Dimitrije ( sr-cyr, Димитрије; died 6 March 1349) was a Serbian magnate who served emperor

Stefan Dušan Stephen (honorific), Stefan Uroš IV Dušan ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош IV Душан), also known as Dušan the Mighty ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Силни; – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Emperor of th ...

(r. 1331–55) as ''veliki čelnik'' ("great čelnik"). As a royal ''

čelnik ''Čelnik'' ( sr-Cyrl, челник) was a high court title in the Kingdom of Serbia, Serbian Empire and Serbian Despotate. In its early form, the holder was entrusted with the security of property belonging to the Orthodox Church from the aristo ...

'', the title-holder had a very high position at the Serbian court, often compared to ''

comes palatinus A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German language, German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank abo ...

''. The ''veliki čelnik'' supervised over several čelniks, the ''čelnik'' being a commander of military fortifications (and presumably its troops) or a senior (''starešina'') of a larger number of villages. Dimitrije entered the service of Stefan Dušan before 1349, when he was mentioned with the title of ''veliki čelnik''. Earlier, magnate Jovan Oliver had the title ( 1340). Dimitrije died on 6 March 1349 and was buried at the Monastery of St. Nicholas at Banja. According to the grave inscription, Dimitrije had held

Gacko Gacko ( sr-cyrl, Гацко) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the region of East Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), East Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 5,784 inh ...

with Rudine,

Drina The Drina ( sr-Cyrl, Дрина, ) is a long river in the Balkans, which forms a large portion of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Al ...

and Dabar. G. Tomović theorized that this Dimitrije was the same person as the earlier mentioned nobleman Hrvatin (magnate Vojin's brother) who served King

Stefan Dečanski Stefan Uroš III, , known as Stefan of Dečani ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Дечански, Stefan Dečanski, ( – 11 November 1331), was King of Serbia from 6 January 1322 to 8 September 1331. Dečanski was the son of King Stefan Milutin (). He ...

(r. 1322–31) and held Rudine (1330). In 1350, Đurica and Andronik are mentioned as čelniks. After Jovan Oliver and Dimitrije, it seems that the title of ''veliki čelnik'' was not given at the Serbian Imperial court. The territories held by Dimitrije were eventually consolidated by Vojin's son

Vojislav Vojislav ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав, ) is a Serbian masculine given name, a Slavic dithematic name (of two lexemes), derived from the Slavic words ''voj'' ("war, warrior"), and ''slava'' ("glory, fame"). Its feminine form is '' Vojislava''. ...

(

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1350–d. 1363). It was earlier believed that Dimitrije died in 1359.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitrije 14th-century Serbian nobility People from the Serbian Empire Medieval Serbian magnates 14th-century Serbian judges Year of birth unknown 1349 deaths Medieval Herzegovina History of the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Gacko Rogatica