Višeslav of Serbia

Višeslav
Prince of the Serbs
(ἄρχων Σερβλίας)
Prince of the Serbs
Reign c. 780 [B]
Successor Radoslav
Born 8th century
Issue Radoslav
Dynasty Vlastimirović (progenitor)
Religion Slavic

Višeslav (Greek: Βοϊσέσθλαβος, Serbian: Вишеслав) or Vojislav (Војислав)[A] was the first Serbian ruler known by name, who ruled as the Prince of the Serbs in c. 780. He was a progenitor of the Vlastimirović dynasty, which ruled the polity known in historiography as the Serbian Principality.

The history of the early medieval Serbian Principality and the Vlastimirović dynasty (ruled ca. 610–960) is recorded in the work De Administrando Imperio ("On the Governance of the Empire", DAI), compiled by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959). The DAI drew information on the Serbs from, among others, a Serbian source.[1] The work mentions the first Serbian ruler, without a name (known conventionally as the "Unknown Archon"), that led the Serbs from the north to the Balkans and received the protection of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641), and was said to have died long before the Bulgar invasion (680).[2] According to DAI, "baptized Serbia" (known erranously in historiography as Raška[3]), included the inhabited cities (καστρα/kastra) of Destinikon (Δεστινίκον), Tzernabouskeï (Τζερναβουσκέη), Megyretous (Μεγυρέτους), Dresneïk (Δρεσνεήκ), Lesnik (Λεσνήκ), Salines (Σαληνές), while the "small land" (χοριον/chorion) of Bosna (Βοσωνα), part of Serbia, had the cities of Katera (Κατερα) and Desnik (Δέσνηκ).[4] The first capital was Ras, in Raška (southwestern Serbia).[5] The other Serb-inhabited lands (or principalities) that were mentioned included the "countries" of Paganija, Zahumlje and Travunija,[4] while the "land" of Duklja was held by the Byzantines (it was presumably settled with Serbs as well).[6] These polities bordered Serbia to the north.[4] The exact borders of the early Serbian state are unclear.[3] The Serbian ruler was titled "Prince (archon) of the Serbs" (αρχων Σερβλίας).[7] In Serbo-Croatian historiography, the Slavic title of knez (кнез) is used instead of the Greek arhont (архонт).[8] The DAI mentions that the Serbian throne is inherited by the son, i.e. the first-born; his descendants succeeded him, though their names are unknown until the coming of Višeslav.[2][9]

Serb lands in the 9th century
View of the highland part of the Stari Ras complex

The first ruler of the dynasty known by name was Višeslav, who began his rule around 780, being a contemporary of Frankish ruler Charlemagne (fl. 768–814).[10][5] The Serbs at that time were organized into župe (sing. župa), a confederation of village communities (roughly the equivalent of a county), headed by a local župan (a magistrate or governor); the governorship was hereditary, and the župan reported to the Serbian prince, whom they were obliged to aid in war.[11] According to one theory, Višeslav could have been a chief military leader (veliki vojvoda) who with his company seized the entire power in his hands and turned himself into a hereditary ruler, as veliki župan; in this way, the first Serbian state was thus established after 150 years of permanent living in the new homeland and existence of military democracy.[12]

Although Višeslav is only mentioned by name, the DAI mentions that the Serbs served the Byzantine Emperor, and that they were at this time at peace with the Bulgars, whose neighbours they were and with whom they shared a common frontier.[13] The Bulgars, under Telerig, planned to colonize Bulgaria with Slavs from the neighbouring Berziti,[14] as the earlier Bulgar expansion had caused massive Slav migrations and depopulation of Bulgaria — in 762, more than 200,000 people fled to Byzantine territory and were relocated to Asia Minor.[15] The Bulgars were defeated in 774, after Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775) learnt of their planned raid.[14] The Bulgars had by 773 cut off the communication route, the Vardar valley, between Serbia and the Byzantines.[16] In 783, a large Slavic uprising took place in the Byzantine Empire, stretching from Macedonia to the Peloponnese, which was subsequently quelled by Byzantine patrikios Staurakios.[14] In Pannonia, to the north of Serbia, Frankish ruler Charlemagne (r. 768–814) started his offensive against the Avars.[14] Dalmatia, at this time, had firm relations with Byzantium.[17]

Višeslav was succeeded by his son Radoslav, then grandson Prosigoj,[10] and one of these two most likely ruled during the revolt of Ljudevit Posavski against the Franks (819–822);[15] according to Einhard's Royal Frankish Annals, written in 822, Ljudevit went from his seat at Sisak to the Serbs (believed to have been somewhere in western Bosnia),[15] with Einhard mentioning "the Serbs, who control the greater part of Dalmatia" (ad Sorabos, quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur).[18] Višeslav's great-grandson Vlastimir began his rule in c. 830, and he is the oldest Serbian ruler of which there is substantial data on. The long lasting of this dynasty shows great stability of the monarch and state.[19] The names of Serbian rulers thru Mutimir are Slavic dithematic names, as per Old Slavic tradition, until the 9th century and Christianization after which Christian names appear.[8]

The four named succeeding Serbian rulers are not mentioned in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (CPD),[20] a source dating to ca. 1300[21] largely discredited in historiography (events in the Early Middle Ages deemed useless).[22] Instead, the CPD mentions several historically unconfirmed or legendary rulers, Svevlad, Selimir, Vladin and Ratimir, although maintaining the patrilineal succession tradition.[1] Historian Panta Srećković (1834–1903) interpreted this as CPD's Christian author's unwillingness to name them due to them being pagans, perhaps having had "Romans" (Christians) defeated, killed and dispersed.[20] An illustration of him is included in Kosta Mandrović's Ilustrovana istorija srpskog naroda od najstarijih vremena do proglašenja nove kraljevine (1885).[23] A street in the Čukarica neighbourhood in Belgrade is named after him (ulica kneza Višeslava).

See also

Vlastimirović dynasty

Annotations

  1. ^ In Gyula Moravcsik's edition of De Administrando Imperio, his name is spelled Βοϊσέσθλαβος, while J. J. Reiske spelled it Βοισέσθλαβος,[24] transcribed in Latin as Boiseslav[25] and Boisesthlabus,[24] respectively. The name is rendered in Serbian as Višeslav (Вишеслав). The other variant of his name is Vojislav (Војислав); 19th-century historians were divided between the use of "Višeslav" and "Vojislav",[25] the alternate interpretation being that the use of "Višeslav" was due to an error in transliteration, his real name being rather "Vojislav".[26] The name Višeslav is dithematic (of two lexemes), derived from the Slavic words više ("great(er), large(r)") and -slav ("glory, fame"), roughly meaning "greater glory"; Vojislav is derived from voj ("war") and -slav, roughly meaning "war glory".
  2. ^ Historiography agrees that Višeslav ruled in c. 780,[10][5] or "the last centuries of the 8th century".[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Živković 2006, p. 23.
  2. 1 2 3 Blagojević & Petković 1989, p. 19.
  3. 1 2 Novaković 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 Moravcsik 1993, pp. 153–155.
  5. 1 2 3 Strizović 2004, p. 19.
  6. ↑ Fine 1991, p. 53.
  7. ↑ Moravcsik 1993, p. 156.
  8. 1 2 SANU 1995, p. 37.
  9. ↑ Živković 2006, pp. 22–23.
  10. 1 2 3 Radovan Samardžić; Milan Duškov (1993). Serbs in European civilization. Nova. p. 24. ISBN 978-86-7583-015-3.
  11. ↑ Fine 1991, pp. 225, 304.
  12. ↑ Istorijski institut Beograd 1959.
  13. ↑ Moravcsik 1993, p. 155.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Ćorović 2001, ch. Бугари и балкански Словени
  15. 1 2 3 Ćirković 2008, pp. 14–16.
  16. ↑ Živković 2002, p. 230.
  17. ↑ Živković 2002, p. 218.
  18. ↑ Pertz 1845, p. 83.
  19. ↑ Živković 2006, pp. 23–24.
  20. 1 2 SANU 1934, p. 11.
  21. ↑ Živković, T.; Kunčer, D. (2009), Gesta regum Sclavorum, I–II, Београд, pp. 362–365
  22. ↑ Živković 2006, pp. 16.
  23. ↑ Kosta Mandrović (1885). Ilustrovana istorija srpskog naroda od najstarijih vremena do proglašenja nove kraljevine: Sa 120 slika i jednom kartom Balkanskog poluostrova. Wien: Kosta Mandrović. p. 24.
  24. 1 2 Reiske 1840, p. 153.
  25. 1 2 Istorisko-filološki oddel (1968). Godišen zbornik. 20–21. Skopje: Univerzitet "Kiril i Metodij". Filozofski fakultet. p. 152.
  26. ↑ Živković 2012.

Sources

Primary sources
Secondary sources
Višeslav
Regnal titles
Unknown
Last known title holder:
"Unknown Archon"		 Prince of the Serbs
c. 780 		Succeeded by
Radoslav
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