Right-Believing
Right-Believing Right-Believing King Stefan Uroš V the Weak, of Serbia
?–1371
Right-Believing King Stefan Uroš V the Weak — the last ruler of the Nemanjić dynasty, who died shortly after the Battle of Maritsa (1371).
Right-Believing King Stefan Uroš V, nicknamed the Weak or the Gentle, was the last ruler of the Nemanjić dynasty on the Serbian throne, son of Tsar Stefan Dušan. He reigned during an era of weakening central authority and rising power of local nobility, which led to the gradual disintegration of the unified Serbian state into appanages.
According to a later legend, Uroš died a violent death at the hands of King Vukašin in 1367, but this tale is chronologically untenable: historical sources confirm that Uroš died a natural death in December 1371, shortly after the crushing defeat of Serbian forces at the Battle of Maritsa. His death ended the direct line of the Nemanjić dynasty, which had ruled Serbia for a century and a half. Church tradition venerates Uroš as a right-believing ruler whose meekness and humility atoned for the weakness of state authority.