Stephen Thomas of Bosnia

Thomas
A 1910 depiction of King Stephen Thomas
King of Bosnia
Reign	November 1443 – July 1461
Predecessor	Tvrtko II
Successor	Stephen Tomašević
Died	10 July 1461
Burial	Bobovac
Spouse	Vojača Katarina Kosača
Issue more...	Stephen Tomašević, King of Bosnia Ishak-bey Kraloglu Catherine
House	House of Kotromanić
Father	Ostoja, King of Bosnia
Religion	Roman Catholic prev. Bosnian Church

Stephen Thomas (Serbo-Croatian: Stjepan Tomaš/Стјепан Томаш; c. 1411 – 10 July 1461) was a member of the House of Kotromanić who reigned as the penultimate King of Bosnia from 1443 until his death. He succeeded his kinsman, Stephen Tvrtko II, but was not recognized as king by the kingdom's leading nobleman, Stjepan Vukčić Kosača. The two engaged in a civil war which ended with the King's marriage to the insubordinate nobleman's daughter Catherine. His reign was marked by conflicts with the Serbian Despotate and the Ottoman Empire. Thomas is perhaps best known as the first ruler of Bosnia who engaged in religious persecution. He was succeeded by his son, Stephen Tomašević, but the Kingdom fell to the Ottomans within two years.

Thomas was a son of King Ostoja, who died in 1418, and his mistress, whose name is not recorded. He was a doubly adulterine child, as both his father and mother were married at the time of his birth, and was raised as a member of the Bosnian Church, to which his parents adhered.Stephen Ostojić, Ostoja's only known legitimate child and successor, was deposed by Tvrtko II in 1421. Thomas' likewise illegitimate older brother Radivoj unsuccessfully contested Tvrtko's rule with the help of the Ottoman Empire. Ostoja was the only non-Catholic King of Bosnia, being a member of the Bosnian Church; it is likely that Thomas was also raised as an adherent of the Bosnian Church.