ВИЗАНТИЈА И СРБИЈА У ВРЕМЕ ФИРЕНТИНСКЕ УНИЈЕ ЦРКАВА
BYZANTIUM AND SERBIA IN THE TIMES OF THE CHURCH UNION OF FLORENCE

Summary/Abstract: The negotiations between Constantinople and the Papacy on the Union of the Eastern and the Western Church lasted long. It was argued that, after the spring of 1426, when a delegation from Constantinople was sent to Pope Martin V (1417–1431) to discuss the subject further, the negotiations on the matter of the Union were interrupted and that the following news about their continuation dated from 1430, when John VIII Palaiologos sent Makarios Makres and Markos Iagaris to the Pope. The reason for the deferment of negotiations was the Byzantine reconquista in the Peloponnesus, since the Byzantines, after conquering Klarentza in 1428 and Patras in 1430, had gained reign over the whole peninsula, except for the Venetian possessions, Coron, Modon, Argos and Nauplia. However, there are some data in the sources which suggest that certain diplomatic contacts concerning the Union of the Churches were ongoing even before 1430. In this light one could understand the bestowal of the title of Despot to Đurađ Branković in 1429 by the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos and through his emissary George Philathropenos, a supporter of the Union. The title of Despot was granted to the new Serbian ruler once more, as it was the case with Despot Stefan Lazarević in 1402, as an effort to bond the Serbs to the interests and future plans of the Empire, including the future unionist Council, as an ally and support. In 1436 the Emperor John VIII invited the Serbs to the future Council which was to be held in Italy through Megas Domestikos Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, brother of Eirene Kantakouzene, wife of Despot Đurađ. However, despot Đurađ refused to take part in it or to send his representatives. He was motivated to a great extent not to participate at the forthcoming Council, since from 1436, when his daughter Mara finally went to Sultan Murad’s harem, Serbia was spared from Ottoman destruction. It was exactly from 1437, when Byzantine delegation left for Italy to the unionistic Council, that the Ottomans began devastating Serbia again. This aggressive Ottoman policy resulted with the first fall of the Serbian capital Smederevo in 1439. Chronological congruence of the proclamation of the Eastern and Western Church unification, on 6 July and the siege of Smederevo, from June to August 1439, give space to an assumption that the Ottoman siege of the Serbian capital was one of the reasons which prompted the Emperor to sign the final document of the Union. The manner in which the Late Byzantine writers had recorded the siege and the fall of Smederevo in 1439 suggests that this event had a strong impact in the Byzantine world. On the other hand, Byzantine historians reduce the final fall of Smederevo to the Ottomans in 1459, by which the medieval Serbian state ceased to exist, on the local level, and some of them even miss to mention the event. Although Serbia did not give support to Byzantium in the terms of the Union, it did not for one moment break diverse close relations with Constantinople. Despot Đurađ’s son Lazar Branković married Helena, the niece of the emperor John VIII and daughter of Despot Thomas Palaiologos in 1446 and was dedicated the title of Despot as well. The existence of two Despots in one ruling family, in this case in a family which ruled over Serbia, is rather indicative and it had its parallel only in the imperial family of the Palaiologoi. Although it appears that Despot Đurađ took a milder political attitude towards Papal Curia, in Zeta, the part of Serbia largely inhabited by the Roman Catholics and threatened by Latin influences, between 1439 and 1444, and then especially after 1453, his personal devotion to Orthodoxy, however, never changed.

• Details
• Contents