Stjepan Ostoja

Stephen Ostoja (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Остоја) was a Bosnian and Serbian King in 1398-1404 and 1409-1418. He was a son of Tvrtko and a member of the House of Kotromanić.

Ostoja was brought to power by the forces of Duke Hrvoje Vukčić that deposed Queen Jelena Gruba in 1398. In 1403 he sided with King Ladislaus of Naples in his plights against the Hungarian King Sigismund, Bosnia's liege. King Ostoja led a war against the Republic of Dubrovnik, a Hungarian vassalage that year. In 1404, the Bosnians under Hrvoje Vukčić replaced him by his brother Tvrtko II because of his poor rule. He had to flee to Hungary.

In 1408, Hungarian King Sigismund managed to defeat the Bosnian nobility and King Stephen Tvrtko II and restore Ostoja to the throne in 1409. King Stephen Ostoja ended the decade-long dispute with the Hungarians but recognizing the suzeiranity of the Hungarian crown and in 1412 visited the Hungarian throne in Buda together with the rest of the Bosnian and Serbian nobility including Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarević. In 1416 duke Hrvoje Vukčić died, so King Ostoja divorced his old wife Kujava from the house of Radenović and married Hrvoje's widow Jelena the same year. That way Ostoja inherited most of Hrvoje's lands.

King Stephen Ostoja died in September of 1418 and his oldest son from his marriage with Kujava, Stephen Ostojić, was elected King of Serbs and Bosnia.

See also

* House of Kotromanić
* History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

External links

* [http://www.rastko.org.yu/istorija/zfajfric-kotromanici.html#_Toc486040901 Kotromanići by Željko Fajfrić]
* [http://members.tripod.com/cafehome/povkotromanica/ostoja.htm Serb Land of Bosnia]

References

* "Српске династије, Andrija Veselinović and Radoš Ljušić, 2001, Novi Sad"