Stefan Konstantin

Stefan Konstantin
Gračanica fresco, representing Konstantin at c. 1320
King of Serbia
Reign	29 October 1321 – spring 1322
Predecessor	Stefan Uroš II Milutin
Successor	Stefan Uroš III Dečanski
Born	c. 1283
Died	spring of 1322 Mitrovičko Polje, Zvečan
Dynasty	Nemanjić
Father	Stefan Uroš II Milutin
Mother	Helena Doukaina Angelina (?)
Religion	Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Stefan Konstantin (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Константин; c. 1283–1322) was the King of Serbia from 29 October 1321 to the spring of 1322. The younger son of King Stefan Milutin (1253–1321), he initially held the appanage of Zeta (with Zahumlje and Travunia), and was the heir to the Serbian throne after his father had exiled his elder brother Stefan. After his father's death, a throne struggle broke out between Konstantin, Stefan and their cousin Vladislav II, evolving into the two years long civil war.^[1] He was killed in the battle fighting his brother, who went on to defeat Vladislav, too, and gained the Serbian throne as Stefan Uroš III, better known as Stefan Dečanski.^[2]

Life of Konstantin, who may even be canonized in Middle Ages, was obscured even in medieval chronicles while today is almost completely forgotten. Nearly all data on him are approximate and has to be extrapolated from other biographies. Apparently not much valued by his contemporaries, even by his own father who appointed him a successor only when had no other options, he met a cruel death by the hand of his own brother, losing the throne to which he lawfully succeeded.