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

of Kosovo) the magnate Vuk Branković ruled, son-in-law of Lazar and brother-in-law of Stefan. Before the end of the Battle of Kosovo he had withdrawn from the fight and thus preserved himself and part of his army. Through the mediation of Princess Milica, and probably of Olivera, he too had become a vassal of Bayezid. But Vuk began to fight against Bayezid (perhaps because of the pangs of his conscience), which led Bayezid to put an end to it. Having taken his land from him and cast Vuk into prison (where he also died), Bayezid gave the land to Stefan to govern, leaving only a small part around the Sitnica and Vučitrn to Vuk's wife Mara Branković, Stefan's sister, and to her sons Grgur, Đurađ and Lazar. (Because of this, Vuk's sons would later rise up against Stefan and do him much harm.) Staying in Kosovo on this occasion, Prince Stefan, accompanied by his mother the nun Jevgenija, visited the Monastery of Visoki Dečani in Metohija, the endowment of the Holy King Stefan of Dečani. They found this holy monastery plundered and laid waste by the Hagarenes and by Vuk's soldiers, and they at once restored it, so that they became the "second founders" of Dečani. Concerning this their royal charter was issued on June 9, 1397. Somewhat before that, Stefan and his pious mother the Princess, together also with the most holy Serbian Patriarch Danilo III (1392–98), had given to Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos a church with several villages on the Ibar, and soon afterwards he richly endowed also the Russian Athonite Monastery of Saint Panteleimon. By the unsearchable ways of God's Providence there soon drew near the time of the liberation of Stefan and of his people and the Serbian land from subjection to the power of Bayezid. It came about thus. There was at that time in the east a mighty Tatar ruler by the name of Tamerlane (Timur Lenk). Although he was of the Muslim faith like Bayezid, he fiercely attacked Bayezid's state in Asia Minor, and between them there soon came a great and bloody battle. In this battle Prince Stefan also took part, as Bayezid's vassal, but God at that very moment freed him from his bondage and subjection. This was the famous battle at the city of Angora (Ankara) in Asia Minor, on July 28, 1402, which the chronicler and philosopher Constantine describes thus: "Bayezid gathered all his army, both of the eastern and the western peoples, and sent to this ever-memorable Prince Stefan to come to his aid with his chosen army as quickly as possible. And Demir (i.e. Tamerlane), having entered his regions, was plundering them. Bayezid, pursuing him, unknowingly went around him, and finding him at Ankara struck at him. In the clash they trampled one another. And the choicest Persian and Tatar army separated itself and struck at this ever-memorable brave Stefan, as had been determined beforehand (by Tamerlane himself, who gave command over that part of the army to his son, Prince Muhammad). But when they raised their war cries and struck at Stefan, they were at once defeated and perished by the edges of the swords and lances of the Serbian army." This invincibility of Stefan's fierce armored knights the mighty Tamerlane himself watched from a hillock, and exclaimed in amazement: "See how fierce and frenzied those dervishes are." To this one of his magnates answered him: "Those are not dervishes, but Christians." Then the experienced Tatar commander said loftily: "Well, they fight in vain." For he knew well the numerical superiority of his army over Bayezid's. And indeed, the Tatar army had already surrounded Bayezid on all sides. Then the invincible Stefan, "seeing that many tens of thousands had surrounded Sultan Bayezid and wishing to free him, three times entered the battle anew, charging and conquering. (But Bayezid would not retreat and therefore was soon taken captive.) And