Page 78 - Zbornik 39

78 Живојин Р. Андрејић 39/2016

Živojin R. Andrejić

THE GREAT DISTRICT MAYOR STEFAN NEMANJA - A FRIEND AND A
GUEST OF HONOUR OF THE GREEK EMPEROR KIR ALEXIUS

Starting from the assertion in golden inscriptions by Saint Sava in Virgin
Mary Church in Studenica that a great ruler Stefan Nemanja was a „wedding
guest“ of a certain Byzantine Emperor „Alexios“ and the facts from Nemanja’s
Hagiography that Nemanja was a „friend“ of Emperor Alexios III Angel; given the
fact that Stefan the First Crowned married Evdokia, Alexios III Angel’s daughter in
1191 and connecting all above stated with the Byzantine sources’ reference to the
great mayor’s stays in Constantinople, which, based on our analysis, took place in
1169 and 1172, this paper anticipates that the great mayor Stefan Nemanja was the
godfather to the son of Emperor Manuel Komnenos, Alexios II Komnenos, or the
guest of honour at the wedding of Alexios III and Eufrosina Kamatarise in 1172.
In this work, according to these findings, we draw attention to already established
thesis that Stefan Nemanja was bound, through his second marriage, with the
royal house of Komnenos, in 1143-1146. He married Anastasia - Ana Komnenos
Duka Monomah, the daughter of governor Boris Monomah Arpad and the niece
of Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos while he also obtained the imperial title
from emperor Manuel I in Nis.

Key words: the great mayor Stefan Nemanja, king Stefan Nemanja the First-
Crowned, Manuel I Komnenos, Alexios III, Evdokia Angel Komnenos, imperial
son-in-law, a guest of honour of emperor Alexios