Dušan the Mighty
King of Serbia, Emperor of the Serbs and the Greeks
Reign	king (September 8, 1331 – April 16, 1346) emperor (emperor) (April 16, 1346 – December 20, 1355).
Full name	Stefan Uroš IV Nemanjić
Born	c. 1308
Died	20 December 1355
Buried	St. Mark's Church, Belgrade
Predecessor	Stefan of Dečani
Successor	Uroš the Weak
Consort	Helena of Bulgaria
Royal House	House of Nemanjić
Father	Stefan Uroš III Dečanski
Mother	Theodora of Bulgaria

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan¹ (c.1308 – 20 December 1355), called Silni ("the Mighty"), was the King of Serbia (from 8 September 1331) and Emperor (Tsar) of the Serbs and Greeks (from 16 April 1345). Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial peak and, as the Serbian Empire was one of the larger states in Europe at the time. Apart from significant territorial gains, in 1349 and 1354 he made and enforced Dušan's Code, a universal system of laws. He is also the only ruler from the house of Nemanjić who may not have been canonised as a saint soon after his death. Dušan was also noted as a man of gigantic proportions, and according to Papal ambassadors he was the tallest man of his time, estimated at close to seven feet tall.

His Crown is kept at the Cetinje Monastery in Montenegro.

Biography

Youth and usurpation

He was the eldest son of Stefan Uroš III Dečanski and Theodora of Bulgaria, the daughter of emperor Smilets of Bulgaria. Early in his life he visited Constantinople, where his father had been exiled, and he spent around seven years there (1314–1320). There he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Byzantine life and culture, and became acquainted with the Byzantine Empire. He was, on the whole, more a soldier than a diplomat. In his youth he fought exceptionally in two battles; in 1329 he defeated the Bosnian ban Stjepan Kotromanić, and in 1330 the Bulgarian emperor Michael Asen III in the Battle of Velbužd.

Perhaps partially due to the fact that his father had not significantly expanded Serbia after the Battle of Velbužd, he rebelled and overthrew him with the support of the nobility, crowning himself king on September 8, 1331. In 1332 he married Helena of Bulgaria, the sister of the new Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander, a woman of strong will, who had a large influence on him and bore him a son, Stefan Uroš V, and two daughters, who died young.

Early reign

Coronation of Emperor Dušan

In the first years of his reign, Dušan started to fight against the Byzantine Empire (1334), and warfare continued with interruptions of various duration until his death in 1355. Twice he became involved in larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these clashes were mostly defensive. He defeated the Hungarians on both occasions. He was at peace with the Bulgarians, who even helped him on several occasions, and he is said to have visited Ivan Alexander at his capital. Dušan exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between regent Anna of Savoy for the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos and his father's general John Kantakouzenos. Dušan and Ivan Alexander picked opposite sides in the conflict but remained at peace with each other, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war to secure gains for themselves. Dušan's systematic offensive began in 1342 and in the end he conquered all Byzantine territories in the western Balkans as far as Kavala, except for the Peloponnesus and Thessaloniki, which he could not conquer because he had no fleet. There has been speculation that Dušan's ultimate goal was no less than to conquer Constantinople and replace the declining Byzantine Empire with a united Orthodox Greco-Serbian Empire under his control.²³

Emperor

A coin minted by Dušan in 1346 on the occasion of his coronation. (Photo courtesy of the National Bank of Serbia [1])

After these successes he proclaimed himself Emperor in 1345 at Serres and was solemnly crowned in Skopje on April 16, 1346 as "Emperor and autocrat of Serbs and Greeks" by the newly created Serbian Patriach Joanikie II with the help of the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon and the Archbishop of Ohrid, Nicholas. He had previously raised the Serbian Orthodox Church from an autocephalous archbishopric to a patriarchate, and he took over sovereignty on Mt. Athos and the Greek archbishoprics under the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate (The Ohrid Archbishopric remained autocephalous). For those acts he was anathematized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Faced with Dušan's aggression, the Byzantines sought allies in the Turks whom they brought into Europe for the first time. The first conflict between the Serbs and the Turks on Balkan soil, at Stefaniana in 1345, ended unfavourably for the Serbs. In 1348 Dušan conquered Thessaly and Epirus. Dušan eventually saw the danger posed by the Turkish presence in the Balkans and searched for ways to push them back but was interrupted by Hungarians, who attacked Serbia. He heavily defeated the Hungarians and their king Charles I of Hungary, who was wounded by an arrow. Dušan didn't want to organize revenge attacks in Hungary, because he wanted Papal support for his fight against the Ottomans. Later, he fought with the Hungarian protégé ban Stjepan II in Bosnia in 1350, wishing to regain formerly lost Zahumlje.

Dušan had grand intentions but they were all cut short by his premature death on December 20, 1355, possibly from poisoning by Hungarians who were alarmed at the expansion and rising power of Stefan's Serbia. He was buried in his foundation, the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren. Today his remains are in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade. He was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V, who had been associated in power as king since 1346.

Military tactics

Serbian Empire (c.1350) in European context	Serbia Empire (c.1350) and its neighbours

Dusan's military tactics consisted of wedge shaped heavy cavalry attacks with horse archers on the flanks. Many foreign mercenaries were in the Serbian army. Mostly Germans as cavalry and Spaniards as infantry. He also had personal mercenary guards, mainly German knights. A knight named Palman was the commander of this unit and was the leader of all German mercenaries.

Dušan was the most powerful medieval Serbian ruler and "perhaps the most powerful ruler in Europe" during the 14th century⁴, and remains a symbol to many. His state was a rival to regional powers Byzantium, Bulgaria and Hungary, and encompassed great territory, but it is that same greatness that was his empire's greatest weakness. By nature a soldier and a conqueror, Dušan also proved to be very able but nontheless feared ruler. His empire however, as aristocracy quickly distanced from the central rule of his weak son after Dusan's death, could not survive, and began to dissolve under the influence of increasing partitionist tendencies of the regional aristocracy.

Family

Wedding of Emperor Dušan

By his first wife, Helena of Bulgaria, Stefan Uroš IV had two children:

• Stefan Uroš V of Serbia, who succeeded as king
• Irina. According to "The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest" (1994) by J. V. A. Fine, she is the same as "Irene" the wife of Gregorios Preljub, the Serbian governor of Thessaly who died in late 1355 or early 1356. They were parents to Thomas II Preljubović, Ruler of Epirus from 1367 to 1384. Irene married secondly to Radoslav Hlapen, lord of Kastoria and Edessa.⁵

References

• John V.A. Fine, Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1987.
• George C. Soulis, The Serbs and Byzantium during the reign of Emperor Stephen Dusan (1331-1355) and his successors, Athens, 1995. ISBN 0-88402-137-8

By Alexander Soloviev

• "Selected Monuments of Serbian Law from the 12th to 15th centuries" (1926)
• "Legislation of Stefan Dušan, emperor of Serbs and Greeks" (1928)
• "Dušan's Code in 1349 and 1354" (1929)
• "Greek charters of Serbian rulers" Soloviev and Makin {1936}

Notes