Vukašin Mrnjavčević | |
---|---|
King of the Serbs and the Greeks | |
Reign | 1365 – 26 September 1371 |
Coronation | 1365 |
Predecessor | Stephen Uroš V |
Successor | Marko Mrnjavčević |
Born | c. 1320 Livno, Bosnia |
Died | 26 September 1371 Maritsa, Bulgaria |
Spouse | Jelena Mrnjavčević |
Issue |
Marko Mrnjavčević, Andrijaš Mrnjavčević, Dmitar Mrnjavčević, Ivaniš Mrnjavčević, Olivera Mrnjavčević |
House | House of Mrnjavčević |
Father | Mrnjava |
Religion | Serbian Orthodox |
Vukašin Mrnjavčević (Serbian Cyrillic: Вукашин Мрњавчевић, pronounced [ʋukǎʃin mr̩̂ɲaːʋt͡ʃeʋit͡ɕ]; c. 1320 – 26 September 1371) was a Serbian medieval nobleman (became a king in 1365) of the Mrnjavčević family that ruled the modern-day central and northwestern Macedonia from 1365 to 1371.
According to 17th-century Ragusan historian Mavro Orbin, his father was a minor noble named Mrnjava from Zachlumia, whose sons Vukašin and Uglješa were born in Livno in western Bosnia. Some of Orbin's historical accounts are based on oral traditions of his time, but a 1280 Ragusan document mentions a Mrnjan as a nobleman from Trebinje, a town in Travunia in the vicinity of Zachlumia. The same Mrnjan is mentioned again in a 1289 charter as a treasurer of Queen Hélène d'Anjou, mother of Serbian King Milutin. After Zachlumia was annexed by Bosnia in 1326, the family of Mrnjan, or Mrnjava, could have moved to Livno. Possibly the family supported Serbian Emperor Dušan's invasion of Bosnia in 1350, as did other Zachlumian nobles, and fearing punishment, emigrated to Serbia when the war was about to start. In favor of Zachumlian or Travunian origin of Vukašin also speaks the inscription on the tomb in a church in Ochrid, where certain Ostoja Rajaković of the Ugarčić clan (died 1379) is referred to as a cousin of Vukašin's eldest son Marko. The Ugarčić clan is attested in contemporary sources as inhabiting the region of Trebinje.