Stepan Ostoy

Stepan Ostoy ( Serb. Stepan Ostoka ) - King of Bosnia from the Kotromanic dynasty in 1398-1404 and in 1409-1418.

The exact origin of Stepan Ostoi remains unclear, it is only known that he belongs to the Kotromanichi family ^[1] . According to the most common version, Stefan Ostoy was the illegitimate son of the first king of Bosnia, Tvrtko I ^[2] .

After the powerful nobility of Bosnia ceased to establish the power of Queen Elena Gruba , they prepared a change of ruler. One of the main initiators of the removal of Helen was the powerful nobleman Hrvo Vuccic . Being a principal adversary of the Hungarian king Sigismund , Vukcic wanted to have his whole creed on the Bosnian throne. The replacement on the throne of Elena by Stepan Ostoy was made in 1398, and there was no repression against the ousted queen, she continued to live in the court. Sigismund reacted to the removal of Elena with hostility, however, busy with other affairs, he could not put up big forces against Bosnia. After several clashes, the Hungarian army was forced to retreat.

Heavily dependent on Vukchich, Stepan Ostoy supported Vladislav Neapolsky in the struggle for the Hungarian throne, made every effort to ensure that the Dalmatian cities recognized Vladislav as the rightful king of Hungary. Perhaps, trying to get out of Vukchich’s control, the king in 1403 started a war with Ragusa on his own initiative, using as an excuse that Dubrovnik granted refuge to a number of personal enemies of the king. After a short-term conflict with the Republic of Dubrovnik, Ostoy unexpectedly made peace with King Sigismund , realizing that Vladislav had little chance in the fight for the Hungarian throne. Reconciliation with Sigismund caused a sharp hostility towards Ostoy on the part of Hrvoe Vukcic ^[1] .

In 1404, Hrvoie Vuccic and other representatives of the nobility removed Ostoy from power and replaced him on the throne with his brother Tvrtko II . Ostoy was forced to flee to Hungary, where he humiliatedly asked Sigismund for help against Vukcic. Since Vukcic was a supporter of Vladislav and an enemy of Sigismund, the Hungarian king placed the army at the disposal of Ostoy, but only Bobovac was able to conquer it. From that moment, the power of Ostoya extended only to Bobovac, where the Hungarian garrison was located, and its surroundings; the rest of Bosnia was nominally ruled by Tvrtko II , but actually Hrvo Vuccic , who at that moment reached the peak of his power, being a ban of Croatia, the Grand Duke of Bosnia and the Duke of Split ^[1] .

A few years later, however, the balance of power changed. Sigismund achieved a decisive advantage in his fight against the Croats and Vladislav Neapolsky, which finally allowed him to abandon his main forces against Bosnia. In 1408, the 60,000th royal army defeated the Bosnians near Dobor . The power of Vukchich and other princes was broken, and Stefan Ostoy was again enthroned. After his re-accession, Ostoy recognized himself as a vassal of Sigismund.

After the death of Hrvoje Vukcic in 1416, King Ostoja divorced his wife Kuyava from Radenovich’s house and married Vukchich’s widow Elena Nelipchich, thus taking over most of Vukcic’s lands. The last years of the king’s life were marked by the chaos in which Bosnia was plunged due to numerous strife and information accounts between nobles, in which the king himself took part. Ostoy died in 1418, he was succeeded by his son Stepan Ostoich .