Vukan Nemanjić

Vukan Nemanjić
Grand Župan Vukan, Ruler of all Serbian land, Zeta, maritime towns and land of Nišava King of Duklja, Dalmatia, Travunia, Toplica and Hvosno (1195)
The fresco of Vukan I, Studenica Monastery
Grand Prince of Serbia
Reign	1202 - 1204
Predecessor	Stefan the First-Crowned
Successor	Stefan the First-Crowned
Ruler of Duklja
Reign	1190 - after 1207
Predecessor	Mihailo III
Successor	Đorđe Nemanjić
Born	before 1165
Died	after 1207
Burial	Morača monastery
Issue	Đorđe, Stefan, Dmitar, Mladen
Dynasty	Nemanjić
Father	Stefan Nemanja
Mother	Anastasija
Religion	Eastern Orthodox Christian

Vukan Nemanjić (Serbian Cyrillic: Вукан Немањић, pronounced [ʋǔkan ně̞maɲit͡ɕ]; before 1165 – after 1207) was the Grand Prince of the Grand Principality of Serbia from 1202 to 1204. He was the Grand Prince of Pomorje (titular King) from 1195 until his death. He was the eldest (of three), but his father had instead chosen his younger brother Stefan as heir, as soon as his father died, he plotted against his brother, Stefan II Nemanjić, and took the throne by force, in a coup assisted by the Kingdom of Hungary. He was defeated two years later, and was pardoned by his third brother, who became Saint Sava, and he continued to rule his appanage of Zeta unpunished.

Vukan was born as the eldest son of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja (r. 1166-1196) and his wife Anastasija. His younger brothers were Stefan Nemanjić and Rastko Nemanjić, and he also had two sisters.

His father had managed to secure the independence from the Byzantine Empire after the death of emperor Manuel I (1180), and then conquered the traditional fiefs of Duklja, Travunija and Hum on the Adriatic coast. Nemanja gives Vukan, as heir presumptive, appanages of the conquered lands, including Hvosno and Toplica around 1190 as Grand Prince.