Papović: The Kosovo Myth and Three Battles in Kosovo

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) submitted an author's text by its member, historian Dragutin Papović - "The Kosovo Myth and the Three Battles in Kosovo".

We transmit the text in its entirety:

The basis of the Kosovo myth is the Battle of Kosovo, which was fought on June 15, 1389, between the armies of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and the Turkish emir (sultan) Murat. Although the starting point of the myth is a medieval battle, the myth is largely the result of the ideological work of the Serbian church and politics of the 18th – 20th centuries. The glorification of the so-called martyrdom for the faith in Kosovo in 1389 and the invention of a vow to avenge the medieval defeat created a mythical basis for the Greater Serbia project. Scientific historiography has proven the enormous differences between facts and mythological-ideological beliefs.

In the Middle Ages, three battles took place in Kosovo. Based on older sources, which have since been lost, the Dubrovnik historian Mavro Orbini reported in his book "Kingdom of the Slavs" that there was a battle on Kosovo Polje between King Vukašin Mrnjavčević on the one hand and the coalition of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and County Governor Nikola Altomanović, under the patronage of Emperor Uroš V (the Weak) on the other. The brothers Vukašin and Uglješa Mrnjavčević were then the most powerful nobles in the Serbian Empire. They began their careers as cupbearer (Vukašin) and groom (Uglješa) at the court of Emperor Dušan. Thanks to the favor of Uroš's mother and Dušan's widow, Empress Jelena, they skillfully built their power at the imperial court. Uglješa received the title of despot and inherited power from Empress Jelena in the Sera region, while Vukašin received the title of king from Emperor Uroš and became co-ruler with Uroš in 1365. Vukašin's son Marko (Kraljević) was appointed as the young king, or heir. Vukašin planned to replace the Nemanjić dynasty with his own, and therefore proclaimed his son Marko as co-ruler with the aim of succeeding Emperor Uroš, who had no descendants. In the second half of the 1360s, the Mrnjavčevićs consolidated their power in Macedonia, and then Vukašin tried to impose his rule in the northern parts of the Serbian Empire. This was opposed by Prince Lazar and the prefect Nikola Altomanović. Emperor Uroš also joined the two Serbian nobles, in order to free himself from Vukašin's tutelage. The interests of the conflicting parties intersected in Kosovo. Vukašin owned Priština and Novo Brdo, and near Novo Brdo is Prilepac, where Prince Lazar was born.

Altomanović owned Zvečan, and Lazar's son-in-law Vuk Branković also had an inheritance in Kosovo. The battle took place in 1369 on Kosovo Polje. At the beginning of the battle, the army of King Mrnjavčević gained a decisive advantage, because Prince Lazar withdrew his army from the battle. Nikola Altomanović was outnumbered. He suffered a heavy defeat and barely escaped. Emperor Uroš was captured with several of his nobles, while the rest of his entourage was executed. Given that the only record of this battle is in a book by Mavro Orbini from 1601, historians have long disputed its authenticity. However, the best expert on this period, historian Rade Mihaljčić, stated in his book "The End of the Serbian Empire": "An analysis of all available data regarding the coalition shows that Orbini's news is not fabricated... It is quite certain that Kosovo, the battlefield, 20 years before the conflict with the Turks, experienced a clash of Serbian nobility. The Serbian-Turkish conflict was preceded by the Serbian "Kosovo". " This thesis is also accepted in modern Serbian historiography. Historian Vladimir G. Aleksić, in his doctoral dissertation "The Heirs of the Mrnjavčevićs and the Territories Under Their Rule from 1371 to 1395", points out that the record of Mavro Orbini, although long disputed, is nevertheless accepted.

Vukašin won, primarily due to the breaking up of the rival coalition. He probably made an agreement with Lazar before the battle regarding Nikola Altomanović's possessions, because Lazar took advantage of Altomanović's defeat and in 1370 seized the rich town of Rudnik from him. Based on this, the historian Mihaljčić points out: "The betrayal of Prince Lazar, later the Kosovo martyr, is more astonishing than anything else." When it seemed that there were no obstacles to the rise of Mrnjavčević to the imperial title, their possessions were threatened by the Turks from Thrace. The Mrnjavčevićs gathered about 60.000 soldiers and invaded Turkish territory. The two armies met at Černomen on the Maritsa on September 21, 1371. Although outnumbered, the Turks suddenly attacked Mrnjavčević's army and inflicted a heavy defeat on it. Uroš and Vukašin were killed. The Serbian nobility not only did not help the Mrnjavčevićs, but also participated in the division of their territory. Prince Lazar took Novo Brdo and Priština from Vukašin's son Marko, and Vuk Branković took Skopje, and Branković soon took over Priština as well. The defeat at Marija was much more significant for the Turkish conquest of Serbia and the Balkans in general than the subsequent Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

Sultan Murad I captured the area around the city of Serres and most of Thrace in 1383, Sofia and Štip in 1386, and Thessaloniki in 1387. Bulgaria tried to free itself from Turkish vassalage, but the Turks attacked and captured Preslav, Shumen, and Silistria in 1388. The Bulgarian emperor John Shishman had to agree to an even more difficult vassalage and the loss of significant territory. This brought the Turks to the border of Prince Lazar's state, from whom they captured Niš in 1386, but he stopped them at the Battle of Pločnik. It is possible that Lazar accepted Turkish suzerainty that year. However, when the Turkish army suffered a defeat in a conflict with the Duke of Hum, Vlatko Vuković, near Bileća in 1388, Lazar rejected the vassalage and the demand to pay tribute, and accepted vassalage to the Hungarian king Sigismund. The Turks prepared a campaign aimed at subduing Lazar and avenging the defeat at Bileća. Lazar called for help from the Bosnian king Tvrtko and his son-in-law Vuk Branković. Tvrtko sent a larger detachment under the command of Duke Vlatko Vuković, while Vuk Branković came personally with his army. Lazar's other son-in-law, the lord of Zeta Đurađ II Stracimirović Balšić, did not participate in the battle. At that time, he was on friendly terms with the Turks.

The Turkish army arrived at Kosovo Polje in June 1389. It was met by Lazar's coalition army, which, according to various estimates, had between 12 and 20.000 soldiers, while the Turkish army had between 27 and 30.000. Murat was killed during the battle. The Turks captured Lazar and, on the orders of Murat's son and successor, Bayezid I, he was executed. The remnants of Lazar's army then withdrew. At the same time, Bayezid ordered the Turkish army to withdraw, because he had to take care of consolidating his power. In addition, the Turkish army did not have the strength to continue the further advance, so the outcome of the battle was indecisive. However, Vlatko Vuković sent a message to King Tvrtko that the Turks had withdrawn and that they had been defeated, which Tvrtko interpreted as a victory. He announced this in the West, and in Italy and France he was celebrated as the savior of Christianity.

The Turkish losses were heavy, but they had significant military reserves in the East, while Serbia did not have such reserves. Therefore, the Turks organized new attacks on Serbia at the end of 1389, and during 1390 and 1391-2. and penetrated as far as Hungary. The Serbs did not lose the battle in Kosovo, but in the next few years they lost the war against Turkey, because they could not resist the Turks due to the irreparable losses they suffered in Kosovo. The Serbian rulers soon accepted Turkish vassalage. Lazar's wife Milica and her minor son Stefan (Lazarević) became Turkish vassals in 1390, with the obligation to pay tribute and send auxiliary military detachments. Milica accepted this because her possessions were attacked from the north by Hungary, so she needed Turkish protection. In addition, she sent her daughter Olivera to the sultan's harem. On the other hand, Vuk Branković refused to submit to the Turks and negotiated an alliance with Hungary. Different policies led to a disagreement between Lazarević and Branković, which, possibly, led to Milica's accusations that Vuk had betrayed Lazar in Kosovo, a thesis later accepted as true through epic poetry. In reality and as Turkish sources testify, Vuk fought bravely during the battle and commanded the right wing that was the last to retreat. Vuk withdrew only after the Bosnians led by Vlatko Vuković abandoned the left wing and only after the center of the army gave in after Lazar was captured. Propaganda about Vuk's betrayal continued due to the later rivalry between Lazar's and Vuk's sons, and the propaganda was also facilitated by the fact that Lazar was soon declared a saint, and the Serbian Church built a cult around his sacrifice. After his death, Lazar was buried in the Church of the Ascension near Priština. After a few years, he was transferred to the Ravanica Monastery. He was then canonized, and in this, as well as in the transfer of his body, the greatest role was played by Patriarch Danilo III, the prince's cousin, who established the cult of Prince Lazar in the document "Letter on the Holy Prince Lazar" from 1393. The procession that transferred Lazar's body was attended by Princess Milica with her sons Stefan and Vuk, as well as Vuk Branković with his wife Mara, Lazar's daughter, and his nobles. Vuk was the last Serbian lord to accept Turkish vassalage. The Turks attacked him in the winter of 1391-2. They managed to take Skopje from him in January 1392, so Vuk had to accept vassalage, pay tribute, and send military detachments.

Of all the Serbian vassals, Lazar's son Stefan was the most loyal to Sultan Bayezid. Although Bayezid ordered Prince Lazar to be killed, Stefan had not only a vassal, but also a friendly relationship with Bayezid. He participated on the side of the Turks against the Wallachian ruler Mirča in the Battle of Rovine in 1395. At that time, Serbian nobles Marko Kraljević and Konstantin Dejanović were killed as Turkish vassals. In the Battle of Nikopolje in 1396, Stefan Lazarević's cavalry made a decisive contribution to Bayezid's victory over the army of the Christian coalition. In the Battle of Angora in 1402 against the Tatars (Mongols), led by Timur, Bayezid suffered a defeat and was captured, and sources testify that Stefan Lazarević fought faithfully alongside Bayezid. Even when the sultan's sons deserted, Stefan remained on the battlefield and charged three times, trying to rescue Bayezid from captivity.

In the first half of the 15th century, the Turks were making a series of successes in the Balkans. The only serious obstacle to their advance was Hungary. In 1448, the Hungarian regent and duke of Transylvania, János Hunyadi, launched a crusade against the Turks. Hunyadi asked the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković to join the crusade, but the despot refused and forbade Hunyadi from passing through Serbia. Despite this, Hunyadi led an army through Serbia that year and ravaged it. Angered by this, but also concerned about the reaction of the Turks, the despot apparently informed the sultan of the crusaders' plan, the size of the crusader army, and its strategy, arguing that the crusader army had passed through Serbia against his will and by force. The despot hoped that in this way he would preserve the possessions that the Turks had returned to him in 1444, after they had conquered Serbia in 1439. Hunyadi sent envoys to the Albanian nobles Đorđe (Skënderbeg) Kastriot and his father-in-law Đorđe Arijanit. It seems that they agreed to join the Crusaders, as Skënderbeg had been fighting the Turks in Albania for many years. Hunyadi led about 35.000 Crusaders to meet Skënderbeg's troops, while the Turkish army of about 50.000 soldiers was led by Sultan Murat II. The Crusader and Turkish armies clashed at Kosovo Polje. During the battle (October 17–20, 1448), the Crusaders suffered a heavy defeat. Despot Đurađ captured some of the surviving Crusaders, and among the captives was Janos Hunyadi, for whom the despot demanded a large ransom. Among the Crusaders killed in Kosovo was the prominent Croatian nobleman Franko Talovac. The Sultan thwarted the Crusade because he had attacked Skanderbeg before the conflict with Hunyadi, and after the victory in Kosovo, he organized a campaign against the defiant Albanian nobleman. From his stronghold, the city of Kroja, Skanderbeg fought the Turks relentlessly until his death in 1468.

Several comparisons convincingly testify to how far the Kosovo myth is from real events. It was not Vuk Branković who withdrew his army from Kosovo during the fight against the Turks, but Prince Lazar did so during the intra-Serbian battle of Kosovo in 1369. It was not Vuk Branković who betrayed Christianity in Kosovo in 1389, but his son Despot Đurađ in Kosovo in 1448. Prince Lazar did not sacrifice himself for his faith, but fought against the Turks in Kosovo to preserve his possessions. His son Stefan accepted Turkish vassalage and friendship in order to preserve his possessions. The Serbian Empire did not collapse in the Serbian-Turkish battle of Kosovo in 1389, but essentially in the inter-Serbian battle of Kosovo in 1369. The collapse of the Serbian medieval state is more a consequence of internal conflicts than of Turkish attacks. It is obvious that memories and oral traditions from the three battles have become mixed over time and that many figures and events in the myth are misrepresented. Sociologist Veljko Vujačić says about this: "Over the course of several centuries, the cult of Lazarus became mixed with various historical explanations and the tradition of epic poetry in which the tragic deaths of Kosovo heroes were sung by entire generations of guslars. Due to various influences, the story of Kosovo underwent a series of significant changes, gradually acquiring the outlines of an ethnic driving myth." It is important to point out that the rulers of medieval Zeta did not participate in any battles in Kosovo. These events did not have a significant impact on the situation in Zeta, and the Kosovo myth spread in Montenegro only in a later period.