Stefan Nemanja

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Nemanja.jpg Stefan Nemanja (Serbian: Стефан Немања Мироточиви), Stefan I (1109-13 February 1199) was the Grand Prince of Rascia (Рашка), located in the central west region of the Balkans from 1166 to 25 March 1196 and founder of the House of Nemanja dynasty. He established control over the territories of neighboring Serbian states, including Zeta/Doclea, and unified them into an independent state.

Nemanja was born in Ribnica in 1109, Doclea or Zeta as the son of the exiled Prince of Zachlumia Zavida, and was baptised as a Roman Catholic Christian by the only local Priest of the Roman Catholic Church. However, when Nemanja went to his house estate in Rascia, he was rebaptised into the Orthodox Christian Church in the Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Ras.

In 1186 Stefan Nemanja appointed his oldest son Vukan of Nemanja as the ruler of the province of Zeta (Kingdom of Doclea and Dalmtaia, and made his second son, Stefan II of Nemanja, the successor to the Grand Princely throne. Nemanja then took Monastic vows and the name Simeon, and joined his youngest son Rastko Sava of Nemanja on Mount Athos. There they renewed the monastery of Chilandar.

Stefan died on 13 February of 1199 on Mount Athos in Chilandar. His remains were later moved by Sava to Rascia in 1207 to make peace between his two sons and burin at the Studenica monastery in 1208. Nemanja was later canonised by the Church as Saint Simeon.

Contents

[edit]

Life

In 1163, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel installed Nemanja's older brother Tihomir as Župan, or Grand Prince, of Rascia, and gave to Nemanja and his other brothers, Stracimir and Miroslav, their own regions inside Raška. Nemanja received Ibar, Toplica, Rasina and Reke to rule in the name of his brother, Grand Prince Tihomir. In Niš, Nemanja met the Byzantine Emperor Manuel, who gifted him the region of Dubočica and entitled him as the Imperial Dream. Nemanja ruled independently, without his brothers as he built the Monastery of Saint Nicholas in Kuršimlija and the Monastery of Saint Mother of Christ near Kosanica-Toplica without Tihomir's approval. His brothers invited him to Ras to justify the situation, but imprisoned him and had him captured in a cave. According to religion, Saint George himself freed him from the cave.

In 1166-1168, Nemanja rebelled against his brother, and Tihomir's mercenary Greek Army was defeated at the battle of Pantino, south of Zvečan on Kosovo, after which Nemanja assumed the title of Grand Prince of Rascia, and took the first name Stefan ("Stephanos" - "crowned" in Greek). Tihomir subsequently drowned in the river of Sitnica, while his brothers Stracimir and Miroslav accepted Nemanja's supreme rule, as well as Tihomir's son and heir, Stefan Prvoslav. As a thanks to Saint George for the freedom given in the cave, he raised in his honor the Temple of Đurđevi Stupovi in Ras in 1171.

In 1171, Stefan Nemanja sided with the Republic of Venetia in a dispute with the Byzantine Empire. In 1172, he entered an alliance of the Republic of Venetia, the German Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom against the Byzantine Empire, but the alliance collapsed soon as Venetia and Hungary had other matters to attend to, so the Grand Prince was left alone. The same year Byzantine Emperor Manuel launched an expedition against him, so Nemanja met him at Niš to negotiate peace terms. The Byzantine Emperor recognized him, but took him and brought him to Constantinople as a prisoner. Nemanja vowed not to fight Manuel as long as he is alive. Upon his return from Constantinople Nemanja was rebaptized into the Orthodox Church and began to build power in the Serbian Lands.

Nemanja used the following decade to deal with the Bogumil (Serbian: Бабуни) patarene heresy that was present in his realm. He declared them heretics and punished them brutally because of their religious beliefs. He confiscate their lands and some even burned on stakes, while he cut off the tongue of their Headmaster and exiled him. By the end of his reign, Duke Stefan Nemanja completly rooted out the Bogumils. His army was involved only in a single confilct; in Asia Minor, in Byzantine name.

Following the death of Manuel in 1180, the Byzantine Empire was divided due to the success of the Catholic Crusaders and the Bulgarian uprising against Byzantium, which resulted in the formation of a new Bulgarian empire. Despite his former support of the Byzantine Empire, Nemanja took advantage of its weakened state, formed alliances with Hungary and German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and expanded considerably in all directions at the Empire's expense. In 1186, Nemanja's brother Stracimir, who had been ruling Zeta, died, and Nemanja took control of that region as well. In 1190, the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelus defeated the Serbs; however, in the ensuing peace treaty most of Nemanja's acquisitions were left intact and Serbia was recognized as an autonomous state.

At the time of Nemanja's abdication in 1196, he ruled Zeta and Hum (modern-day Hercegovinia), much of Kosovo, and central modern Serbia. He had expanded Raška past the important merchant city-state of Dubrovnik, which, however, retained its autonomy. Relations between Raška and Dubrovnik had been settled by the 1186 treaty that provided for a symbiotic relationship between the two throughout most of the Nemanjić dynasty.

Stefan Nemanja is the founder of the Serbian royal Nemanjić family that is named after him. His name Stefan means 'crowned' and was later used by all rulers from the house of Nemanjić as the last name, and also as the title.

[edit]

Abdication & Later Life

In 1196, Nemanja abdicated in favour of his second son Stefan Prvovenčani (The First Crowned), at St. Peter's church, outside Novi Pazar. He had passed over his eldest son Vukan, a decision which led to civil war in 1202.

Nemanja was great patron of the church. He and his sons had built the Studenica monastery at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, and it was there that he took his monastic vows. In 1197 he retired to Mount Athos, in today's Greece, and with his third son Rastko (St. Sava) he built the most important Serbian monastery, Hilandar. Having bequeathed all his earthly possessions, he proceeded to a life of spirituality as the monk Simeon.

Nemanja died in 1199, at Mount Athos. In 1207, as the Byzantine Empire fell to the Crusaders, St. Sava brought his father's remains back to Studenica, where they lie today. According to tradition, a holy oil seeped from his tomb, though this miracle is said to have not occurred in the last 300 years. His body is, however, even in modern times supposed to give off "a sweet smell, like violets" (Kindersley, 23).

[edit]

Marriage & Descendants

Nemanja was married to Anne on an unknown date. They had three sons and three daughters:


[edit]

See also

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:End box

[edit]

Sources

  • Judah, Tim (1997). The Serbs: History, Myth & the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press.
  • Kindersley, Anne (1976). The Mountains of Serbia: Travels through Inland Yugoslavia, John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.
  • Mandic, O. Dominic (1970). Croats and Serbs: Two old and different Nations. Trans. by Vicko Rendic and Jacques Perret. Available at: www.magma.ca/~rendic.
  • Pavlowitch, Stevan K. (2002). Serbia: the History behind the Name, Hurst & Company.
  • Serbian Rulers - Stefan Nemanja, Serbian Unity Congress.
  • Servia/Serbia, from The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907)
  • Veselinović, Andrija & Ljušić, Radoš (2001). Serbian dynastiesde:Stefan Nemanja

ja:ステファン・ネマニャ nl:Stefan Nemanja pl:Stefan I Nemanja sr:Стефан Немања

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Stefan_Nemanja"