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

established righteous courts and lawfulness throughout his whole land, so that there could not persecute or wrong one another "neither the swift the slow, nor the rich the poor, nor could the mighty take the possessions of their neighbors, nor the blood of the righteous be shed." The righteous Despot knew how to punish very strictly and to forgive generously and mercifully, all for the good of his people. And his abundant almsgiving and exceedingly great beneficence became known everywhere, so that there was no wretched or afflicted person whom he did not help secretly or openly. As in the capital, so throughout his land, hospitals, hostels for strangers and houses for lepers were raised, and all this the Despot maintained from his royal treasury. In this he was especially aided by the great wealth of the silver mines of his land, such as Novo Brdo, Rudnik, Srebrenica in Bosnia, which he received from the Hungarian king, and many other mines. For these mines of his the Despot issued his own special laws, by which they were governed justly and each of the workers was given according to his merit. In these laws it was especially stressed that the authorities appointed by the Despot in the mines must protect the poor from the insolent and the rich, if they did not wish to bring upon themselves the ruler's just punishment. Thus there is preserved to this day "the code of the pious and Christ-loving Despot Stefan" on the mines in Novo Brdo (confirmed at Nekudim on January 29, 1412), which has this beginning: "By the ineffable love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His All-immaculate Mother, our Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and by the prayers of the Holy lord and my parent Prince Lazar, it fell to me to rule after his death, to the youth Despot Stefan, in the land of my fatherland. Then too came the attack of the foreigners upon the Christians. Seeing such a defeat of the land of my fatherland, I received counsel from the patriarch kyr Spiridon, and from other hierarchs, and from my mother Princess Milica, called in monasticism the nun Jevgenija, and from the whole assembly. I went then to the eastern side, to great Sebasteia, to the great emir Bayezid, who rules the eastern side and the western. And by the help of God and of the Most Pure Mother of God, and by the prayers of Saint Simeon and Sava, and of my parent of holy repose Prince Lazar, I freed this land and the cities of my fatherland from the great emir Bayezid. And I returned to my land and came to my city of Novo Brdo. And the whole assembly of the city gathered, and they asked of my lordship that I make for them a law on the mines, such as they had had in the time of the former lords (rulers) and of my lord and parent of holy repose Prince Lazar. And my lordship took counsel with the nobility, and I commanded that 24 good men be found, from other places which have ore, that I might make for them a law as it was before, that they might keep to it henceforth as well."23 Besides Belgrade and Novo Brdo and besides the old Serbian towns of Kruševac, Priština, Braničevo and Rudnik, in the Despot's time the towns of Paraćin, Čačak, Trgovište and Valjevo were built, as well as many other towns and settlements. In all these towns trade developed freely, but just and equal for all, so that the cunning and unjust merchants from Dubrovnik and other regions could not plunder the Despot's people. The people of Dubrovnik at first protested against the Despot's strictness and fairness, but later they too saw what a great and just ruler he was, and on one occasion (in 1422) they wrote to him such words of praise: "Lord, God has glorified you