Description
Scutari Zuanne Boldi grosso Composition of Venice 1395-1479 (N496LN)
Weight: 1.01 grams
Diameter: 20.9 mm
The founder of the family, Balsa I was one of the small aristocrats. His cons helped Czar Uros in fighting against the usurper Simeon. They acted in harmony and, at around 1360, they govermed the narrow disctrict between the lake od Skadar and the sea. That is the time when the governers of the specific disctricts were transformed in the district master. The brothers used the death of Vojislav Vijinovic to overtake upper Zeta from his window. By the marriage of he youngest brother, Balsa II to Kmnina, the daughter and the heiress of Despot John Assen, they took over also the district around Valona. In that period, they came out independetly, but they did not coin the money with their names. After the death of the eldest brother Stracimir, in 1372, at the head of the family appeared Durd. He relinquished the marriage with Olivera, and won from her brother King Marko the town of Prizren and the surroundings. He got married to Teodora, the sister of the Dejanovic brothers, while his son Mrksa Zarkovic was married to Rudina, daughter of Balsa II, striving to create, by the connections of relatives the balance of forces in the decomposed Raska Empire. Although he did not participate in the was against Nikola Altomanovic, in 1373, he took away part of his territories before Tvrtko. It provoked a conflict with Tvrtko, who, for revenge, banished him from his estates situated near Dubrovnik.
Along with Duke Lazar, he convened the Assembly of Serbian aristocracy, in 1374, for the sake of making peace between the Patriarchy of Serbia and Constatinople. He was the first from the Balsic family that emphassied the entire independence of their district and coined money with his own name.
The type exhibited in lines is characteristic for all the district masters that showed, after the fall of the Mrnjavcevic, pretensions to inherit the role of the Nemanjic Dinasty, id est, somewhat later, all of them were striving towards complete indipendece of the district controlled by them. In his imitation of the coins by Vukasin, the engraver copies also the letter marks on the reverse. Also, in the second emission, on the reverse, there is a coat of arms of the Nemanjic Family, in order to be replaced in the later emissions by the coat of arms of the Balsic.
Durd died in January 13, 1379 and, at the head of the Clan, there appeared Balsa II. It was a situation used by Vuk Brankovic to take over the town of Prizren from Balsic. Balsa was more turned towards the southern parts of the country, that he acquired by marriage connections. In the conflict with the Turks, he god killed, in 1386, at the town of Berast. The coins with the name of Balsa II were coined by the town of Skadar.
Money of the Town of Skadar-type 2
MIDO:BALS- A:BALSIC
SSTEFAN-SCVTARI.
20/1,17 Lj(-), J(196),I(27.1)
The death of Balsa II meant relinquishing the family rule Zeta. Mrksa Zarkovic and later his wife Rudina, ruled Valona, while the Zeta District was taken over by Durad II Stracimirovic Balsic. Durd was married to the daoughter of the Duke Lazar, but it did not prevent him from extending friendlly relationships to the Turks, Probably because of Konstantin, son of Durd I Balsic, he entered in disputed with the Turks, who conquerred the town of Skadar and surroundings in 1392.
After Turkish defeat at the Battle of Rovince in 1395. Durd managed to take back Skadar but he understood that it would be difficult to maintain it, and it was thus handed over to Venice. He had problems with Sandalj Hranic, that temporarily took Budva away from him, and also with his vassals, the Crnojevic Family in upper Zeta. Durd helped the return of the Lazarevic brothers into the country, after the Battle of Angora, and in such a way, he took a stand against the sons of Vuk. He died in 1403. With his name, money was also coined by the town of Skadar.
Durde II was inherited by his juvenille son Balsa III, along with the mother Jelena Lazarevic. After the Battle of Angora, Turkey torn apart by the fight for power, was considerably weakened, and Balsa tried to regain the cities that his father was handing over to Venice. At the beginning, he was succesful, but afterwards he lost his seaside cities. Ulcinj, Bar and Budva. Venice purchase in 1409, from Ladislaus of Naples, pretender to the throne of Hungary, the “right” to posses the Adriatic coast, and both the Lazarevic Family and the Turks were interfering, that made even more complicated relationships already very entangled. Because Sandalj Hranic, Bosniann aristocrat from the Kosaca Family, was taking side of the Hungarian King Sigismund, as well as due to Sandalj’s marriage to the widow of Durde Balsic, named Jelena Lazarevic, the situation concerning Balsa was improving. With the military help of the step-father and uncle, he tried again to have was cerning Balsa was improving. With the military help of the step-father and uncle, he tried again to gave was with Venice, but with no results. Like his uncle , he also acknowledged the supreme power of the Sultan Mohammed I (1413-21). He died in Belgrade in 1421 without a male heir , leaving all his lands to his uncle Stefan Lazarevic.
