page_title: Serbs in Vojvodina
section_title: Hungarian rule
hierarchical_section_title: Serbs in Vojvodina / History / Hungarian rule
caption_attribution_description: English: Fresco (wall painting) of King Dragutin, patron of the St. Achilleos church, en:Arilje, 1296. King Dragutin is depicted here with a model of his endowment. (detail)
context_page_description: The Serbs of Vojvodina are the largest ethnic group in this northern province of Serbia. For centuries, Vojvodina was ruled by several European powers, but Vojvodina Serbs never assimilated into cultures of those countries. Thus, they have consistently been a recognized indigenous ethnic minority with its own culture, language and religion. According to the 2011 census, there were 1,289,635 Serbs in Vojvodina or 66.76% of the population of the province.
context_section_description: Parts of Vojvodina were conquered by the Kingdom of Hungary between the 10th and 12th centuries. This was followed by the destruction of the local Slavic tribal organization and introduction of the county system of rule. The first known prefect of the Bač county (in the region of Bačka) was recorded in 1074 and his name was Vid, which is a Slavic name by origin. During the rule of the Hungarian king Coloman (1095–1116), the local Serb nobles in Bačka were Uroš, Vukan and Pavle. A record from 1309 speak about "Schismatics" (Eastern Orthodox Christians), who lived in Bačka. Arsenije I Bogdanović from Srem, the second Serb archbishop (1233–1263) after Saint Sava, was born in Srem, in the village Dabar near Slankamen. After the creation of an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church in 1219 and negotiations between Archbishop Sava and the Hungarian crown, the Eastern Orthodox Slavic population north of the Danube was subjected under its jurisdiction.
  From 1282 to 1316 Serbian King Stefan Dragutin Nemanjić reigned several lands as a "King of Syrmia". The center of his realm was in "Lower Syrmia" (modern Mačva), while he also possibly ruled "Upper Syrmia" (i.e. Syrmian part of Vojvodina). Stefan Dragutin died in 1316, and was succeeded by his son Vladislav (1316–1325), who was a vassal of the Hungarian King.
  An increasing number of Serbs began settling in the Vojvodina region from the 14th century onward. By 1483, according to a Hungarian source, as much as half of the population of the Vojvodina territory of the Kingdom of Hungary at the time consisted of Serbs. The Hungarian kings encouraged the immigration of Serbs to the Kingdom, and hired many of them as soldiers and border guards. A letter of King Matthias from 12 January 1483 mentions that 200,000 Serbs had settled the Hungarian kingdom in the last four years. Despot Vuk and his warriors were greatly rewarded with estates, also including places in Croatia. Also, by this time, the Jakšić family had become increasingly notable, and held estates stretching over several counties in the kingdom. The territory of Vuk Grgurević (1471–85), the Serbian Despot in Hungarian service (as "Despot of the Kingdom of Rascia"), was called "Little Rascia".
  After the Ottoman Empire conquered Serbian Despotate (in 1459), Serbian titular despots ruled in parts of Vojvodina as vassals of the Hungarian crown. The residence of the despots was Kupinik (today Kupinovo) in Srem. The Serbian despots were: Vuk Grgurević (1471–1485), Đorđe Branković (1486–1496), Jovan Branković (1496–1502), Ivaniš Berislav (1504–1514), Stevan Berislav (1520–1535), Radič Božić (1527–1528), Pavle Bakić (1537) and Stefan Štiljanović (1537–1540). The last three did not rule in the territory of present-day Vojvodina, but had possessions in the territories of present-day Romania, Hungary and Croatia. The fact that Despots of Serbia ruled in the territory of present-day Vojvodina, but also the presence of large Serb population, are reasons because of which in many historical records and maps made between 15th and 18th centuries, territory of present-day Vojvodina was named Rascia (Raška, Serbia) and Little Raška (Little Serbia).
  A 1542 document describes that "Serbia" stretched from Lipova and Timișoara to the Danube, while a 1543 document that Timișoara and Arad being located "in the middle of Rascian land" (in medio Rascianorum). At that time, the majority language in the region between Mureș and Körös was indeed Serbian. Apart from Serbian being the main language of the Banat population, there were 17 Serbian monasteries active in Banat at that time. The territory of Banat had received a Serbian character and was called "Little Rascia".
caption: Stefan Dragutin, king of Srem (1282–1316)
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:11:16 00:11:29", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9271", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "279", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "426"}