Vojislavljević dynasty: Difference between revisions

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			===Rascia/Serbia===
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			*Vukan
			*Marko
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	== Sources ==		== Sources ==

Revision as of 21:04, 1 October 2006

House of Vojislav
Country	Serbia
Founded	1034
Founder	Stefan Dobroslav I Voislav
Titles	Prince/Archont (Knez) Grand Prince (Велики Жупан/Veliki Župan), King (Краљ/Kralj)
Estate(s)	of Doclea, Dalmatia, Rascia, Bosnia

The House of Vojislav was a medieval dynasty that inherited the claims over Duklja of the old ruling House of Saint Vladimir and the Serbian House of Vlastimir dynasty. It ruled Duklja and the surrounding territories; including Zahumlje, Rascia and Bosnia, where the dynasty's side branches have become rulers. It lasted from 1034 until 1186, when it was transformed into the House of Nemanja.

Name

It was named by a Travunian nobleman by the name of Stefan Dobroslav I Vojislav who was the son of the uncle of Duklja's ruler Saint Jovan Vladimir of Serbia and Tribalia. He was also the maternal grandson of Ljutomir, the last Prince of Rascia.

Later the Byzantines again occupied Raška, but Vojislav's son Mihajlo (Michael), born after 1042, who became the Grand Župan of Zeta/Duklja around 1050/1055, restored the country's independence and maintained independence from the Byzantine Empire. Mihajlo installed his son Petrislav as the grand prince of Serbia. After the abortive rebellion in Bulgaria the military governor of Dyrrhachium, Nicephorus Bryennius, restored Byzantine rule to Raška in 1073.

File:Mihailo.jpg

Mihailo of Vojislav, the first King of Duklja on a fresco in the Church of St. Michael in Ston: He was crowned as King of Slavs and became known as the Ruler of Tribals and Serbs during his reign.

Mihailo reportedly received royal insignia in 1077 from the Pope Gregory VII, although this is still a matter of debate. An image of King Mihajlo with his crown is still found in the Church of St. Mihajlo in Ston, a town in the Pelješac peninsula (in present-day Croatia). Mihajlo's rule ended in 1080.

His successor was his son Constantin Bodin, who ruled from 1080 to 1101. Bodin fought Byzantium and Normans further to the south, and took the town of Dyrrachium. He established vassal states in Bosnia (under Stefan) and Raška (under Vukan and Marko), which recognized his supremacy.

Vukan and Marko, the new princes of Raška were probably sons of the aforementioned Petrislav. Vukan (1083-1115) was the Grand Župan while Marko headed administration of a part of the land. The Byzantine Emperor Alexius later forced Vukan to acknowledge Byzantine suzerainty in 1094.

After Bodin died in 1101, incessant struggles for power among his heirs weakened the state. Bodin had previously exiled Dobroslav, his younger brother, together with their cousin Kočapar. In 1101 they returned, and vied for power together with another grandson of Mihajlo's, Vladimir. Vladimir at one point married the daughter of Vukan of Raška.

In 1114, Đorđe, son of Constantin Bodin, came to power in Duklja. The next year Vukan was replaced in Raška by his nephew Uroš I. (ca. 1115 - 1131). Đorđe's rule lasted until 1118.

One of the sons of Uroš I was Zavida, Prince of Zahumlje. He gave birh to four sons that would eventually bring order to the Rascian lands and found the House of Nemanja.

In these struggles, the pro-Raška rulers eventually managed to rise to power in Duklja, culminating in the rise of Stefan Nemanja, one of Zavida's sons (around 1166). Nemanja introduced Orthodoxy as the state religion of Raška and took over Duklja, resulting in the conversion of Zeta/Duklja from Catholicism to Orthodoxy.