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

west of the Hellespont, his name became known throughout all Egypt and Ethiopia, and from there to the most distant regions, and, to put it simply and briefly: throughout all Hellas, and in India and Amazonia, so that those who heard of him longed to draw near to this man, even as his servants, if only they might come into contact with him.” Speaking elsewhere of the Despot’s relations with the Western rulers, and especially with the neighboring Hungarians, the biographer Constantine says this too of him: “And earlier: when he had established true love with the Westerners and the Hungarians, when he went to the city called Buda (in 1412), when there was a council of Western kings and other lords with the Hungarian king, and to Constance²⁶ and to Rome for the coronation of that king, Despot Stefan was before all and above all, visible as the sun among the stars, and everyone saw him from afar. And all his counsels were brilliant and unshakable. And from the Hungarian lands he received many gifts, fortified cities and villages, as all the surrounding states know. And not only that, but even after the seventh year from the Hungarian king’s return from the west, the Despot came every year to the Western council (in Buda) and never returned from there without receiving as a gift some cities and lands. Thus he himself went to the Westerners, and they in turn came to him. And not only that, but once before this the Hungarian king himself was with him in the White City (Belgrade), and they passed as from house to house from Hungarian into Serbian cities and back. Who has ever anywhere heard of such wondrous things? Throughout the world, the Eastern rulers were enemies of the Western rulers and plundered their lands and warred with one another, but this man sends his army both to the east and to the west, and to the Westerners he goes himself to their assemblies. And he did this openly for many years. Never, then, truly, did anyone accomplish such a thing, but he alone, great and wondrous in wisdom and might, and this remained after him as a kind of law established by him. For the Westerners did not merely tolerate his having ties with both the Easterners and the Westerners, but they knew him to be a kind of shield for them (against the Turks), and that sure safety came to them from him. Therefore their priests spoke thus: ‘We pray also for the pious Despot who is in the Serbian land.’ And their (Western) most illustrious and bravest men came to serve the Despot, as one would a king. And once, at a council of all the princes (in Buda), one of the Serbian knights of the pious Despot Stefan overthrew and defeated the mightiest knights of the West and carried off the crown of victory. As the greatest of knights, Stefan had the authority to dub even noble kings and glorious knights (to make them knights), so that these afterward took pride above all knights, saying: The Despot of Serbia bestowed knighthood upon me. And let us say something also of the Easterners. What praise and love did the aforementioned sultan (Mehmed) not accord the Despot for his excellence! When he had bound the commander of his armies (Mihailbeg), and others entreated him for this man, he then said: If I do not receive counsel from my brother the Despot, I will not release him. And then he at once sent to ask the Despot for counsel. And Stefan answered him: If you wish to feed a serpent in your house, then having bound it, cut off its tail. And when the sultan heard this, he did not release him until his death. And it was similar in all other counsels.” Such was the glorious Despot Stefan, by all