Stefan Dobroslav I Vojislav

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Stefan Dobroslav I Vojislav was a Medieval ruler of Duklja (1034-1050). "Stefan" was a nickname originating from the Greek word Stephanos meaning "crowned".

Having reached its pinnacle during the long reign of emperor Basil II, the Byzantine empire entered, following his death in 1025, a steady decline. This was particularly evident in the Balkans. There, the elimination of the perennial Bulgarian threat, combined with insensitive taxation policy reversals, helped spur liberation movements. Around 1035, Stefan Vojislav, cousin of the assassinated Vladimir of Zeta, asserted full independence for Duklja. He was initially defeated and imprisoned in Constantinople with his realm annexed under the control of Serbia's strategos Theophilos Erotikosbut but Stefan managed to escape and returned to rekindle the struggle.

Taking advantage of guerilla warfare and the distracting effects of other uprisings, he staved off several punitive expeditions, asserting partial control over the principalities of Travunija and Zahumlje in the process. Thus, by 1040 his state stretched in the coastal region from Ston in the north, down to the Lake of Skadar, where he set up his capital, with other courts in Trebinje, Kotor and Bar.

The Byzantine Emperor Michael, waiting in Thessalonika, was to receive a shipment of gold of 10 Kentenars from Southern Italia. One galley accidentally crashed in Duklja's Bay. Its treasures were taken by the Voislav's men, which greatly enriched Duklja's economy. This incurred Michael's fury, as he sent Imperial Eunuch George Probat to crush Voislav's movement. The Eunuch's army was caught in the Doclean Gorges in an ambush and suffered a total defeat. Voislav's son, Radoslav was famous for killing a Byzantine military commander himself on the battlefield. The Slavic uprisings in Macedonia of Peter Delian who now crowned himself as Czar Peter II of Bulgarians stopped any possibility for another Byzantine military attempt against Duklja.

In 1042, the new emperor Constantine IX decided to field a more serious army against Duklja, aided by a coalition of three bribed neighboring Serbian principalities. The ensuing battles ended in total victory for Vojislav, accompanied with further expansion. Thus, Duklja became the leading Serbian state organization which replaced - in terms of leadership - the onetime "baptized" or "evangelized" Serbia, centered in Raska; it occupied this position until the turn of the 11th century. Vojislav spent the rest of his rule in peace, until his death in ca. 1051. He was succeeded by his widow and five sons - Gojislav, Predimir, Mihailo, Saganek and Radoslav.