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Lazar of Serbia

Lazar Hrebeljanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Лазар Хребељановић; c. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire. Lazar's state, referred to by historians as Moravian Serbia, comprised the basins of the Great Morava, West Morava, and South Morava rivers. Lazar ruled Moravian Serbia from 1373 until his death in 1389. He sought to resurrect the Serbian Empire and place himself at its helm, claiming to be the direct successor of the Nemanjić dynasty, which went extinct in 1371 after ruling over Serbia for two centuries. Lazar's programme had the full support of the Serbian Orthodox Church, but the Serbian nobility did not recognize him as their supreme ruler. He is often referred to as Tsar Lazar Hrebeljanović (Serbian: Цар Лазар Хребељановић / Car Lazar Hrebeljanović); however, he only held the title of prince (Serbian: кнез / knez).


Lazar
Лазар
Portrait of Prince Lazar in the Monastery of Ravanica (1380s)
Prince Martyr
Autocrator of all the Serbs
Bornc. 1329
Fortress of Prilepac,[1]
Kingdom of Serbia
Died15 June 1389 (aged approximately 60)
Kosovo Field,[1]
District of Branković
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Reign1373–1389
SuccessorStefan Lazarević
Burial
SpouseMilica
IssueMara
Dragana
Teodora
Jelena
Olivera
Dobrovoj
Stefan
Vuk
Names
Lazar Hrebeljanović
SerbianЛазар Хребељановић
DynastyLazarević dynasty
FatherPribac Hrebeljanović
ReligionSerbian Orthodox
Signature

Lazar was killed at the Battle of Kosovo in June 1389 while leading a Christian army assembled to confront the invading Ottoman Empire, led by Sultan Murad I. The battle ended without a clear victor, with both sides enduring heavy losses. Lazar's widow, Milica, who ruled as regent for their adolescent son Stefan Lazarević, Lazar's successor, accepted Ottoman suzerainty in the summer of 1390.

Lazar is venerated in the Orthodox Christian Church as a martyr and saint, and is highly regarded in Serbian history, culture and tradition. In Serbian epic poetry, he is referred to as Tsar Lazar (Serbian: Цар Лазар / Car Lazar).

Life edit

 
Memorial in Fortress of Prilepac, the birthplace of Lazar

Lazar was born around 1329 in the Fortress of Prilepac,[1]13 kilometres (8.1 mi) southeast of Novo Brdo, then an important mining town. His family were the hereditary lords of Prilepac, which together with the nearby Fortress of Prizrenac protected the mines and settlements around Novo Brdo.[2] Lazar's father, Pribac, was a logothete (chancellor) in the court of Stefan Dušan,[3] a member of the Nemanjić dynasty, who ruled as the King of Serbia from 1331 to 1346 and the Serbian Emperor (tsar) from 1346 to 1355. The rank of logothete was relatively modest in the hierarchy of the Serbian court. Dušan became the ruler of Serbia by dethroning his father, King Stefan Uroš III, then rewarding the petty nobles that had supported him in his rebellion, elevating them to higher positions within the feudal hierarchy. Lazar's father was among these nobles and was elevated to the position of logothete by pledging loyalty to Dušan. According to Mavro Orbin, a 16th-century Ragusan historian, Pribac and Lazar's surname was Hrebeljanović. Though Orbin did not provide a source for this claim, it has been widely accepted in historiography.[4]

Courtier edit

Pribac was awarded by Dušan in yet another way: his son Lazar was granted the position of stavilac at the ruler's court. The stavilac (literally "placer") had a role in the ceremony at the royal table, though he could be entrusted with jobs that had nothing to do with court ritual. The title of stavilac ranked as the last in the hierarchy of the Serbian court. It was, nevertheless, quite prestigious as it enabled its holder to be very close to the ruler. Stavilac Lazar married Milica; according to subsequent genealogies, created in the first half of the 15th century, Milica was the daughter of Prince Vratko, a great-grandson of Vukan. The latter was the son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, which ruled Serbia from 1166 to 1371. Vukan's descendants are not mentioned in any known source that predates the 15th-century genealogies.[4]

Tsar Dušan died suddenly in 1355 at the age of about 47,[5] and was succeeded by his 20-year-old son Stefan Uroš V.[6] Lazar remained a stavilac at the court of the new tsar.[4] Dušan's death was followed by the stirring of separatist activity in the Serbian Empire. Epirus and Thessaly in its southwest broke away by 1359. The same happened with Braničevo and Kučevo, the empire's north-eastern regions controlled by the Rastislalić family, who recognized the suzerainty of King Louis of Hungary. The rest of the Serbian state remained loyal to young Tsar Uroš. Even within it, however, powerful Serbian nobles were asserting more and more independence from the tsar's authority.[7]

 
The Serbian Empire in 1355

Uroš was weak and unable to counteract these separatist tendencies, becoming an inferior power in the state he nominally ruled. He relied on the strongest Serbian noble, Prince Vojislav Vojinović of Zahumlje. Vojislav started as a stavilac at the court of Tsar Dušan, but by 1363 he controlled a large region from Mount Rudnik in central Serbia to Konavle on the Adriatic coast, and from the upper reaches of the Drina River to northern Kosovo.[7] The next in power to Prince Vojislav were the Balšić brothers, Stracimir, Đurađ, and Balša II. By 1363, they gained control over the region of Zeta, which coincided for the most part with present-day Montenegro.[8]

In 1361, Prince Vojislav started a war with the Republic of Ragusa over some territories.[9] Ragusans then asked most eminent persons in Serbia to use their influence to stop these hostilities that were harmful for both sides. In 1362 the Ragusans also applied to stavilac Lazar and presented him with three bolts of cloth. A relatively modest present as it was, it testifies that Lazar was perceived as having some influence at the court of Tsar Uroš. The peace between Prince Vojislav and Ragusa was signed in August 1362. Stavilac Lazar is mentioned as a witness in a July 1363 document by which Tsar Uroš approved an exchange of lands between Prince Vojislav and čelnik Musa. The latter man had been married to Lazar's sister, Dragana, since at least 1355. Musa's title, čelnik ("headman"), was of a higher rank than stavilac.[4]

Minor regional lord edit

Lazar's activities in the period between 1363 and 1371 are poorly documented in sources.[7] Apparently, he left the court of Tsar Uroš in 1363 or 1365;[3][7] he was about 35 years of age, and had not advanced beyond the rank of stavilac. Prince Vojislav, the strongest regional lord, suddenly died in September 1363. The Mrnjavčević brothers, Vukašin and Jovan Uglješa, became the most powerful nobles in the Serbian Empire. They controlled lands in the south of the Empire, primarily in Macedonia.[7] In 1365, Tsar Uroš crowned Vukašin king, making him his co-ruler. Approximately at the same time, Jovan Uglješa was promoted to the rank of despot.[10] A nephew of Prince Vojislav, Nikola Altomanović, gained control by 1368 of most of the territory of his late uncle; Nikola was about 20 at that time. In this period, Lazar became independent and began his career as a regional lord. It is not clear how his territory developed, but its nucleus was certainly not at his patrimony, the Fortress of Prilepac, which had been taken by Vukašin. The nucleus of Lazar's territory was somewhere in the area bordered by the Mrnjavčevićs in the south, Nikola Altomanović in the west, and the Rastislalićs in the north.[7]

The book Il Regno de gli Slavi [The Realm of the Slavs] by Mavro Orbin, published in Pesaro in 1601, describes events in which Lazar was a main protagonist. Since this account is not corroborated by other sources, some historians doubt its veracity. According to Orbin, Nikola Altomanović and Lazar persuaded Tsar Uroš to join them in their attack on the Mrnjavčević brothers. The clash between the two groups of Serbian lords took place on the Kosovo Field in 1369. Lazar withdrew from the battle soon after it began. His allies fought on, but were defeated by the Mrnjavčevićs. Altomanović barely escaped with his life, while Uroš was captured and briefly imprisoned by the brothers.[3] There are indications that the co-rulers, Tsar Uroš and King Vukašin Mrnjavčević, went their separate ways two years prior to the alleged battle.[7] In 1370 Lazar took from Altomanović the town of Rudnik, a rich mining centre. This could have been a consequence of Altomanović's defeat the year before.[3] In any case, Altomanović could have quickly recovered from this defeat with the help of his powerful protector, the Kingdom of Hungary.[7]

Prince edit

 
Painting of Lazar by Vladislav Titelbah (ca. 1900).

It is uncertain since when Lazar had borne the title of knez,[7] which is usually translated as "prince".[11] The earliest source that testifies to Lazar's new title is a Ragusan document in Latin, dated 22 April 1371, in which he is referred to as Comes Lazarus.[7][12] Ragusans used comes as a Latin translation of the Slavic title knez.[13] The same document relates that Lazar held Rudnik at that time.[12] In medieval Serbia, knez was not a precisely defined term, and the title had no fixed rank in the feudal hierarchy. Its rank was high in the 12th century, but somewhat lower in the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century. During the reign of Tsar Uroš, when the central authority declined, the high prestige of the title of knez was restored. It was borne by the mightiest regional lord, Vojislav Vojinović, until his death in 1363.[7]

Rise to power edit

The Ottoman Turks took Gallipoli from Byzantium in 1354. This town at the south-eastern edge of the Balkan Peninsula was the first Ottoman possession in Europe. From there the Ottomans expanded further into the Balkans, and by 1370 they reached Serbian lands, specifically the territory of the Mrnjavčevićs in eastern Macedonia.[14] An army of the Mrnjavčević brothers entered the territory controlled by the Ottomans and clashed with them in the Battle of Marica on 26 September 1371. The Ottomans annihilated the Serbian army; both King Vukašin and Despot Jovan Uglješa were killed in the battle.[15] Vukašin's son and successor, King Marko, became the co-ruler of Tsar Uroš. In December 1371 Uroš died childless, marking the end of the Nemanjić dynasty, which had ruled Serbia for two centuries. The ruler of the Serbian state, which had in fact ceased to exist as a whole, was formally King Marko Mrnjavčević. Powerful Serbian lords, however, did not even consider recognizing him as their supreme ruler.[16] They attacked the Mrnjavčevićs' lands in Macedonia and Kosovo. Prizren and Peć were taken by the Balšić brothers, the lords of Zeta.[17] Prince Lazar took Priština and Novo Brdo, recovering also his patrimony, the Fortress of Prilepac. The Dragaš brothers, Jovan and Konstantin, created their own domain in eastern Macedonia. King Marko was eventually left only a relatively small area in western Macedonia centred on the town of Prilep.[18][19] Jovan Uglješa's widow, Jelena, who became a nun and took the monastic name of Jefimija,[7] lived on with Prince Lazar and his wife Milica.[20]

After the demise of the Mrnjavčević brothers, Nikola Altomanović emerged as the most powerful noble on the territory of the fragmented Serbian state. While Lazar was busy taking Priština and Novo Brdo, Nikola recovered Rudnik from him.[18] By 1372, Prince Lazar and Tvrtko, the Ban of Bosnia, formed an alliance against Nikola. According to Ragusan sources, the Republic of Venice mediated an agreement between Nikola Altomanović and Djuradj Balšić about their joint attack on Ragusa. Nikola was to gain Pelješac and Ston, the Ragusan parts of the region of Zahumlje, which was divided between Nikola's domain, Bosnia, and Ragusa. Louis I, the King of Hungary, sternly warned Nikola and Djuradj to keep off Ragusa,[21] which had been a Hungarian vassal since 1358.[22] By conspiring with Venice, a Hungarian enemy, Nikola lost the protection of Hungary.[23] Lazar, preparing for the confrontation with Nikola, promised King Louis to be his loyal vassal if the king was on his side. Prince Lazar and Ban Tvrtko attacked and defeated Nikola Altomanović in 1373. Nikola was captured in his stronghold, the town of Užice, and given in charge to Lazar's nephews, the Musić brothers, who (according to Orbin with the secret approval of Lazar) blinded him.[24] Lazar accepted the suzerainty of King Louis.[18]

 
Coat of arms of Prince Lazar painted on a wall of the Hilandar Monastery (14th century)
 
Illustration of Prince Lazar's coat of arms

Ban Tvrtko annexed to his state the parts of Zahumlje which were held by Nikola, including the upper reaches of the Drina and Lim Rivers, as well as the districts of Onogošt and Gacko.[25] Prince Lazar and his in-laws, Vuk Branković and čelnik Musa, took most of Nikola's domain. Vuk Branković, who married Lazar's daughter Mara in around 1371, acquired Sjenica and part of Kosovo. Lazar's subordinate, čelnik Musa, governed an area around Mount Kopaonik jointly with his sons Stefan and Lazar, known as the Musić brothers. Djuradj Balšić grabbed Nikola's littoral districts: Dračevica, Konavle, and Trebinje. Ban Tvrtko would take these lands in 1377. In October of that year, Tvrtko was crowned king of the Serbs, Bosnia, Maritime, and Western Areas.[18] Although Tvrtko was a Catholic, his coronation was performed at the Serbian Monastery of Mileševa,[25] or at some other prominent Serbian Orthodox centre in his state. King Tvrtko asserted pretensions to the Serbian throne and the heritage of the Nemanjić dynasty. He was a distant blood relative to the Nemanjićs. Hungary and Ragusa recognized Tvrtko as king, and there are no indications that Prince Lazar had any objections to the new title of his ally Kotromanić. This, on the other hand, does not mean that Lazar recognized Tvrtko as his overlord. King Tvrtko, however, had no support from the Serbian Church, the only cohesive force in the fragmented Serbian state.[18]

Major lord in Serbia edit

 
Realm of Prince Lazar – Moravian Serbia

After the demise of Nikola Altomanović, Prince Lazar emerged as the most powerful lord on the territory of the former Serbian Empire.[26] Some local nobles resisted Lazar's authority, but they eventually submitted to the prince. That was the case with Nikola Zojić on Mount Rudnik, and Novak Belocrkvić in the valley of the Toplica River.[27] Lazar's large and rich domain was a refuge for Eastern Orthodox Christian monks who fled from areas threatened by the Islamic Ottomans. This brought fame to Lazar on Mount Athos, the centre of Orthodox monasticism. The Serbian Church (Serbian Patriarchate of Peć) had since 1350 been in schism with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the central authority of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity. A Serb monk from Mount Athos named Isaija, who distinguished himself as a writer and translator, encouraged Lazar to work on the reconciliation of the two patriarchates. Through efforts of Lazar and Isaija, an ecclesiastical delegation was sent to the Constantinopolitan Patriarch to negotiate the reconciliation. The delegation was successful, and in 1375 the Serbian Church was readmitted into communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.[18]

The last patriarch of the Serbian Church in schism, Sava IV, died in April 1375.[28] In October of the same year, Prince Lazar and Djuradj Balšić convened a synod of the Serbian Church in Peć. Patriarch Jefrem was selected for the new head of the Church. He was a candidate of Constantinople, or a compromise selection from among the candidates of powerful nobles.[29] Patriarch Jefrem abdicated in 1379 in favour of Spiridon, which is explained by some historians as having resulted from the influence of an undercurrent in the Church associated with Lazar.[30] The prince and Patriarch Spiridon had an excellent cooperation.[29] The Church was obliged to Lazar for his role in ending the schism with Constantinople. Lazar also granted lands to monasteries and built churches.[26] His greatest legacy as a church builder is the Monastery of Ravanica completed in 1381.[31] Some time earlier, he built the Church of St Stephen in his capital, Kruševac; the church would become known as Lazarica. After 1379, he built the Gornjak Monastery in Braničevo. He was one of the founders of the Romanian monasteries in Tismana and Vodiţa. He funded some construction works in two monasteries on Mount Athos, the Serbian Hilandar and the Russian St Panteleimon.[32]

 
Remains of the donjon of Lazar's fortress in Kruševac, the capital of Lazar's state.

Lazar extended his domain to the Danube in 1379, when the prince took Kučevo and Braničevo, ousting the Hungarian vassal Radič Branković Rastislalić from these regions.[33] King Louis had earlier granted to Lazar the region of Mačva, or at least a part of it, probably when the prince accepted the king's suzerainty.[26] This suggests that Lazar, who was himself a vassal of Louis, had rebelled, and indeed Louis is known to have been organizing a campaign against Serbia in 1378. However, it is not known against whom Louis was intending to act. It is also possible that it was Radič Branković Rastislalić and that Lazar's attack had the approval of Louis.[33]

Lazar's state, known in literature as Moravian Serbia, was larger than the domains of the other lords on the territory of the former Serbian Empire. It also had a better organized government and army. The state comprised the basins of the Great Morava, West Morava, and South Morava Rivers, extending from the source of South Morava northward to the Danube and Sava Rivers. Its north-western border ran along the Drina River. Besides the capital Kruševac, the state included important towns of Niš and Užice, as well as Novo Brdo and Rudnik, the two richest mining centres of medieval Serbia. Of all the Serbian lands, Lazar's state lay furthest from Ottoman centres, and was least exposed to the ravages of Turkish raiding parties. This circumstance attracted immigrants from Turkish-threatened areas, who built new villages and hamlets in previously poorly inhabited and uncultivated areas of Moravian Serbia. There were also spiritual persons among the immigrants, which stimulated the revival of old ecclesiastical centres and the foundation of new ones in Lazar's state. The strategic position of the Morava basins contributed to Lazar's prestige and political influence in the Balkans due to the anticipated Turkish offensives.[26][34]

 
Ravanica monastery was founded by Lazar

In charters issued between 1379 and 1388, the prince named himself as Stefan Lazar. "Stefan" was the name borne by all Nemanjić rulers, leading the name to be regarded as a title of Serbian rulers. Tvrtko added "Stefan" to his name when he was crowned king of the Serbs and Bosnia.[29] From a linguistic point of view, Lazar's charters show traits of the Kosovo-Resava dialect of the Serbian language.[35] In the charters, Lazar referred to himself as the autocrator (samodržac in Serbian) of all the Serbian land, or the autocrator of all the Serbs. Autocrator, "self-ruler" in Greek, was an epithet of the Byzantine emperors. The Nemanjić kings adopted it and applied it to themselves in its literal meaning to stress their independence from Byzantium, whose supreme suzerainty they nominally recognized. In the time of Prince Lazar, the Serbian state experienced the loss of some of its lands, the division of the remaining lands among regional lords, the end of the Nemanjić dynasty, and the Turkish attacks. These circumstances raised the question of a continuation of the Serbian state. Lazar's answer to this question could be read in the titles he applied to himself in his charters. Lazar's ideal was the reunification of the Serbian state under him as the direct successor of the Nemanjićs. Lazar had the full support of the Serbian Church for this political programme. However, powerful regional lords—the Balšićs in Zeta, Vuk Branković in Kosovo, King Marko, Konstantin Dragaš, and Radoslav Hlapen in Macedonia—ruled their domains independent from Prince Lazar. Beside that, the three lords in Macedonia became Ottoman vassals after the Battle of Marica. The same happened to Byzantium and Bulgaria.[29] By 1388, Ottoman suzerainty was also accepted by Djuradj Stracimirović Balšić, the lord of Zeta.[25]

A Turkish raiding party, passing unobstructed through territories of Ottoman vassals, broke into Moravian Serbia in 1381. It was routed by Lazar's nobles Crep Vukoslavić and Vitomir in the Battle of Dubravnica, fought near the town of Paraćin.[34] In 1386, the Ottoman Sultan Murad I himself led much larger forces that took Niš from Lazar. It is unclear whether the encounter between the armies of Lazar and Murad at Pločnik, a site southwest of Niš, happened shortly before or after the capture of Niš. Lazar rebuffed Murad at Pločnik.[36] After the death of King Louis I in 1382, a civil war broke out in the Kingdom of Hungary. It seems that Lazar participated in the war as one of the opponents of Prince Sigismund of Luxemburg. Lazar may have sent some troops to fight in the regions of Belgrade and Syrmia. As the Ottoman threat increased and the support for Sigismund grew in Hungary, Lazar made peace with Sigismund, who was crowned Hungarian king in March 1387. The peace was sealed, probably in 1387, with the marriage of Lazar's daughter Teodora to Nicholas II Garay, a powerful Hungarian noble who supported Sigismund.[37] Around the same year, Lazar's daughter Jelena married Djuradj Stracimirović Balšić. About a year before, Lazar's daughter Dragana married Alexander, the son of Ivan Shishman, Tsar of Bulgaria.[26][34]

Battle of Kosovo edit

 
Night before the Battle of Kosovo, by Adam Stefanović (1870)
 
Kosovo Field, with disposition of Serbian and Ottoman troops before the Battle of Kosovo

Since the encounter at Pločnik in 1386, it was clear to Lazar that a decisive battle with the Ottomans was imminent. After he made peace with Sigismund, to avoid troubles on his northern borders, the prince secured military support from Vuk Branković and King Tvrtko.[34][38] The King of the Serbs and Bosnia was also expecting a bigger Ottoman offensive since his army, commanded by Vlatko Vuković, wiped out a large Turkish raiding party in the Battle of Bileća in 1388.[39] A massive Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad, estimated at between 27,000 and 30,000 men, advanced across the territory of Konstantin Dragaš and arrived in June 1389 on the Kosovo Field near Priština, on the territory of Vuk Branković. The Ottoman army was met by the forces commanded by Prince Lazar, estimated at between 12,000 and 30,000 men, which consisted of the prince's own troops, Vuk Branković's troops, and a contingent under the leadership of Vlatko Vuković sent by King Tvrtko.[34][38] The Battle of Kosovo, the most famous battle in Serbia's medieval history,[39] was fought on 15 June 1389. In the fierce fighting and mutual heavy losses, both Prince Lazar and Sultan Murad lost their lives.[34][38]

Information about the course and the outcome of the Battle of Kosovo is incomplete in the historical sources. It can be concluded that, tactically, the battle was a draw. However, the mutual heavy losses were devastating only for the Serbs, who had brought to Kosovo almost all of their fighting strength.[34][38] Although Serbia under Prince Lazar was an economically prosperous and militarily well organized state, it could not compare to the Ottoman Empire with respect to the size of territory, population, and economic power.[34] Lazar was succeeded by his eldest son Stefan Lazarević. As he was still a minor, Moravian Serbia was administered by Stefan's mother, Milica. She was attacked from the north five months after the battle by troops of the Hungarian King Sigismund. When Turkish forces, moving toward Hungary, reached the borders of Moravian Serbia in the summer of 1390, Milica accepted Ottoman suzerainty. She sent her youngest daughter, Olivera, to join the harem of Sultan Bayezid I. Vuk Branković became an Ottoman vassal in 1392. Now all the Serbian lands were under Ottoman suzerainty, except Zahumlje under King Tvrtko.[38]

Cult edit

Under Serbian rulers edit

After the Battle of Kosovo, Prince Lazar was interred in the Church of the Ascension in Priština, the capital of Vuk Branković's domain.[40] After a year or two, in 1390 or 1391, Lazar's relics were transferred to the Ravanica Monastery, which the prince had built and intended as his burial place. The translation was organized by the Serbian Church and Lazar's family.[41] The ceremonial interment of the relics in Ravanica was attended by the highest clergy of the Serbian Church, including Patriarch Danilo III. It is most likely at this time and place that Lazar was canonized, though no account of his canonization was written. He was included among the Christian martyrs, with his feast day being celebrated on 15 June. According to writings by Patriarch Danilo and other contemporary authors, Prince Lazar was captured and beheaded by the Turks. His death could thus be likened to that of early Christian martyrs who were slain by pagans.[40]

 
Fresco painting of Prince Lazar and his wife Milica in the Ljubostinja Monastery (1405), near Trstenik, Serbia

In a medieval state with a strong link between the State and the Church, as in Moravian Serbia, a canonization was not only an ecclesiastical act. It also had a social significance. After two centuries of rule of the Nemanjić dynasty, most members of which were canonized, Lazar was the first lay person to be recognized as a saint. During his lifetime, he had achieved considerable prestige as the major lord on the territory of the former Serbian Empire. The Church saw him as the only ruler worthy and capable of succeeding the Nemanjićs and restoring their state.[42] His death was seen as a turning point in Serbian history. The aftermath of the Battle of Kosovo was felt in Serbia almost immediately,[40] although more significant in the long run was the Battle of Marica eighteen years earlier, as the defeat of the Mrnjavčević brothers in it opened up the Balkans to the Turks.[15]

Lazar is celebrated as a saint and martyr in ten cultic writings composed in Serbia between 1389 and 1420;[43] nine of them could be dated closer to the former year than to the latter.[44] These writings were the principal means of spreading the cult of Saint Lazar, and most of them were used in liturgy on his feast day.[45] The Encomium of Prince Lazar by nun Jefimija is considered to have the highest literary quality of the ten texts.[32] Nun Jefimija (whose secular name was Jelena) was a relative of Princess Milica,[44] and the widow of Jovan Uglješa Mrnjavčević. After his death she lived on with Milica and Lazar. Jefimija embroidered her Encomium with a gilded thread on the silken shroud covering Lazar's relics. Stefan Lazarević is regarded as the author of the text carved on a marble pillar that was erected at the site of the Battle of Kosovo.[32] The pillar was destroyed by the Ottomans,[32] but the text is preserved in a 16th-century manuscript.[46] Patriarch Danilo III wrote Narration about Prince Lazar around the time of the translation of Lazar's relics. It is regarded as historically the most informative of the ten writings,[44] though it is a synthesis of hagiography, eulogy, and homily. The prince is celebrated not only as a martyr, but also as a warrior.[47] The patriarch wrote that the Battle of Kosovo ended when both sides became exhausted; both the Serbs and the Turks suffered heavy losses.[48] The central part of Narration is the patriarch's version of Lazar's speech to Serbian warriors before the battle:[49]

You, O comrades and brothers, lords and nobles, soldiers and vojvodas—great and small. You yourselves are witnesses and observers of that great goodness God has given us in this life... But if the sword, if wounds, or if the darkness of death comes to us, we accept it sweetly for Christ and for the godliness of our homeland. It is better to die in battle than to live in shame. Better it is for us to accept death from the sword in battle than to offer our shoulders to the enemy. We have lived a long time for the world; in the end we seek to accept the martyr's struggle and to live forever in heaven. We call ourselves Christian soldiers, martyrs for godliness to be recorded in the Book of Life. We do not spare our bodies in fighting in order that we may accept the holy wreathes from that One who judges all accomplishments. Sufferings beget glory and labours lead to peace.[50]

 
Encomium of Prince Lazar by nun Jefimija is embroidered with a gilded thread on the silken shroud which covered Lazar's relics

With Lazar's death, Serbia lost its strongest regional ruler, who might have been seen as the last hope against the expanding Ottomans. This loss could have led to pessimism and a feeling of despair. The authors of the cultic writings interpreted the death of Lazar and the thousands of his warriors on the Kosovo Field as a martyrdom for the Christian faith and for Serbia. Sultan Murad and his army are described as bloodthirsty, godless, heathen beasts. Prince Lazar, by his martyrdom, remains eternally among the Serbs as the good shepherd. His cult was adjoined to the other great cults of medieval Serbia, those of the first canonized Nemanjićs—Saint Simeon (whose secular name was Nemanja) and his son Saint Sava. The cults contributed to the consolidation of the Serbs in a strong religious and political unit.[48] Lazar was, however, in the shadow of Saint Sava and Saint Simeon.[51]

Lazar's son and successor, Stefan Lazarević, was granted the title of despot by the Byzantine Emperor, and he ceased to be an Ottoman vassal in 1402.[52] At least during his reign, the Holy Prince Lazar was probably venerated throughout Moravian Serbia, as well as in two monasteries on Mount Athos, the Serbian Hilandar and the Russian St. Panteleimon, in which the prince had funded some construction works.[32] During Despot Stefan's reign, only one image of Lazar is known to have been painted. It is in a fresco in the Ljubostinja Monastery, built around 1405 by Princess Milica. Lazar is represented there with regal attributes, rather than saintly ones.[51] His next image would not appear until 1594, when it was painted among images of numerous other personages in the Orahovica Monastery in Slavonia (then under Ottoman rule).[53] For his cult, more important than iconography was the cultic literature.[45]

Despot Stefan Lazarević suddenly died in July 1427. He was succeeded by Despot Đurađ, Vuk Branković's son and Lazar's grandson.[54] At the beginning of his reign, Đurađ issued a charter in which he referred to Lazar as a saint. When he reissued the charter in 1445, he avoided the adjective свети "saint", in reference to Lazar, by replacing it with светопочивши "resting in holiness". The avoidance to refer to the prince as a saint can be observed in other documents and inscriptions of that period, including those authored by his daughter Jelena.[55]

During Ottoman rule edit

The Serbian Despotate fell to the Ottomans in 1459.[56] The veneration of the Holy Prince Lazar was reduced to a local cult, centred on the Ravanica Monastery.[57] Its monks continued to celebrate annually his feast day.[58] The prince had granted 148 villages and various privileges to the monastery. The Ottomans reduced its property to a couple of villages containing 127 households in all, but they exempted Ravanica from some taxes.[59] Italian traveller Marc Antonio Pigafetta, who visited Ravanica in 1568, reported that the monastery was never damaged by the Turks, and the monks practiced freely their religion, except that they were not allowed to ring bells.[60]

 
Remainings of medieval Serbian "freska"

Saint Lazar was venerated at the court of Ivan the Terrible, the first Russian tsar (1547–1584),[61] whose maternal grandmother was born in the Serbian noble family of Jakšić.[62] Lazar appears in a fresco in the Cathedral of the Archangel, the burial place of Russian rulers in the Moscow Kremlin. The walls of the cathedral were painted in 1565 with frescoes showing all Russian rulers preceding Ivan the Terrible. Only four non-Russians were depicted: Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and three Serbs—Saints Simeon, Sava, and Lazar. The prince is also represented in the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible, in its nine miniatures depicting the Battle of Kosovo.[61] It is in this Russian book that Prince Lazar was for the first time referred to as a tsar. Around 1700, Count Đorđe Branković would write his Slavo-Serbian Chronicles, in which he claimed that Lazar was crowned tsar. This would influence Serbian folk tradition, in which the prince is to this day known as Tsar Lazar.[63] After the death of Ivan the Terrible, Lazar is rarely mentioned in Russian sources.[61]

Lazar's cult in his Ottoman-held homeland, reduced to the Ravanica Monastery, was given a boost during the office of Serbian Patriarch Paisije. In 1633 and several ensuing years, Lazar was painted in the church of the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć and three other Serbian churches. Patriarch Paisije wrote that Serbian Tsar Dušan adopted Lazar and gave him his relative, Princess Milica, in marriage. In this way, Lazar was the legitimate successor to the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1667, the prince was painted on a wall in the Hilandar Monastery. The same painter created an icon showing Lazar together with Đorđe Kratovac, a goldsmith who was tortured and killed by the Turks and recognized as a martyr. In 1675, Prince Lazar and several Nemanjićs were represented in an icon commissioned by the brothers Gavro and Vukoje Humković, Serbian craftsmen from Sarajevo. The prince's images from this period show him more as a ruler than as a saint, except the icon with Đorđe Kratovac.[64]

After the Great Serb Migration edit

 
Relic case of Lazar of Serbia, Monastery of Vrdnik-Ravanica in Vrdnik

During the Great Turkish War in the last decades of the 17th century, the Habsburg monarchy took some Serbian lands from the Ottomans. In 1690, a considerable proportion of the Serbian population living in these lands emigrated to the Habsburg Monarchy, as its army retreated from Serbia before the advancing Ottomans. This exodus, known as the Great Serb Migration, was led by Arsenije III Čarnojević, the patriarch of the Serbian Church. The Ravanica monks joined the northward exodus, taking Lazar's relics and the monastery's valuables with them. They settled at the town of Szentendre, near which they built a wooden church and placed the relics in it.[65] They built houses for themselves around the church, and named their new settlement Ravanica. Szentendre also became a temporary see of Patriarch Arsenije III.[66]

The Ravanica monks established contacts with Serbian monasteries in the Habsburg Monarchy, and with the Russian Orthodox Church, from which they received help. They considerably enlarged their library and treasury during their stay at Szentendre. In this period they started to use printing to spread the veneration of the Holy Prince: they made a woodcut representing Lazar as a cephalophore, holding his severed head in his hand.[66] In 1697, the Ravanica monks left their wooden settlement at Szentendre and moved to the dilapidated Monastery of Vrdnik-Ravanica on Mount Fruška Gora in the region of Syrmia. They renovated it and placed Lazar's relics in its church, after which this monastery became the centre of Lazar's cult. It soon came to be more frequently referred to as Ravanica than Vrdnik. By the mid-18th century, a general belief arose that the monastery was founded by Prince Lazar himself.[66] Its church became too small to accommodate all the devotees who assembled there on holidays.[67]

 
 
Copperplates of Prince Lazar by Hristofor Žefarović (1741) and Zaharije Orfelin (1773)

The Treaty of Passarowitz, by which Serbia north of the West Morava was ceded from the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburg Monarchy, was signed on 21 July 1718. At that time, only one of the original Ravanica monks who had left their monastery 28 years ago, was still alive. His name was Stefan. Shortly before the treaty was signed, Stefan returned to Ravanica and renovated the monastery, which had been half-ruined and overgrown with vegetation when he came. In 1733, there were only five monks in Ravanica. Serbia was returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1739, but the monastery was not completely abandoned this time.[65]

After the Great Serb Migration, the highest clergy of the Serbian Church actively popularized the cults of canonized Serbian rulers. Arsenije IV Šakabenta, Metropolitan of Karlovci, employed in 1741 the engravers Hristofor Žefarović and Toma Mesmer to create a poster titled "Saint Sava with Serbian Saints of the House of Nemanja", where Lazar was also depicted. Its purpose was not only religious, as it should also remind people of the independent Serbian state before the Ottoman conquest, and of Prince Lazar's fight against the Ottomans. The poster was presented at the Habsburg court. The same engravers produced a book titled Stemmatographia, published in Vienna in 1741. Part of it included copperplates of 29 rulers and saints, among whom were two cephalophores, Jovan Vladimir and Lazar. Stemmatographia was very popular among the Serbs, stirring patriotic feelings in them. The Holy Prince would often be represented as a cephalophore in subsequent works, created in various artistic techniques.[67] An isolated case among the images of Lazar is a 1773 copperplate by Zaharije Orfelin, in which the prince has a parading appearance, without saintly attributes except a halo.[68]

Lazar's relics remained in the Monastery of Vrdnik-Ravanica until 1941. Shortly before Nazi Germany attacked and overran Yugoslavia, the relics were taken to the Bešenovo Monastery, also on Mount Fruška Gora. Syrmia became part of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia, controlled by the fascist Ustaše movement, which conducted large-scale genocide campaigns against the Serbs. The Archimandrite of Vrdnik, Longin, who escaped to Belgrade in 1941, reported that Serbian sacred objects on Fruška Gora were in danger of total destruction. He proposed that they be taken to Belgrade, which was accepted by the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. On 14 April 1942, after the German occupation authorities gave their permission, the reliquary with Lazar's relics was transported from Bešenovo to the Belgrade Cathedral Church and ceremonially laid in front of the iconostasis in the church. In 1954, the Synod decided that the relics should be returned the Ravanica Monastery, which was accomplished in 1989—on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo.[69]

Tradition edit

Kosovo curse:

 
Inscription of the curse on the Gazimestan monument

"Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,
And of Serb blood and heritage,
And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo,
May he never have the progeny his heart desires,
Neither son nor daughter!
May nothing grow that his hand sows,
Neither dark wine nor white wheat!
And let him be cursed from all ages to all ages!"
– Lazar curses those who do not take up arms against the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo, from a poem first published in 1815.[70]

In Serbian epic tradition, Lazar is said to have been visited the night before battle by a grey hawk or falcon from Jerusalem who offered a choice between an earthly kingdom—implying victory at the Battle of Kosovo—or a heavenly kingdom—which would come as the result of a peaceful capitulation or bloody defeat.[71]

"...the Prophet Elijah then appeared as a gray falcon to Lazar, bearing a letter from the Mother of God that told him the choice was between holding an earthly kingdom and entering the kingdom of heaven..."[72]

According to the epics, Lazar opted for the eternal, heavenly kingdom and consequently perished on the battlefield.[73] "We die with Christ, to live forever", he told his soldiers. That Kosovo's declaration and testament is regarded as a covenant which the Serb people made with God and sealed with the blood of martyrs. Since then all Serbs faithful to that Testament regard themselves as the people of God, Christ's New Testament nation, heavenly Serbia, part of God's New Israel. This is why Serbs sometimes refer to themselves as the people of Heaven.[74]

Jefimija, the former wife of Uglješa Mrnjavčević and later a nun in the Ljubostinja monastery, embroidered the Praise to Prince Lazar, one of the most significant works of medieval Serbian literature.[75] The Serbian Orthodox Church canonised Lazar as Saint Lazar. He is celebrated on June 28 [O.S. June 15] (Vidovdan). Several towns and villages (like Lazarevac), small Serbian Orthodox churches and missions throughout the world are named after him. His alleged remains are kept in Ravanica Monastery.

Titles edit

 
Duke Lazar, by Đura Jakšić

It is uncertain since when Lazar had borne the title of knez,[7] which is usually translated as "prince" or "duke".[11] The earliest source that testifies to Lazar's new title is a Ragusan document in Latin, dated 22 April 1371, in which he is referred to as Comes Lazarus.[7][12] Ragusans used comes as a Latin translation of the Slavic title knez.[13] The same document relates that Lazar held Rudnik at that time.[12] In medieval Serbia, knez was not a precisely defined term, and the title had no fixed rank in the feudal hierarchy. Its rank was high in the 12th century, but somewhat lower in the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century. During the reign of Tsar Uroš, when the central authority declined, the high prestige of the title of knez was restored. It was borne by the mightiest regional lord, Vojislav Vojinović, until his death in 1363.[7]

In the period between 1374 and 1379 the Serbian Church recognized Lazar as the "Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje" (господар Срба и Подунавља).[76] In 1381, he is signed as "knez Lazar, of Serbs and Podunavlje" (кнезь Лазарь Срьблѥмь и Подѹнавїю).[77] In an inscription from Ljubostinja dated to 1389, he is mentioned as "knez Lazar, of all Serbs and Podunavlje provinces" (кнезь Лазарь всѣмь Срьблемь и подѹнавскимь странамь господинь).[78] In Hungary, he was known as the "Prince of the Kingdom of Rascia".[79]

In charters issued between 1379 and 1388, he named himself as Stefan Lazar. "Stefan" was the name borne by all Nemanjić rulers, leading the name to be regarded as a title of Serbian rulers. Tvrtko added "Stefan" to his name when he was crowned king of the Serbs and Bosnia.[29] In the charters, Lazar referred to himself as the autocrator (samodržac in Serbian) of "All Serbian Lands" (самодрьжца всеѥ Срьбьскьіѥ землѥ[80]), or the autocrator of "All the Serbs" (самодрьжць вьсѣмь Србьлѥмь). Autocrator, "self-ruler" in Greek, was an epithet of the Byzantine emperors. The Nemanjić kings adopted it and applied it to themselves in its literal meaning to stress their independence from Byzantium, whose supreme suzerainty they nominally recognized.[29]

Issue edit

 
Monument to Prince Lazar, erected on 27 June 1971 to commemorate "Six Centuries of Kruševac" by author Nebojša Mitrić

Lazar and Milica had at least eight children, five daughters and three sons:

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Byzantinoslavica, Томови 61-62 Предња корица Academia, 2003;
    Serbian Studies, Том 13 Предња корица. North American Society for Serbian Studies, 1999.
  2. ^ Mihaljčić 1984, p. 15
  3. ^ a b c d Fine 1994, p. 374
  4. ^ a b c d Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 15–28
  5. ^ Fine 1994, p. 335
  6. ^ Fine 1994, p. 345
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 29–52
  8. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 358–59
  9. ^ Mihaljčić 1975, p. 43
  10. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 363–64
  11. ^ a b Fine 1994, p. 624
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  13. ^ a b Fine 2006, p. 156
  14. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 377–78
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  26. ^ a b c d e Fine 1994, pp. 387–89
  27. ^ Šuica 2000, pp. 103–10
  28. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 270
  29. ^ a b c d e f Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 78–115
  30. ^ Popović 2006, p. 119
  31. ^ Fine 1994, p. 444
  32. ^ a b c d e Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 175–79
  33. ^ a b Mihaljčić 1975, pp. 217
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 116–32
  35. ^ Stijović 2008, p. 457
  36. ^ Reinert 1994, p. 177
  37. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 395–98
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  49. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 145
  50. ^ Emmert 1991, p. 24
  51. ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, p. 184–85
  52. ^ Fine 1994, p. 500
  53. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 193, 200
  54. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 525–26
  55. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 188–89
  56. ^ Fine 1994, p. 575
  57. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 193,195
  58. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 204
  59. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 207–10
  60. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 212, 289
  61. ^ a b c Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 196–97
  62. ^ Purković 1996, p. 48
  63. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 96–97
  64. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 200–1
  65. ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 214–16
  66. ^ a b c Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 220–25
  67. ^ a b Mihaljčić 2001, pp. 226–29
  68. ^ Mihaljčić 2001, p. 230
  69. ^ Medaković 2007, p. 75
  70. ^ Duijzings 2000, pp. 187–88
  71. ^ Macdonald 2002, p. 69
  72. ^ "Insight: Legacy of Medieval Serbia". Archaeological Institute of America. October 1999. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
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  78. ^ Miklosich 1858, p. 215.
  79. ^ Jovan Ilić (1995). The Serbian question in the Balkans. Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade. p. 150. ISBN 9788682657019. Prince Lazar is for Hungary the "Prince of the Kingdom of Rascia"
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  81. ^ Veselinović & Ljušić 2001, p. 82-85.
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External links edit

  • Serbian Epic Poetry
Lazar of Serbia
Born: ca. 1329  Died: 15 June 1389
Regnal titles
New title "Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje"
1374–1379
Succeeded by
Vacant — TITULAR —
"Autocrator of all the Serbs"
1379–1389
Succeeded byas Prince

lazar, serbia, lazar, hrebeljanović, serbian, cyrillic, Лазар, Хребељановић, 1329, june, 1389, medieval, serbian, ruler, created, largest, most, powerful, state, territory, disintegrated, serbian, empire, lazar, state, referred, historians, moravian, serbia, c. Lazar Hrebeljanovic Serbian Cyrillic Lazar Hrebeљanoviћ c 1329 15 June 1389 was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire Lazar s state referred to by historians as Moravian Serbia comprised the basins of the Great Morava West Morava and South Morava rivers Lazar ruled Moravian Serbia from 1373 until his death in 1389 He sought to resurrect the Serbian Empire and place himself at its helm claiming to be the direct successor of the Nemanjic dynasty which went extinct in 1371 after ruling over Serbia for two centuries Lazar s programme had the full support of the Serbian Orthodox Church but the Serbian nobility did not recognize him as their supreme ruler He is often referred to as Tsar Lazar Hrebeljanovic Serbian Car Lazar Hrebeљanoviћ Car Lazar Hrebeljanovic however he only held the title of prince Serbian knez knez SaintLazarLazarPortrait of Prince Lazar in the Monastery of Ravanica 1380s Prince MartyrAutocrator of all the SerbsBornc 1329 Fortress of Prilepac 1 Kingdom of SerbiaDied15 June 1389 aged approximately 60 Kosovo Field 1 District of BrankovicVenerated inEastern Orthodox ChurchReign1373 1389SuccessorStefan LazarevicBurialMonastery of RavanicaSpouseMilicaIssueMaraDraganaTeodora Jelena OliveraDobrovojStefanVukNamesLazar HrebeljanovicSerbianLazar HrebeљanoviћDynastyLazarevic dynastyFatherPribac HrebeljanovicReligionSerbian OrthodoxSignatureLazar was killed at the Battle of Kosovo in June 1389 while leading a Christian army assembled to confront the invading Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Murad I The battle ended without a clear victor with both sides enduring heavy losses Lazar s widow Milica who ruled as regent for their adolescent son Stefan Lazarevic Lazar s successor accepted Ottoman suzerainty in the summer of 1390 Lazar is venerated in the Orthodox Christian Church as a martyr and saint and is highly regarded in Serbian history culture and tradition In Serbian epic poetry he is referred to as Tsar Lazar Serbian Car Lazar Car Lazar Contents 1 Life 1 1 Courtier 1 2 Minor regional lord 1 3 Prince 1 3 1 Rise to power 1 3 2 Major lord in Serbia 1 3 3 Battle of Kosovo 2 Cult 2 1 Under Serbian rulers 2 2 During Ottoman rule 2 3 After the Great Serb Migration 3 Tradition 4 Titles 5 Issue 6 References 7 Sources 8 External linksLife edit nbsp Memorial in Fortress of Prilepac the birthplace of LazarLazar was born around 1329 in the Fortress of Prilepac 1 13 kilometres 8 1 mi southeast of Novo Brdo then an important mining town His family were the hereditary lords of Prilepac which together with the nearby Fortress of Prizrenac protected the mines and settlements around Novo Brdo 2 Lazar s father Pribac was a logothete chancellor in the court of Stefan Dusan 3 a member of the Nemanjic dynasty who ruled as the King of Serbia from 1331 to 1346 and the Serbian Emperor tsar from 1346 to 1355 The rank of logothete was relatively modest in the hierarchy of the Serbian court Dusan became the ruler of Serbia by dethroning his father King Stefan Uros III then rewarding the petty nobles that had supported him in his rebellion elevating them to higher positions within the feudal hierarchy Lazar s father was among these nobles and was elevated to the position of logothete by pledging loyalty to Dusan According to Mavro Orbin a 16th century Ragusan historian Pribac and Lazar s surname was Hrebeljanovic Though Orbin did not provide a source for this claim it has been widely accepted in historiography 4 Courtier edit Pribac was awarded by Dusan in yet another way his son Lazar was granted the position of stavilac at the ruler s court The stavilac literally placer had a role in the ceremony at the royal table though he could be entrusted with jobs that had nothing to do with court ritual The title of stavilac ranked as the last in the hierarchy of the Serbian court It was nevertheless quite prestigious as it enabled its holder to be very close to the ruler Stavilac Lazar married Milica according to subsequent genealogies created in the first half of the 15th century Milica was the daughter of Prince Vratko a great grandson of Vukan The latter was the son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty which ruled Serbia from 1166 to 1371 Vukan s descendants are not mentioned in any known source that predates the 15th century genealogies 4 Tsar Dusan died suddenly in 1355 at the age of about 47 5 and was succeeded by his 20 year old son Stefan Uros V 6 Lazar remained a stavilac at the court of the new tsar 4 Dusan s death was followed by the stirring of separatist activity in the Serbian Empire Epirus and Thessaly in its southwest broke away by 1359 The same happened with Branicevo and Kucevo the empire s north eastern regions controlled by the Rastislalic family who recognized the suzerainty of King Louis of Hungary The rest of the Serbian state remained loyal to young Tsar Uros Even within it however powerful Serbian nobles were asserting more and more independence from the tsar s authority 7 nbsp The Serbian Empire in 1355Uros was weak and unable to counteract these separatist tendencies becoming an inferior power in the state he nominally ruled He relied on the strongest Serbian noble Prince Vojislav Vojinovic of Zahumlje Vojislav started as a stavilac at the court of Tsar Dusan but by 1363 he controlled a large region from Mount Rudnik in central Serbia to Konavle on the Adriatic coast and from the upper reaches of the Drina River to northern Kosovo 7 The next in power to Prince Vojislav were the Balsic brothers Stracimir Đurađ and Balsa II By 1363 they gained control over the region of Zeta which coincided for the most part with present day Montenegro 8 In 1361 Prince Vojislav started a war with the Republic of Ragusa over some territories 9 Ragusans then asked most eminent persons in Serbia to use their influence to stop these hostilities that were harmful for both sides In 1362 the Ragusans also applied to stavilac Lazar and presented him with three bolts of cloth A relatively modest present as it was it testifies that Lazar was perceived as having some influence at the court of Tsar Uros The peace between Prince Vojislav and Ragusa was signed in August 1362 Stavilac Lazar is mentioned as a witness in a July 1363 document by which Tsar Uros approved an exchange of lands between Prince Vojislav and celnik Musa The latter man had been married to Lazar s sister Dragana since at least 1355 Musa s title celnik headman was of a higher rank than stavilac 4 Minor regional lord edit Lazar s activities in the period between 1363 and 1371 are poorly documented in sources 7 Apparently he left the court of Tsar Uros in 1363 or 1365 3 7 he was about 35 years of age and had not advanced beyond the rank of stavilac Prince Vojislav the strongest regional lord suddenly died in September 1363 The Mrnjavcevic brothers Vukasin and Jovan Ugljesa became the most powerful nobles in the Serbian Empire They controlled lands in the south of the Empire primarily in Macedonia 7 In 1365 Tsar Uros crowned Vukasin king making him his co ruler Approximately at the same time Jovan Ugljesa was promoted to the rank of despot 10 A nephew of Prince Vojislav Nikola Altomanovic gained control by 1368 of most of the territory of his late uncle Nikola was about 20 at that time In this period Lazar became independent and began his career as a regional lord It is not clear how his territory developed but its nucleus was certainly not at his patrimony the Fortress of Prilepac which had been taken by Vukasin The nucleus of Lazar s territory was somewhere in the area bordered by the Mrnjavcevics in the south Nikola Altomanovic in the west and the Rastislalics in the north 7 The book Il Regno de gli Slavi The Realm of the Slavs by Mavro Orbin published in Pesaro in 1601 describes events in which Lazar was a main protagonist Since this account is not corroborated by other sources some historians doubt its veracity According to Orbin Nikola Altomanovic and Lazar persuaded Tsar Uros to join them in their attack on the Mrnjavcevic brothers The clash between the two groups of Serbian lords took place on the Kosovo Field in 1369 Lazar withdrew from the battle soon after it began His allies fought on but were defeated by the Mrnjavcevics Altomanovic barely escaped with his life while Uros was captured and briefly imprisoned by the brothers 3 There are indications that the co rulers Tsar Uros and King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic went their separate ways two years prior to the alleged battle 7 In 1370 Lazar took from Altomanovic the town of Rudnik a rich mining centre This could have been a consequence of Altomanovic s defeat the year before 3 In any case Altomanovic could have quickly recovered from this defeat with the help of his powerful protector the Kingdom of Hungary 7 Prince edit nbsp Painting of Lazar by Vladislav Titelbah ca 1900 It is uncertain since when Lazar had borne the title of knez 7 which is usually translated as prince 11 The earliest source that testifies to Lazar s new title is a Ragusan document in Latin dated 22 April 1371 in which he is referred to as Comes Lazarus 7 12 Ragusans used comes as a Latin translation of the Slavic title knez 13 The same document relates that Lazar held Rudnik at that time 12 In medieval Serbia knez was not a precisely defined term and the title had no fixed rank in the feudal hierarchy Its rank was high in the 12th century but somewhat lower in the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century During the reign of Tsar Uros when the central authority declined the high prestige of the title of knez was restored It was borne by the mightiest regional lord Vojislav Vojinovic until his death in 1363 7 Rise to power edit The Ottoman Turks took Gallipoli from Byzantium in 1354 This town at the south eastern edge of the Balkan Peninsula was the first Ottoman possession in Europe From there the Ottomans expanded further into the Balkans and by 1370 they reached Serbian lands specifically the territory of the Mrnjavcevics in eastern Macedonia 14 An army of the Mrnjavcevic brothers entered the territory controlled by the Ottomans and clashed with them in the Battle of Marica on 26 September 1371 The Ottomans annihilated the Serbian army both King Vukasin and Despot Jovan Ugljesa were killed in the battle 15 Vukasin s son and successor King Marko became the co ruler of Tsar Uros In December 1371 Uros died childless marking the end of the Nemanjic dynasty which had ruled Serbia for two centuries The ruler of the Serbian state which had in fact ceased to exist as a whole was formally King Marko Mrnjavcevic Powerful Serbian lords however did not even consider recognizing him as their supreme ruler 16 They attacked the Mrnjavcevics lands in Macedonia and Kosovo Prizren and Pec were taken by the Balsic brothers the lords of Zeta 17 Prince Lazar took Pristina and Novo Brdo recovering also his patrimony the Fortress of Prilepac The Dragas brothers Jovan and Konstantin created their own domain in eastern Macedonia King Marko was eventually left only a relatively small area in western Macedonia centred on the town of Prilep 18 19 Jovan Ugljesa s widow Jelena who became a nun and took the monastic name of Jefimija 7 lived on with Prince Lazar and his wife Milica 20 After the demise of the Mrnjavcevic brothers Nikola Altomanovic emerged as the most powerful noble on the territory of the fragmented Serbian state While Lazar was busy taking Pristina and Novo Brdo Nikola recovered Rudnik from him 18 By 1372 Prince Lazar and Tvrtko the Ban of Bosnia formed an alliance against Nikola According to Ragusan sources the Republic of Venice mediated an agreement between Nikola Altomanovic and Djuradj Balsic about their joint attack on Ragusa Nikola was to gain Peljesac and Ston the Ragusan parts of the region of Zahumlje which was divided between Nikola s domain Bosnia and Ragusa Louis I the King of Hungary sternly warned Nikola and Djuradj to keep off Ragusa 21 which had been a Hungarian vassal since 1358 22 By conspiring with Venice a Hungarian enemy Nikola lost the protection of Hungary 23 Lazar preparing for the confrontation with Nikola promised King Louis to be his loyal vassal if the king was on his side Prince Lazar and Ban Tvrtko attacked and defeated Nikola Altomanovic in 1373 Nikola was captured in his stronghold the town of Uzice and given in charge to Lazar s nephews the Music brothers who according to Orbin with the secret approval of Lazar blinded him 24 Lazar accepted the suzerainty of King Louis 18 nbsp Coat of arms of Prince Lazar painted on a wall of the Hilandar Monastery 14th century nbsp Illustration of Prince Lazar s coat of arms Ban Tvrtko annexed to his state the parts of Zahumlje which were held by Nikola including the upper reaches of the Drina and Lim Rivers as well as the districts of Onogost and Gacko 25 Prince Lazar and his in laws Vuk Brankovic and celnik Musa took most of Nikola s domain Vuk Brankovic who married Lazar s daughter Mara in around 1371 acquired Sjenica and part of Kosovo Lazar s subordinate celnik Musa governed an area around Mount Kopaonik jointly with his sons Stefan and Lazar known as the Music brothers Djuradj Balsic grabbed Nikola s littoral districts Dracevica Konavle and Trebinje Ban Tvrtko would take these lands in 1377 In October of that year Tvrtko was crowned king of the Serbs Bosnia Maritime and Western Areas 18 Although Tvrtko was a Catholic his coronation was performed at the Serbian Monastery of Mileseva 25 or at some other prominent Serbian Orthodox centre in his state King Tvrtko asserted pretensions to the Serbian throne and the heritage of the Nemanjic dynasty He was a distant blood relative to the Nemanjics Hungary and Ragusa recognized Tvrtko as king and there are no indications that Prince Lazar had any objections to the new title of his ally Kotromanic This on the other hand does not mean that Lazar recognized Tvrtko as his overlord King Tvrtko however had no support from the Serbian Church the only cohesive force in the fragmented Serbian state 18 Major lord in Serbia edit nbsp Realm of Prince Lazar Moravian SerbiaAfter the demise of Nikola Altomanovic Prince Lazar emerged as the most powerful lord on the territory of the former Serbian Empire 26 Some local nobles resisted Lazar s authority but they eventually submitted to the prince That was the case with Nikola Zojic on Mount Rudnik and Novak Belocrkvic in the valley of the Toplica River 27 Lazar s large and rich domain was a refuge for Eastern Orthodox Christian monks who fled from areas threatened by the Islamic Ottomans This brought fame to Lazar on Mount Athos the centre of Orthodox monasticism The Serbian Church Serbian Patriarchate of Pec had since 1350 been in schism with the Patriarchate of Constantinople the central authority of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity A Serb monk from Mount Athos named Isaija who distinguished himself as a writer and translator encouraged Lazar to work on the reconciliation of the two patriarchates Through efforts of Lazar and Isaija an ecclesiastical delegation was sent to the Constantinopolitan Patriarch to negotiate the reconciliation The delegation was successful and in 1375 the Serbian Church was readmitted into communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople 18 The last patriarch of the Serbian Church in schism Sava IV died in April 1375 28 In October of the same year Prince Lazar and Djuradj Balsic convened a synod of the Serbian Church in Pec Patriarch Jefrem was selected for the new head of the Church He was a candidate of Constantinople or a compromise selection from among the candidates of powerful nobles 29 Patriarch Jefrem abdicated in 1379 in favour of Spiridon which is explained by some historians as having resulted from the influence of an undercurrent in the Church associated with Lazar 30 The prince and Patriarch Spiridon had an excellent cooperation 29 The Church was obliged to Lazar for his role in ending the schism with Constantinople Lazar also granted lands to monasteries and built churches 26 His greatest legacy as a church builder is the Monastery of Ravanica completed in 1381 31 Some time earlier he built the Church of St Stephen in his capital Krusevac the church would become known as Lazarica After 1379 he built the Gornjak Monastery in Branicevo He was one of the founders of the Romanian monasteries in Tismana and Vodiţa He funded some construction works in two monasteries on Mount Athos the Serbian Hilandar and the Russian St Panteleimon 32 nbsp Remains of the donjon of Lazar s fortress in Krusevac the capital of Lazar s state Lazar extended his domain to the Danube in 1379 when the prince took Kucevo and Branicevo ousting the Hungarian vassal Radic Brankovic Rastislalic from these regions 33 King Louis had earlier granted to Lazar the region of Macva or at least a part of it probably when the prince accepted the king s suzerainty 26 This suggests that Lazar who was himself a vassal of Louis had rebelled and indeed Louis is known to have been organizing a campaign against Serbia in 1378 However it is not known against whom Louis was intending to act It is also possible that it was Radic Brankovic Rastislalic and that Lazar s attack had the approval of Louis 33 Lazar s state known in literature as Moravian Serbia was larger than the domains of the other lords on the territory of the former Serbian Empire It also had a better organized government and army The state comprised the basins of the Great Morava West Morava and South Morava Rivers extending from the source of South Morava northward to the Danube and Sava Rivers Its north western border ran along the Drina River Besides the capital Krusevac the state included important towns of Nis and Uzice as well as Novo Brdo and Rudnik the two richest mining centres of medieval Serbia Of all the Serbian lands Lazar s state lay furthest from Ottoman centres and was least exposed to the ravages of Turkish raiding parties This circumstance attracted immigrants from Turkish threatened areas who built new villages and hamlets in previously poorly inhabited and uncultivated areas of Moravian Serbia There were also spiritual persons among the immigrants which stimulated the revival of old ecclesiastical centres and the foundation of new ones in Lazar s state The strategic position of the Morava basins contributed to Lazar s prestige and political influence in the Balkans due to the anticipated Turkish offensives 26 34 nbsp Ravanica monastery was founded by LazarIn charters issued between 1379 and 1388 the prince named himself as Stefan Lazar Stefan was the name borne by all Nemanjic rulers leading the name to be regarded as a title of Serbian rulers Tvrtko added Stefan to his name when he was crowned king of the Serbs and Bosnia 29 From a linguistic point of view Lazar s charters show traits of the Kosovo Resava dialect of the Serbian language 35 In the charters Lazar referred to himself as the autocrator samodrzac in Serbian of all the Serbian land or the autocrator of all the Serbs Autocrator self ruler in Greek was an epithet of the Byzantine emperors The Nemanjic kings adopted it and applied it to themselves in its literal meaning to stress their independence from Byzantium whose supreme suzerainty they nominally recognized In the time of Prince Lazar the Serbian state experienced the loss of some of its lands the division of the remaining lands among regional lords the end of the Nemanjic dynasty and the Turkish attacks These circumstances raised the question of a continuation of the Serbian state Lazar s answer to this question could be read in the titles he applied to himself in his charters Lazar s ideal was the reunification of the Serbian state under him as the direct successor of the Nemanjics Lazar had the full support of the Serbian Church for this political programme However powerful regional lords the Balsics in Zeta Vuk Brankovic in Kosovo King Marko Konstantin Dragas and Radoslav Hlapen in Macedonia ruled their domains independent from Prince Lazar Beside that the three lords in Macedonia became Ottoman vassals after the Battle of Marica The same happened to Byzantium and Bulgaria 29 By 1388 Ottoman suzerainty was also accepted by Djuradj Stracimirovic Balsic the lord of Zeta 25 A Turkish raiding party passing unobstructed through territories of Ottoman vassals broke into Moravian Serbia in 1381 It was routed by Lazar s nobles Crep Vukoslavic and Vitomir in the Battle of Dubravnica fought near the town of Paracin 34 In 1386 the Ottoman Sultan Murad I himself led much larger forces that took Nis from Lazar It is unclear whether the encounter between the armies of Lazar and Murad at Plocnik a site southwest of Nis happened shortly before or after the capture of Nis Lazar rebuffed Murad at Plocnik 36 After the death of King Louis I in 1382 a civil war broke out in the Kingdom of Hungary It seems that Lazar participated in the war as one of the opponents of Prince Sigismund of Luxemburg Lazar may have sent some troops to fight in the regions of Belgrade and Syrmia As the Ottoman threat increased and the support for Sigismund grew in Hungary Lazar made peace with Sigismund who was crowned Hungarian king in March 1387 The peace was sealed probably in 1387 with the marriage of Lazar s daughter Teodora to Nicholas II Garay a powerful Hungarian noble who supported Sigismund 37 Around the same year Lazar s daughter Jelena married Djuradj Stracimirovic Balsic About a year before Lazar s daughter Dragana married Alexander the son of Ivan Shishman Tsar of Bulgaria 26 34 Battle of Kosovo edit Main article Battle of Kosovo nbsp Night before the Battle of Kosovo by Adam Stefanovic 1870 nbsp Kosovo Field with disposition of Serbian and Ottoman troops before the Battle of KosovoSince the encounter at Plocnik in 1386 it was clear to Lazar that a decisive battle with the Ottomans was imminent After he made peace with Sigismund to avoid troubles on his northern borders the prince secured military support from Vuk Brankovic and King Tvrtko 34 38 The King of the Serbs and Bosnia was also expecting a bigger Ottoman offensive since his army commanded by Vlatko Vukovic wiped out a large Turkish raiding party in the Battle of Bileca in 1388 39 A massive Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad estimated at between 27 000 and 30 000 men advanced across the territory of Konstantin Dragas and arrived in June 1389 on the Kosovo Field near Pristina on the territory of Vuk Brankovic The Ottoman army was met by the forces commanded by Prince Lazar estimated at between 12 000 and 30 000 men which consisted of the prince s own troops Vuk Brankovic s troops and a contingent under the leadership of Vlatko Vukovic sent by King Tvrtko 34 38 The Battle of Kosovo the most famous battle in Serbia s medieval history 39 was fought on 15 June 1389 In the fierce fighting and mutual heavy losses both Prince Lazar and Sultan Murad lost their lives 34 38 Information about the course and the outcome of the Battle of Kosovo is incomplete in the historical sources It can be concluded that tactically the battle was a draw However the mutual heavy losses were devastating only for the Serbs who had brought to Kosovo almost all of their fighting strength 34 38 Although Serbia under Prince Lazar was an economically prosperous and militarily well organized state it could not compare to the Ottoman Empire with respect to the size of territory population and economic power 34 Lazar was succeeded by his eldest son Stefan Lazarevic As he was still a minor Moravian Serbia was administered by Stefan s mother Milica She was attacked from the north five months after the battle by troops of the Hungarian King Sigismund When Turkish forces moving toward Hungary reached the borders of Moravian Serbia in the summer of 1390 Milica accepted Ottoman suzerainty She sent her youngest daughter Olivera to join the harem of Sultan Bayezid I Vuk Brankovic became an Ottoman vassal in 1392 Now all the Serbian lands were under Ottoman suzerainty except Zahumlje under King Tvrtko 38 Cult editUnder Serbian rulers edit After the Battle of Kosovo Prince Lazar was interred in the Church of the Ascension in Pristina the capital of Vuk Brankovic s domain 40 After a year or two in 1390 or 1391 Lazar s relics were transferred to the Ravanica Monastery which the prince had built and intended as his burial place The translation was organized by the Serbian Church and Lazar s family 41 The ceremonial interment of the relics in Ravanica was attended by the highest clergy of the Serbian Church including Patriarch Danilo III It is most likely at this time and place that Lazar was canonized though no account of his canonization was written He was included among the Christian martyrs with his feast day being celebrated on 15 June According to writings by Patriarch Danilo and other contemporary authors Prince Lazar was captured and beheaded by the Turks His death could thus be likened to that of early Christian martyrs who were slain by pagans 40 nbsp Fresco painting of Prince Lazar and his wife Milica in the Ljubostinja Monastery 1405 near Trstenik SerbiaIn a medieval state with a strong link between the State and the Church as in Moravian Serbia a canonization was not only an ecclesiastical act It also had a social significance After two centuries of rule of the Nemanjic dynasty most members of which were canonized Lazar was the first lay person to be recognized as a saint During his lifetime he had achieved considerable prestige as the major lord on the territory of the former Serbian Empire The Church saw him as the only ruler worthy and capable of succeeding the Nemanjics and restoring their state 42 His death was seen as a turning point in Serbian history The aftermath of the Battle of Kosovo was felt in Serbia almost immediately 40 although more significant in the long run was the Battle of Marica eighteen years earlier as the defeat of the Mrnjavcevic brothers in it opened up the Balkans to the Turks 15 Lazar is celebrated as a saint and martyr in ten cultic writings composed in Serbia between 1389 and 1420 43 nine of them could be dated closer to the former year than to the latter 44 These writings were the principal means of spreading the cult of Saint Lazar and most of them were used in liturgy on his feast day 45 The Encomium of Prince Lazar by nun Jefimija is considered to have the highest literary quality of the ten texts 32 Nun Jefimija whose secular name was Jelena was a relative of Princess Milica 44 and the widow of Jovan Ugljesa Mrnjavcevic After his death she lived on with Milica and Lazar Jefimija embroidered her Encomium with a gilded thread on the silken shroud covering Lazar s relics Stefan Lazarevic is regarded as the author of the text carved on a marble pillar that was erected at the site of the Battle of Kosovo 32 The pillar was destroyed by the Ottomans 32 but the text is preserved in a 16th century manuscript 46 Patriarch Danilo III wrote Narration about Prince Lazar around the time of the translation of Lazar s relics It is regarded as historically the most informative of the ten writings 44 though it is a synthesis of hagiography eulogy and homily The prince is celebrated not only as a martyr but also as a warrior 47 The patriarch wrote that the Battle of Kosovo ended when both sides became exhausted both the Serbs and the Turks suffered heavy losses 48 The central part of Narration is the patriarch s version of Lazar s speech to Serbian warriors before the battle 49 You O comrades and brothers lords and nobles soldiers and vojvodas great and small You yourselves are witnesses and observers of that great goodness God has given us in this life But if the sword if wounds or if the darkness of death comes to us we accept it sweetly for Christ and for the godliness of our homeland It is better to die in battle than to live in shame Better it is for us to accept death from the sword in battle than to offer our shoulders to the enemy We have lived a long time for the world in the end we seek to accept the martyr s struggle and to live forever in heaven We call ourselves Christian soldiers martyrs for godliness to be recorded in the Book of Life We do not spare our bodies in fighting in order that we may accept the holy wreathes from that One who judges all accomplishments Sufferings beget glory and labours lead to peace 50 nbsp Encomium of Prince Lazar by nun Jefimija is embroidered with a gilded thread on the silken shroud which covered Lazar s relicsWith Lazar s death Serbia lost its strongest regional ruler who might have been seen as the last hope against the expanding Ottomans This loss could have led to pessimism and a feeling of despair The authors of the cultic writings interpreted the death of Lazar and the thousands of his warriors on the Kosovo Field as a martyrdom for the Christian faith and for Serbia Sultan Murad and his army are described as bloodthirsty godless heathen beasts Prince Lazar by his martyrdom remains eternally among the Serbs as the good shepherd His cult was adjoined to the other great cults of medieval Serbia those of the first canonized Nemanjics Saint Simeon whose secular name was Nemanja and his son Saint Sava The cults contributed to the consolidation of the Serbs in a strong religious and political unit 48 Lazar was however in the shadow of Saint Sava and Saint Simeon 51 Lazar s son and successor Stefan Lazarevic was granted the title of despot by the Byzantine Emperor and he ceased to be an Ottoman vassal in 1402 52 At least during his reign the Holy Prince Lazar was probably venerated throughout Moravian Serbia as well as in two monasteries on Mount Athos the Serbian Hilandar and the Russian St Panteleimon in which the prince had funded some construction works 32 During Despot Stefan s reign only one image of Lazar is known to have been painted It is in a fresco in the Ljubostinja Monastery built around 1405 by Princess Milica Lazar is represented there with regal attributes rather than saintly ones 51 His next image would not appear until 1594 when it was painted among images of numerous other personages in the Orahovica Monastery in Slavonia then under Ottoman rule 53 For his cult more important than iconography was the cultic literature 45 Despot Stefan Lazarevic suddenly died in July 1427 He was succeeded by Despot Đurađ Vuk Brankovic s son and Lazar s grandson 54 At the beginning of his reign Đurađ issued a charter in which he referred to Lazar as a saint When he reissued the charter in 1445 he avoided the adjective sveti saint in reference to Lazar by replacing it with svetopochivshi resting in holiness The avoidance to refer to the prince as a saint can be observed in other documents and inscriptions of that period including those authored by his daughter Jelena 55 During Ottoman rule edit The Serbian Despotate fell to the Ottomans in 1459 56 The veneration of the Holy Prince Lazar was reduced to a local cult centred on the Ravanica Monastery 57 Its monks continued to celebrate annually his feast day 58 The prince had granted 148 villages and various privileges to the monastery The Ottomans reduced its property to a couple of villages containing 127 households in all but they exempted Ravanica from some taxes 59 Italian traveller Marc Antonio Pigafetta who visited Ravanica in 1568 reported that the monastery was never damaged by the Turks and the monks practiced freely their religion except that they were not allowed to ring bells 60 nbsp Remainings of medieval Serbian freska Saint Lazar was venerated at the court of Ivan the Terrible the first Russian tsar 1547 1584 61 whose maternal grandmother was born in the Serbian noble family of Jaksic 62 Lazar appears in a fresco in the Cathedral of the Archangel the burial place of Russian rulers in the Moscow Kremlin The walls of the cathedral were painted in 1565 with frescoes showing all Russian rulers preceding Ivan the Terrible Only four non Russians were depicted Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and three Serbs Saints Simeon Sava and Lazar The prince is also represented in the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible in its nine miniatures depicting the Battle of Kosovo 61 It is in this Russian book that Prince Lazar was for the first time referred to as a tsar Around 1700 Count Đorđe Brankovic would write his Slavo Serbian Chronicles in which he claimed that Lazar was crowned tsar This would influence Serbian folk tradition in which the prince is to this day known as Tsar Lazar 63 After the death of Ivan the Terrible Lazar is rarely mentioned in Russian sources 61 Lazar s cult in his Ottoman held homeland reduced to the Ravanica Monastery was given a boost during the office of Serbian Patriarch Paisije In 1633 and several ensuing years Lazar was painted in the church of the Patriarchal Monastery of Pec and three other Serbian churches Patriarch Paisije wrote that Serbian Tsar Dusan adopted Lazar and gave him his relative Princess Milica in marriage In this way Lazar was the legitimate successor to the Nemanjic dynasty In 1667 the prince was painted on a wall in the Hilandar Monastery The same painter created an icon showing Lazar together with Đorđe Kratovac a goldsmith who was tortured and killed by the Turks and recognized as a martyr In 1675 Prince Lazar and several Nemanjics were represented in an icon commissioned by the brothers Gavro and Vukoje Humkovic Serbian craftsmen from Sarajevo The prince s images from this period show him more as a ruler than as a saint except the icon with Đorđe Kratovac 64 After the Great Serb Migration edit nbsp Relic case of Lazar of Serbia Monastery of Vrdnik Ravanica in VrdnikDuring the Great Turkish War in the last decades of the 17th century the Habsburg monarchy took some Serbian lands from the Ottomans In 1690 a considerable proportion of the Serbian population living in these lands emigrated to the Habsburg Monarchy as its army retreated from Serbia before the advancing Ottomans This exodus known as the Great Serb Migration was led by Arsenije III Carnojevic the patriarch of the Serbian Church The Ravanica monks joined the northward exodus taking Lazar s relics and the monastery s valuables with them They settled at the town of Szentendre near which they built a wooden church and placed the relics in it 65 They built houses for themselves around the church and named their new settlement Ravanica Szentendre also became a temporary see of Patriarch Arsenije III 66 The Ravanica monks established contacts with Serbian monasteries in the Habsburg Monarchy and with the Russian Orthodox Church from which they received help They considerably enlarged their library and treasury during their stay at Szentendre In this period they started to use printing to spread the veneration of the Holy Prince they made a woodcut representing Lazar as a cephalophore holding his severed head in his hand 66 In 1697 the Ravanica monks left their wooden settlement at Szentendre and moved to the dilapidated Monastery of Vrdnik Ravanica on Mount Fruska Gora in the region of Syrmia They renovated it and placed Lazar s relics in its church after which this monastery became the centre of Lazar s cult It soon came to be more frequently referred to as Ravanica than Vrdnik By the mid 18th century a general belief arose that the monastery was founded by Prince Lazar himself 66 Its church became too small to accommodate all the devotees who assembled there on holidays 67 nbsp nbsp Copperplates of Prince Lazar by Hristofor Zefarovic 1741 and Zaharije Orfelin 1773 The Treaty of Passarowitz by which Serbia north of the West Morava was ceded from the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburg Monarchy was signed on 21 July 1718 At that time only one of the original Ravanica monks who had left their monastery 28 years ago was still alive His name was Stefan Shortly before the treaty was signed Stefan returned to Ravanica and renovated the monastery which had been half ruined and overgrown with vegetation when he came In 1733 there were only five monks in Ravanica Serbia was returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1739 but the monastery was not completely abandoned this time 65 After the Great Serb Migration the highest clergy of the Serbian Church actively popularized the cults of canonized Serbian rulers Arsenije IV Sakabenta Metropolitan of Karlovci employed in 1741 the engravers Hristofor Zefarovic and Toma Mesmer to create a poster titled Saint Sava with Serbian Saints of the House of Nemanja where Lazar was also depicted Its purpose was not only religious as it should also remind people of the independent Serbian state before the Ottoman conquest and of Prince Lazar s fight against the Ottomans The poster was presented at the Habsburg court The same engravers produced a book titled Stemmatographia published in Vienna in 1741 Part of it included copperplates of 29 rulers and saints among whom were two cephalophores Jovan Vladimir and Lazar Stemmatographia was very popular among the Serbs stirring patriotic feelings in them The Holy Prince would often be represented as a cephalophore in subsequent works created in various artistic techniques 67 An isolated case among the images of Lazar is a 1773 copperplate by Zaharije Orfelin in which the prince has a parading appearance without saintly attributes except a halo 68 Lazar s relics remained in the Monastery of Vrdnik Ravanica until 1941 Shortly before Nazi Germany attacked and overran Yugoslavia the relics were taken to the Besenovo Monastery also on Mount Fruska Gora Syrmia became part of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia controlled by the fascist Ustase movement which conducted large scale genocide campaigns against the Serbs The Archimandrite of Vrdnik Longin who escaped to Belgrade in 1941 reported that Serbian sacred objects on Fruska Gora were in danger of total destruction He proposed that they be taken to Belgrade which was accepted by the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church On 14 April 1942 after the German occupation authorities gave their permission the reliquary with Lazar s relics was transported from Besenovo to the Belgrade Cathedral Church and ceremonially laid in front of the iconostasis in the church In 1954 the Synod decided that the relics should be returned the Ravanica Monastery which was accomplished in 1989 on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo 69 Tradition editMain article Kosovo Myth Kosovo curse nbsp Inscription of the curse on the Gazimestan monument Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth And of Serb blood and heritage And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo May he never have the progeny his heart desires Neither son nor daughter May nothing grow that his hand sows Neither dark wine nor white wheat And let him be cursed from all ages to all ages Lazar curses those who do not take up arms against the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo from a poem first published in 1815 70 In Serbian epic tradition Lazar is said to have been visited the night before battle by a grey hawk or falcon from Jerusalem who offered a choice between an earthly kingdom implying victory at the Battle of Kosovo or a heavenly kingdom which would come as the result of a peaceful capitulation or bloody defeat 71 the Prophet Elijah then appeared as a gray falcon to Lazar bearing a letter from the Mother of God that told him the choice was between holding an earthly kingdom and entering the kingdom of heaven 72 dd According to the epics Lazar opted for the eternal heavenly kingdom and consequently perished on the battlefield 73 We die with Christ to live forever he told his soldiers That Kosovo s declaration and testament is regarded as a covenant which the Serb people made with God and sealed with the blood of martyrs Since then all Serbs faithful to that Testament regard themselves as the people of God Christ s New Testament nation heavenly Serbia part of God s New Israel This is why Serbs sometimes refer to themselves as the people of Heaven 74 Jefimija the former wife of Ugljesa Mrnjavcevic and later a nun in the Ljubostinja monastery embroidered the Praise to Prince Lazar one of the most significant works of medieval Serbian literature 75 The Serbian Orthodox Church canonised Lazar as Saint Lazar He is celebrated on June 28 O S June 15 Vidovdan Several towns and villages like Lazarevac small Serbian Orthodox churches and missions throughout the world are named after him His alleged remains are kept in Ravanica Monastery Titles edit nbsp Duke Lazar by Đura JaksicIt is uncertain since when Lazar had borne the title of knez 7 which is usually translated as prince or duke 11 The earliest source that testifies to Lazar s new title is a Ragusan document in Latin dated 22 April 1371 in which he is referred to as Comes Lazarus 7 12 Ragusans used comes as a Latin translation of the Slavic title knez 13 The same document relates that Lazar held Rudnik at that time 12 In medieval Serbia knez was not a precisely defined term and the title had no fixed rank in the feudal hierarchy Its rank was high in the 12th century but somewhat lower in the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century During the reign of Tsar Uros when the central authority declined the high prestige of the title of knez was restored It was borne by the mightiest regional lord Vojislav Vojinovic until his death in 1363 7 In the period between 1374 and 1379 the Serbian Church recognized Lazar as the Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje gospodar Srba i Podunavљa 76 In 1381 he is signed as knez Lazar of Serbs and Podunavlje knez Lazar Srblѥm i Podѹnavyiyu 77 In an inscription from Ljubostinja dated to 1389 he is mentioned as knez Lazar of all Serbs and Podunavlje provinces knez Lazar vsѣm Srblem i podѹnavskim stranam gospodin 78 In Hungary he was known as the Prince of the Kingdom of Rascia 79 In charters issued between 1379 and 1388 he named himself as Stefan Lazar Stefan was the name borne by all Nemanjic rulers leading the name to be regarded as a title of Serbian rulers Tvrtko added Stefan to his name when he was crowned king of the Serbs and Bosnia 29 In the charters Lazar referred to himself as the autocrator samodrzac in Serbian of All Serbian Lands samodrzhca vseѥ Srbskiѥ zemlѥ 80 or the autocrator of All the Serbs samodrzhc vsѣm Srblѥm Autocrator self ruler in Greek was an epithet of the Byzantine emperors The Nemanjic kings adopted it and applied it to themselves in its literal meaning to stress their independence from Byzantium whose supreme suzerainty they nominally recognized 29 Issue edit nbsp Monument to Prince Lazar erected on 27 June 1971 to commemorate Six Centuries of Krusevac by author Nebojsa MitricLazar and Milica had at least eight children five daughters and three sons Mara died 12 April 1426 married Vuk Brankovic in around 1371 81 Dragana died before July 1395 married Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman in around 1386 82 83 Teodora died before 1405 married Hungarian noble Nicholas II Garay in around 1387 84 85 Jelena died March 1443 married firstly Zetan lord Đurađ II Balsic 86 secondly Bosnian magnate Sandalj Hranic 87 Maria Olivera Despina 1372 1444 married Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I in 1390 88 Dobrovoj Died at the birth Stefan ca 1377 19 July 1427 prince 1389 1402 and despot 1402 1427 89 Vuk prince executed on 6 July 1410 89 References edit a b c Byzantinoslavica Tomovi 61 62 Predњa korica Academia 2003 Serbian Studies Tom 13 Predњa korica North American Society for Serbian Studies 1999 Mihaljcic 1984 p 15 a b c d Fine 1994 p 374 a b c d Mihaljcic 2001 pp 15 28 Fine 1994 p 335 Fine 1994 p 345 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mihaljcic 2001 pp 29 52 Fine 1994 pp 358 59 Mihaljcic 1975 p 43 Fine 1994 pp 363 64 a b Fine 1994 p 624 a b c d Jirecek 1911 pp 435 36 a b Fine 2006 p 156 Fine 1994 pp 377 78 a b Fine 1994 p 379 Mihaljcic 1975 p 168 Fine 1994 p 382 a b c d e f Mihaljcic 2001 pp 53 77 Fine 1994 p 380 Jirecek 1911 p 438 Fine 1994 p 384 Fine 1994 p 341 Mihaljcic 1985 p 57 Mihaljcic 1985 p 58 59 a b c Fine 1994 pp 392 93 a b c d e Fine 1994 pp 387 89 Suica 2000 pp 103 10 Mihaljcic 2001 p 270 a b c d e f Mihaljcic 2001 pp 78 115 Popovic 2006 p 119 Fine 1994 p 444 a b c d e Mihaljcic 2001 pp 175 79 a b Mihaljcic 1975 pp 217 a b c d e f g h Mihaljcic 2001 pp 116 32 Stijovic 2008 p 457 Reinert 1994 p 177 Fine 1994 pp 395 98 a b c d e Fine 1994 pp 409 14 a b Fine 1994 p 408 a b c Mihaljcic 2001 pp 155 58 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 166 67 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 153 54 Mihaljcic 2001 p 135 a b c Mihaljcic 2001 pp 140 43 a b Mihaljcic 2001 p 173 Mihaljcic 2001 p 278 Mundal amp Wellendorf 2008 p 90 a b Emmert 1991 pp 23 27 Mihaljcic 2001 p 145 Emmert 1991 p 24 a b Mihaljcic 2001 p 184 85 Fine 1994 p 500 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 193 200 Fine 1994 pp 525 26 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 188 89 Fine 1994 p 575 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 193 195 Mihaljcic 2001 p 204 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 207 10 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 212 289 a b c Mihaljcic 2001 pp 196 97 Purkovic 1996 p 48 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 96 97 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 200 1 a b Mihaljcic 2001 pp 214 16 a b c Mihaljcic 2001 pp 220 25 a b Mihaljcic 2001 pp 226 29 Mihaljcic 2001 p 230 Medakovic 2007 p 75 Duijzings 2000 pp 187 88 Macdonald 2002 p 69 Insight Legacy of Medieval Serbia Archaeological Institute of America October 1999 Retrieved 29 March 2014 Macdonald 2002 p 70 Graubard 1999 p 27 Crnkovic 1999 p 221 Blagojevic 2001 U periodu izmeђu 1374 i 1379 godine Srpska crkva јe prihvatila kneza Lazara kao gospodara Srba i Podunavљa Miklosich 1858 p 200 Miklosich 1858 p 215 Jovan Ilic 1995 The Serbian question in the Balkans Faculty of Geography University of Belgrade p 150 ISBN 9788682657019 Prince Lazar is for Hungary the Prince of the Kingdom of Rascia Miklosich 1858 p 212 Veselinovic amp Ljusic 2001 p 82 85 Mihaljcic 2001 pp 116 118 Pavlov 2006 Arvai 2013 p 106 Fine 1994 pp 374 389 Fine 1994 p 389 Fine 1975 p 233 Ulucay M Cagatay 1985 Padisahlarin kadinlari ve kizlari Turk Tarih Kurumu pp 24 5 a b Ivic Aleksa 1928 Rodoslovne tablice srpskih dinastiјa i vlastele Novi sad Matica Srpska p 5 Sources editArvai Tunde 2013 A hazassagok szerepe a Garaiak hatalmi torekveseiben The role of marriages in the Garais attempts to rise In Fedeles Tamas Font Marta Kiss Gergely eds Kor Szak Hatar in Hungarian Pecsi Tudomanyegyetem pp 103 118 ISBN 978 963 642 518 0 Blagojevic Milos 2001 Drzavna uprava u srpskim srednjovekovnim zemljama in Serbian Sluzbeni list SRJ ISBN 9788635504971 Blagojevic Milos Teritorije kneza Lazara na Kosovu i Metohiji PDF Zbornik radova s međunarodnog naucnog skupa odrzanog u Beogradu 16 18 marta 2006 Godine in Serbian Bozic I Đuric V J eds 1975 O knezu Lazaru Nauchni skup u Krushevcu 1971 Belgrade Odeљeњe za istoriјu umetnosti Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu Narodni muzeј Krushevac Cirkovic Sima 2004 The Serbs Malden Blackwell Publishing ISBN 9781405142915 Crnkovic Gordana P 1999 Women Writers in Croatian and Serbian Literatures In Ramet Sabrina P ed Gender Politics in the Western Balkans Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States University Park Pennsylvania Penn State University Press ISBN 0 271 01801 1 Duijzings Ger 2000 Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo New York Columbia University Press ISBN 0 231 12099 0 Emmert Thomas A 1991 The Battle of Kosovo Early Reports of Victory and Defeat In Wayne S Vucinich Thomas A Emmert eds Kosovo Legacy of a Medieval Battle Minnesota Mediterranean and East European Monographs Vol 1 Minneapolis University of Minnesota ISBN 978 9992287552 Fine John Van Antwerp Jr 1994 1987 The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest Ann Arbor Michigan University of Michigan Press ISBN 0472082604 Fine John Van Antwerp Jr 2006 When ethnicity did not matter in the Balkans a study of identity in pre nationalist Croatia Dalmatia and Slavonia in the medieval and early modern periods Ann Arbor Michigan The University of Michigan Press ISBN 978 0 472 11414 6 Fine John Van Antwerp December 1975 The Bosnian Church a new interpretation a study of the Bosnian Church and its place in state and society from the 13th to the 15th centuries East European quarterly ISBN 978 0 914710 03 5 retrieved 12 January 2013 Graubard Stephen Richards 1999 A New Europe for the Old Transaction Publishers ISBN 978 1 4128 1617 5 Jirecek Konstantin Josef 1911 Geschichte der Serben in German Vol 1 Gotha Germany Friedriech Andreas Perthes A G Macdonald David Bruce 2002 Balkan Holocausts Serbian and Croatian Victim Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia Manchester Manchester University Press ISBN 978 0 7190 6467 8 Mandic Svetislav 1986 Velika gospoda sve srpske zemlje i drugi prosopografski prilozi in Serbian Srpska knjizevna zadruga ISBN 9788637900122 Medakovic Dejan 2007 Sveta Gora frushkogorska in Serbian Novi Sad Prometej ISBN 978 86 515 0164 0 Mihaljcic Rade 1975 Kraј Srpskog carstva in Serbian Belgrade Srpska knjizevna zadruga Mihaljcic Rade 2001 1984 Lazar Hrebeљanoviћ istoriјa kult predaњe in Serbian Belgrade Srpska skolska knjiga Knowledge ISBN 86 83565 01 7 Miklosich Franz 1858 Monumenta Serbica spectantia historiam Serbiae Bosnae Ragusii in Latin Vienna apud Guilelmum Braumuller Mundal Else Wellendorf Jonas 2008 Oral Art Forms and Their Passage Into Writing Copenhagen Museum Tusculanum Press ISBN 9788763505048 Pavlov Plamen 2006 Trnovskite carici V T DAR RH Orbini Mauro 1601 Il Regno de gli Slavi hoggi corrottamente detti Schiavoni Pesaro Apresso Girolamo Concordia Orbin Mavro 1968 Kraљevstvo Slovena Beograd Srpska kњizhevna zadruga Popovic Danica 2006 Patriјarh Јefrem јedan poznosredњovekovni svetiteљski kult Zbornik radova Vizantoloskog instituta in Serbian Belgrade Vizantoloski institut SANU 43 ISSN 0584 9888 Purkovic Miodrag Al 1959 Srpski vladari in Serbian Purkovic Miodrag Al 1996 Kћeri kneza Lazara istoriјska studiјa in Serbian Belgrade Pesic i sinovi Reinert Stephen W 1994 From Nis to Kosovo Polje Reflections on Murad I s Final Years In Zachariadou Elizabeth ed The Ottoman Emirate 1300 1389 Heraklion Crete University Press ISBN 978 960 7309 58 7 Sedlar Jean W 1994 East Central Europe in the Middle Ages 1000 1500 Seattle University of Washington Press ISBN 9780295800646 Stijovic Rada 2008 Neke osobine narodnog јezika u poveљama kneza Lazara i despota Stefana Juznoslovenski Filolog in Serbian Belgrade Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts 64 ISSN 0350 185X Suica Marko 2000 Nemirno doba srpskog sredњeg veka vlastela srpskih oblasnih gospodara in Serbian Belgrade Sluzbeni list SRJ ISBN 86 355 0452 6 Trifunovic Đorđe 1989 Zhitiјe i vladavina svetog kneza Lazara priredio Ђorђe Trifunoviћ Krushevac Bagdala a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Veselinovic Andrija Ljusic Rados 2001 Srpske dinastiјe Novi Sad Plantoneum ISBN 978 86 83639 01 4 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lazar of Serbia Serbian Epic PoetryLazar of SerbiaLazarevic dynastyBorn ca 1329 Died 15 June 1389Regnal titlesNew title Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje 1374 1379 Succeeded byVuk BrankovicVacantFall of the Serbian Empire TITULAR Autocrator of all the Serbs 1379 1389 Succeeded byStefan Lazarevicas Prince Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lazar of Serbia amp oldid 1178306101, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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