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

the Christians. “And who,” says the wise Philosopher of him, “shall bewail what our people endured from him after this? Had not the Lord arisen and avenged, and with a roar soon destroyed him who does evil (that is, this Musa), together with all his inheritance, we would long since have been food for dogs and vultures.” Having gathered many robber soldiers throughout the Balkans, this crafty and cunning Musa sought the friendship and help of Stefan and Vuk and of their nephews Đurađ and Lazar, calling them to come and themselves take vengeance on Süleyman for all the evil he had done them. The Despot, for whom Süleyman was indeed an old enemy, agreed, but was extremely cautious toward Musa as well, while the other three rashly went with Musa against Süleyman, and at the same time watched so that, if need be, they might flee from Musa and go over to Süleyman. The clash between Musa and Süleyman came beneath the walls of Constantinople, in that same year of 1410. Even before this battle the crafty Musa noticed Vuk’s duplicity and wished to kill him at once, but the Despot Stefan himself interceded for him before the tyrant and “became surety for his brother (and who else, if not he?),” saying resolutely to Musa: “If I am faithless, so is he.” But that very night the faithless and inconstant Vuk and his nephews the Brankovići did indeed flee over to Süleyman, which soon cost them their lives. For Musa’s men soon caught Vuk and Lazar (Đurađ alone escaped) and handed them over to the wicked Musa. Stefan, however, as a man and ruler of knightly word, would do no such thing, but fought bravely in the battle against Süleyman and was defeating his army, for “in lightning fashion he successfully shattered the adversary.” But when he saw that Musa had fled the battlefield, he too turned back with his men along the sea and came to Galata, opposite Constantinople. Then the Greek emperor Manuel II Palaiologos sent ships from the Imperial City to meet him, and he crossed over into Constantinople, “alike as one vanquished and a victor,” as the wise Constantine says. “And this most excellent emperor Manuel,” Constantine relates further, “had known Stefan before, when as a youth he had campaigned together with him, and had foretold to him what would come to pass, and delighted in him as in his own beloved son. For like had come to know like. Then he gave him for the second time the crown of the despotic dignity, for he said that John (his former regent) had not then been in full sovereign authority. And so they parted from one another. And when the Despot was leaving the Imperial City, a multitude of people rejoiced and acclaimed him… Then the most illustrious Despot, setting out from there in ships toward the north, reached the open sea (the Black Sea), and with him was the caesar Uglješa, mentioned earlier. Separated by the stormy waves of the sea and again, by God’s help, wondrously brought together, they at last sailed to the Vlachs (that is, to Romania, to the mouth of the Danube). And the Wallachian ruler at that time was the pious and ever-memorable great voivode Mircea. He met them with great love and received the Despot and those with him. For from his boundless longing he could not have his fill of gazing upon him, so unceasingly did he gaze into Stefan’s face. Having entertained him there with honor, and given him a sufficiency of needful things, horses and whatever else had run short on the long journey, Mircea led him through his land as though it were his own, and so the Despot reached the Hungarian border, at his city of Golubac (on the Danube).” While Despot Stefan was thus happily returning to his free land and people, the wicked Turk Musa, having lost the first battle with Süleyman, again gathered a robber army and, suddenly seizing, as we said, the Despot’s brother Vuk and Lazar Branković, swiftly put them to death in that place (July 11, 1410). Before his sorrowful death Vuk