Darman and Kudelin
Encyclopedia
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n nobles
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
who jointly ruled the region of Braničevo
Branicevo (region)
Braničevo is a geographical region in east-central Serbia. It is mostly situated in the Braničevo District.-History:...
(in modern Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
) as independent or semi-independent autocrats in the late 13th century (1273–1291). Regarded by historians to be "probably Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
of Cuman
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
origin", the two brothers used the weakened state of centralized administration in the region to become independent from the Second Bulgarian Empire
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...
or the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
in 1273. The capital of their domains was the fortress of Zhdrelo (Ždrelo, "gorge"), on the Mlava
Mlava
The Mlava is the river in Serbia, 158 km long right tributary of the Danube.- Origin :Mlava originates as the Tisnica, from the Kučaj mountains in eastern Serbia, under the Veliki Krš peak. It flows to the north and curves around the eastern slopes of the mountain Beljanica, through an almost...
river. Relying on their army that consisted of people of various ethnicities, but mostly Bulgarians, Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
and Cumans, the brothers were "very independent-minded and afraid of no one".
They regularly attacked their western neighbour, the Hungarian vassal Stefan Dragutin
Stefan Dragutin of Serbia
Stephen Dragutin was a 13th and 14th-century Serb monarch, the King of Serbia from 1276 to 1282 and King of Syrmia from 1282 to 1316.He ruled Serbia until his abdication in 1282, when he became ill...
's Syrmian Kingdom
Syrmia
Syrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....
, in Mačva
Macva
Mačva is a geographical region in Serbia, mostly situated in the northwest of Central Serbia. It is located in a fertile plain between the Sava and Drina rivers. The chief town of this region is Šabac. The modern Mačva District of Serbia is named after the region, although the region of Mačva...
, an area previously under the sovereignty of Elizabeth of Hungary. The Hungarian queen had sent troops to claim Braničevo in 1282–1284, but her forces had been repelled and her vassal lands plundered in retaliation. Another campaign, this time organized by both Dragutin and Elizabeth, failed to conquer Darman and Kudelin's domains in 1285 and suffered another counter-raid by the brothers. It was not until 1291 when a joint force of Dragutin and Serbian king Stefan Milutin
Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia
Stefan Uroš II Milutin was a king of Serbia , and member of the House of Nemanjić.-Early:...
managed to defeat the brothers and, for the first time ever, the region came under the rule of a Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, as it was annexed by Dragutin. The brothers were most likely killed in this campaign, as they disappear from the historical sources thereafter.
Darman and Kudelin were relatives or close associates of the Bulgarian despotēs Shishman
Shishman of Vidin
Shishman, Despot of Vidin was a Bulgarian noble who ruled a semi-independent realm based out of the Danubian fortress of Vidin in the late 13th and early 14th century...
of Vidin
Vidin
Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Serbia and Romania, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin...
, the founder of the Shishman
Shishman
Shishman , also Shishmanids or Shishmanovtsi , was a medieval Bulgarian royal dynasty of partial Cuman origin.The Shishman dynasty consecutively ruled the Second Bulgarian Empire for approximately one century, from 1323 to 1422, when it was conquered by the Ottomans...
dynasty of Bulgarian rulers, as he proceeded to attack the Serbian domains to his west, presumably as a response to Dragutin's annexation of the neighbouring Braničevo.