Living by the Border – South Slavic Marcher Lords in the Late Medieval Balkans (13–15th Centuries)

Isailović, Neven (2016) Living by the Border – South Slavic Marcher Lords in the Late Medieval Balkans (13–15th Centuries). Banatica, 26 (2). pp. 105-117. ISSN 1222-0612

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Abstract

The article gives an overview of the history of late medieval marcher lordships and their lords in the region between South Slavic states and neighbouring countries (primarily Hungary). It is noted that both South Slavs and their immediate neighbours organised territories along the borders as official or unofficial marcher lordships. In wartime, which was quite frequent in this period, these buffer areas were first to be exposed to the enemy’s attacks. For this reason, usually the important and powerful noblemen, trusted by the ruler, occupied the position of marcher lords, acquiring more power and wealth through their office which occasionally became hereditary. Using the examples of Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian nobles who controlled the marcher regions, it is shown that, despite the confidence which was given to them, they were not always loyal to their suzerains. Sometimes they even triggered political fragmentation of their own country, using their substantial political, economic and men power to achieve their own goals. In the period of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, they were prone to switch sides, serving either the Hungarians or the Turks at a time, and leading the local population along with them

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