Stephen Tomašević of Bosnia
Stephen Tomašević or Stephen II was the last sovereign from the Bosnian Kotromanić dynasty, reigning as Despot of Serbia briefly in 1459 and as King of Bosnia from 1461 until 1463.
A detail of the painting of the King kneeling in front of Christ, painted by Lovro Dobričević in c. 1460
The acquisition of the Smederevo Fortress in 1459 was an important but short-lived success.
Pope Pius II's memoirs provide a major insight into Stephen Tomašević's reign.
Putative remains of King Stephen
The House of Kotromanić was a late medieval Bosnian noble and later royal dynasty. Rising to power in the middle of the 13th century as bans of Bosnia, with control over little more than the valley of the eponymous river, the Kotromanić rulers expanded their realm through a series of conquests to include nearly all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, large parts of modern-day Croatia and parts of modern-day Serbia and Montenegro, with Tvrtko I eventually establishing the Kingdom of Bosnia in 1377. The Kotromanić intermarried with several southeastern and central European royal houses. The last sovereign, Stephen Tomašević, ruled briefly as Despot of Serbia in 1459 and as King of Bosnia between 1461 and 1463, before losing both countries – and his head – to the Ottoman Turks.
A reconstructed chapel in Bobovac which housed a burial vault of the Kotromanić royal family