THE RESHAPING OF TVRTKO I’S ROYAL IDEOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER HIS CORONATION IN 1377: THE APPROPRIATION OF THE CULT OF ST. STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR IN MEDIEVAL BOSNIA
THE RESHAPING OF TVRTKO I’S ROYAL IDEOLOGY BEFORE AND AFTER HIS CORONATION IN 1377: THE APPROPRIATION OF THE CULT OF ST. STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR IN MEDIEVAL BOSNIA

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we aim to examine the royal coronation of Tvrtko I and the process of reconfiguration of the Bosnian ruling ideology from a neglected perspective, through the complicated process of appropriation of the political dimension of the cult of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr. This saint was celebrated in the Serbian medieval state as a personal and dynastic patron saint during the rule of the Nemanjić dynasty, which meant that the political use of his cult was closely linked to the development of Serbian ruling ideology. Through an analysis of the charter issued by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I to the people of Ragusa in 1382, in which the author prayerfully and programmatically addresses St. Stephen in the arenga, we attempt to understand the character and function of this cult in the new political circumstances of the Bosnian kingdom. It goes without saying that the possible influences from the Serbian context, such as the socalled St. Stephen’s Charter issued by King Milutin, cannot be ignored in the comparative analysis. Finally, taking into account the fact that the ruler’s name Stephen and the patronage of the Protomartyr were also adopted by the Serbian Knez Lazar Hrebeljanović, we will analyze the contemporary attempts to appropriate the cult in the context of the struggle for the inheritance of the Nemanjić dynasty and the primacy in the legitimacy vacuum in the Serbian political space.

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