Balšić Балшићи |
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Country | Serbian Empire (1355-1371) Republic of Venice Serbian Despotate (1405-1421) |
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Estates | (southern Montenegro, northern Albania) Zeta and the coastlands:
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Titles | gospodar (lord) autokrator (self-ruler) |
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Founded | before 1355, by Balša I | ||
Final ruler | Balša III (1403–1421) | ||
Dissolution | 1421 (possessions passed to Despot Stephen) | ||
Ethnicity | Serb[1][2][3] |
The Balšić (Serbian Cyrillic: Балшић, pl. Балшићи, Balšići) was a noble house that ruled Zeta and the coastlands (southern Montenegro and northern Albania), from 1362 to 1421, during the fall of the Serbian Empire. Balša, the eponymous founder, was a petty nobleman that held only one village during the rule of Emperor Dušan the Mighty (r. 1331-1355), only after the death of the emperor, his three sons gained power in Lower Zeta after acquiring the lands of gospodin Žarko (fl. 1336-1360) and by murdering voivode and čelnik Đuraš Ilijić (r. 1326-1362†), the holders of Lower and Upper Zeta, respectively. Nevertheless, they were acknowledged as oblastni gospodari of Zeta in edicts of Emperor Uroš the Weak (r. 1355-1371). The family is known to have seized control through trickery, such as against the Dukađini, and many people were deported or murdered. After the death of Uroš (1371), the family feuded with the Mrnjavčevići, a prominent noble family that controlled Macedonia. In 1421, Balša III, upon his death, passed the rule to his uncle Despot Stephen the Tall Lazarević.
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Balša, the eponymous founder, was a petty nobleman that held only one village in the area of Lake Skadar during the rule of Emperor Dušan the Mighty (r. 1331-1355). Only after the death of the emperor, Balša and his three sons gained power in Lower Zeta after aqcuiring the lands of gospodin Žarko (fl. 1336-1360) and by murdering voivode and čelnik Đuraš Ilijić (r. 1326-1362†), the holders of Lower and Upper Zeta, respectively.[4] Balša dies the same year, and his sons, the Balšić brothers, continue in ruling the province spanning Podgorica, Budva, Bar and Skadar.[4] Through tradition, they descended via Vuk Nemanjić.[2]
There were 5 rulers:
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