| Lazar of Serbia Lazar Hrebeljanović Лазар Хребељановић |
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| Lord of All Serbian Lands Prince of All Serbian Lands Autokrator of All Serbs |
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| Fresco from the Ljubostinje monastery (1402—1405) | |
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| Reign | 1370 – 1389 |
| Predecessor | Uroš the Weak (as Emperor) |
| Successor | Stefan Lazarević (as Despot) |
| Spouse | Princess Milica Nemanjić |
| Full name | |
| Lazar Hrebeljanović | |
| Posthumous name | |
| Emperor Lazar (Tsar Lazar) Saint Lazar |
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| House | House of Lazarević |
| Father | Pribac |
| Born | 1329 Novo Brdo |
| Died | June 15, 1389 (aged 60) Kosovo Polje |
| Burial | Ravanica Monastery |
| Religion | Serbian Orthodox |
Lazar Hrebeljanović (pronounced [stɛ̂faːn lâzaːr xrɛbɛʎǎːnɔv̞itɕ], Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Лазар Хребељановић ; 1329 – June 15, 1389), was a medieval nobleman that emerged as the most powerful Serbian ruler after the death of the previous, childless, Emperor Uroš the Weak, which resulted in years of instability in the Serbian realm. As Stefan Lazar, he was Prince of Serbia from 1371 to 1389, ruling what is also known by historians as Moravian Serbia. He is best remembered for his role in the war against the invading Ottoman Empire, against whom he led an army that fought at the Battle of Kosovo. He perished in the battle alongside most of the Serbian nobility and the Ottoman Sultan Murad I, which eventually led to the fall of Serbia as a sovereign state and the Ottoman conquest of Serbia. The events surrounding his rule and especially the battle, are highly regarded in the identity, history and culture of Serbs; he is venerated as a martyr and saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church as Saint Lazar and a hero in Serbian epic poetry, in which stories he is known as Tsar Lazar (Цар Лазар, IPA: [tsâr lâzaːr]).
Prince Lazar is the eponymous founder of the House of Lazarević. He was succeeded by his son Stefan Lazarević (as Prince 1389–1402, Despot 1402-1427).
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Lazar was born in 1329, in Prilepac (near Novo Brdo). His father Pribac Hrebeljanović was an imperial chancellor at the court of Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan 'the Mighty' in Prizren. The Hrebeljanović family was of clan descent.[1] The name of his mother is unknown, as well as the number of siblings.
He was brought up at the city of Prilepac, which had been given to his father by Emperor Dušan (when he was a King) as a token on his work at the imperial court. The wealth of the Hrebeljanović was minor, the family only held the fortified city of Prilepac and Prizrenac. When Dušan was crowned Emperor of Serbs and Greeks in Skopje (1346), Lazar was around 17 years old. As a youngster, Lazar served at the court of Dušan, as recorded in „Povesno slovo o knezu Lazaru“ and by Archbishop Danilo. As a member of the court, he received the title of stavioca by Dušan; this boosted him into the political life of the Empire. At the court he met other velikaši ('Great ones', i.e. highest members of Serbian nobility): Despot Jovan Oliver, Kesar Preljub, Despot Dejan Dragaš and Kesar Voihna.
In 1353, he married Milica Nemanjić, the daughter of Grand Prince Vratko Nemanjić, who was a member of the imperial family through Grand Prince Vukan Nemanjić (r. 1202-1204).[1] After the death of Emperor Dušan on December 20, 1355, Lazar attended the funeral in the mausoleum of the Saint Archangels Monastery in Prizren.
He was given the title of knez in 1371 by the sabor (state council) of Tsar Stefan Uroš V at Ipek.[2] Despite his imperial title, Uroš was a weak and ineffectual leader, allowing local nobles to gain power and influence at the expense of the central authority.
However, Lazar would have to face another menace to his power. After consolidating his authority in the Hungarian Kingdom and defeating the feudal lords, King Charles I of Hungary continued expanding his frontiers to the south, into the Serbian regions and forced Lazar's predecessor Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia to resign many regions to him. The Hungarian King conquered the Golubac Fortress in 1334 and with this, he continued expanding his influence in the Serbian regions.
After the death of the Hungarian King, his son and successor Louis I of Hungary, continued his father's campaigns and soon included the Bosnian and Serbian territories in the Hungarian Crown. In 1366 the Kingdom of Bosnia recognised the Hungarian authority, but Louis had himself crowned as King of the Serbs and Bosnia.[3] After facing the Hungarian King Louis I in several locations, the last military campaign of the Hungarian monarch was successful and in 1367 Lazar recognised his authority over the Serbs.[4]
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However this wasn't an impediment to Lazar, and even if he paid taxes and conceded favours to the Hungarian monarch, he worked for keeping stability in the Serbian power and for facing the imminent Turkish Ottoman invasion. In the early 1370s he left Prizren and devoted himself to the consolidation of his power in the northern Serbian regions around his court in Kruševac. Although a pledged vassal to Stefan Uroš V, in 1371 he refused to participate in the Battle of Maritsa, at which the bulk of the imperial Serbian army was destroyed by an Ottoman force. Soon afterwards, Stefan Uroš V died, the last of the Nemanjić emperors. With great diplomacy and military power, Lazar emerged from the resulting power vacuum as the most powerful Serbian noble not in the Ottomans' service. He acquired dynastic legitimacy by marrying Milica Nemanjić, and despite retaining only the minor title of knez, he nevertheless used the imperial name of Stefan as well as the designation autocrator. At the same time, he took no issue with Bosnian ban Tvrtko (whose Nemanjić lineage was in any case much stronger than Lazar's) proclaiming himself King Stefan of Serbia and Bosnia. In this way Lazar could retain the de facto power, while ceding only a ceremonial title to Tvrtko, who never managed to revive the old Nemanjić institutions of central power.
The first mention of any Ottoman movement into Lazar's territory is from a chronicle entry of 1381, when two of Lazar's subjects, Vitomir and Crep, defeated the Turks on the Battle of Dubravnica River near Paraćin. After that there is no record of any hostility between Lazar and the Turks until 1386. Lazar mobilised several other Serbian nobles, including Tvrtko, King of Bosnia, and in 1386 smashed Murad's general Timurtash at the Battle of Pločnik, forcing the Ottomans south to Niš. In 1388, many Serbian troops were present at the Battle of Bileća where the combined Serbian-Bosnian forces heavily defeated the Turks.[5]
Around 1380 Lazar founded the monastery of Ravanica and around 1388 Ljubostinja. By 1387 he was raising a massive force to meet the invading forces of the Ottoman Empire, which would include every Serbian knight in his kingdom. The two large forces met in the 1389 battle of Kosovo.
Before the battle, Lazar rejected offers of vassalage and peace and determined to fight to the last, not betraying the nation.[6]
He cursed the Serbs who did not help him against the Turks with the so-called Kosovo curse, later inscribed in the Gazimestan, on the place he is supposed to have fallen, today a monument to the Serbs who fought the Turks in Kosovo.[6]
"Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,
And of Serb blood and heritage,
And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo,
May he never have the progeny his heart desires,
Neither son nor daughter!
May nothing grow that his hand sows,
Neither dark wine nor white wheat!
And let him be cursed from all ages to all ages!"
Following Lazar's death, his widow Milica assumed control of Serbia. Lacking in military or economic strength, she pledged suzerainty to Murad I's successor, his son Bayezid, who had taken as his wife the daughter of Lazar. Meanwhile, Milica turned to internal matters, where she dealt with her few remaining political opponents. It was her propaganda campaign, via the epic poetry composed at her court, that resulted in Lazar's quick resurrection, and the subsequent portrayal of their son-in-law Vuk Branković as the traitor responsible for the Serbian defeat.
In Serbian epic tradition, Lazar is said to have been visited by an angel of God on the night before battle, and offered a choice between an earthly or a heavenly kingdom, which choice would result in a peaceful capitulation or bloody defeat, respectively, at the Battle of Kosovo.
According to the epics, Lazar opted for the Heavenly kingdom, which will last "forever and ever",[8] but had to perish on the battlefield. “We die with Christ, to live forever”, he told his soldiers. That Kosovo’s declaration and testament is regarded as s covenant which the Serb people made with God – and sealed with martyrs’ blood. Since then all Serbs faithful to that Testament regard themselves as the people of God, Christ’s New Testament nation, heavenly Serbia, part of God’s New Israel. This is why Serbs sometimes refer to themselves as the people of Heaven.
Jefimija, former wife of Uglješa Mrnjavčević and afterwards nun from Ljubostinja monastery, embroidered Praise to Prince Lazar, one of most significant work of medieval Serbian literature.
The Serbian Orthodox Church canonised Lazar as Saint Lazar. He is celebrated on June 28 [O.S. June 15] (Vidovdan).[1] Several towns and villages (like Lazarevac), small Serbian Orthodox churches and missions throughout the world are named after him. His alleged remains are kept in Ravanica Monastery, where miraculous cures have been attributed to them.
Lazar married Milica in around 1353 and issued at least seven children:
| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Stefan Uroš V "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks" |
Knez of Serbia 1371–1389 |
Succeeded by as "Despot of Serbia" Stefan Lazarević |
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