Serbian Monarchs
A history of Serbian monarchs.
Contents
Principality of Serbia
In the 8th century, the principality of Serbia was organized into counties called župe (singular: župa) led by a župan. The Byzantines was suzerain.
The first of many Bulgarian invasions began in 805. Vlastimir consolidated the principality, organized a counter attack to the 839 invasion, and went on to conquer Bosnia.
Simeon I conquered the principality in 917 and installed Pavle Branovic as a vassal prince; this led the Byzantines to begin a slow conquest of both Serbia and Bulgaria, completing finally under Basil II ("the Bulgar Slayer").
The Byzantine Empire then divided and thoroughly reorganized the Serbian realm.
Principality of Duklja
Under the Byzantines, much of the Serbian lands were led by Jovan Vladimir, archon of Duklja. In 997, Samuel conquered the region and raised Jovan to a vassal prince.
The Byzantines quickly retook the lands. With some reorganization (i.e. the separation of Travunia and Zachlumia), the principality was retained.
Kingdom of the Slavs
Mihailo I rebelled against the Byzantines and vassalized himself instead to Pope Gregory VII, who by 1077 had named him King of the Slavs.
Grand Principality and Kingdom of Serbia
Amidst a renewed Byzantine invasion and a succession war, Vukan I established an independent grand principality of Serbia. Duklja became a princely župa, led by a knez.
The Byzantines re-asserted suzerainity by 1114.
Under Stefan Nemanja (canonized as Saint Simeon the Myrrh-streaming), the capital was moved to Ras. For this reason, the principality (and then kingdom) were sometimes referred to as Rascia.
The Fourth Crusade in 1204 dealt a final blow to the Byzantine Empire. Stefan I, son of Stefan Nemanja, was made king in 1217.
Kings of Serbia would attach Stefan to their names upon coronation.
Konstantin conquered the kingdom of Syrmia, though most of the land was reconquered by Hungary shortly thereafter.
Decanski (also known as Uros III), Konstantin's brother, conquered and vassalized Bulgaria.
Kingdom of Syrmia
Following an injury, Dragutin handed the kingdom of Serbia to his brother Milutin in 1282. He kept two northern zupe. In 1284 he was granted the banates of So, Ozora, Macsó (alternatively Mačva), as well as the city of Belgrade, as a vassal of Ladislaus IV. He quickly established an independent kingdom of Syrmia. Syrmia is sometimes called Serm. Belgrade was made the capital city.
Following Dragutin's death, his son Vladislav II would inherit Syrmia. Milutin and his son Konstantin would quickly conquer the kingdom. Vladislav II fled to the kingdom of Hungary, which eventually reclaimed its banates.
Serbian Empire
Dusan (also known as Uros IV), son of Decanski, conquered much of the Byzantine Empire. Albania, Macedonia, most of the Dalmatian coast (excepting the city states), and most of Greece (down to Athens and apart from Thessalonica) were conquered. He was crowned in Skopje as "Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks".
This empire amounted to little for the conquered lands. They were forced to submit to despotates.
Following Dusan's death, his son Uros V failed to keep the empire from disintegrating.
Fall of the Empire and Kingdom
Marko became an Ottoman vassal in 1371, but by 1377 most of the realm had rebelled. As an example, Moravian Serbia rose as the most significant claimant to a Serbian crown.
Moravian Serbia and the Despotate of Serbia
As the empire and kingdom of Serbia disintegrated under Uros V, Lazar took the title knez and established a significant Serbian principality. This realm is known as the historical Moravian Serbia.
Moravian Serbia fell to the Ottomans in 1389. Lazarevic, son of Lazar, accepted vassalization under the Ottomans.
After the Ottomans were repelled by the Byzantines in 1402, Lazarevic was granted the title despot.
By 1404, he accepted vassalization under Hungary, which came with the gift of Belgrade. In 1410, Sigimund conquered Bosnia and gifted Srebrenica to Lazarevic.
From 1439 until 1443, Serbia was occupied by the Ottomans. It was recaptured by a coalition including Lazarevic's son Durad and John Hunyadi.
Mehmed II would eventually conquer all of Serbia for the Ottoman Empire. Tomas conquered part of Serbia, but Tomas's son Tomasevic surrendered it to the Ottomans on 1459. Hungarian monarchs continued to appoint despots in exile for another century, to maintain a claim on Serbia.
Ottoman Vassalization
Serbs in the Ottoman Empire rebelled repeatedly between 1804 and 1835. These led to concessions from the Ottomans, who granted autonomy to a new Principality of Serbia. Serbia was not recognized as an independent state internationally, the Ottoman army continued to occupy the territory, and a yearly tribute of approximately 10% of Serbia's GDP was to be paid.
Principality and Kingdom of Serbia
The Treaty of Berlin recognized the full independence of Serbia.
The principality became a kingdom with the coronation of Milan I in 1882.
Following the Treaty of Trianon, lands occupied by Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were ceded to Serbia, creating a Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The official name became Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.
Serbia participated in the Balkan Wars. Notably, Macedonia was split with Bulgaria.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Following World War 1 peace negotiations, the kingdom was rolled into a Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which was known colloquially as (and eventually officially became) Yugoslavia. The kingdom was originally subdivided into provinces (pokrajine). These were:
- Slovenia
- Croatia and Slavonia
- Dalmatia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Banat, Bačka and Baranja
- Northern Serbia
- Southern Serbia
- Montenegro
These provinces were then further divided into counties and districts.
A centralized government was established in 1921 and the kingdom was re-divided into oblasts. To promote Yugoslav identities, these oblasts purposefully had no parallel to older, ethnic divisions.
The kingdom was again reorganized in 1929 into banates (banovina). Again, older, ethnic divisions were avoided. These were:
Danube (Dunavska)
Drava (Dravska)
Drina (Drinska)
Littoral (Primorska)
Morava (Moravska)
Sava (Savska)
Vardar (Vardarska)
Vrbas (Vrbaska)
Zeta (Zetska)
In 1939, the Littoral and Sava banates were merged into a banate of Croatia (Бановина Хрватска or Banovina Hrvatska). This reflected the stubborn persistance of an independent Croatian identity.
On March 27th, 1941, King Peter II overthrew the Axis-aligned regency of Paul. Germany invaded in retaliation. A Serbian monarchy would not be re-established following the end of that kingdom.