page_title: Stefan Vladislav
section_title: Mongol invasion
hierarchical_section_title: Stefan Vladislav / Mongol invasion
caption_attribution_description: English: View over Kotor bay and old town
context_page_description: Stefan Vladislav was the King of Serbia from 1234 to 1243. He was the middle son of Stefan the First-Crowned of the Nemanjić dynasty, who ruled Serbia from 1196 to 1228. Radoslav, the eldest son of Stefan the First-Crowned, was ousted by the Serbian nobility due to increasing Epirote influence through his marriage alliance to Theodore Komnenos Doukas; Vladislav was appointed as his successor. He is celebrated as Saint Vladislav by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
  During Vladislav's reign, his uncle Archbishop Sava went on a pilgrimage and died in Bulgaria while on his way home. Vladislav obtained the remains and buried them in the Mileševa monastery, which he had built intended to be his burial place. Serbia was politically aligned with Bulgaria at the time, since Vladislav was married to Beloslava, the daughter of Ivan Asen II. Vladislav secured Hum, a maritime province under attack by Hungarian crusaders.
  After the death of Ivan Asen II, there was unrest in Serbia. The Mongols, led by Kadan, invaded Hungary and devastated the Balkans, at which time the Serbian nobility rose up against Vladislav. In 1243, he abdicated in favour of his younger brother, but remained the ruler of Zeta.
context_section_description: Ivan Asen II was a powerful support to Vladislav; when Asen died, there was internal unrest. Vladislav may have stopped the unrest if the Mongols had not been threatening all of Europe. Between 1206 and 1227, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan conquered territories that none before him had been able to conquer; his empire extended all over Asia and to Crimea. By 1240, all of Russia had been captured by the Mongols; Poland, Hungary, and parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia were subsequently taken. In the winter of 1241, the Mongols crossed the Danube and entered western Hungary; Béla IV could not manage to organize any resistance. All of Croatia was burned, and Kadan and Batu Khan (the grandson of Genghis Khan) looked for Béla IV, who was in Split at the time; Béla soon moved to Trogir, as Split was not safe. The Mongols did not attack Split, but instead unsuccessfully attacked Klis, where they had heard that Béla IV was hiding. Béla then fled to the island of Rab. The Mongols attempted to conquer the island, but their forces were hurt in naval battles; they were also forced to hurry back home to choose the new Khan after the death of Ogatay. While returning home, they crossed and devastated Serbia, Bosnia and Bulgaria. Although the Serbian lowland was destroyed, the Mongol attack did not have a large impact, as the population had retreated into inaccessible forests that Mongols had no will to enter. The Serbian cities of Kotor, Drivast and Svač were destroyed. The Mongol invasion brought turmoil and shock, but not any major changes; the real shock came when Asen died, which left Vladislav without significant support.
caption: Kotor was invaded by forces of Kadan
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