| Vuk Branković | |
|---|---|
| Gospodin (lord) | |
 Vuk, 18 years old (ca. 1363), fresco work in the Holy Mother of God church,Ohrid | |
| Reign | 1371–1396 |
| Successor | Đurađ Branković |
| Born | 1345 |
| Died | 6 October 1397 (aged 51–52) |
| Spouse | Mara Lazarević |
| Issue | Grgur Vuković Đurađ Branković Lazar Vuković |
| House | Branković |
| Father | Branko Mladenović |
| Religion | Eastern Orthodoxy |
Vuk Branković (Serbian Cyrillic:Вук Бранковић,pronounced[ʋûːkbrǎːnkoʋit͡ɕ], 1345 – 6 October 1397) was a Serbian medievalnobleman who, during theFall of the Serbian Empire, inherited a province that extended over present-day southern and southwesternSerbia, entireKosovo, the northern part of present-dayRepublic of North Macedonia, and northernMontenegro. His fief (and later state) was known asOblast Brankovića (District of Branković) or simply asVukova zemlja (Vuk's land), which he held with the title ofgospodin (lord, sir), under PrinceLazar of Serbia. After theBattle of Kosovo (1389), Vuk was briefly thede facto most powerful Serbian lord.
Branković was born in 1345[1] and belonged to a Serb noble family that held a prominent role in the 14th century.[2] Vuk was a son ofBranko Mladenović (died before 1365),[3] who received the high court title ofsevastokrator from EmperorStefan Dušan (r. 1331–1355) and served as governor ofOhrid (present-day North Macedonia).[4] Vuk's grandfather was Mladen (died after 1326), who wasžupan (count) inTrebinje under KingStefan Milutin (1282–1321) andvojvoda (duke) under KingStefan Dečanski (1321–1331).[5][6] Later chronicles alleged that the Branković were descended fromVukan Nemanjić, son ofStefan Nemanja.
After their father's death, Vuk and his brothersGrgur andNikola Radonja retreated to the valley ofDrenica (central Kosovo).[7] During the final years ofStefan Uroš V's rule, Grgur and Vuk's governance was limited to their heritance in Drenica.[8] Vuk took advantage of the death ofKing Vukašin in theBattle of Maritsa (1371) and conqueredSjenica,Zvečan and part of theLim River valley.[8]
Vuk's marriage to Mara, the daughter of the most powerful Serbian magnate princeLazar Hrebeljanović, brought him substantial lands in Kosovo. This marriage sealed the alliance between two houses and secured Lazar's assistance for Vuk's future plans, although Vuk in return had to acknowledge Lazar as his feudal senior. Soon after the marriage, Lazar and KingTvrtko I of Bosnia attacked županNikola Altomanović, who ruled in the western part of Serbia, and conquered and divided his lands in 1373.[9] In the partition of Altomanović's land, Vuk got areas ofRaška (including the old Serbian capitalRas) and lands inPolimlje (northern Montenegro). After the death ofĐurađ I Balšić (13 January 1378), Vuk captured his cities ofPrizren andPeć (Peja), and the area ofMetohija.[10]
At its peak, the realm of Branković stretched from Sjenica in the west toSkopje in the east, with the cities ofPristina andVushtrri serving as its capitals. The most important cities in Vuk's province were Priština, Prizren, Peć, Skopje and Ras, as well as the rich mining settlements ofTrepča,Janjevo,Gluhavica and others.[3]
After the Battle of Maritza, theOttomans forced the southern Serbianfeudal lords (in present-day Macedonia and Greece),Konstantin Dragaš,King Marko,Toma Preljubović and others, to become theirvassals and started to attack the northern Serbian lands ruled by prince Lazar and Vuk. After initial Serbian successes at the battles ofDubravnica (1381),Pločnik (1386) andBileća (1388), the Ottomans launched a full-scale attack on Serbia, aiming at the very heartland of Vuk's realm in central Kosovo. In the epicBattle of Kosovo (1389), Vuk participated along with his father-in-law Lazar and a contingent of King Tvrtko's army.[11]
Unlike Lazar, who died in the battle along with most of his army, Vuk managed to survive and preserve his army, which later gave material for a popular Serbian folk tradition (represented in folk epic poems and tales) that he betrayed Lazar in order to become supreme ruler of Serbia, a theory that is rejected by modern-day Serbian historians but not by the Serb people.[12] Despite the consensus of modern historiography inSerbia that Vuk Branković was not a traitor in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389,Momčilo Spremić emphasized that there is a possibility that Vuk really betrayed his Serbian allies.[13]
After the Battle of Kosovo, Vuk refused to become an Ottoman vassal (unlike princeStefan Lazarević, son of prince Lazar, who became an Ottoman vassal in late 1389) and started to plan anti-Ottoman action together with the Hungarian king Sigismund. However, Vuk was unable to resist the Ottomans for long. In 1392, they captured Skopje and forced Vuk to become their vassal and pay tribute. Even after that, Vuk showed some resistance to the Ottomans, refusing to participate on the Ottoman side in the battles ofRovine (1395) andNicopolis (1396), unlike other Serbian lords such as prince Stefan,prince Marko andKonstantin Dejanović. He also maintained contacts with Hungary. Finally, the Ottomans ended this situation by attacking Vuk in 1395–96, seizing his land, and giving most of it to prince Stefan Lazarević, while Vuk himself was imprisoned and died in an Ottoman prison. A small part of Vuk's land with the towns of Priština and Vučitrn was given to his sons to hold as Ottoman vassals.[14]
He marriedMara (Marija), the daughter ofLazar of Serbia andMilica Nemanjić, in 1371.[15] She died on April 12, 1426. They had three sons:
He is most often titled "Lord Vuk" (господин Вук),[16] while he signed himself "Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje" (господар Срба и Подунавља[17][18]). The Serbian Church had in the period between 1374 and 1379 acceptedknez Lazar as "Lord of Serbs and Podunavlje".[19] According to historianRade Mihaljčić, when Vuk claimed the title, Stefan Lazarević was around 15 years old (ca. 1392).[20] Vuk was not recognized with that title, as it was preserved for Lazar and Lazar's son Stefan.[21]
Folk tradition portraits Vuk as a traitor in theKosovo Myth: supposedly, Vuk tarnished the family name when he betrayedPrince Lazar at theBattle of Kosovo, which he survived in 1389. This tradition isapocryphal.[22]
Sebastocrator Branko Mladenović, son of Prince Mladen, was a magnate at the court of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan (1331-55) and, after 1334, governor of the city of Ohrid. He died before 1365. Two generations of Brankovićs..
Cît priveşte pe Branko Mladenović, el este fiul acelui Mladen care apare în timpul regelui Uroš, in anul 1326, ca voievod (...), și tatăl lui Vuk Branković, despotul sirb, cum rezultă dintr—un document din anul 1392..
Momcilo Spremic kao da ponovo izvodi Vuka Brankovica na sud. »Uzimajuci u obzir«—kaze on—»celokupnu delatnost Vuka, ne bi se moglo reci da je bio bez predispozicije za izdaju. Konacno, sve sto je ovde izneto, ne na osnovu emotivnog narodnog predanja, vec iskljucivo na osnovu pouzdanih dokumenata, pokazuje da njegova izdaja na Kosovu nije bila nemoguca«... Momčilo Spremić is again taking Vuk Branković on the trial. "Taking into consideration—says he—the whole activities of Vuk Branković, it can not be said that he did not have prerequisites for betrayal. Finally, everything that was stated here, not based on an emotional popular narrative, but on the basis of reliable sources, shows that his betrayal at Kosovo was not impossible.
Познато је да се Вук Бранковић обично титулише као „господин Вук"
Он се у преговорима са краљем Жигмундом и Дубровником потписивао као »господар Срба и Подунавља«, преотимајући водећу улогу у Србији, као наследник таста кнеза Лазара.
У периоду између 1374. и 1379. године Српска црква је прихватила кнеза Лазара као „господара Срба и Подунавља"
Када се Вук потписао као господар Срба и Подунавља, Стефан Лазаревић је имао око 15 година
На основу досадашњег излагања са сигурношћу можемо рећи да деспот Угљеша, господин Константин, Вук Бранковић, Вукови синови и кесар Угљеша никада нису носили титулу „ господар Срба и Подунавља ", јер је ова ...
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