Crnojević

The Crnojevići ( Montenegrin - Cyrillic Црнојевићи ) were an important Montenegrin noble family in the principality of Zeta . They ruled over an area in what is now Montenegro and Albania from 1426 to 1516.

Lineage and advancement

The Crnojević dynasty descends from the Serbian nobleman Đuraš Ilijić . This was a close follower of Tsar Stefan Dušan , whom he had supported in 1331 when he came to power in Serbia . The Tsar commissioned uraš Ilijić in 1355 with a campaign to southern Dalmatia , which at the time was disputed between the Serbian Empire , the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary . Đuraš and two of his nephews raised an army and conquered the port town of Skradin in late 1355 . In the meantime Tsar Stefan Dušan had died and his successor Stefan Uroš V ordered Skradin to be handed over to the Venetians. Đuraš Ilijić received some possessions in the Zeta as compensation. This is how the ancestor of the Crnojevići came to what is now Montenegro.

In this area, the Balšići ( Albanian  Balsha or Balshaj ;) tried to take advantage of the collapse of the Serbian Empire and to build up their own principality . The ambitions of Đuraš 'stood in the way and he was killed by Balša I in 1362 . During the following two generations, the history of the Ilijić (or Crnojević) family was shaped by the struggle for self-assertion on the Montenegrin coast, with opposition to the powerful Balšići / Balsha being the determining element.

The three brothers Rade, Stefan and Dobrivoje were the first to call themselves the Crnojević family. They were able to win the city of Budva and made it the center of their domain. Rade had good relations with the Republic of Ragusa , which gave him honorary citizenship. His attempts to conquer Kotor were unsuccessful , while he was able to bring the Serbian tribes Grbalj and Paštrović in the hinterland of Zeta under his rule. In 1396 Rade fell fighting the troops of Stracimir von Balšić.

The Crnojevići as princes of Zeta

In the following generation, the brothers Đurađ and Aleksa were able to consolidate the position of the Crnojevići in the Zeta, while the power of the Balšići was in decline. After the death of Balšić III. In 1421 and years of power struggles, Stefan Crnojević finally prevailed. From 1426 to 1465 he was the first of his family to be Prince of Zeta. The Ottoman conquest of the Serbian state of Đura von Branković and the incorporation of Bosnia into the Ottoman Empire fell during his reign . Together with the Balšići and Albanian princes, the Zeta was now at the forefront in the defensive battle against Ottoman expansion.

Stefan married Mara , the daughter of Prince Gjon Kastrioti I of Kruja , the father of the famous Gjergj Kastrioti , known as Skanderbeg . In 1444 he joined the League of Lezha formed by Skanderbeg , in which the Christian princes of the region had allied to fight the Muslim Turks. In 1455 Stefan recognized the nominal sovereignty of the Venetians in order to secure their help against the Turks in this way. When Stefan died in 1465, he left his son Ivan - given the difficult geopolitical situation - a reasonably secure principality.

Monument in Cetinje

In contrast to his father, Ivan Crnojević (reign: 1465–1490) broke the alliance with the Serenissima and tried to conquer their possessions in the Bay of Kotor . After the Turks returned to Shkodra in 1478 and had conquered Herzegovina in the meantime , he again sought an alliance with the Venetians. In 1478 he participated in the defense of Shkodra against the Turkish besiegers. But when the Ottomans took this important bulwark in 1479, Ivan moved his seat of government from the endangered Žabljak on Lake Skadar to the mountains east of Lovćen . Here he founded a Christian Orthodox monastery in 1482, which became the nucleus of Cetinje , later the capital of Montenegro. This event roughly marks the transition from medieval Zeta to early modern Montenegro.

From 1490 to 1496 Đurađ Crnojević , Ivan's eldest son, ruled . The educated ruler set up a printing works in Cetinje in 1493, in which religious books were printed in Church Slavonic until 1496 . Five titles have survived to this day.

Three other princes from the Crnojević family followed until 1516: Stefan II (1496–1498), Ivan II (1498–1515) and Đurađ (1515–1516). The latter resigned in the face of gloomy prospects of permanently asserting his principality against the Ottomans. In the meantime the Turks had already conquered the plains northwest of Lake Skadar and the free Montenegrins were left with only the barren mountain regions in the triangle between the Lovćen, Orjen and Prokletije mountains . Đurađ passed power to the Bishop of Cetinje and withdrew to Venice .

More family members

• Skanderbeg Crnojević , last descendant of the Crnojević dynasty

See also

• History of Montenegro

literature

• Franz Miklosich : The Serbian dynasty Crnojević. A contribution to the history of Montenegro. In: Session reports of the philosophical-historical class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Vol. 112, Issue 1, 1886, pp. 29-92, ( digitized ).
• Dragoje Živković: Istorija crnogorskog naroda. Volume 1: Od starijeg kamog doba do kraja srednjeg vijeka. Obod, Cetinje 1989.
• Jovan N. Tomić: Crnojevići i Crna Gora od 1479. do 1528. god. In: Glas Srpske Kraljevske Akademije. Vol. 58, 1900, pp. 143-200; Vol. 60, 1901, pp. 65-152; Vol. 62, 1901, pp. 47-111.

Web links

• Crnojevići. In: Digital Library of the Culture and Heritage of Montenegro