1427). He was also a diplomat, legislator, ktetor, patron of the arts, poet, and one of the founding members of the Order of the Dragon. The son of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, he was regarded as one of the finest knights and military leaders of his time. After the death of his father in the Battle of Kosovo, he became ruler of Moravian Serbia and ruled with his mother, Milica (a Nemanjić), until he reached adulthood in 1393. Stefan led troops in several battles as an Ottoman vassal, until asserting independence after receiving the title of despot from the Byzantine Empire in 1402.

Becoming a Hungarian ally in 1403–04, he received possessions, such as Belgrade and the Golubac Fortress. He also held a superior rank in the Order of the Dragon. During his reign, he had a conflict with his nephew, Đurađ Branković, which ended in 1412. Lazarević also inherited Zeta and waged war against Venice. Since he was childless, he designated his nephew Đurađ as heir in 1426, a year before his death.

On the domestic front, he broke the resistance of the Serbian nobles and used the periods of peace to strengthen Serbia politically, economically, culturally, and militarily. In 1412, he issued the Code of Mines, with a section on governing Novo Brdo – the largest mine in the Balkans at the time. The code increased the development of mining in Serbia, which was the economic backbone of the Serbian Despotate. At the time of his death, Serbia was one of the largest silver producers in Europe. In the field of architecture, he continued the development of the Morava school. His reign and personal literary works are sometimes associated with early signs of the Renaissance in the Serbian lands. He introduced knightly tournaments, modern battle tactics, and firearms to Serbia. He was a great patron of the arts and culture by providing shelter and support to scholars and refugees from neighboring countries that had been taken by the Ottomans. In addition, he was himself a writer, his most notable work being A Homage to Love, which is characterized by Renaissance themes. During his reign, the Resava School of arts was formed.

On 1 August 1927, the 500th anniversary of his death, he was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church as Saint Despot Stefan of Serbia, and his relics are kept in the Koporin Monastery.

Background and family

Stefan was the son of Lazar, the prince of Moravian Serbia, and his wife, Milica, who was a member of a collateral branch of the Nemanjić dynasty. Milica's father, Prince Vratko, was a direct descendant of Vukan, the eldest son of Stefan Nemanja. In addition to Stefan, they had seven other children.

Marriage

On 12 September 1405, Stefan married Helena Gattilusio, the daughter of Francesco II of Lesbos. According to Konstantin the Philosopher, Stefan first saw his wife in Lesbos, where Francesco II offered him a choice among his daughters; the marriage was arranged "with the advice and participation" of Helena's sister, Empress Eirene. There is no mention of Helena after her marriage to Stefan; this led British historian Anthony Luttrell to remark that "apparently there were never any children; nothing is known of her death or burial; and, most unusually, she did not appear in any of the post-1402 fresco portraits of Stefan". Luttrell concludes, "Maybe she was too young for the marriage to be consummated, and perhaps she stayed on Lesbos and never traveled to Serbia; possibly she died soon after her marriage."

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="4" | Stefan's brothers and sisters

| colspan="4" style="text-align:center; background:#e49b0f;"| Stefan's brothers

|- style="text-align:center; background:#efdead;"

| Name || style="text-align:center; background:#efdead;"| Lifespan || style="text-align:center; background:#efdead;"| Title

| Dobrovoj || style="text-align:center;"| (Died as a child) ||

| Vuk || style="text-align:center;"| (c. 1380–1410) || prince

| colspan="4" style="text-align:center; background:#e49b0f;"| Stefan's sisters

|- style="text-align:center; background:#efdead;"

|| Name || style="text-align:center; background:#efdead;"| Lifespan || style="text-align:center; background:#efdead;"| Marriages

| Мara || style="text-align:center;"| (?–1426) || Vuk Branković, c. 1371 || style="text-align:center;"| (1371–1395) || Ivan (1371–1395) or his son Alexander, c. 1386 In the battle, Marko and Konstantin were killed, and Bayezid annexed their lands, largely to boost his economy. According to Constantine the Philosopher in his Life of Stefan Lazarević, before the battle, Marko said to Konstantin: "I pray God to help the Christians and that I will be among the first dead in this war."

The Ottoman forces then took Vidin, and, reinforced by Serbian detachments, marched into Banat during the summer of 1396, after attacking the lands of Vuk Branković and conquering a large part of it, including Priština.

thumb|left|200px|[[Iron Gates]]

The Wallachian victory at Rovine sparked a crusade in which forces from France, Burgundy, Germany, and other European countries joined the Hungarian king Sigismund and Mircea I, with the Venetian fleet, which was to enter the Danube from the Black Sea and support the army on the mainland. The crusader forces gathered in Hungary, after which they crossed the Danube and took Vidin. After that, the march continued down the Danube. Nicopolis, which had a large Ottoman garrison, was besieged. The siege broke the blockade of Constantinople, forcing Bayezid to send troops towards the Danube, joining forces with Stefan Lazarević's heavy cavalry near Plovdiv. A great battle took place on 25 September 1396 in which the Crusader forces were destroyed. Although numerically superior, the Crusader army lacked a joint command and thus was poorly coordinated on the battlefield. Also, they were ignorant of the Ottoman army's methods. After an initial Crusader success, the Ottomans initiated a counterattack that ended with the entry of the Hungarian knights into the battle. In this turning point of the battle, the Serbian heavy cavalry, led by Stefan Lazarević himself, broke through the Hungarian lines and surrounded King Sigismund, attacking the Hungarian banner troops of Nicholas II Garay. Garay's troops were dispersed, which had a decisive effect, because some of the Crusaders thought that Sigismund had been killed and that the battle was lost, while the Hungarian commanders convinced Sigismund that the battle was practically lost and that it was better to withdraw. After that, the Crusader lines fell apart, and a carnage ensued. One of the participants in the battle, Johann Schiltberger, described the Serbian attack:

thumb|right|200px|[[Battle of Nikopolis (pictured by Jean Froissart by 1398)]]

According to some, Serbian forces were hidden in a grove on the left wing of Bayezid's forces, making possible a sudden attack on the Hungarians, probably on their flank. A significant part was played by Stephen II Lackfi and Mircea I, who withdrew their forces from the battlefield just before Stefan's attack, leaving Sigismund without support. They had possibly connived with Stefan before the battle. Sigismund managed to escape on a fisherman's boat to the Venetian ships on the Danube. It is possible that Stefan purposely left enough time for Sigismund to board the boat; Stefan saving Sigismund may be one of the causes of Stefan's later induction into the Order of the Dragon, as the first and foremost.

There were disastrous consequences for the Balkan Christians after the defeat at the Battle of Nicopolis. Vidin was destroyed, Athens was occupied (1397), the Despotate of Morea was devastated once again, the fall of Constantinople became practically inevitable, and the land of Vuk Branković was taken by the Ottomans. Vuk Branković was captured and soon died in captivity (1397). Most of his area was transferred to the control of Stefan Lazarević, a small portion (centered in Vučitrn) was left to Branković's wife Mara and his sons (Đurađ, Grgur, and Lazar), while the Ottomans retained strategic locations under their direct rule. In addition, the Ottoman forces marched into Hungary and plundered its southern parts, especially Zemun and Dmitrovica.

Ottoman incursion into Bosnia

In January 1398, the Ottomans continued the offensive in the Balkans and attacked the Bosnian Kingdom. The leader of the campaign was one of Bayezid's sons, Musa Çelebi, with Prince Stefan attached to him with a smaller force. This campaign, besides looting Bosnia, did not achieve any success. The biggest culprit, according to Stefan's biographer, was a very bad winter.

thumb|right|200px|Ruins of the fortress of [[Ostrvica (castle)|Ostrvica]]

A faction of the nobility tried to take advantage of Stefan's campaign to oust him from his throne. The faction leaders, dukes Novak Belocrkvić and Nikola Zojić, sought military aid from Voivode Mihajlo and, to the sultan, tried to blame the failure of the Bosnian campaign on Stefan's connections with Sigismund. The exact course of further events is not precisely known, but it is evident that Stefan knew of the plot, being informed of it via Mihajlo. Duke Nikola was assassinated. Seeing that, Duke Novak took monastic vows and ceded his lands to Stefan, saving his life. Bayezid is reported to have held Stefan in high esteem, bestowing upon him a respect which he was not accustomed to give to his Christian vassals, or even his own sons:

Battle of Ankara

The relationship between Prince Stefan and the Branković family over the years is not known from historical sources. It is known that the Brankovićs were able, with the money that Vuk Branković left to guard the Kotor and the Republic of Ragusa, to recover some of their former lands. In early 1402, their land included parts of Kosovo, Polimlje, Sjenica, and Brskovo, and since the spring of that year, they became Bayezid's vassals, with the same responsibilities Prince Stefan had. Beyond their control remained Zvečan, Jeleč, and Gluhavica, which were held by the Ottomans, and Priština, which we know from March of the same year was part of the lands of Stefan Lazarević.

Great changes in Asia Minor and Southeastern Europe were caused by an invasion of the Tatars under the leadership of Tamerlane. His invasion of Asia Minor forced Bayezid I to gather his forces and confront him in battle, which took place on 28 July 1402, near Angora (Ankara). In this battle, Ottoman forces suffered defeat, Bayezid I and one of his sons, Musa Çelebi, were captured, and the following year Bayezid died in captivity. One of the main reasons for the Ottoman defeat was the desertion of Turkic and Tartar cavalry from Anatolia, which, before the beginning of the battle, defected to Timur's side, unhappy with Bayezid's rule and having a sense of camaraderie with the forces of Timur. This allowed Timur's forces to break Bayezid's left wing and encircle his center, where the Sultan was located with his janissaries (around 10,000). On the right wing, there were Bayezid's vassals, among whom were Đurađ Branković and his brother Grgur, Stefan's brother Vuk, and Stefan himself, who was also a commander of the right wing. He fought bravely, which Timur admired. Stefan and his knights—who, according to chronicler Duka and several contemporaries, consisted of 5,000 heavily armed men with spears, including cavalry During the fight, Prince Stefan was wounded, while Gregory Branković was captured and later released. In the meantime, Bayezid was captured with his son Musa, and his harem, where Stefan's sister,Olivera, was.

One of the reasons Stefan honored his vassal obligations to Bayezid was the desire to keep the Serbian-Ottoman Alliance strong under looming Hungarian pressure. Another was that Stefan's sister, Olivera, was married to the Sultan. She was captured in the battle and later released through an agreement that was signed between Stefan and Timur. It seems that a ransom was not paid, thanks to the great respect that Timur had for Stefan. She returned to Serbia in spring 1403, and a little later she settled permanently in Stefan's castle, in Belgrade. A group of imprisoned Serbs was taken to Samarkand, where they were employed on construction works. On the other hand, Timur's forces had already left Asia Minor in 1403, and Timur himself died in early 1405, during his expedition to China. In the Ottoman Empire, Bayezid's capture and then his death brought on a civil war between his sons for the throne, a war known as the Ottoman Interregnum.

Stay at Constantinople

thumb|200px|[[Vuk Lazarević|Vuk and Stefan (Fresco from Ljubostinja monastery 1402 – 1405)]]

From Bursa, Stefan and his brother Vuk Lazarević went to Constantinople, which had been relieved after several years of Ottoman blockade. In August 1402, John VII Palaiologos (who ruled in place of his absent uncle, Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos) awarded Stefan the high Byzantine title of Despot, which in the Byzantine hierarchy was just beneath imperial rank. Around Galatia, they managed to destroy some of the ships, but Süleyman's forces still managed to cross the Bosporus Strait.

thumb|250px|View of [[Golubac fortress.]]

The great battle between the two sons of Bayezid occurred on 15 June in the, on the banks of the Golden Horn, in front of the Byzantine land walls of Constantinople. Musa's forces suffered a defeat, and when he left the battlefield, the Despot Stefan pulled back from the battle. whose heroic commander was killed, having led an effective resistance. In addition, Musa's troops, according to reports in March that were sent from Novo Brdo to Dubrovnik, devastated Toplica and Braničevo. the Byzantines, and legates at the Republic of Venice. He stated that in the case of the creation of a broader anti-Ottoman coalition, Serbia would join it. During the period of peace, Stefan had finished his monumental endowment, the Manasija monastery, near present-day Despotovac. Its construction began in 1407 but was repeatedly interrupted by conflicts with the Ottoman Empire (1409, 1411–1413); it was finished in 1418.

Stefan was a patron of art and culture, providing support and shelter to scholars from Serbia and exiles from surrounding countries occupied by the Ottomans. He was educated at his parents' home, and he spoke and wrote Serbo-Slavic; he also could speak Greek and was familiar with Latin. Under his rule, he issued the Code of Mines in 1412 in Novo Brdo, the economic center of Serbia.

thumb|right|200px|Signature of Despot Stefan.

He was an author, and his main works include Slovo ljubve (A Homage to Love), which he dedicated to his brother Vuk, and Natpis na mramornom stubu na Kosovo (Inscription on the Marble Pillar at Kosovo).

Some works he wrote during his reign have been preserved. During his reign, a rich transcribing activity – the transcription School of Resava – was founded at the Manasija monastery. More Christian works, and classical works, were transcribed there than in all times preceding the despot's rule.

thumb|left|200px|The remains of Stefan's Castle in the northwestern part of the Upper Town of Belgrade Fortress, which was destroyed during [[Great Turkish War 1688–1690. The citadel or inner town was first designed as a Byzantium fortress in the twelfth century. It was rebuilt during the rule of despot Stefan Lazarevic during the period between 1404 and 1427.]]

During the short time that the life of the founder and monastery coincided (1407–27), so much was achieved in Resava that it remained an important and outstanding monument to the history of Serbia and to Slavic culture in general. It was there that Bulgarian-born Constantine the Philosopher, a reputable "Serbian teacher", translator, and historian, established the famous orthographic school of Resava to correct errors in the ecclesiastical literature incurred by numerous translations and incorrect transcriptions, and to thoroughly change the previous orthography.

Constantine's essay on how Slavic books should be written recommended a complicated orthography that subsequently many authors adopted and used for a long time. Regardless of subsequent criticism of this endeavor, the very fact that in Serbia in the 15th century, an essay was written on orthography and its rules is important. Until the very end of the 17th century, documents confirm the outstanding reputation of translations and transcripts originating from the Resava School.

Death

Like most of the rulers and noblemen of those times, Despot Stefan loved and used to saddle his horse often and ride with his escort to hunt in nearby villages. On one of the returns from the castle in Belgrade Fortress, finding himself near the place known as Glava, or Glavica, at Mt. Kosmaj, Stefan stopped his escort to ride out to hunt. As accustomed, he stretched his hand forward to let the hawk onto it, but his body did not move. The whole escort noticed the way his body was leaning from one side to the other, becoming aware that something unusual was happening. Everybody knew his imposing pose on a horse, and they all doubtfully watched him fall to the ground helplessly. According to Constantine the Philosopher, his sudden death on 19 July 1427 was accompanied by a storm that made the sky over Belgrade turn black, and the thunder covered his whispered last words, "Get George, get George!"

Stefan's death was experienced as the Last Judgement, a disaster, as Judgement Day among people. Dreading future troubles, the whole state grieved for their ruler, whom they knew from the beginning as "the chosen messenger of the new age". The death presaged the hardest period in the history of the Serbian state and people, represented by the destruction of the loss of state identity. The old Byzantine-South Slavonic prophecies (the Revelation of Pseudo-Methodius, the apocryphal Visions of Daniel, and the Oracles of Leo the Wise) are usually interpreted as Ishmaelite, that is, Muslim, conquests as a result of Christian sins. For the Orthodox Christians, in the 15th century, this topos became especially alluring, since it corresponded to the idea of "the end of the world" in the year 7000 "from the creation of the world" (=1491/1492 AD), according to the Byzantine calendar.

left|thumb|The tomb of despot Stefan in the Manasija monastery

To preserve the memory of the passing of the favored and honored ruler, a stone marker was erected at the place where Stefan fell off his horse. In saying farewell to their master, his closest associates, who were escorting him at the moment of the accident, built a monument of marble, leaving messages of loyalty and respect. These inscriptions show the monument was built by Đurađ Zubrović, a nobleman from the territory, to which the hamlet Glava belonged, as well as a knight from Despot's escort. Stefan was buried at Resava.

thumb|Case with the relics of despot Stefan, [[Koporin|Koporin Monastery]]

Many researchers believe that the cause of death of the despot Stefan was a stroke or a heart attack, while some doubt this, looking for the cause in a conspiracy, using statements of his biographer Constantine the Philosopher: "When he was in a place called Glavica, having lunch he went out to hunt, and while he was still hunting...". These researchers suspect that the despot Stefan was poisoned. He probably became more pro-Western than he should have been. From the Serbian perspective, there was a difference between the Eastern and Western world, with Serbia situated somewhere between the two.

Veneration

thumb|Fresco in [[Lazarica Church|Church of the Holy First Martyr Stephen, Belgrade, Serbia]]

The Serbian Orthodox Church canonized Stefan on 1 August 1927, the 500th anniversary of his death, under the name Saint Despot Stefan of Serbia, although he is more commonly referred to as Saint Stefan the Tall. He is commemorated on 1 August (19 July according to the Julian calendar) alongside his mother, Saint Eugenia. A reliquary which is believed to contain his remains is housed in the Koporin monastery and is opened twice a year, on 1 August, the saint's feast day, and 15 August, the feast of the translation of the relics of Saint Stephen, which is the monastery's slava (feast day).

In 2023, Saint Despot Stefan was chosen to be the patron saint of the Serbian Armed Forces, with his feast becoming the army's slava.

Literary works

Apart from the biographical notes in charters and especially in the Code on The Mine Novo Brdo (1412), Stefan Lazarević wrote three literary works:

The Grave Sobbing for prince Lazar (1389)
The Inscription on the Kosovo Marble Column (1404)
A Homage to Love (1409), a poetic epistle to his brother Vuk
Law on Mines
Translation of a Greek work titled On Future Times

He was probably the patron of the most extensively illuminated Serbian manuscript, the Serbian Psalter, which is now kept in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.

Titles

"Lord(Gospodar) of all the Serbs and Podunavlje" (), inherited through his father.
An inscription names him Despot, Lord "of all Serbs and Podunavlje and Posavje and part of Hungarian lands and Bosnian [lands], and also Maritime Zeta" ().
"Despot of the Kingdom of Rascia and Lord of Serbia" ().
"Despot, Lord of Rascia" (), in the founding charter of the Order of the Dragon (1408). He was the first on the list.
"Despot, Lord of all Serbs and the Maritime" ().

References

Sources

External links

Manasija
What was the decisive moment at the battle of Nicopolis (Armchair General, Joshua Gilbert, 08.08.2008)
Astronomical motifs in Serbian medieval numismatics (Coins of Despot Stefan Lazarević)