Dušan was the only true tsar of Serbia; he created and was the only ruler of the Serbian Empire. Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial peak and was one of the largest states in Europe. Apart from territorial gains, in 1349 and 1354 he made and enforced Dušan's code. He is also the only ruler from the house of Nemanjić not canonised as a saint.
He was first born son of Stefan of Decane and Theodora, daughter of Bulgarian tsar Smilac. Early in his life he visited Constantinople, in which as a child he spent around seven years (1314-1320). There he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Greek life and culture, and got a clear sense of Greek empire. He himself was more a soldier than a diplomat: as a youngster he excelled in two battles: in 1329 he beat BosnianbanStefan Kotromanić, and in 1330Bulgarian tsar Mihailo on Velbužd.
For uncertain reasons he had a conflict with his father, who he overthrew, then crowning himself king on September 81331. In 1332 he married Jelena, sister of Bulgarian tzar Aleksandar, a woman of strong will, who had a large influence on him and bore him son Uroš and one daughter.
In the first years of his rule, Dušan started to fight against the Greeks (1334), and battles continued with smaller and larger interruptions until his death in 1355. Twice he had larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these battles were mostly defensive. He was at peace with the Bulgarians, who even helped him two or three times. He exploited the civil war in Greece between minor emperorJohn V Palaeologus and his regent John Cantacuzenus; his systematic offensive began in 1342 and in the end he conquered the whole Greek kingdom from Balkan to Kavala except Pelopones and Thessaloniki, which he could not conquer because he had no fleet.
A coin minted by Dusan in 1346 for the occasion of his crowning.
Face against him, Greeks have searched allies in Turks whom they have brought in Europe for the first time. The first conflict between Serbs and Turks on Balkan soil, at Stefaniana in 1345, ended unfavourably for the Serbs. In 1348 he conquered Thessaly and Epirus. Dušan saw danger that lies in them and searched for ways to push them back but he was interrupted by Hungarians with their attacks on Serbia. Because of them he fought with Hungarian protegee ban Stefan II in 1350, wishing to regain formerly lost Zahumlje.
Dušan had large intentions but they were all cut by premature death on December 51355. It is suspected that he was poisoned. He was burried in his foundation, the monastery of holy archangels near Prizren. Today his remains are in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade.
Dušan was the greatest Serb medieval ruler, under whom incredible impulse and strength of Serbs have expressed. His state was really a great force, but in that greatness there was a weakness: Serbia enlarged too quickly for gains to be joined to old Serb reign. Besides, Dušan conquered a lot of purely Greek lands and their inhabitants, who expressed national awareness, higher culture than Serbs at the time, and so was constantly hostile. By nature soldier and conqueror, Dušan didn't intend to stabilise his work systematically. That is why dissolution started right after disappearance of his strong personality.
Revision of Ph.D. thesis Harvard University, 1958: George Christos Soulis (d. 1966), The Serbs and Byzantium during the reign of Tsar Stephen Dusan (1331-1355) and his successors. Washington, D.C. : Dumbarton Oaks Library and Collection, c1984. ISBN 0884021378
Translated with small changes from small encyclopedia Sveznanje published by Narodno delo, Belgrade, in 1937, which is today in public domain. This article is therefore written from the point of view of that place and time and may not reflect modern opinions or recent discoveries.
