Stefan Uroš IV Dušan

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (c. 1308–1355), called the Mighty, made medieval Serbia the leading power of the Balkans. He made his name at Velbazhd against Bulgaria in 1330, and when nobles wanting to expand south resented his father Dečanski for not pressing the victory on Byzantium, Dušan in 1331 besieged him at Nerodimlje, had him imprisoned, and was crowned king in September.

From 1342 he exploited the Byzantine civil war to take Byzantine lands as far as Kavala. On 16 April 1346 he was crowned emperor of the Serbs and Greeks at Skopje by the Serbian patriarch. He took Epirus in 1347 and Thessaly in 1348, ruling from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, and proclaimed his Code on 21 May 1349.

He died at Prizren on 20 December 1355 while preparing a campaign against the Turks, and his empire fell apart under his son Stefan Uroš V.