Serbian Despotate

The Serbian Despotate was the last medieval Serbian state, created in 1402 when Stefan Lazarevic returned from the Battle of Ankara with the title of despot conferred by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. A successor of the Serbian Empire and of Moravian Serbia, it began as an Ottoman vassal but exploited the Ottoman Interregnum to recover its independence. Stefan allied with the Hungarian king Sigismund, received Belgrade and made it his capital in 1404, and presided over a cultural and economic revival marked by the Resava school of manuscript illumination and the foundation of monasteries such as Manasija. Because Stefan left no children, his nephew Durad Brankovic succeeded him in 1427; Belgrade had to be returned to Hungary, so Durad built the fortress of Smederevo between 1428 and 1430 as a new capital close to the Hungarian border. The Ottomans occupied the country in 1439, but the Peace of Szeged restored it in 1444. After Durad died in 1456 the despotate survived only three more years, falling to Sultan Mehmed II in 1459. Its political traditions continued among titular despots appointed by Hungarian kings, the last of whom, Pavle Bakic, died at Gorjani in 1537.