Dušan the Mighty

Day 5,918, 14:21 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by Starac202


Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Урош IV Душан), known as Dušan the Mighty (Serbian: Душан Силни, romanize😛 Dušan Silni; c. 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the king of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and tsar (or emperor) and autocrat of the Serbs, Greeks (or Romans), Albanians and Bulgarians from 16 April 1346 until his death in 1355.

Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs of the era. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the most powerful state in Southeast Europe, one of the most powerful European states and an Eastern Orthodox multi-ethnic and multilingual empire that stretched from the Danube in the north to the Gulf of Corinth in the south, with its capital in Skopje. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan's Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a patriarchate, finished the construction of the Visoki Dečani Monastery (now a UNESCO site), and founded the monastery of the Holy Archangels, among others. Under his rule, Serbia reached its territorial, political, economic, and cultural peak.

After Dušan's sudden death in 1355, the empire began to weaken. With the death of Dušan's successor, emperor Stefan Uroš V, the Serbian Empire was definitively divided into a large number of independent Serbian states, among which the Serbian Despotate will stand out as the most prominent under the rule of Lazarević dynasty.



Visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Dušan for more interesting background info.

Unfortunately links with special characters like Stefan Dušan are not displayed on Wikipedia, so you have to enter Stefan Dusan yourself.

I’ll select some interesting parts and images:



Serbian Empire and neighbors at death of Tsar Dušan, 1355

Military tactics

Serbian tactics favored wedge shaped heavy cavalry attacks with horse archers on the flanks. Many foreign mercenaries were in the Serbian army in the 14th century, mostly German knights and Catalan halberdiers. Dušan had his personal mercenary guard on his disposal, consisting of German knights lead by Palman, commander of the Serbian "Alemannic Guard", who upon crossing Serbia to Jerusalem in 1331, became leader of all mercenaries in the Serbian army. The main strength of the Serbian army were their heavy cavalry, feared for their ferocious charge and staying power. The imperial army of Stefan Dušan was built on existing military administration of Byzantium. Although Vlach cavalry of Thessaly was disbanded his army include Serbian feudal forces, Albanians and Greeks. Dušan recruited light cavalry composed of 15,000 Albanians, armed with spears and swords.

The Serbian expansion in the former territory of Byzantine Empire proceeded without a single major battle, it was based on besieging Greek fortifications.




Dušan's Code (Serbian Cyrillic: Душанов законик, romanize😛 Dušanov zakonik, known historically as Закон благовјернаго цара Стефана – Law of the pious Emperor Stefan) is a compilation of several legal systems that was enacted by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia in 1349. It drew upon Roman law, Byzantine law, as well as elements of customary and canon law. It was used in the Serbian Empire and the succeeding Serbian Despotate. It is considered an early constitution, or close to it; an advanced set of laws which regulated all aspects of life such as family relations, property rights, contracts, and crimes.




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