Vuk Brankovic, Voivode of Kosovo, AD 1371-1396. Medieval Serbia. Silver Gros

Description

SERBIA. Vuk Brankovic, Vojvoda of Kosovo, circa 1371-1396.
Gros (Silver, 15 mm, 0.86 g, 1 h). Christ, nimbate, seated facing on decorated throne, holding book of Gospels on his knees. Rev. x BΛIς/OBЬ ДH/NΛPЬ/ИIα in four lines. Jovanovic, SMC 2014, p. 172, 4. Darkly toned. Collectors ticket included.
Vuk Branković
(
Serbian Cyrillic
: Вук Бранковић,
pronounced
[ʋûːk brǎːnkoʋit͡ɕ], 1345 – 6 October 1397) was a Serbian medieval
nobleman
who, during the
Fall of the Serbian Empire
, inherited a province that extended over present-day southern and southwestern
Serbia
, entire
Kosovo
, the northern part of present-day
Republic of North Macedonia
, and northern
Montenegro
. His fief (and later state) was known as Oblast Brankovića (
District of Branković
) or simply as Vukova zemlja (Vuk’s land), which he held with the title of gospodin (lord, sir), under Prince
Lazar of Serbia
. After the
Battle of Kosovo
(1389), Vuk was briefly the de facto most powerful Serbian lord.Branković was born in 1345 and belonged to a Serb noble family that held a prominent role under the
Nemanjić dynasty
in the 13th and 14th centuries. Vuk was a son of
Branko Mladenović
(died before 1365), who received the high court title of
sevastokrator
from Emperor
Stefan Dušan
(r. 1331–1355) and served as governor of
Ohrid
(present-day Macedonia). Vuk’s grandfather was Mladen (died after 1326), who was
župan
(count) in
Trebinje
under King
Stefan Milutin
(1282–1321) and vojvoda (duke) under King
Stefan Dečanski
(1321–1331). Later chronicles alleged that the Branković were descended from
Vukan Nemanjić
, son of
Stefan Nemanja
. After the Battle of Maritza, the Ottomans forced the southern Serbian feudal lords (in present-day Macedonia and Greece),
Konstantin Dragaš
,
King Marko
,
Toma Preljubović
, and others, to become their vassals and started to attack the northern Serbian lands ruled by prince Lazar and Vuk. After initial Serbian successes at the battles of
Dubravnica
(1381),
Pločnik
(1386), and
Bileća
(1388), the Ottomans launched a full-scale attack on Serbia, aiming at the very heartland of Vuk’s realm in central Kosovo. In the epic
Battle of Kosovo
(1389), Vuk participated along with his father-in-law Lazar and a contingent of King Tvrtko’s army. 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.Despite the consensus of modern historiography in
Serbia
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.