MARRIAGE POLITICS OF THE KING MILUTIN AND THE CIVIL WAR BETWEEN STEPHAN DEČANSKI AND CONSTANTINE
MARRIAGE POLITICS OF THE KING MILUTIN AND THE CIVIL WAR BETWEEN STEPHAN DEČANSKI AND CONSTANTINE

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the possible consequences of the marriage politics of the Serbian King Milutin (1282–1321) on the causes and development of the short civil war between his two sons in 1321–1322. Th e special attention is devoted to the possible ”illegitimate” status of Stephan Dečanski (1322–1331) and Constantine, bearing in mind that both of them were described as the ”bastards” by the contemporary writers. The first of two sons was most probably born during the relatively short morganatic marriage with the Serbian noble woman, which may help us to explain the reason for the negative attributes allocated to him. Taking in consideration a few facts – Stephan was born very close to the time when his uncle Stephan Dragutin (1276–1282) overthrew his father King Uroš (1256–1276); the structure of the administrative division of the Serbian State; the age of prince Milutin (approximately 20 years) – it has been discussed when the prince Milutin might have been married for the fi rst time.If it had happened before the described great political shift the unusual matrimonial relation could be explained by the eff orts of Milutin’s father to centralize the state administration. If it had been the opposite, it could have been a part of the extended political deal arranged in order to reaffirm the unstable rule of his brother after the violent usurpation. Based on the latest theories regarding the sequence of Milutins five marriages, it has been again reaffirmed that the younger son Constantine was doubtlessly born by the Bulgarian princess Ana Terter. It is possible that she may have been the third, but not the fourth wife of the Serbian ruler, as it has been presumed for many decades. Consequently, Constantine may have been born during the period when the legal status of his mother was not absolutely clear at the end of XIII century. There are strong indications that the King Milutin was legally married to the Hungarian Princes Elisabeth at that time. Taking in consideration this option, it is imaginable that Constantine was not respected by the Serbian elite only because of his young age at the beginning of the XIV century. Furthermore, the king Milutin obviously hesitated to set him as his co-ruler after the older son Stephan was punished by having been blinded because of the unsuccessful power usurpation attempt in 1314. Only aft er all other options failed King Milutin gave his best to promote him as his successor.Thanks to the intervention of the clergy of the Serbian Church very old King Milutin allowed prince Stephan to return from Constantinople after he had spent seven years in the exile. Even more important, they gave very strong support to the almost completely blind Stephan during the short civil war in 1322. For example, the Archbishop Nikodim coronated him for the King of the Serbs, which was obviously not in accordance with the last wish of the previous ruler. From the moment of solemn coronation Stephan was the legal monarch while his younger brother was efficiently presented as the impostor. However, the main power during this clash was the Serbiannobility. They preferred to support Stephan due to many reasons. Being incapableof performing all ruler’s duties Stephan was not presumably able to control with the strong hand the most prominent barons, which enabled them to elevate their social and political influence during his short reign. Additionally, he was obviously backed by the Byzantine government. From some reason, the Bulgarian background of Constantine was not possibly very popular with Serbian nobility.

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