- published: 17 Feb 2015
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The Serbian Empire (Serbian: Српско Царство / Srpsko Carstvo, pronounced [sr̩̂pskoː tsâːrstʋo]) was a short-lived medieval empire in the Balkans that emerged from the Serbian Kingdom. Stephen Uroš IV Dušan was crowned Emperor of Serbs and Greeks on 16 April 1346, a title signifying a successorship to the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines). Dušan the Mighty significantly expanded the state, stretching over half of the Balkan peninsula, also promoting the church to a Patriarchate. The Empire crumbled during the rein of his son, Uroš V the Weak (hence his epithet). The Serbian Empire existed from 1346 to 1371, although nominally until 1402.
Stephen Uroš IV Dušan, before ascending the throne as king of all Serbs, proved himself as a very skilled military leader in the Battle of Velbazhd, in which Serbia memorably defeated the Bulgarian Empire. As his father was not an able conqueror, Dušan, with the help of Serbian nobility, removed his father from the throne, ordering his people to strangle him. The medieval Serbian state reached its apex in the mid-14th century, during the rule of Stefan Dušan, who proclaimed himself in 1345 tsar in Serres and was crowned in Skopje on the 16th April 1346 as the "Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks" by the newly proclaimed Serbian Patriach Joanikie II with the help of the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon and the Archbishop of Ohrid, Nicholas.
Jovan Nenad (also Jovan the Black or Tsar Jovan Nenad; Serbian: Цар Јован Ненад, Car Jovan Nenad, Јован Црни, Jovan Crni; c. 1492 – July 26, 1527) was a 16th-century military commander of Serbmercenaries in the Kingdom of Hungary who took advantage of a Hungarian military defeat in the Battle of Mohács and subsequent struggle over the Hungarian throne to carve out his own state and styled himself emperor (tsar), ruling over a short-lived liberated area.
He is attributed by Serbian historians as the founder of Vojvodina and the leader of the last independent Serbian state before the Ottoman conquest.
He was born c. 1492, perhaps in Lipova near the Mureş River in northern Banat (today in Romania). He was of Serb ethnicity, although other facts about his origins are uncertain. He himself claimed to be "a descendant of Serbian and Byzantine rulers", although other contemporaries thought that he was descending of the Serbian despots or that he was a man of low rank.
In the Battle of Mohács on August 29, 1526, the Ottoman Empire destroyed the army of Hungarian-Czech King Louis Jagellion, who was killed on the battlefield. After this battle, the Kingdom of Hungary became divided in three parts: Royal Hungary in the north and west became a Habsburg province, Transylvania in the east became an independent state, while the former central and southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary were absorbed by the Ottoman Empire.