The Emperor of Serbia or Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks was the imperial title used during the Serbian Empire

Serbian Empire

The Serbian Empire was a short-lived medieval empire in the Balkans that emerged from the Serbian Kingdom. Stephen Uroš IV Dušan was crowned Emperor of Serbs and Greeks on 16 April, 1346, a title signifying a successorship to the Eastern Roman Empire...

 (1345–1371), by only two monarchs; Stefan Uroš IV Dušan the Mighty

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia

Stephen Uroš IV Dušan the Mighty , was the King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks until his death on 20 December 1355. Dušan managed to conquer a large part of Southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs in his time...

 and Stefan Uroš V the Weak

Stefan Uroš V of Serbia

Saint Stefan Uroš V Nejaki was king of the Serbian Empire as co-regent of his father Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Silni and then Emperor .-Biography:...

.

History

In 1345 Stefan Uroš IV Dušan proclaimed himself Emperor (Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

) and was crowned as such at Skopje

Skopje

Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...

 on 16 April 1346 by the newly created Patriarch of Serbia

Patriarch of Serbia

This is a list of the Archbishops and Patriarchs of Peć and the Serbs from the creation of the church as an archdiocese in 1219 to today's Patriarchate. The list includes all the Archbishops and Patriarchs that led the Serbian Orthodox community under Patriarchate of Peć...

, and by the Patriarch of Bulgaria and the autocephalous Archbishop of Ohrid. His imperial title was recognised by Bulgaria

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

 and various other neighbors and trading partners but not by the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

.

When Stefan Uroš IV Dušan died in 1355, his son Stefan Uroš V became the next "Emperor of the Serb and Greeks". The new emperor's uncle Simeon Uroš

Simeon Uroš

Simeon Uroš Nemanjić, nicknamed Siniša , also known in Greek as Symeōn Ouresēs Palaiologos , was the Despot of Epirus from 1359 to 1366, and of Thessaly from 1359 until his death in 1370. He governed Epirus and Acarnania under his half-brother Emperor Dušan the Mighty Simeon Uroš Nemanjić,...

 contested the succession and claimed the same titles as a dynast in Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....

. After his death around 1370, he was succeeded in his claims by his son John Uroš

John Uroš

Jovan Uroš or John Ouresis Doukas Palaiologos was the ruler of Thessaly from c. 1370 to c. 1373, died 1422/3.John Uroš was the son of Emperor Simeon Uroš Palaiologos by Thomais Orsini. His maternal grandparents were John II Orsini and Anna Palaiologina Angelina.Between 1369 and 1372 he succeeded...

, who retired to a monastery in about 1373.

With the extinction of the House of Nemanjić

House of Nemanjic

The Nemanjić was the most important dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages, and one of the most important in Southeastern Europe. The royal house produced eleven Serbian monarchs between 1166 and 1371. It's progenitor was Stephen Nemanja, who descended from a cadet line of the Vukanović dynasty...

 in Serbia in 1371, the imperial title became obsolete. The royal title was preserved by Vukašin Mrnjavčević

Vukašin Mrnjavcevic

Vukašin Mrnjavčević was a Serbian ruler in modern-day central and northwestern Macedonia, who ruled from 1365 to 1371. According to 17th-century Ragusan historian Mavro Orbin, his father was a minor noble named Mrnjava from Zachlumia, whose sons Vukašin and Uglješa were born in Livno in western...

, a Serbian ruler in Macedonia

Macedonia (region)

Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...

, who had been associated by Stefan Uroš V as king

King

- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...

, but lapsed on the death of his son Marko

Prince Marko

Marko Mrnjavčević was de jure the Serbian king from 1371 to 1395, while de facto he ruled only over a territory in western Macedonia centered on the town of Prilep...

 in 1395. The Bosnian

Bosniaks

The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...

 ban Tvrtko I also assumed the Serbian royal title, but he and his heirs reigned as kings of Serbs

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

 and Bosnia

Bosnia (region)

Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...

, while Serbian part in fact remained under the rule of princes, occasionally granted the Byzantine title of despotēs.

Post-nemanyid ruler Lazar Hrebeljanović is referred to as Tsar Lazar in Serbian tradition, although he never wore the title.

Emperors of Serbia (1346–1371)

Portrait	Name	Emperor From	Emperor Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)
	Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia Stephen Uroš IV Dušan the Mighty , was the King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks until his death on 20 December 1355. Dušan managed to conquer a large part of Southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs in his time... the Mighty	16 April 1346	20 December 1355	Son of Stefan Uroš III Dečanski Stefan Uroš III Decanski of Serbia Stephen Uroš III of Dečani was King of Serbia from January 6, 1322 to 8 September 1331. He defeated and killed several of his family members who wanted to take the throne from him. He took his epithet Dečanski from the great monastery he built at Dečani.-Early:He was the son of King Stefan Uroš II...
	Stefan Uroš V Stefan Uroš V of Serbia Saint Stefan Uroš V Nejaki was king of the Serbian Empire as co-regent of his father Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Silni and then Emperor .-Biography:... the Weak	20 December 1355	02/04 December 1371	Son of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan

Titular Emperors of Serbia

Portrait	Name	Real title	Claiming years	Relationship with Nemanjić
	Simeon Uroš Simeon Uroš Simeon Uroš Nemanjić, nicknamed Siniša , also known in Greek as Symeōn Ouresēs Palaiologos , was the Despot of Epirus from 1359 to 1366, and of Thessaly from 1359 until his death in 1370. He governed Epirus and Acarnania under his half-brother Emperor Dušan the Mighty Simeon Uroš Nemanjić,...	Tsar of Epirus and Thessaly Despotate of Epirus The Despotate or Principality of Epirus was one of the Byzantine Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire that emerged in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond...	1356–1370	uncle of Stefan Uroš V. He was appointed governor in the southwestern conquered regions in 1348. He proclaimed himself "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks" in 1356, after the death of Uroš V, however against the wishes of nobility of Serbia proper and Macedonia.
	Jovan Uroš	Tsar of Epirus and Thessaly	1370–1373	son of Simeon Uroš. Succeeded his father as titular Emperor and ruled an area of Epirus and Thessaly before taking monastic vows. In 1384–1385 he helped his sister Empress Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina was ruler of Epirus from 1385 to 1386. She took the title of Basilissa of Epirus or Empress/Queen of Epirus.... govern Epirus.

Sources

• George C. Soulis, The Serbs and Byzantium during the reign of Emperor Stefan Dušan (1331–1355) and his successors, Athens, 1995. ISBN 0-88402-137-8