Pavle Branovic (, ; 870–921) was the
Prince of the Serbs from 917 to 921. He was put on the throne by the Bulgarian Tsar
Symeon I of Bulgaria, who had imprisoned the previous prince (Petar) after he had become a Byzantine ally. Pavle ruled for four years, before being defeated by
Zaharija Pribislavljević, his cousin. Pavle was the son of
Bran
Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the component of a Cereal, cereal grain consisting of the hard layersthe combined aleurone and Fruit anatomy#Pericarp layers, pericarpsurrounding the endosperm. Maize, Corn (maize) bran also includes the p ...
, the middle son of
Mutimir (r. 851–891) of the
Vlastimirović dynasty
The House of Vlastimirović ( sr-Cyrl, Властимировић, Vlastimirovići / Властимировићи) was the first Serbian royal dynasty, named after Prince Vlastimir (ruled c. 831–851), who was recognized by the Byzantine Em ...
.
Pavle was born in the 870s, between 870 and 874 to
Bran Mutimirović, the middle son of
Mutimir. His Christian name, in relation to the previous generation of pagan names, shows the spread Christianization of the Serbs.
After Mutimir (his grandfather) died in 891,
Pribislav succeeded as prince, and ruled briefly for a year till
Petar Petar (, sr-Cyrl, Петар) is a South Slavic masculine given name, their variant of the Biblical name Petros cognate to Peter.
Derivative forms include Pero, Pejo, Pera, Perica, Petrica, Periša. Feminine equivalent is Petra.
People ...
returned and defeated him. Pribislav fled to Croatia with his brothers Bran (Pavle's father) and
Stefan. Bran later returned and led an unsuccessful rebellion against Petar in 894. Bran was defeated, captured and blinded (as per
Byzantine tradition).
In 917, a Byzantine army led by
Leo Phokas invaded Bulgaria but was decisively defeated at the
Battle of Achelous on 20 August 917. After the Achelous, Symeon sent an army to Serbia led by Pavle (after he had heard of a Byzantine–Serbian alliance), to take the Serbian throne, however, unsuccessfully as Petar proved a good opponent. Symeon then sent generals
Marmais Marmais (; died 924) was a Bulgarian military commander, nobleman and ''komita'' (duke) of a western Bulgarian region ( Sredets or Macedonia) during the reign of Emperor Simeon I (893–927). He was a descendant of an ancient Bulgar family. He par ...
and
Theodore Sigritsa Theodore Sigritsa () or Sigritzes (died 924) was a Bulgarian military commander and noble, ''kavkhan'' (first minister) of Emperor Simeon I (r. 893–927).
In 895 he headed a delegation in Constantinople for exchange of prisoners and captives bet ...
, persuading Petar (through an
oath
Traditionally, an oath (from Old English, Anglo-Saxon ', also a plight) is a utterance, statement of fact or a promise taken by a Sacred, sacrality as a sign of Truth, verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths ...
) to come out and meet them, then captured and took him to Bulgaria where he was put in prison, dying within a year. Symeon put Pavle on the Serbian throne.
In 920,
Zaharija, the exiled son of Pribislav (the eldest of Mutimir's sons), was sent by
Romanos I Lekapenos
Romanos I Lakapenos or Lekapenos (; 870 – 15 June 948), Latinisation of names, Latinized as Romanus I Lacapenus or Romanus I Lecapenus, was Byzantine emperor from 920 until his deposition in 944, serving as regent for and senior co-ruler of ...
(r. 920–944) to seize the throne. Pavle defeated and captured him, handing him over to Symeon, who held him for future use. In the meantime, Pavle switched his allegiance back to the Byzantines, prompting Symeon to dispatch Zaharija against him at the head of a Bulgarian army in 921. Zaharija won the battle but soon reaffirmed his Byzantine alliance. There are no more mentions of Pavle.
See also
*
Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927
The ByzantineBulgarian war of 913927 () was fought between the Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire for more than a decade. Although the war was provoked by the Byzantine emperor Alexander's decision to discontinue paying an annual tribu ...
*
Bulgarian–Serbian wars of 917–924
The Bulgarian–Serbian wars of 917–924 () were a series of conflicts fought between the Bulgarian Empire and the Principality of Serbia as a part of the greater Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927. After the Byzantine army was annihilated ...
Annotations
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External links
Steven Runciman, A History of the First Bulgarian Empire, London 1930.
{{Serbian monarchs
10th-century Serbian monarchs
Vlastimirović dynasty
Serbian exiles
People of the Bulgarian–Serbian Wars