Stephen Vladislav I of Serbia

Stefan Vladislav (Стефан Владислав; died after 1264) was the King of Serbia from 1233/4 to 1243. He was a member of the Nemanjić dynasty, the son of Stefan the First-Crowned.

Vladislav was the younger son of King Stefan the First-Crowned and Queen Eudokia and a grandson of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and Anna. His older brother was Radoslav, king 1228 to 1233.

After Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen II defeated Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus in Klokotnitsa in 1230, Stefan Radoslav lost the support of the Serbian nobility. In 1234, King Radoslav was deposed in favor of Vladislav. King Vladislav married Beloslava, a daughter of Emperor Ivan Asen II. Earlier Epirote influence in Serbia was then replaced with Bulgarian. Archbishop Sava was not happy with the quarrels and decided to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He died on hiw way home at Tărnovo. Vladislav went to his father-in-law, Ivan Asen II, to ask for his uncle's body. After negotiations the body was returned to Serbia, and Vladislav buried it in Mileševa, a monastery he had founded. During the reign of Vladislav, there was a great Mongol invasion. Mongols conquered Bulgaria and Serbia briefly in 1242, after the death of Emperor Ivan Asen II on June 1241. When Bulgaria became a Mongol vassal, the reputation of Vladislav decreased, and the Serbian nobles once again began to protest. King Vladislav was removed from the throne on 1243 with the support of the nobility, which was inherited by his half brother Uroš I. The new king may have allowed Vladislav to rule Zeta as governor, but in any case did not remove him from an active role in government.

Vladislav died in 1269 and was buried in Mileševa.

Family
By his marriage with Beloslava, daughter of Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria, Stefan Vladislav had the following children:
 * 1) Stefan
 * 2) Desa, a župan (1281/5)
 * 3) daughter, married Djure Kačić, the Knez of Omiš.

Flag of Serbia


The oldest known description of a flag of Serbia is from the 1281 description of a flag in the treasury of King Stefan Vladislav (1233–1243), which was kept in the Dubrovnik Republic. The description lists "vexillum unum de zendato rubeo et blavo" - a flag of fabric red and blue (zendato - čenda a type of light, silky fabric). We however don't know how were the colours patterned; horizontal diband shown to the left is sometimes used in commemorations of medieval events in Serbia. As Vladislav ruled from 1233 to 1243 and died after 1264, the flag predates the time of the description, hence making it likely to have been used around the middle 13th century.