How a Catastrophe at Kosovo's Field of Blackbirds Transformed a Medieval Prince Into a National Myth

LAZAR OF SERBIA Lazar of Serbia b.1329-d.1389 1373-1389 A powerful Balkan ruler who met his death in battle against the Ottoman Turks, Lazar’s story is preserved – and confused – by a wealth of epic poetry. Serbia’s heavenly tsar How a catastrophe at Kosovo’s Field of Blackbirds transformed a Medieval prince into a national myth Words ALEKSANDAR PAVLOVIĆ ver the centuries that their rule through royal ties. It is highly unlikely that followed the death of Prince Lazar as a minor dignitary would have had the chance Lazar at the 1389 Battle of of marrying so high, and there are no records that Kosovo against the Turks, he corroborate this story from his lifetime. acquired a mythical aura in Stefan Uroš, remembered as Uroš the Weak, was a the oral tradition, literature poor shadow of his father, Stefan Dušan the Mighty, and historiography of the and from 1355 to his premature death in 1371, many South Slavs and became influential noblemen abandoned him and ruled in de one of the central national facto independence. Eventually, even those who remained symbols in Serbian culture. But during Lazar’s youth faithful to the Tsar, like Lazar, realised it was time for and even for much of his adulthood, nothing indicated the new elite to carve off a piece of the Serbian Empire he would ever rise to such prominence. By the 1360s, before it fell completely to ruin. But unlike those whose the Serbian state had been safely in the hands of the swift rise was met by an equally swift fall, Lazar played Nemanjić dynasty for two centuries. Lazar, the son of the long game, slowly and patiently enlarging his estates. a minor dignitary – Pribac from Novo Brdo, a mining His true rise began only in 1373, when he and Bosnian and trade centre in what is now Kosovo – served at the King Tvrtko I defeated the powerful zupan, or lord, court of Serbia’s Tsar, Stefan Uroš V, as stavilac (cup- Nikola Altomanović and divided his lands between them. bearer). Those in this position were among the lowest Some later chronicles state that, “The holy Prince Lazar ranks at the court, usually in charge of the ceremonies tore asunder Župan Nikola and blinded him,” perhaps surrounding the Emperor’s table and dinning rituals. not so holy of an act. These events also show that Lazar, Following the Battle of Kosovo, monastic tradition after leaving the court, assumed the tile of knez, which identifies Lazar’s wife Milica as a descendant of the is a rather fluid label that can encapsulate any leading Nemanjić family. In the much later folk tradition, Lazar position among the Slavs and is often translated into serves the Tsar at the table “with a golden cup”, and king or duke in English. In any case, he was by no means the Tsar gives him his relative as a bride for his faithful ever the “Tsar Lazar, Serbian golden crown” as the folk service. However, both sources represent the wishful songs call him, and never wore a crown of any kind. thinking of Lazar’s descendants who wanted to legitimise Nevertheless, from that time onwards, Lazar was the 80 81 LAZAR OF SERBIA Lazar accuses Miloš Obilić contingent sent from the Bosnian king, and Lazar’s of plotting to betray son-in-law Vuk Branković led the right flank. The Turks A German illustration him and in return the surely relied on a number of their Christian allies, some showing Sultan Murad I knight asserts his loyalty, slain in the heat of battle promising to slay the Sultan of which were regional leaders known to Lazar from their days at the Nemanjić court. It remains uncertain if Lazar was killed in the battle or captured and beheaded later, or if Sultan Murad I died before, during or after the fight. Some much later sources claim that the Christians were winning at first but later succumbed to the Turks. This may well have been a deliberate strategy by the Turks to let the centre forces deeper inside their lines and then close on them from three sides, using the advantage of their swift, light horse cavalry. This would correspond with the fact that, while Lazar died in the field, both Vlatko Vuković and Vuk Branković were unharmed, which would later give rise to the motif of Branković’s treason in popular tradition – encouraged no doubt by the death toll at Kosovo rendering him the single most powerful nobleman left in Serbian lands. But, as much as this scenario makes sense, these are perhaps not much more than speculations or educated guesses. Interestingly enough, none of the earliest sources mention the outcome as a crushing defeat for the Serbs. For instance, days after the battle, the Venetians congratulated Tvrtko I on his victory. Indeed, not only Who killed the Sultan? was the Sultan himself dead, but his son Bayezid (soon Like his liege lord, the life and deeds of Miloš to be Sultan Bayezid I) needed to return home to settle things and consolidate power. Still, the Serbs were Obilić are a subject of much debate exhausted and unable to resist Turkish incursions. In the years and decades after the battle, Lazar’s successors The legend of the Kosovo battle femme manner, their wives had a accepted Ottoman vassalage in exchange for autonomy. actually has two equally grand dispute that then caused the rift characters – Prince Lazar and Miloš among the greatest nobles at the Obilić, who killed the Turkish Sultan Serbian court on the eve of the battle. BELOW A map of the Balkans in the decades before Lazar’s reign Murad I. Arguably, Miloš’s deed is the Serbian folk songs do not describe in and the splintering of the Serbian Empire – note the thin line of greatest single heroic achievement in detail the actual killing, and contain Byzantine territory that will fall to the Ottomans Serbian history, and he thus served only typically exaggerated verses that as the role model for Christians Miloš “killed the Turkish Sultan Murad mightiest district ruler in the remnant of the Serbian June, on the feast day of Saint Vitus. However, hardly during the Turkish rule. One early- and 12,000 Turks,” which is perhaps Empire. His territory included the rich mining towns anything is certain about this battle that resonates so 20th-century ethnographer wrote that a bit too many even for a Serbian he enjoys a sort of religious status knight. The Turkish sources are far of Novo Brdo and Rudnik and, together with his sons- strongly through centuries. Modern historians have among the highlanders of the central more inventive and elaborate on this in-law, his family alliance stretched from the Sava and confirmed some of the information provided by the Balkans: “They all consider him as matter. There, Miloš is portrayed as Danube rivers in the north to the songs and tradition, such as that the their spiritual ancestor, they think of a sort of trickster, who pretends to be him, admire him, and even dream a renegade demanding to see the Adriatic Coast. Equally important, battle did take place on that date, of him. When they were performing Sultan and profess his loyalty to him he enjoyed the support of the Serbian and that both leaders, Prince Lazar heroic deeds, they would ponder and personally. The Sultan offers him his church and provided shelter for the “The legends and Sultan Murad I, were killed. argue if Obilić would do so, and if foot and Miloš, while kissing it, takes monks who fled the Turks. Everything else is shrouded in doubt. so, they came closer to him.” out his hidden knife and drives it into about Prince The story of Miloš Obilić is a Murad I, before himself being cut to The Battle of Kosovo was, to Figures mentioning hundreds of touching one. During the supper pieces by the Turks. a certain extent, inevitable. After thousands of soldiers on both sides on the eve of the battle, labelled by If the literature is contentious, the Lazar some scholars as the ‘Serbian Last history of Miloš Obilić is even more defeating the Mrnjavčević family, are surely gross exaggeration. Even Supper’, Prince Lazar claimed Miloš problematic. Miloš is not actually who ruled a chunk of Serbian the claims that there were 20,000 would betray him on the battlefield mentioned by name as the killer of lands in modern Macedonia, at the apparently arose soldiers on each side made by scarce and switch to the Turkish side. the Sultan until a century after the Battle of Maritza in 1371, the Turks contemporary sources are doubtful. Offended, Miloš responded that he battle. Recently, even the ethnicity of immediately would single-handedly kill the Sultan the hero has been disputed. Albanian established their dominance in Some historians purported to show himself and gladly die the next day, scholars have raised the claim Balkan affairs and occasionally sent that the army led by Lazar included and warned his master that the that Miloš was actually Albanian, after the battle” actual traitor was Lazar’s right-hand supporting it with oral testimonies regiments deep into the lands held Croats, Albanians, Hungarians, man Vuk Branković. Here, various from 100-year-old Kosovan men by Lazar and Tvrtko I. Lazar and the Greeks and others, but it seems narratives give differing explanations. who were reported to have lived Ottoman Sultan, Murad I, even met on the battlefield unlikely that this regional ruler would be able to gather According to much later popular at the time of the battle.

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