Person:Stjepan Vukčić Kosača (1)

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Stjepan Vukčić Kosača (; 1404–1466) was the most powerful Bosnian nobleman whose active political career spanned the last three decades of medieval Bosnian history, from 1435 to 1465. During this period, three kings succeeded to the Bosnian throne, Tvrtko II, Thomas (Tomaš), Stephen Tomašević (Stjepan Tomašević), one anti-king, Radivoj, the older brother of King Thomas, and the county's fate was sealed by the Ottoman conquest.

He was probably born in 1404, a son of the Knyaz of Drina, Vukac Hranić, and Katarina, whose ancestry is unknown. Stjepan's father's hereditary lands were in the Upper Drina region. A member of the Kosača noble family, he succeeded his uncle, Duke Sandalj, as duke of Humska zemlja and the Grand Duke of Bosnia, in 1435. None influenced the development of the late Bosnian medieval state as much as Stjepan Vukčić did.

Supporting Radivoj in the line of succession for the Bosnian throne, he refused to recognize the ascension of King Thomas, throwing the kingdom into a series of civil wars. It was during this time that he took the title of herzog. While searching for help, he aligned himself first with the Ottoman Empire, then Aragon and then the Ottoman Empire again. The marriage of King Thomas and Stjepan's daughter Katarina restored peace, but it did not last long. However, with the death of King Thomas and the ascension of his son and heir, Stephen Tomašević, to the Bosnian throne, peace was finally restored and reconciliation was achieved. This ensured the nobility's, including Herzog Stjepan's, absolute support of their king and loyalty for the kingdom facing the Ottomans' advancement.

It was Stjepan's herzog title that gave rise to the name of Herzegovina, used as early as 1 February 1454 in a letter written by the Ottoman commander Esebeg from Skopje. In 1470, Herzegovina was separated from the Sanjak of Bosnia and re-organized into the Sanjak of Herzegovina, with a seat in Foča. The name has remained in use since then for the southernmost region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town of Herceg Novi, in present-day Montenegro, which was founded by Tvrtko I of Bosnia as Sveti Stefan, the name that from the beginning gave way to a name Novi (literally "New"; also known as Castelnuovo in Italian, New Castle in English), would later come to Kosača possession and become their winter seat. During this era the town will again be renamed by adding Stjepan's title herceg (Serbo-Croatian pronunciation of German herzog) to the name Novi.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.