Serbian Empire
This article is about the specific polity Serbian Empire and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
It was established in 1346 by King Stefan Dušan who significantly expanded the territory under his control. It was a successor to the Kingdom of Serbia. The empire controlled most of the western Balkan Peninsula, including most of Greece. The Empire was relatively short-lived as it broke into a multitude of small Serbian principalities after the Battle of Maritsa (1371).
Establishment
April 1346: The Serbian Empire was established in 1346 by King Stefan Dušan, known as "the Mighty", who significantly expanded the state.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Was a conflict that broke out in the Byzantine Empire after the death of Andronikos III Palaiologos over the guardianship of his nine-year-old son and heir, John V Palaiologos.
January 1349: After 1347, John VI Kantakouzenos tried to revive the Empire, but met with limited success. Aided by the depopulation brought by about by the Black Death, Dušan and his general Preljub took Kantakouzenos' Macedonian strongholds as well as Epirus and Thessaly in 1347-1348.
January 1351: In 1350, Kantakouzenos took advantage of Dušan's preoccupation with a war against Bosnia to recover Thessalonica from the Zealots as well as Berroia, Vodena and other Macedonian cities from the Serbs.
February 1351: The Serbian emperor quickly reversed the Byzantine gains, leaving only Thessalonica in Byzantine hands.
Serbian conquest of Byzantine Thessaly.
January 1349: Serbian conquest of Thessaly.
Dissolution of Serbia after the Battle of Maritsa between the Ottoman Empire and Serbia.
September 1371: The Lordship of Prilep was established by Vukašin Mrnjavčević, a Serbian nobleman and co-ruler of the Serbian Empire. In 1371, after Vukašin's death in the Battle of Maritsa, the territory came under the control of his son, Marko Mrnjavčević, who ruled as the King of Prilep.
September 1371: After the Battle of Maritsa, Serbia fragmented into several successor states.
September 1371: The Banate of Bosnia was de facto indipendent after the Battle of Maritsa.
September 1371: One of the short lived semi-independent states that emerged from the collapse of the Serbian Empire in 1371, following the death of the last Emperor Uroš the Weak.
September 1371: The area of Zeta was established as a political entity under the rule of Balšić, who after the death of Serbian King Vukašin and the death of Thessalian Emperor Uroš became completely independent.
September 1371: After the dissolution of the Serbian Empire, the Vojinović family established a personal domain in 1371.
January 1348: In 1347, the Serbs conquered Epirus, Aetolia and Acarnania.
January 1349: By 1348, Stephen of Serbia achieved hegemony over large parts of Macedonia, Albania, the Despotate of Epirus and Thessaly, which had previously been under the rule of the Byzantine emperor.
January 1349: In 1347/48, when the Byzantine resistance more or less collapsed because of the great plague epidemic, Stephen of Serbia conquered all of Epirus, Acarnania and Aetolia.
January 1349: Most of the possessions in Thessaly of the Duchy of Neopatras were lost when the region was conquered by the Serbs of Stefan Dushan in 1348.
November 1350: In October the Serbian emperor invaded Hum, with an army said to be of 80,000 men, and successfully occupied part of the disputed territory.
January 1351: Imotski and Novi conquered by Serbian Empire.
January 1351: In 1350, during the reign of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan, the Serbs led a military campaign that resulted in the ravaging of the countryside. One of their armies reached the territories of Duvno and Cetina, causing destruction and chaos in the region.
January 1351: Krka was reached by Serbian forces.
January 1351: Kantakouzenos raised a small army and took the Chalcidic peninsula, then Veria and Voden.
January 1351: Stefan Dušan entered Dalmatia to protect her sister's domains of Klis and Skradin.
January 1356: Initially a vassal of the Serbian Empire, the Principality of Valona became an independent lordship after 1355.
January 1356: After the death of Stefan Dušan (1355), a member of the family, Blasius Matarango, subsequently ruled a principality in the territory between Shkumbin and Seman as sevastokrator between 1358 and 1367, recognized under the suzerainty of Symeon Uroš.
January 1356: Nikephoros II took advantage of the Byzantine civil war and the death of Dušan (1355) to escape and to reestablish himself in Epirus in 1356.
January 1356: Djuras Ilijic surrendered Skradin to the Venetians some time after Dusan's death.
June 1356: Nikephoros Orsini landed a force on the coast of Thessaly and quickly overran it.
January 1357: Simeon Uroš seized Kostur and proclaimed himself Tsar of the Serbs and the Greeks.
January 1357: Klis was conquered by the Croatian general Nikola Banic for the Hungarian king sometime after 1356, ending Serbian presence in Dalmatia.
January 1357: Simeon Uroš proclaimed himself Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, creating a separate state, centered in regions of Thessaly and Epirus.
January 1369: Karl Thopia conquers large parts of central Albania.
Disestablishment
September 1371: After the Battle of Maritsa, Serbia fragmented into several successor states.
September 1371: The Banate of Bosnia was de facto indipendent after the Battle of Maritsa.
September 1371: One of the short lived semi-independent states that emerged from the collapse of the Serbian Empire in 1371, following the death of the last Emperor Uroš the Weak.
September 1371: The Lordship of Prilep was established by Vukašin Mrnjavčević, a Serbian nobleman and co-ruler of the Serbian Empire. In 1371, after Vukašin's death in the Battle of Maritsa, the territory came under the control of his son, Marko Mrnjavčević, who ruled as the King of Prilep.
September 1371: The area of Zeta was established as a political entity under the rule of Balšić, who after the death of Serbian King Vukašin and the death of Thessalian Emperor Uroš became completely independent.
September 1371: After the dissolution of the Serbian Empire, the Vojinović family established a personal domain in 1371.
