Stefan Lazarevich

Early years

The main medieval source of information about the life of Stefan Lazarevich is the " Life of Stefan Lazarevich ", compiled by Konstantin Philosopher around 1433. Stefan was born in 1377 in the capital of Moravian Serbia - Krusevac . His father was the last independent ruler of Serbia, Prince Lazar Hrebelyanovich , his mother was Militsa from a suppressed royal family of Nemanichi . Stefan had five sisters and a younger brother, (1380-1410).

Stephen's father died in the battle of Kosovo in 1389. Management of the country was carried out by mother Militsa, when Stefan reached adulthood, she went to the monastery of Lyubostinya , where she died in 1405. Both parents of Stephen were counted as saints.

After the death of Prince Lazar, Moravian Serbia was in a difficult position. She was surrounded by powerful neighbors while her military forces were weakened by defeat in the battle of Kosovo. Already in the autumn of 1389, the army of the Hungarian king Sigismund crossed the Sava and captured the fortress of Borach and Chestin. In such circumstances, the cathedral of the Serbian nobility, supported by Patriarch Spyridon, decided to seek peace with the Ottomans and recognize their suzerainty. The peace treaty with Sultan Bayazid was signed in the first half of 1390. According to its conditions, Serbia pledged to pay tribute and, if necessary, send an auxiliary army to the Turks. Stephen Oliver’s sister became one of Bayazid’s wives in his harem, and Stephen himself had to come to the Sultan’s court every year and confirm his allegiance. After signing the agreement, the Turkish detachment helped the Serbs to recapture the fortresses previously occupied by the Hungarians.

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Stefan took part as an Ottoman vassal in all the battles of Sultan Bayazid I , who took his younger sister Stephen Oliver to his harem . Among others, he participated in the battle of Nikopol with the Bulgarians in 1396, which led to the fall of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom , and in the battle of Rovinj . The right to this title was granted to him by the emperor of Constantinople, with whom Stephen met on the way back to Serbia. Upon returning to his homeland, Stefan won the fight with his nephew George Brankovic for supremacy in Serbia. To do this, he entered into an alliance with the Hungarian king Sigismund , recognizing his suzerainty. His opponent Brankovich made a bet on the young Sultan Suleiman and miscalculated. In the decisive battle, George II Balsic , the ruler of the Principality of Zeta , brought his army to the aid of his brother-in-law. As a reward for loyalty, Sigismund endowed Stefan with lands in Vojvodina , which included the cities of Zemun , Mitrovica and Apatine . Also under his control were the key Danube fortresses - Belgrade and Golubatskaya . Stefan paid great attention to decorating the monastery of Manasia he founded, introduced knightly tournaments in Serbia in the western style and was one of the first to use firearms in the Balkans .

Stefan Lazarevich as a Turkish vassal in 1402 took part in the Battle of Angora , which temporarily stopped the Turkish expansion in the Balkans. In the same year, Stephen visited Constantinople, where the Byzantine emperor granted him the title of despot . It was the highest title of the Byzantine nobility, the first after the royal; according to other sources, the title was considered more significant than the title of king (Stetskevich, 1957) ^[1] . After that, the Serbian ruler came out of obedience to the Turks and in 1403 concluded an agreement with the Hungarian king Sigmund , hoping to gain support in the fight against Turkish aggression. Having become a vassal of Hungary, Stefan took control of King Belgrade ^{[comm. 3]} . However, the Hungarians did not provide effective assistance to the despot. Stefan was a member of the Hungarian Dragon Order .

In September 1405, Stefan married Elena ^[3] - the daughter of the lesbian despot Gattilusio , who was the sister of Irina, the wife of the Byzantine emperor John VII Paleologue . They had no children, so the nephew - Georgy Brankovich inherited the right to possess Stefan.

Meanwhile, the Serbian lands were torn by civil strife. Lazarevichi were in bad relations with Brankovichi , who owned Serbian lands in the south. Stephen’s brother sought to receive part of the despot’s possessions. In addition, Stefan was involved in the struggle of applicants for power in Turkey. The heyday of mining in Serbia allowed the despot to remain an independent ruler ^{[comm. 4]} . Stefan managed to strengthen the centralization of power in the country, confiscating the lands of rebellious feudal lords. At this time, the prerogatives of sovereign abuses were limited. Despot encouraged the development of local crafts and trade, tried to limit the activities of foreign merchants, especially from Dubrovnik . Belgrade and a number of other cities received wide privileges (Belgrade received freedom from customs duties). In 1412, Stefan issued , which regulated mining.

Stefan had good neighborly relations with the Zeta ruler, his nephew, Balsha III . After the death of Balsha in 1421, Zeta passed into the possession of Stefan Lazarevich, who for some time was forced to continue the war with Venice for the possession of coastal cities. The war ended in peace with Venice, according to which Stefan ceded to her the cities of Kotor , Ulcinj , Lesh, Skadar and the coastal region of Petrovichi. In the mountain Zeta, where influential feudal lords lived, including the Chernoyevichs , Stephen's power was weak.

In the second quarter of the 15th century, the Serbian state, fortified by Stefan Lazarevich, being in vassal dependence on both Turkey and Hungary, was clamped down by enemies from all sides and began to decline. Childless Stefan declared his nephew George Brankovich ^[4] .

By the time of Stefan Lazarevich’s reign, there was the approval in Serbia of one of the state symbols of Byzantium - a white cross with four flames (now the Serbian cross ), along with a two-headed eagle: this, among other things, is evidenced by coins from the time of Stefan and the coat of arms of 1425 ^[5] .

In historical works, Stefan Lazarevich is called the “thunderous king”, which was difficult to look at like the sun ^[6] .

Stefan was a pious ruler, giving alms to the poor, and providing shelter to strangers. Once he met a thief whom he bestowed with money, saying: "Accept, thief, and do not steal." To which the thief replied: “I am not a thief, but you, because you are stealing the Kingdom of Heaven from you, exchanging it for the earthly.” He was not interested in music and dancing. I was not fond of female beauty. Lived a monastic life. In recent years, Stefan hurt his legs ^[7] .

Death

Stephen died of a heart attack at noon (the fifth hour after dawn according to church time) on Saturday , August 1 ( July 19 ), 1427 . That day he stopped near the modern city of Kragujevac , returning from his summer residence in ^[8] to Belgrade. Having lunch, Stefan went hunting. Riding a horse, he was seized by a heart attack. He was dying, lying in a tent. His last words related to his nephew George , declared heir ^[9] . Juraj Zubrovich, who accompanied Stefan, erected a marble obelisk with the inscription on the site of the death of the latter, which is currently located in the church yard in the area of .

Buried in the monastery of , removed in a straight line at a distance of 71 km from Belgrade ^{[comm. 5]} in the north of Shumadiya . In subsequent centuries, the monastery was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, the burial place of the ruler remained unknown. In 1974, during the repair work under the fresco depicting Stefan holding the church of the Koporin monastery in his hand, a tomb was discovered. To establish the ownership of the remains in 1983-1989, anthropological and paleopathological examinations were carried out in Belgrade and London (the British Museum and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital ). At the direction of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the relics of the saint were laid in cancer ^[10] .

• 1397-1402 : the prince.
• 1402 - 1427 : By the mercy of God, Mr. Srblem despot Stefan , or by the Grace of God, Mr. Srblem to all Srblem and Podunaviyu ( Pomor ) despot Stefan ^[11] ; in Latin: Stephanus dei gratia regni Rassia despotus et dominus Servie ^[12] .

Despite the fact that in the second half of the 15th - beginning of the 15th centuries Serbia was fragmented and fought hard against Turkish expansion, literature continued to develop in the country, which during the reign of Stefan Lazarevich was flourishing. Despot, being a champion of enlightenment, surrounded himself with the famous Bulgarian scribes - Gregory Tsamblak and Konstantin the Philosopher . The second of them managed the library of Stefan Lazarevich, and around 1433 wrote “The Life of Stefan Lazarevich”, in which, in addition to the activities of the ruler, he described the state of the country at that time (for the first time in history, he narrated the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 ). In the XIV-XV centuries, the so-called second South Slavic influence on Russia fell: among the Serbian writings in Russia, the Life of Stefan Lazarevich was rewritten and revised. Stefan himself wrote a poetic message “ ”, dedicated to his beloved sister or bride (according to other sources, his brother ^[13] ), with whom the author experienced separation ^[14] . He, presumably, belongs to the authorship of “Tombstone sobbing over Prince Lazarus” (a fragment of the text has been preserved), as well as the famous (1400 or 1404) ^{[15] [comm. 6]} .

In the lengthy life of Stefan Lazarevich there is a story about how this ruler, dressed as a simple man, went to give alms to the poor. One of the beggars three times approached the ruler for alms, and he rebuked him for greed. Then the beggar in response reproached Stephen that he “reigns on the earth and wants to earn the kingdom of heaven”. This plot was used in the life of Prince Ivan Kalita from Volokolamsk paterik ^[16] .

"The Life of Stefan Lazarevich" was compiled by a despot's contemporary Konstantin Philosopher around 1433: after his death, Stefan appeared to Konstantin and ordered the Bulgarian scribe to write a life about himself. Soon after his death, Stephen was already called a saint. In Serbian genealogies, compiled around 1597 and in the second half of the XVII century, he is called "blessed and holy." In the correspondence of Serbian monks with Pope Clement of the seventeenth and sixteenth century, the “holy despot body,” located in the Ravanice Monastery , is mentioned . Stephen was portrayed with a halo in numerous frescoes signed by the "holy king". From the 15th century, Stefan was revered as a saint in Russia. Since the 17th century it was mentioned as a saint in Czech months. The sculpture of Stephen was allegedly installed among the Hungarian rulers in the Catholic monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos on .

Dimitri, Metropolitan of Belgrade, in 1907 and 1912 came up with a proposal to the bishops' councils of the Serbian Kingdom to canonize Stefan Lazarevich, who built churches and contributed to the development of book publishing. In 1924, at the Bishops' Council in Ovens, Patriarch Serbian Demetrius again raised the issue of ranking Stephen as a saint, in which a number of bishops cautiously approached his decision.

At a vigil on August 1 ( July 19 ), 1927 , Patriarch Demetrius, on the day of the despot's death, proclaimed Stephen holy ^[17] ( blessed ^[18] ).

Comments

Sources

• Works by Stefan Lazarevich Rastko Project (Serb.)
• Certificate of Stefan Lazarevich From the State Archives of Dubrovnik (1186-1479)
• Vladimir Chorovi. Srbi will change Turak and Mazar (Serb.) . Internet library "Rastko" . Date of appeal September 26, 2017.
• Vladimir Chorovi. Maђarska reigned in Bosnia and Srbiјi (Serb.) . Internet library "Rastko" . Date of appeal September 26, 2017.
• Vladimir Chorovi. Settled by Srbiјa (Serb.) . Internet library "Rastko" . Date of appeal September 26, 2017.
• Mihailović-Milošević Sena. Književni lik despota Stefana Lazarevića u Žitiju Konstantina Filozofa (Serbian) . "Baština". Date of treatment July 5, 2018.