Exactly on September 8, 1331, at the state assembly in Svrčin (Kosovo), Archbishop Danilo II crowned 23-year-old Dušan Stefan Nemanjić as the King of Serbian and Maritime Lands. Dušan Nemanjić was crowned the first Serbian Emperor in 1346 in Skopje, then the Serbian capital.
Stefan Dečanski was clearly unpopular and his fall did not cause any unrest, but keeping in mind the role of the Church and Archbishop Danilo II himself in bringing Stefan to the royal throne, everything went smoothly. Dušan asked Danilo II to come and crown him king. The latter calmly accepted this change of throne and, very solemnly, crowned Dušan as king of all Serbian and maritime lands.
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Immediately after Dušan’s coronation, Stefan Dečanski died on November 11, 1331, and was buried in his endowment, the Visoki Dečani monastery. According to Danilo’s student, he died a natural death, while other sources claim that Dušan yielded to the pressure of the powerful nobility and approved, if not ordered, Stefan’s execution.
The legend of the curse of Dušan’s later descendants, and later the entire Serbian state, is also connected to the death of Stefan Dečanski. Namely, when the people came to kill him, Stefan cursed his son and his descendants. Although this curse did not come true on his son, it did fall on his grandson Uroš, who lost the empire. This legend lasted for many centuries, especially when Prince Lazar and his warriors fell at Kosovo and Serbia fell to the Turks.
Stefan Dušan was crowned Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks on Easter (April 16, 1346) in the Kale fortress in Skopje. The coronation was performed by the Serbian Patriarch Joanikije and the Patriarch of Trnovo, Simeon. Emperor Dušan found justification for this procedure in the teachings of the Christian church. Everything that the Lord had once given to the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, had passed into Dušan’s hands. This refers to the lands and great cities of the “Greek Empire”. Dušan’s title now read: By the Will of God, the Pious and Christ-loving Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks and the Maritime Lands and all the West.
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Source: Telegraf.rs
Photo: MidJourney prompt by Serbian Times