Empire (Serbian: Српско царство/Srpsko
carstvo, pronounced [sr̩̂pskoː tsâːrstʋo]) is a
historiographical term for the empire in the
Balkan peninsula that
emerged from the medieval Serbian Kingdom. It was established in 1346
by King Stefan Dušan, known as "the Mighty", who significantly
expanded the state. He also promoted the Serbian Archbishopric to the
Serbian Patriarchate. His son and successor, Uroš the Weak, lost most
of the territory (hence his epithet). The Serbian
ended with the death of Stefan V in 1371 and the break-up of the
Serbian state. Some successors of Stefan V claimed the title of
Emperor in parts of
Serbia until 1402, but the territory south of
Macedonia was never recovered.
1.2 Reign of Stefan Dušan
1.3 Reign of Stefan Uroš V
2 Aftermath and legacy
5 State insignia
8 See also
11 Further reading
12 External links
Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347
Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 and Stefan Dušan
Stefan Dušan became King of
Serbia by deposing his father, Stefan
Dečanski (r. 1322–1331). By 1345, Dušan the Mighty had expanded
his state to cover half of the Balkans, more territory than either the
Byzantine Empire or the
Second Bulgarian Empire
Second Bulgarian Empire in that time.
Therefore, in 1345, in Serres, Dušan proclaimed himself "Tsar"
("Caesar"). On 16 April 1346, in Skopje, he had himself crowned
"Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks", a title signifying a claim to
succession of the Byzantine Empire. The ceremony was performed by the
newly elevated Serbian Patriarch Joanikije II, the Bulgarian Patriarch
Simeon, and Nicholas, the Archbishop of Ohrid. At the same time,
Dušan had his son Uroš crowned as King of Serbs and Greeks, giving
him nominal rule over the Serbian lands, although Dušan was governing
the whole state, with special responsibility for the newly acquired
"Roman" (Byzantine) lands.
Reign of Stefan Dušan
Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan
Skopje Fortress, where Dušan adopted the title of Emperor at his
Main Gate of the Fortress in Prizren, which Dušan used as capital of
Tsar Dušan doubled the size of his former kingdom, seizing
territories to the south, southeast, and east at the expense of the
Serbia held parts of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Moravian Serbia, Kosovo, Zeta, modern Macedonia, modern Albania, and
half of modern Greece. He did not fight a single field battle, instead
winning his empire by besieging cities. Dušan undertook a campaign
against the Byzantine Empire, which was attempting to avert a
deteriorating situation after the destruction caused by the Fourth
Crusade. Dušan swiftly seized Thessaly, Albania, Epirus, and most of
After besieging the emperor at
Salonica in 1340, he imposed a treaty
Serbia sovereignty over regions extending from the
the Gulf of Corinth, from the
Adriatic Sea to the
Maritsa river, and
including all of
Bulgaria up to the environs of Adrianople. Bulgaria
had never recovered since its defeat by the Serbs at the Battle of
Velbazhd, and the Bulgarian czar, whose sister Dušan later
married, became his vassal, the
Second Bulgarian Empire
Second Bulgarian Empire being a
Serbian vassal state between 1331 and 1365. Dušan thus ruled over
the almost the entire
Balkan peninsula, with only southern Greece,
Salonica, and Thrace escaping his authority. He gave sanctuary to the
former regent of the Byzantine Empire, John VI Kantakouzenos, in
revolt against the government, and agreed to an alliance.
In 1349 and 1354, Dušan enacted a set of laws known as Dušan's Code.
The Code was based on Roman-
Byzantine law and the first Serbian
St. Sava's Nomocanon
St. Sava's Nomocanon (1219). It was a Civil and Canon
law system, based on the Ecumenical Councils, for the functioning of
the state and the Serbian Orthodox Church.
In 1355, Dušan begin military preparations, assembling an army of
80,000 men, an enormous number at that time. Dušan marched towards
Constantinople, capturing Adrianople in a fierce battle. The Serbian
army was proceeding to Constantinople, located 40 miles to the east,
when Dušan suddenly died of an unknown illness at 46. His expedition
ended as well, and the army retreated carrying his body.
Reign of Stefan Uroš V
Dušan was succeeded by his son, Stefan Uroš V, called "the Weak," a
term that also described the empire as it slowly slid into feudal
anarchy. The combination of sudden conquest, backwards administration,
and failure to consolidate its holdings led to the fragmentation of
the empire. The period was marked by the rise of a new threat: the
Ottoman Turkish sultanate gradually spread from
Asia to Europe and
conquered first Byzantine Thrace, and then the other
Too incompetent to sustain the great empire created by his father,
Stefan V could neither repel attacks of foreign enemies nor combat the
independence of his nobility. The Serbian
Empire of Stefan V
fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities, some of which did
not even nominally acknowledge his rule.
Stefan Uroš V
Stefan Uroš V died childless
on 4 December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been killed
by the Ottoman Turks during the Battle of Maritsa.
Aftermath and legacy
Fall of the Serbian Empire
Fall of the Serbian Empire and Stefan Uroš V
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Internal divisions of the Serbian
Empire after 1360
The crumbling Serbian
Empire under Uroš the Weak offered little
resistance to the powerful Ottomans. In the wake of internal conflicts
and decentralization of the state, the Ottomans defeated the Serbs
under Vukašin at the Battle of
Maritsa in 1371, making vassals of the
southern governors; soon thereafter, the Emperor died. As Uroš was
childless and the nobility could not agree on a rightful heir, the
Empire continued to be ruled by semi-independent provincial lords, who
often were in feud with each other. The most powerful of these, Lazar,
a Duke of present-day central
Serbia (which had not yet come under
Ottoman rule), stood against the Ottomans at the Battle of
1389. The result was indecisive, but it led to the subsequent fall of
Serbia. Stefan Lazarević, the son of Lazar, succeeded as ruler, but
by 1394 he had become an Ottoman vassal. In 1402 he renounced Ottoman
rule and became an Hungarian ally; the following years are
characterized by a power struggle between the Ottomans and Hungary
over the territory of Serbia. In 1453, the Ottomans conquered
Constantinople, and in 1458
Athens was taken. In 1459,
annexed, and then
Greece a year later.
With the fall of Serbia, migrations began to the north. Serbs became
mercenaries in foreign armies and fought in the irregular militias and
guerrilla units of
Uskoks within the Balkans (Habsburg
Monarchy), while others joined the Hussars, Seimeni, and Stratioti.
Jovan Nenad, a Serbian military commander in service to Hungary,
proclaimed himself Emperor in 1527, ruling a region of southern
Further information: Dušan's Code
Dušan's Code from 1349
After finishing most of his conquests,
Stefan Dušan dedicated himself
to supervising the administration of the empire. One key objective was
to create a written legal code, an effort his predecessors had only
begun. An assembly of bishops, nobles, and provincial governors was
charged with creating a code of laws, bringing together the customs of
the Slav countries.
Dušan's Code was enacted in two state congresses, the first on May
21, 1349 in Skopje; the second amended the code in 1354 in Serres.
The law regulated all social spheres, thus it is considered a medieval
constitution. The Code included 201 articles, based on Roman-Byzantine
law. The legal transplanting is notable with the articles 172 and 174
of Dušan's Code, which regulated juridical independence. They were
taken from the Byzantine code
Basilika (book VII, 1, 16-17). The Code
had its roots in the first Serbian constitution — St. Sava's
Nomocanon (Serbian: Zakonopravilo) from 1219, enacted by Saint
St. Sava's Nomocanon
St. Sava's Nomocanon was the compilation of Civil law,
based on Roman Law and Canon law, based on Ecumenical Councils.
Its basic purpose was to organize the functions of the state and
The legislation resembled the feudal system then prevalent in Western
Europe, with an aristocratic basis and establishing a wide distinction
between nobility and peasantry. The monarch had broad powers but was
surrounded and advised by a permanent council of magnates and
prelates. The court, chancellery and administration were rough
copies of those of Constantinople.
The code enumerated the administrative hierarchy as following: "lands,
cities, župas and krajištes"; the župas and krajištes were one and
the same, where župas on the borders were called krajištes
(frontier). The župa consisted of villages, and their status,
rights, and obligations were regulated in the constitution. The ruling
nobility possessed hereditary allodial estates, which were worked by
dependent sebri, the equivalent of Greek paroikoi: peasants owing
labour services, formally bound by decree. The earlier župan
title was abolished and replaced with the Greek-derived kefalija
(kephale, "head, master").
Commerce was another object of Dušan's concern. He gave strict orders
to combat piracy and to assure the safety of travelers and foreign
merchants. Traditional relations with Venice were resumed, with the
port of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) becoming an important transaction point.
Exploitation of mines produced appreciable resources.
East-west Roman roads through the empire carried a variety of
commodities: wine, manufactures, and luxury goods from the coast;
metals, cattle, timber, wool, skins, and leather from the
interior. This economic development made possible the creation of
the Empire. Important trade routes were the ancient Roman Via
Militaris, Via Egnatia, Via de Zenta, and the Kopaonik road, among
others. Ragusan merchants in particular had trading privileges
throughout the realm.
Srebrenica, Rudnik, Trepča, Novo Brdo, Kopaonik, Majdanpek, Brskovo,
and Samokov were the main centers for mining iron, copper, and lead
ores, and silver and gold placers. The silver mines provided much
of the royal income, and were worked by slave-labour, managed by
Saxons. A colony of
Saxons worked the Novo Brdo mines and traded
charcoal burners. The silver mines processed an annual 0.5 million
dollars (1919 comparation). East
Serbia had mainly copper mines.
The currency used was called dinars; an alternative name was perper,
derived from the Byzantine hyperpyron. The golden dinar was the
largest unit, and the imperial tax was one dinar coin, per house,
Further information: Medieval Serbian army
See also: Military history of Serbia
Serbian medieval armor
Serbian military tactics consisted of wedge-shaped heavy cavalry
attacks with horse archers on the flanks. Many foreign mercenaries
were in the Serbian army, mostly
Germans as cavalry and
infantry. The army also had personal mercenary guards for the tsar,
mainly German knights. A German nobleman, Palman, became the commander
of the Serbian "Alemannic Guard" in 1331 upon crossing
Serbia on the
way to Jerusalem; he became leader of all mercenaries in the Serbian
Army. The main strength of the Serbian army were the heavily armoured
knights feared for their ferocious charge and fighting skills, as well
as hussars, versatile light cavalry formations armed mainly with
spears and crossbows, ideal for scouting, raiding and skirmishing.
The 1339 map by
Angelino Dulcert depicts a number of flags, and Serbia
is represented by a flag placed above
Skoplje (Skopi) with the name
Serbia near the hoist, which was characteristic for capital cities at
the time the drawing was produced. The flag, depicting a red
double-headed eagle, represented the realm of Stefan Dušan. A
flag in Hilandar, seen by Dimitrije Avramović, was alleged by the
brotherhood to have been a flag of Emperor Dušan; it was a triband
with red at the top and bottom and white in the center. Emperor
Dušan also adopted the Imperial divelion, which was purple and had a
golden cross in the center. Another of Dušan's flags was the
Imperial cavalry flag, kept at the
Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos;
a triangular bicolored flag, of red and yellow.
Flag of Serbia
Flag of Serbia on the map of
Angelino Dulcert (1339).
Reconstruction, Byzantine version
Emperor Dušan's Divellion
Imperial cavalry flag, Hilandar
Alleged Coat of Arms of
Serbia (Svrbiae) from the Fojnica Armorial,
manuscript of the late 16th or early 17th century
Alleged flag, Hilandar
Education, to which St. Sava had given the first impulse, progressed
remarkably during Dušan's reign. Schools and monasteries secured
royal favor. True seats of culture, they became institutions in
perpetuating Serbian national traditions. The fine arts, influenced by
Italians, were not neglected. Fragments of frescoes and mosaics
testify the artistic level archived during this period.
Influenced by the clergy, Dušan showed extreme severity towards Roman
Catholicism. Those who adopted the Latin rite were condemned to work
in mines, and people who propagated it were threatened with death. The
Papacy grew concerned about this and the increasing power of Dušan
and aroused the old rivalry of the Catholic Hungarians against the
Orthodox Serbs. Once again Dušan overcame his enemies from whom he
seized Bosnia and Herzegovina, which marked the height of the Serbian
Empire in Middle Ages. However the most serious menace came from the
East, from the Turks. Entrenched on the shores of the Dardanelles, the
Turks were the common enemies of Christendom. It was against them that
the question of uniting and directing all forces in the Balkans to
save Europe from the invasion arose. The Serbian
included most of the region, and to transform the peninsula into a
cohesive whole under a rule of a single master required seizure of
Constantinople to add to
Serbia what remained of the Byzantine Empire.
Dušan intended to make himself emperor and defender of Christianity
against the Islamic wave.
List of Serbian monarchs
List of Serbian monarchs and Emperor of Serbia
Emperors, and co-rulers
Stefan Dušan (1346–1355)
Stefan Uroš V
Stefan Uroš V (1355–1371)
co-ruler Vukašin of
Serbia with the title of "king" (1365-1371)
Prince Marko with the title of "young king"
For a list of magnates, feudal lords and officials, see Nobility of
the Serbian Empire,
Part of a series on the
History of Serbia
Diocese of Moesia
Diocese of Dacia
Diocese of Pannonia
Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum
Early Middle Ages
around 600 AD
Principality of Serbia
Duklja, Travunia, Zachlumia, Narentines, Raška, Bosnia
Catepanate of Ras
High Middle Ages
Theme of Sirmium
Kingdom of Serbia
King Dragutin's realm
Empire · Fall
Prince Lazar's Serbia
Despotate of Serbia
Serbia under Turkish rule
Jovan Nenad / Radoslav Čelnik
Banate of Lugoj and Caransebeș
Great Serb Migrations
Principality of Serbia
Serbia and Banat
Kingdom of Serbia
Serbia since 1918
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Federal unit of Yugoslavia
Federal unit of FRY (S&M)
Republic of Serbia
Serbia in the Middle Ages
Serbian nobility conflict (1369)
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