СРБИ У ДЕЛИМА АУСТРИЈСКОГ ХРОНИЧАРА ТОМАСА ЕБЕНДОРФЕРА
SERBS IN THE WORKS OF THE AUSTRIAN CHRONICLER THOMAS EBENDORFER

Summary/Abstract: Thomas Ebendorfer, a typical representative of the late medieval chronicle genre, gives information on Serbs in several of his works, with this data largely depending on the nature of these works. In his ‘Chronica Austriae’, the details he gives are mostly in the context of his country’s history. This piece of writing contains information about the presence of a Serbian king at the wedding of the younger son of Hungarian king Béla IV in Vienna, as well as the doomed marriage between King Stefan Dušan and Elizabeth of Habsburg. Since these events took place in the 13th and 14th century, Ebendorfer acquired this information from older chroniclers, Ottokar of Styria and John of Viktring. Upon analysing Ebendorfer’s news, that is, the news of Abbot Jovan, it can be noted that an alliance against the Hungarian King Charles Robert was at the core of the negotiations regarding the marriage between the Serbian king and the niece of the Austrian Duke, which has not been recorded in writing so far. For the 15th century, Ebendorfer’s news is of greater independent value. He does not fail to mention Despot Ðurađ’s stay in Vienna, or the Turkish attacks of 1454 and 1455, which culminated in an unsuccessful siege of Belgrade in 1456. His attitude towards Orthodox people and, thus, Serbs was clearly presented in ‘Liber Pontificum Romanorum’, where he considers the feuding western world responsible for the Turkish conquests of the Balkan states (Bulgaria, the Serbian lands and Byzantium), although he also states that Serbs were against the union of 1439, which was a clear indication of the position of the Serbian ruler and the church at that point in time. Annexed to the ‘Chronica regum Romanorum’, interesting information can be found. Ebendorfer states that Despot Đurađ had been a defender of Christians for years and that after his death in 1456, as well as after the death of his son Despot Lazar in 1458, the Turks regained strength and embarked on further conquests in the Balkans. Therefore, Ebendorfer had a positive attitude towards Despot Đurađ, unlike Western religious circles, who considered him a treacherous, schismatic ruler. In the same work, he views the conquest of the Serbian Despotate and other states as a means to create a great Islamic empire. A brief reference to the Serbs, i.e. Rascians in Wallachia during the reign of Vlad the Impaler, is also of significance, since it implies that at least a part of the Serbian population inhabited the region. Although Ebendorfer’s news does not bring remarkable novelties for Serbian medieval history, the way in which he delivers this news can, to a certain extent, allow for a different observation of these events.

• Details
• Contents