Vukašin Mrnjavčević

Vukašin Mrnjavčević (* 1320, † 1371 ) was a Serbian nobleman in today's Macedonia on the eve of the Ottoman expansion in the Balkans.

Vukašin Mrnjavčević is mentioned in 1350 as the Župan of Prilep. Later, the Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš V. raised him to the rank of despot, which from 1365 the title of king followed under the supremacy of the tsar.

His influence extended over an area of Prizren, Skopje, Ohrid and Prilep included. He maintained good relations with his brother, the despot Jovan Uglješa who ruled an area around the city of Serres and the lower Struma. Vukašin was in consequence one of the most powerful feudal lords, urged by clever maneuvering the ruling Tsar from the political sidelines and established itself as the top administrator of the Serbian Empire, which was not accepted by the entire Serbian nobility, so among other things, Lazar Hrebeljanović, bringing the fragmentation of the Serbian Empire ultimately accelerated. It was soon suspected Vukašin would urge the last Nemanjic from the throne.

His sovereignty was recognized by the Serbian princes in Macedonia and of the Balšić in the Zeta, one reason for this may be the been to secure the transition from the governorship to hereditary rule, while the Serbian princes in the so-called Morava Serbia ( in Šumadija and Morava region) and even in Travunien, its area of ​​origin, received an adverse stood. In the southern areas of the Empire, in Thessaly and Epirus, on the other hand Dušan 's half- brother Simeon Uroš Palaiologos had become a matter of the latter was followed by a large part of the Albanian princes. Thus Vukašin there was actually only about Macedonia.

In 1371 he created a Christian coalition against the Ottomans, who joined his brother and the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Schischman. The Turkish army was led by Lala Şahin Paşa, who was a Beylerbey of Rumelia. Both armies met in the Battle of the Maritsa, where the Ottomans, despite numerical inferiority, the Christian contingent hit devastating to flight on September 26, 1371.

Vukašin died during the battle and his kingdom was annexed by the Ottoman Empire.

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