Vukašin Mrnjavčević
Vukašin Mrnjavčević (* approx. 1320 ; † 1371 ) was an important Serbian nobleman in what is now Macedonia on the eve of the Ottoman expansion in the Balkans .
Vukašin Mrnjavčević is mentioned in 1350 as Župan of Prilep . Later the Serbian tsar Stefan Uroš V elevated him to the rank of despot , which was followed from 1365 by the title of king under the tsar's supremacy .
His influence extended over an area that included Prizren , Skopje , Ohrid and Prilep. He maintained good relations with his brother, the despot Jovan Uglješa , who ruled an area around the city of Serres and the lower Struma . As a result, Vukašin became one of the most powerful feudal lords, pushed the ruling tsar into political sideline through clever tactics and established himself as the supreme administrator of the Serbian Empire, which was not accepted by the entire Serbian nobility, so u. a. by Lazar Hrebeljanović , which ultimately accelerated the fragmentation of the Serbian Empire. The suspicion arose that Vukašin wanted to push the last Nemanjid from the throne.
His sovereignty was recognized by the Serbian princes in Macedonia and by the Balšić in the Zeta , one reason for this may have been to secure the transition from governorship to hereditary rule, while the Serbian princes in so-called Morava Serbia (in the Šumadija and the Morava region) and even in Travunia , his region of origin, were hostile to him. In the southern regions of the empire, in Thessaly and Epirus , on the other hand, Dušan's half-brother Simeon Uroš Palaiologos had become independent, the latter also followed by a large part of the Albanian princes. Thus, Vukašin actually only ruled Macedonia.
In 1371 he created a Christian coalition against the Ottomans, which his brother and the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman joined. The Turkish army was led by the Lala Şahin Paşa , who was a Beylerbey of Rumelia . Both armies met in the Battle of the Mariza , where on September 26, 1371 the Ottomans, despite being numerically inferior, routed the Christian contingent and destroyed them.
Vukašin died during the battle and his kingdom was annexed to the Ottoman Empire.
See also
literature
- Frank Kämper: Vukašin , in: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 4. Munich 1981, p. 450 f.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mrnjavčević, Vukašin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vukašin; Vlkašin; Volcassinus; Vulchasinus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Serbian nobleman, despot and king |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1320 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1371 |