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(c. 1308 – December 20, 1355) was king of Serbia (September 8, 1331 – April 16, 1346) and emperor (tsar) of the Serbs and the Greeks (April 16, 1346 – December 20, 1355).Perhaps the greatest of all Serbian leaders, Dušan was one of only two true emperors (tsars) of Serbia, along with his son Stefan Uroš V. Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial peak and, as the Serbian Empire was one of the larger states in Europe at the time. Apart from significant territorial gains, in 1349 and 1354 he made and enforced Dušan's Code, a universal system of laws. He is also the only ruler from the house of Nemanjic who may not have been canonised as a saint soon after his death. Dušan was also noted as a man of gigantic proportions, and according to Papal ambassadors he was the tallest man of his time, estimated at close to seven feet tall.the eldest son of Stefan Uroš III Decanski and Theodora of Bulgaria, the daughter of emperor Smilets of Bulgaria. Early in his life he visited Constantinople, where his father had been exiled, and he spent around seven years there (1314–1320). There he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Byzantine life and culture, and got a clear sense of the Byzantine Empire. He himself was more a soldier than a diplomat. In his youth he fought exceptionally in two battles; in 1329 he defeated the Bosnian ban Stjepan Kotromanic, and in 1330 the Bulgarian emperor Michael Asen III in the Battle of Velbužd.
In part because his father hadn't significantly expanded Serbia after the Battle of Velbužd, he rebelled and overthrew him with the support of the nobility, crowning himself king on September 8, 1331. In 1332 he married Helena of Bulgaria, the sister of the new Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander, a woman of strong will, who had a large influence on him and bore him a son, Stefan Uroš V, and two daughters, who died young.In the first years of his reign, Dušan started to fight against the Byzantine Empire (1334), and warfare continued with interruptions of various duration until his death in 1355. Twice he became involved in larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these battles were mostly defensive. Both times he defeated the Hungarians. He was at peace with the Bulgarians, who even helped him on several occasions, and he is said to have visited Ivan Alexander at his capital. Dušan exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between the regents for the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos and his father's general John Kantakouzenos. Dušan and Ivan Alexander picked opposite sides in the conflict but remained at peace with each other, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war to secure gains for themselves. Dušan's systematic offensive began in 1342 and in the end he conquered all Byzantine territories in the western Balkans as far as Kavala, except for the Peloponnesus and Thessaloniki, which he could not conquer because he had no fleet. There has been speculation that Dušan's ultimate goal was no less than to conquer Constantinople and replace the declining Byzantine Empire with a Greco-Serbian Empire under his control.
A coin minted by Dušan in 1346 on the occasion of his coronation. (Photo courtesy of the National Bank of Serbia [1])
A coin minted by Dušan in 1346 on the occasion of his coronation. (Photo courtesy of the National Bank of Serbia [1])After these successes he proclaimed himself in 1345 emperor (tsar) in Serres and was solemnly crowned in Skopje on April 16, 1346 as "Tsar and autocrat of Serbs and Greeks" by the newly created Serbian Patriach Joanikie II with the help of the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon and the Archbishop of Ohrid, Nicholas. He had previously raised the Serbian Orthodox Church from an autocephalous archbishopric to a patriarchate, and he took over sovereignty on Mt. Athos and the Greek archbishoprics under the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate (The Ohrid Archbishopric remained autocephalous). For those acts he was anathematized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Faced with Dušan's aggression, the Byzantines sought allies in the Turks whom they brought into Europe for the first time. The first conflict between the Serbs and the Turks on Balkan soil, at Stefaniana in 1345, ended unfavourably for the Serbs. In 1348 Dušan conquered Thessaly and Epirus. Dušan eventually saw the danger posed by the Turkish presence in the Balkans and searched for ways to push them back but was interrupted by Hungarians, who attacked Serbia. He heavily defeated the Hungarians and their king Charles I of Hungary, who was wounded by an arrow. Dusan didn't want to organize revenge attacks in Hungary, because he wanted Papal support for his fight against the Ottomans. After, he fought with the Hungarian protégé ban Stjepan II in Bosnia in 1350, wishing to regain formerly lost Zahumlje.Dušan had grand intentions but they were all cut short by his premature death on December 20, 1355, possibly from poisoning by Hungarians who were alarmed at the expansion and rising power of Stefan's Serbia. He was buried in his foundation, the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren. Today his remains are in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade. He was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V, who had been associated in power as king since 1346.Dušan was the most powerful medieval Serbian ruler, and remains a symbol to many. His state was a rival to regional powers Byzantium, Bulgaria and Hungary, and encompassed great territory, but in that greatness there was weakness. Serbia was enlarged too quickly for new territorial gains to be incorporated into the original Serb regions. Dušan also conquered many purely Greek, Albanian and Bulgarian lands and their inhabitants, who already had a distinct national consciousness. By nature a soldier and a conqueror, Dušan did not make any systematic effort to stabilize or administer his gains. Consequently, his empire could not survive his death, and began to dissolve soon after the loss of his forceful personality.
