Marko Kraljević

▪ king of Serbia

born c. 1335

died May 17, 1395, Rovine, Serbia

      prince of Serbia from 1371 to 1395 and a hero in the literature and traditions of the South Slavic peoples.

      Marko Kraljević (“Mark, the King's Son”) was a member of the powerful Macedonian family allied to that of Balšić, which ruled in northern Albania and along the Adriatic. When his father, King Vukašin, was slain in battle with the Turks in 1371, Marko succeeded him as a vassal to the sultan. He is known to have completed a monastery at Sušica, near Skopje, and to have died fighting at the Battle of Rovine (1395) during a war between the Turks and the Walachian prince Mircea the Old, but otherwise his life is sparsely documented. More colourful details have been preserved in Romanian, Bulgarian, and Albanian folk songs as well as in Serbian ballads and epic poetry. Joyous, just, strong, incredibly brave, and chivalrous to a fault, Marko is portrayed as an implacable foe of the Turks, a prodigious drinker of wine, and inseparable from his horse, Šarac.

Additional Reading

Treatments appear in Vojislav M. Petrović, Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians (1914, reprinted 1921); and Nada Ćurčija-Prodanović, Heroes of Serbia (1963).

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