On This Day in History: August 21

The Serbian Civil War

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My son rarely does the cleaning I ask him to unless I pester him forty-eleven times, but I don’t think he’d actually wage war on me to steal away my three-bedroom suburban empire and my fleet of two very used Japanese vehicles. Not so for King Stefan Uroš III of Serbia.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: August 21, 1331--

You know how in Games of Thrones Theon Greyjoy was kept as a hostage by an enemy? That was a thing. Born in 1276, as a youth his name was Stefan Dečanski and he was sent by his father to live with Nogai Khan, a Turkish ruler, to maintain peace between them and the Serbs. He stayed with them until he was 23.

Like in Game of Thrones, his return home was less than glorious. He and his dad didn’t get along that well, and in 1314 Dečanski and his dad had a fight and dear old dad exiled him to Constantinople with orders that he be blinded. The folks in Constantinople decided not to actually blind him. But still, dick move, Dad. Anyway, six years later his dad finally let Dečanski return home, and then Dad died the following year, in 1321, and Stefan Dečanski ascended the Serbian throne as Uroš III.

Considering his history, it may not surprise you that Dečanski’s lack of a good fatherly role model impeded his ability to have a loving relationship with his own son, Stefan Dušan. After nine years of reign, Dečanski was involved in a war with the Byzantine Empire. In 1330 the Serbian forces had a decisive victory in the Battle of Velbazhd. But then Dečanski said, “You know what? I think we’re good. Let’s hold here.”

And that pissed some people off.

Many nobles were all “No. Fuck that. Keep going. Expand. Give us more territory. Fucking wimp.” And those nobles started to look to his son Stefan Dušan and say this dude is all piss and vinegar and we like him better. The nobles whispered in Dušan’s ear, and advisors whispered in Dečanski’s ear, and fearing his was son moving against him, Dečanski ordered the kid to be seized and excluded from his inheritance. But his son was ready for him, and there was a father vs. son civil war.

The son won, capturing his father on August 21, 1331. Dušan imprisoned his father and had him strangled to death three months later. Dušan was named Stefan Uroš IV and as the nobles who supported him wished, he did indeed wage more war against the Byzantine Empire, eventually coming to rule it in 1346.

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