The Beginning of the Serbian Empire
Dusan was in no mood to sit back and relax once he became Emperor and he asked the Venetians to help him conquer Constantinople but help was not forthcoming. Nonetheless, he continued to take other parts of the Byzantine Empire including Thessaly and Epirus. During his reign, Dusan practically doubled the size of his original kingdom. Remarkably, he achieved this level of conquest without fighting a single field battle. Instead, he preferred to lay siege to cities and was extremely successful in fighting siege warfare.
As well as expanding his empire, the emperor found time to create Dusan’s Code in 1349. It is a compilation of several legal systems and is classified as an early constitution by some historians. Dusan added a second set of articles in 1353 or 1354. It was one part of a comprehensive three-part document. Some scholars believe the emperor created the new set of rules to cover things not mentioned in the first two parts; the Syntagma Canonum and the Law of Justinian.
The first two parts covered criminal and civil war extremely comprehensively, so Dusan’s Code mainly concerns legal procedures and public law. It also contains more information on actual punishments. The Code is clearly influenced by Byzantine law.
Dusan attacked Bosnia in 1350 in a bid to reclaim the lost city of Hum, but he was forced to return to Macedonia after Cantacuzenus’ supporters in Greek cities prevented him from conquering Herzegovina. His main ambition was to conquer a number of territories in the East and become the head of a huge army designed to drive the Muslim Turks out of Europe, but he never had the opportunity.
Death & Breakup of the Serbian Empire
In 1355, Dusan began extensive military operations and assembled a massive 80,000 man army. He marched towards Constantinople and captured Adrianople. However, the great leader died suddenly when his army was just 40 kilometers from the Byzantine capital. His men returned home with the body of the man who made Serbia a great power. It is one of history’s tantalizing questions: Would he have managed to take Constantinople?
The Byzantine capital was incredibly durable, but Dusan was a master of siege warfare. Had he conquered Constantinople, how would it have changed history? Could he have repelled the Ottomans and prevented them from forming their empire?
Dusan was succeeded by his son, Stefan Uros V, aptly known as ‘the weak.’ As the Ottomans spread into Europe and conquered Byzantine Thrace and several Balkan states, Stefan V was unable to prevent the fragmentation of the Serbian Empire founded by his father. At the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, the Ottomans defeated a Serbian army that was vastly superior in number.
Stefan V died soon afterward and since he had no heir, the empire’s provincial lords began feuding with one another. Serbia fell under Ottoman rule soon after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Both sides sustained huge losses during the battle, but the high casualty rate crippled the numerically inferior Serbs. Dusan’s empire fell, but his achievements will never be forgotten.