Stefan Lazarević

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Despot Stefan Lazarević's Coat of Arms 1415 AD

Despot Stefan Lazarević (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Лазаревић) (1374-1427) was the son and heir to Lazar (Serbian: Кнез Лазар), the Serbian prince who died at the Battle of Kosovo against the Turks in 1389, and princess Milica (Милица) from the subordinate branch of the Nemanjić (Немањић) dynasty. He was the first European-style knight in Serbia and also a poet. He introduced knight tournaments, modern battle tactics, and firearms in Serbia.

Stefan become Prince in 1389, and participated as an Ottoman vassal in the Battle of Karanovasa in 1394, the Battle of Rovine in 1395, the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, and in the Battle of Angora in 1402. He became Despot of Serbia in 1402 and in 1403 proclaimed Belgrade the capital. He built a fortress with citadela which was destroyed in Great Turkish War in 1690. Only Despot Stefan Tower remains today. Stefan defeated and killed his brother-in-law Bayezid I's son Musa in Battle of Despotovac in 1406. After the battle, Serbia had peace with the Ottomans for a long time. Stefan II became an ally of Hungary and a knight of a special order, so when the Hungarian king Sigismund renewed the Order of the Dragon (Societas draconistrarum) in 1408, Despot Stefan Lazarević was the first on the list of members.

Under his rule, he issued a Code of Mines in 1412 in Novo Brdo in Kosovo, the economic center of Serbia. In his legacy, Resava-Manasija monastery, (Pomoravlje District), he organized the Resava School, a center for correcting, translating, and transcribing books.

Stefan Lazarević died suddenly in 1427, leaving the throne to his nephew Đurađ Branković. His deeds eventually elevated him into sainthood, and the Serbian Orthodox Church honors him on August 1st. Despot Stefan is buried in his legacy monastery Manasija-Resava.

Apart from the biographical notes in charters and especially in the Code on The Mine Novo Brdo (1412), Stefan Lazarević wrote three original literary works: The Grave Sobbing for prince Lazar (1389); The Inscription on the Kosovo Marble Column (1404); and A Homage to Love (1409), a poetic epistle to his brother Vuk.

[edit] Quotes

Facsimile of Despot Stefan's A Homage of Love to his executed young brother Vuk (Lazarević) 1409 AD

Despot Stefan Lazarević		A HOMAGE TO LOVE
1. I, Despot Stefan, To the sweetest, most beloved one, Inseparable from my heart, Always wished for, and much Possessed of wisdom and To my kingdom true, (The name being said) A warm greeting in the Lord And unsparingly therein Our merciful gifts.		6. As David rightly sang: Love is "like precious ointment upon the head, That ran down upon the beard, Even Aaron's beard: As the dew of Hermon That descended upon the mountains of Zion".
2. The Lord hath made both spring and summer, As also the Psalmist sang, And all their delights: The birds their swift and joyous flight, The hills their peaks, The groves their length, The fields their breadth, The fields their breadth, The air its beauteous soft sounds, And the soil its gifts Of fragrant flowers and grass, And for man's being itself its renewal and joy; But who is worthy enough to recount all this?		7. Youths and maidens, For love so apt, Embrace love, But with hurt to youth or maidenhood, Whereby our nature unites with godliness And thus becomes divine. Do not aggrieve, the Apostle saith, The sacred Holy Spirit, Which you publicly acclaimed As at a baptism.
3. But all these And other wondrous works of God, Which even the sharpest mind Cannot perceive, Love all surpasses And no wonder is it For God is love, As saith John, the son of thunder.		8. Together we were, and close to each other, In body and in soul, But did the mounts dissever us Or the rivers? As David saith: "Ye mountains of Gilboa, Let there be no dew, neither let there be rain For Saul you did not save Nor Jonathan". O the mercifulness of David, Hear, ye Kings, o Hear! It is Saul you are bewailing, o found one? For I found, saith the Lord, A man after my own heart.
4. No room in love is there forties, For did not Cain, a stranger to love, say unto Abel: "Let us go into the field".		9. May the winds collide with the rivers, And run them dry, As did the sea for Moses, The judges as for Joshua, And Jordan for the arc of the covenant.
5. Pure and keen Is the work of love, And every virtue it surpasses.		10. And may we be together again, And see each other again, And meet again in love, For His sake, For whom glory be with the Father And the Holly Spirit Forever and ever. Amen
(Translated by Vida Janković)	(1409 AD)