Family tree Bas » Stefan Voijislav van Rascia (< 1018-1043)

Personal data Stefan Voijislav van Rascia 

• He was born before 1018.
• (Levens event) .Source 1

  Stefan Vojislav (Serbian Cyrillic: ?????? ????????[A]; fl. 1018 - d. 1043) was the Prince of Duklja from 1040 to 1043. He had since 1018 been a toparch in Byzantine vassalage, and in 1034 he led an unsuccessful revolt that resulted in his incarceration at Constantinople, he however, managed to escape and return, this time successfully gaining independence of his statelet, which he would rule as Prince of the Serbs,[1] a title signifying supreme leadership among Serbs.
  
  He is the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljevic dynasty.
  Contents
  Life
  Origin and early life
  
  The contemporary writers call him a Serb, but do not mention his geneaology, while a later, dubious source, calls him a cousin to previous ruler Jovan Vladimir (r. 990-1016).[B]
  
  Having reached its pinnacle during the long reign of emperor Basil II, the Byzantine empire entered, following his death in 1025, a steady decline. This was particularly evident in the Balkans. There, the elimination of the perennial Bulgarian threat, combined with insensitive taxation policy reversals, helped spur liberation movements.
  
  Vojislav held the title of archon, and toparch of the Dalmatian kastra of Zeta and Ston.[3][4]
  
  The affairs of the Dalmatians, Croats, Serbs and others were overseen by strategoi in Niš, Skopje, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Dyrrhacium. Vojislav had regular meetings with Katakalon Klazomenites (Catacalon), the strategos of Ragusa, and at one occasion, kidnapped the strategos and his party, for the baptismal of Vojislav's son. Katakalon would act as Godfather.[3] This shows a close relationship between native leaders and Byzantine officers in the peripheral zone of the Empire after Basil's "reconquest".[4]
  Revolts
  “ ...Stefan Vojislav, arhon of Serbs, who not long ago escaped from Constantinople and took the land of the Serbs, banishing Theophilos Erotikos. ”
  
  —-John Scylitzes
  
  Around 1034 (according to John Skylitzes), the Serbs renounced Byzantine rule. Stefan Vojislav, cousin of the assassinated Jovan Vladimir, organized a rebellion while the Byzantine Empire was switching the throne (Romanos III Argyros had just died). He was defeated and imprisoned in Constantinople in 1035/1036[5] with his realm restored under the control of strategos Theophilos Erotikos. In late 1037 or early 1038 he manages to break out of the prison and return to Duklja, where he organizes a new rebellion, also targeting the Serb allies of the Emperor in the neighbouring regions.[6][7]
  
  Taking advantage of guerilla warfare and the distracting effects of other uprisings, he staved off several punitive expeditions, asserting partial control over the principalities of Travunija and Zahumlje in the process. Thus, by 1040 his state stretched in the coastal region from Ston in the north, down to the Skadar Lake, his capital, Skadar, set up along the southern banks of the lake, with other courts in Trebinje, Kotor and Bar.[8]
  Wars with Byzantines
  Victory over Byzantines.
  Rumija, where Vojislav defeated the Byzantine armies.
  
  The Byzantine Emperor Michael, waiting in Thessaloniki, was to receive a shipment of 10 kentenars of gold (7,200 gold nomismata[9]) from Southern Italy in 1039. A Byzantine cargo ship (galley) was wrecked off the Doclean coast due to stormy weather in the winter of 1039-1040, the goods were taken by Vojislav who refused to return it upon Michael's requests.[1][8] This incurred Michael's fury, who had earlier retaken Durazzo, and he sent general George Probatas to tackle Vojislav, the Byzantine army however were unfamiliar with the terrains, which Vojislav used; they were caught in the gorges in an ambush and suffered a total defeat. Vojislav's son, Radoslav is noted as having killed a Byzantine military commander on the battlefield. Kekaumenos, a strategos sent for Vojislav, ended up imprisoned by Vojislav and taken to Ston.
  
  The uprising of Peter Delyan in 1040-42 who now crowned himself as Czar Peter II of Bulgarians made another Byzantine incursion against Duklja unlikely as the Byzantines were more threatened by the Bulgarians who advanced.
  
  In 1042, the župan of Rascia (a renewed subordinate title, showing Byzantine overlordship[8]), Ban of Bosnia and Prince of Hum Ljutovid, received piles of imperial gold and silver from the Byzantines for their support to overthrow Vojislav.[10] Ljutovid led the army against Duklja in 1043 but was ambushed at the Klobuk hill[11] of Konavli (then part of Travunia) by Vojislav, who defeated the army. Vojislav went on to pursue and annex most of Zahumlje and Travunia. He defeats a Byzantine army at the Battle of Bar in October.
  
  In 1042, the new emperor Constantine IX decided to attack Duklja with an army based in Dyrrhacium and the neighbouring themes. The Byzantine army under Michaelus Anastasii was defeated and Vojislav ensured a future for Duklja without imperial authority.[12]
  Last years
  
  Vojislav spent the rest of his rule in peace, until his death in 1043. He was succeeded by his widow and five sons - Gojislav, Predimir, Mihailo, Saganek and Radoslav.[13] He was buried in the Church of St. Andrew in Prapratna.
  
  Duklja stayed the center of the Serbian state which had earlier replaced (in terms of leadership) Rascia; it held this position for a few years, his son Mihailo I succeeded in ruling Duklja as the other principalities unified with Rascia under Vukan of Serbia.

• (naam) .Source 2

  The Vojislavljevic (Serbian: (pl.) ??????????????, Vojislavljevici) was a medieval Serb dynasty, named after archon Stefan Vojislav, who wrestled the polities of Duklja, Travunia, Zahumlje, Rascia and Bosnia from the Byzantines in the mid-11th century. The main line of the Vojislavljevic were ousted by their cadet branch, the Vukanovic (which became the Nemanjic dynasty) in the late 12th century.
  Contents
  Background
  Wiki letter w.svg This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (September 2011)
  History
  Stefan Vojislav
  Main article: Stefan Vojislav
  
  Stefan Vojislav, the progenitor of the dynasty, was a Serbian nobleman in Byzantine service who had the titles of archon, and toparch of the Dalmatian kastra of Zeta and Ston.[3][4] In 1034 he led an unsuccessful revolt that resulted in his incarceration at Constantinople, he however, managed to escape and return, this time successfully gaining independence of his statelet, which he would rule as Prince of the Serbs,[1] a title signifying supreme leadership among the Serbs. The contemporary writers call him a Serb, but do not mention his geneaology, while a later, dubious source, calls him a cousin to previous ruler Jovan Vladimir (r. 990-1016).[B]
  Mihailo I
  Fresco of Mihailo I in the Church of St. Michael in Ston.
  
  Mihailo I became Grand Prince around 1050/1055. He restored independence and maintained it from the Byzantine Empire. He sought closer relations with other great powers, such as the Pope and the Normans. Mihailo installed his son Petrislav as Prince of Rascia. After the aborted rebellion in Bulgaria, the military governor of Dyrrhachium, Nicephorus Bryennius, restored Byzantine rule to Rascia in 1073. Mihailo reportedly received royal insignia in 1077 from Pope Gregory VII, although this is still a matter of debate. An image of King Mihajlo with his crown is still found in the Church of St. Michael in Ston, a town in the Pelješac peninsula (in present-day Croatia). Mihajlo's rule ended in 1080.
  Konstantin Bodin
  
  His successor was his son Constantin Bodin, who ruled from 1080 to 1101. Bodin fought Byzantium and Normans further to the south, and took the town of Dyrrachium. He established vassal states in Bosnia (under Stefan) and Raška (under Vukan and Marko), which recognized his supremacy. Vukan and Marko, the new princes of Raška were probably sons of the aforementioned Petrislav. Vukan (1083–1115) was the Grand Župan while Marko headed administration of a part of the land. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios later forced Vukan to acknowledge Byzantine suzerainty in 1094. After Bodin died in 1101, incessant struggles for power among his heirs weakened the state. Bodin had previously exiled Dobroslav, his younger brother, together with their cousin Kocapar. In 1101 they returned, and vied for power together with another grandson of Mihajlo's, Vladimir. Vladimir at one point married the daughter of Vukan of Raška.
  Decline
  
  In 1114, Ðorde, son of Constantin Bodin, came to power in Duklja. The next year Vukan was replaced in Raška by his nephew Uroš I. (ca. 1115-1131). Ðorde's rule lasted until 1118.
  
  One of the sons of Uroš I was Zavida, Prince of Zahumlje. His four sons would eventually bring order to the Rascian lands and found the House of Nemanja.
  
  In these struggles, the pro-Raška rulers eventually managed to rise to power in Duklja, culminating in the rise of Stefan Nemanja, one of Zavida's sons (around 1166). His son Stefan Nemanjic restored the old Doclean crown in 1217 by receiving from the Pope regal insignia as "King of all Serbs and Maritime Lands".

• (naam) .Source 2

  The Vojislavljevic (Serbian: (pl.) ??????????????, Vojislavljevici) was a medieval Serb dynasty, named after archon Stefan Vojislav, who wrestled the polities of Duklja, Travunia, Zahumlje, Rascia and Bosnia from the Byzantines in the mid-11th century. The main line of the Vojislavljevic were ousted by their cadet branch, the Vukanovic (which became the Nemanjic dynasty) in the late 12th century.
  Contents
  Background
  Wiki letter w.svg This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (September 2011)
  History
  Stefan Vojislav
  Main article: Stefan Vojislav
  
  Stefan Vojislav, the progenitor of the dynasty, was a Serbian nobleman in Byzantine service who had the titles of archon, and toparch of the Dalmatian kastra of Zeta and Ston.[3][4] In 1034 he led an unsuccessful revolt that resulted in his incarceration at Constantinople, he however, managed to escape and return, this time successfully gaining independence of his statelet, which he would rule as Prince of the Serbs,[1] a title signifying supreme leadership among the Serbs. The contemporary writers call him a Serb, but do not mention his geneaology, while a later, dubious source, calls him a cousin to previous ruler Jovan Vladimir (r. 990-1016).[B]
  Mihailo I
  Fresco of Mihailo I in the Church of St. Michael in Ston.
  
  Mihailo I became Grand Prince around 1050/1055. He restored independence and maintained it from the Byzantine Empire. He sought closer relations with other great powers, such as the Pope and the Normans. Mihailo installed his son Petrislav as Prince of Rascia. After the aborted rebellion in Bulgaria, the military governor of Dyrrhachium, Nicephorus Bryennius, restored Byzantine rule to Rascia in 1073. Mihailo reportedly received royal insignia in 1077 from Pope Gregory VII, although this is still a matter of debate. An image of King Mihajlo with his crown is still found in the Church of St. Michael in Ston, a town in the Pelješac peninsula (in present-day Croatia). Mihajlo's rule ended in 1080.
  Konstantin Bodin
  
  His successor was his son Constantin Bodin, who ruled from 1080 to 1101. Bodin fought Byzantium and Normans further to the south, and took the town of Dyrrachium. He established vassal states in Bosnia (under Stefan) and Raška (under Vukan and Marko), which recognized his supremacy. Vukan and Marko, the new princes of Raška were probably sons of the aforementioned Petrislav. Vukan (1083–1115) was the Grand Župan while Marko headed administration of a part of the land. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios later forced Vukan to acknowledge Byzantine suzerainty in 1094. After Bodin died in 1101, incessant struggles for power among his heirs weakened the state. Bodin had previously exiled Dobroslav, his younger brother, together with their cousin Kocapar. In 1101 they returned, and vied for power together with another grandson of Mihajlo's, Vladimir. Vladimir at one point married the daughter of Vukan of Raška.
  Decline
  
  In 1114, Ðorde, son of Constantin Bodin, came to power in Duklja. The next year Vukan was replaced in Raška by his nephew Uroš I. (ca. 1115-1131). Ðorde's rule lasted until 1118.
  
  One of the sons of Uroš I was Zavida, Prince of Zahumlje. His four sons would eventually bring order to the Rascian lands and found the House of Nemanja.
  
  In these struggles, the pro-Raška rulers eventually managed to rise to power in Duklja, culminating in the rise of Stefan Nemanja, one of Zavida's sons (around 1166). His son Stefan Nemanjic restored the old Doclean crown in 1217 by receiving from the Pope regal insignia as "King of all Serbs and Maritime Lands"

• He died in the year 1043.
• A child of Dragimir van Travunia
• This information was last updated on March 27, 2013.

Household of Stefan Voijislav van Rascia

Child(ren):

1. Gojislav van Rascia  
2. Predimir van Rascia  
3. Radoslav van Rascia  
4. Saganek van Rascia  
5. Mihajlo I van Duklja  < 1050-1081 

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Stefan Voijislav van Rascia?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Stefan Voijislav van Rascia

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children