Vuk (died after 1378) was the Ban of Bosnia from 1366 until 1367, a member of the

Kotromanić dynasty The House of Kotromanić ( sr-cyrl, Котроманић, Kotromanići / Котроманићи) was a late medieval Bosnian noble and later royal dynasty. Rising to power in the middle of the 13th century as bans of Bosnia, with control ove ...

that ruled the

Banate of Bosnia The Banate of Bosnia ( / Бановина Босна), or Bosnian Banate (''Bosanska banovina'' / Босанска бановина), was a medieval state located in what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although Hungarian kings viewed Bosnia as ...

since the turn of the 14th century. Vuk was the younger son of Vladislav Kotromanić and

Jelena Šubić Jelena Šubić (died 1378) was a member of the Bribir branch of the Croatian Šubić noble family who ruled the Banate of Bosnia as regent from 1354 until 1357 during the minority of her son Tvrtko I of Bosnia. Life Jelena was the daughter of ...

, who were married in 1337. His brother, Tvrtko I, became Ban of Bosnia following the death of their paternal uncle, Stephen II, in 1353. Their father acted as

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

until his death in 1354, followed by their mother taking over the role of regent until Tvrtko reached the age of majority in 1357. Vuk accompanied Jelena when she traveled to Hungary in 1354 to request consent to Tvrtko's accession from their overlord, King

Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great (; ; ) or Louis the Hungarian (; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of ...

. In July 1357, Tvrtko and Vuk were confirmed as joint rulers of Bosnia and Usora by King Louis under two conditions: one of the brothers would be at Louis's court whenever the other is in Bosnia, and they would make an effort to suppress the "heretical"

Bosnian Church The Bosnian Church ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Crkva bosanska, Црква босанска) was an autonomous Christian church in medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina. Historians traditionally connected the church with the Bogomils, although this ...

. In February 1366, Tvrtko faced a major revolt by his discontent vassals. He and Jelena were forced to flee to King Louis's court, while Vuk replaced him on the ban's throne. While he did take his role as ban seriously, it is not clear if Vuk instigated his brother's dethronement or if he was only a puppet installed by the nobility. Within a month, however, Tvrtko returned aided by the Hungarian army. By the end of March, Vuk had lost some of Bosnia to his brother, but retained control over Bobovac, the capital. The nobleman Sanko Miltenović defected from Vuk to Tvrtko in the second half of 1367, bringing much of Zachlumia back under Tvrtko's control. Vuk was finally deposed and exiled in late 1367. Once exiled, Vuk attempted to gain outside help against Tvrtko; he particularly pleaded with Pope Urban V, as the

Papacy The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

had been advocating a

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

against the

for some time. The King of Hungary's protection of Tvrtko rendered Vuk's chances of regaining the throne of Bosnia slim. By 1374, the brothers had reconciled, possibly on the occasion of Tvrtko's marriage to Dorothea of Bulgaria. Vuk remained in Bosnia, functioning as a junior ban and endorsing his brother's charters. He is believed to have died after 1378.

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* * * {{S-end Bans of Bosnia 14th-century governors Kotromanić dynasty Roman Catholic monarchs People of the Banate of Bosnia Bosnian monarchs