Још једном о години смрти краља Стефана Првовенчаног

Abstract

Based on arguments proposed by Ljubomir Kovačević as early as 1879, the view that King Stefan the First-Crowned died in 1227 or 1228 has become firmly established in historical scholarship. According to Kovačević’s arguments, which still remain almost unanimously accepted, the date of the death of Stefan the First-Crowned is determined by a combination of chronological data contained in a charter issued by King Radoslav in Dubrovnik on 4 February 1234, immediately after his deposition from the throne, and the Vita of King Uroš included in the Anthology of Archbishop Danilo II, which states that Radoslav’s reign lasted six years. Depending on whether they believed that King Radoslav lost the throne in late 1233 or early 1234, scholars used the following calculation to determine the year of Stefan’s death: 1233/34 – 6 = 1227/28. The view that Stefan died in 1227 and that his son Radoslav became king in the same year has today become prevalent, and this year is also used to determine the chronology of the first journey of St. Sava to Jerusalem, an event usually dated to 1229. The reason to re-examine the widely accepted chronology of Stefan’s death was provided by the discovery that the chronology of Danilo’s Anthology is unreliable, because the same Vita states that Radoslav’s successor King Vladislav ruled for seven years, which is not consistent with the first and final years of his reign (6742–6751, i.e. 1233/34–1242/43). Based on this, he seems to have ruled for a minimum of nine years. Another reason for caution in using chronological data contained in Danilo’s Anthology is the fact that the brief notes on King Radoslav and King Vladislav at the beginning of the Vita of King Uroš were penned by a reviser who worked at the start of the fifth decade of the 14 th century at the earliest. In addition, chronological data provided in Serbian annals have been unduly ignored, and they state that Radoslav became king in 6732 (according to the Byzantine era), which would, when combined with the day of commemorating King Stefan the First-Crowned (24 September), indicate the year 1223 (i.e. very early 6732) as the year of Stefan’s death. The annals also state that Radoslav ruled for 11 years. If we include 6732 in these 11 years, since Stefan the First-Crowned died at the very beginning of this year, then Radoslav’s reign would have ended in its 11 th year – 6742 (1233/34), precisely in the year when Radoslav was deposed from the throne by his brother Vladislav. In other words, Radoslav’s reign lasted for ten years and three months approximately. Earlier efforts to determine the chronology of Sava’s first journey to Palestine, which is known for certain to have occurred after Stefan’s death, failed to take into account the information contained in the purchase deed for a vineyard in Karyes (on Mount Athos), which was agreed between Archbishop Sava and the Athonite protos after the former’s return from Palestine. Based on the indiction stated in this document and other indicators of the relative chronology of Sava’s journey to the East, this could have occurred upon his return from the Holy Land, shortly before the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God in 1228. This would mean that Sava visited the Holy Land in the early summer of 1228 and not in 1229. This is also supported by the fact that the peace treaty between Emperor Frederick II and Sultan al-Kamil of February 1229, who returned Jerusalem to the Crusaders, which is taken as one of the preconditions for Sava’s journey to the East, brought little change for Orthodox Christians in regard to the possibilities and intensity of their pilgrimage. The period between the year of Sava’s first pilgrimage and the year of Stefan’s death as stated in the annals, i.e. between 1228 and 24 September 1223, leaves a much wider timeframe to accommodate all of the events that followed Radoslav’s ascent to the throne in a period of time much better suited to medieval circumstances. St. Sava’s biographer Domentijan writes that Sava ‘after some time’ [following King Stefan’s death] translated his brother’s relics from Studenica to Žiča, and this could have occurred – in line with the Serbian practice – after a minimum of two to three years; after this, in the spring of 1228, he could have undertaken his journey to Palestine, after having spent with Radoslav as much time as ‘the Lord willed’, to quote Domentijan. In spite of the frequent unreliability of chronological data provided in annals for older periods, in deciding between the years 1223 and 1227 (and consequently, for the dating of Sava’s first pilgrimage to 1228 or 1229), the first option seems more likely. Although hypothetically 1224 and 1225, or even 1226 could be taken as the year of Stefan’s death, in my opinion there is no sound argument to support the year 1227. Based on the reasons stated above, I propose 24 September 1223 as the date of Stefan’s death and 1228 as the year of Sava’s first pilgrimage.

У раду се реинтерпретирају малобројни извори на основу којих се настоји утврдити приближна година смрти краља Стефана Првовенчаног. Општеприхваћено датирање почива на комбинацији хронолошких података повеље коју је краљ Радослав издао Дубровнику непосредно након свргавања с престола (1233/1234) и Житија краља Уроша у Даниловом зборнику, где стоји да је Радослав владао шест година, што даје 1227. или 1228. годину. Хронологија Даниловог зборника није поуздана, јер у истом житију стоји да је Владислав владао седам година, што не одговара граничним годинама његове владавине (6742– 6751, тј. 1233/1234–1242/1243). У раду је реинтерпретирана и хронологија првог Савиног ходочашћа у Свету земљу (1229), која не само да се одређивала у односу на 1227/1278. већ, у повратном смеру, служи као потврда предложеној години Стефанове смрти. Рехабилитовани су подаци српских летописа, према којима је Стефан умро 6732 (1223/1224), а Радослав владао 11 година, као и датирање уговора о куповини винограда у Кареји, који је архиепископ Сава склопио на повратку из Палестине са светогорским протатом, према индикту, у 1228. годину. Као датум Стефанове смрти предлаже се 24. септембар 1223. а као година Савиног првог ходочашћа 1228. година.