Grgur Branković

Grgur Branković (1415 16 October 1459) was a 15th-century Serbian nobleman. Grgur was the eldest son of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. In 1439, after the Ottomans captured Smederevo, the capital of the Serbian Despotate, they appointed Grgur as governor of his father's captured estates. Because he plotted against the Ottomans, they dismissed him and put him in prison in April 1441. In May 1441 the Ottomans blinded Grgur and his brother Stefan. In 1458, during struggle for the throne of the Serbian Despotate, Grgur resurfaced claiming it for himself or his son. In 1459 he retreated to Hilandar Monastery, where he took monastic vows. Grgur died in Hilandar on October 16, 1459.

Grgur Branković
The illustration of Grgur Branković in Esphigmenou charter from 1429.
Born1415
Died16 October 1459
Serbian Orthodox monastery Hilandar in Mount Athos
Noble familyBranković
Issue
FatherĐurađ Branković
MotherIrene Kantakouzene
OccupationSerbian nobleman

Family

He was the eldest son of Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. He had three brothers (Todor, Stefan and Lazar) and two sisters (Mara and Catherine Cantacuzena).[1]

After the Ottomans captured Smederevo in 1439, Grgur was allowed to govern his father's former estates in southern Serbia, as Ottoman vassal.[2] During the winter 1440, Grgurs' father and Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković traveled to Zeta with his wife and several hundred cavalry through the Ottoman province governed by Grgur. Đurađ had intention to mobilize forces to recover his lost territories of Serbian Despotate. In April 1441 the Ottomans, probably justifiably, accused Grgur for treason and dismissed him from his governorship. On 8 May 1441 both Grgur and his brother Stefan were blinded, based on the order of Sultan Murad II.[3][4] According to John Van Antwerp Fine, Jr. and Sima Ćirković, Grgur resurfaced in 1458, claiming the succession of the vacant throne of Serbian Despotate for himself or his son.[5][6] Branković retreated to Hilandar where he took monastic vowes and monastic name German. He soon died there on 16 October 1459.[7][8] His son was Vuk Grgurević the titular Despot of Serbia from 1471 until his death in 1485.

Ancestry

References

  1. Profile of Đurađ in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley
  2. Fine, John V. A.; John Van Antwerp Fine (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. p. 531. ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
  3. umetnosti, Srpska akademija nauka i (1929). Godišnjak - Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, Belgrad. Srpska akademija nauk i umetnosti. p. 286.
  4. Новаковић, Стојан (1972). Из српске историjе. Matica srpska. p. 201. .. и како их је 8. маја ослепио, а потом како је јуна те године Хадом-паша узео Ново Брдо и све српске градове.
  5. Fine 1994, p. 574
  6. Raška baština. Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Kraljevo. p. 143.
  7. Raška baština. Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Kraljevo. p. 153.
  8. Veselinović, Andrija; Ljušić, Radoš (2008). Srpske dinastije. Službene glasink. p. 121. ISBN 978-86-7549-921-3. Гргур се повукао у Хиландар, где се замонашио, и као монах Герман убрзо умро, 16. октобра 1459.
  9. Brook, Lindsay L. (1989). "The Problematic Ascent of Eirene Kantakouzene Brankovič". Studies in Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Salt Lake City, Utah : Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy. p. 5.
  10. Williams, Kelsey Jackson (2006). "A Genealogy of the Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond" (PDF). Foundations. 2 (3): 171–189. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2019.

Sources

  • Fine, John V.A. (1994), The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, The University of Michigan Press, ISBN 0-472-08260-4
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