The Life of the Holy and Right-Believing Stefan the Tall, Despot of Serbia

was meek and humble, but because he had thus been crowned by an Orthodox Christian emperor as the independent ruler and lord of the much-suffering Serbian land. Thereby these almost last Orthodox Christian rulers found themselves fraternally united and drawn close, and free of the humiliating Turkish yoke of another faith. Emperor John and his wife the Empress came to love Despot Stefan so much that they wished to become related to him by marriage, and proposed to him that he take as his wife the Empress's sister Jelena, who lived on the island of Mytilene (Lesbos) with her father, the local lord Francesco Gattilusio. Since Despot Stefan wished to return as soon as possible to his land by sea, around Greece and Albania, Emperor John sent him off "to go with ships to his father-in-law on the island of Mytilene, so that the latter might from there escort him with ships to the Albanians," that is, to the Zeta coast. And so it truly came to pass, and when they arrived there, "the Emperor's father-in-law did not tarry, for it behooved him to see the bright morning star in his city," and he received the Serbian Despot with great joy and honors. There Stefan's betrothal was at once performed with Princess Jelena (or Jelača), whom Stefan later brought to Serbia as his honorable wife. While still in Constantinople the Despot wrote letters to all the Western Christian rulers urging them not to let the present opportunity pass, but at least now to help drive the Turks of another faith out of the Balkans. But as the proverb says: It is vain to knock at a deaf man's door - so it was here too. For the Westerners had no mercy for the Orthodox, and so the Turks remained in the Balkans. On this whole campaign of Stefan to Angora and back, there were with him his brother Vuk and his nephews Đurađ and Grgur Branković.17 Upon receiving the despot's crown in Constantinople, Stefan spoke sincerely with his nephew Đurađ about the need to unite the now free Serbian land and to put an end to the division, fatal for the Serbs, into the Lazarević, Branković and other noble families. Between uncle and nephew no agreement was reached there, and Đurađ behaved toward the all-Serbian Despot and lord in a cowardly and treacherous way, and went over to the side of the Turks. He fled to the eldest son of Bayezid, Süleyman (1402–10), who, having fled from Angora, had already arrived in the European capital Adrianople and was striving to prevent Despot Stefan's return to Serbia. Süleyman mobilized his army and it, under the command of a Turkish commander and Đurađ Branković, set out in the direction of Kosovo, to cut off the Despot's return to Serbia over the sea and through Zeta. The Despot meanwhile had already informed his mother Milica - Jevgenija, who at this time was ruling Serbia in his stead, and also his brother-in-law Đurađ Stracimirović-Balšić, lord of Zeta and of the Albanian coast, to meet him with a military escort and secure his return to Serbia. Traveling on a Byzantine ship toward the Zeta coast (with his some 300 soldiers), the Despot was attacked near Gallipoli by 16 Turkish boats, but with God's help he repelled the Turkish attack and sailed peacefully into the Serbian town of Bar on the Adriatic, where he was met and received by the husband of his sister Jelena, Đurađ Balšić. He gave him 300 of his soldiers, who escorted him on the way to the capital Kruševac. Of all this the writer of the Despot's Life, the wise Constantine, speaks thus: