Serbian Despotate | ||||||||||||||||||
Српска деспотовина Srpska despotovina |
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1422
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Capital | Belgrade, Smederevo and Bar | |||||||||||||||||
Languages | Serbian | |||||||||||||||||
Religion | Serbian Orthodox Christianity | |||||||||||||||||
Government | Feudal monarchy | |||||||||||||||||
Despot | ||||||||||||||||||
• | 1402–1427 | Stefan Lazarević | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1427–1456 | Đurađ Branković | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1456–1458 | Lazar Branković | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1458–1459 | Stefan Branković | ||||||||||||||||
• | 1459 | Stefan Tomašević | ||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||
• | Established | February 22, 1402 | ||||||||||||||||
• | Conquest | 1459 | ||||||||||||||||
• | Disestablished | 1459 | ||||||||||||||||
Currency | Serbian dinar | |||||||||||||||||
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The Serbian Despotate (Serbian: Српска деспотовина / Srpska despotovina) was a medieval Serbian state in the first half of the 15th century. Although the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is generally considered the end of the medieval Serbia, the Despotate, a successor of the Serbian Empire and Moravian Serbia, survived for 70 more years, experiencing a cultural and political renaissance before it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1459. Even then, it continued to exist in exile in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary until the mid-16th century. Pavle Bakić was the last Despot of Serbia to be recognized by both the Ottoman and the Habsburg Empires.
After Prince Lazar of Serbia was killed in the Battle of Kosovo on June 28, 1389, his son Stefan Lazarević succeeded him. Being a minor, his mother Princess Milica ruled as his regent. A wise and diplomatic woman, she managed to balance the Ottoman threat as the Ottoman Empire was in a turmoil after the Battle of Kosovo and the killing of Sultan Murad I. She married her daughter, Olivera, to his successor, Sultan Bayezid I.