Relevant experts from partners’ countries Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, together with external experts from North Macedonia and Albania, selected historical characters of female medieval rulers associated with the heritage of the aforementioned countries. Experts then collected relevant information and data and did research on the selected characters. Besides biographies, they explored their preserved images, endowments, residences, and other artifacts which can be associated with them. All collected material and research conducted was used as the basis for the creation of scenarios, which are done in joint collaboration with heritage experts/historians and professional script writer. The following female rulers have been selected:
Jelena Gruba was the Bosnian queen and wife of King Dabiša. After Dabiša’s death, she was the ruler of the Bosnian kingdom. She is the only woman on the Bosnian ruling throne in the Middle Ages. She was born into the noble family of Nikolić, who ruled a part of Hum. She married Dabiša, the illegitimate half-brother of King Tvrtko I. Jelena Gruba was the queen of Bosnia as the wife of the king from 1391 until her husband’s death in 1395. The only surviving child born from their marriage was a daughter, Stan. Stana’s daughter, whose name is given as Vladava [3] and Vladika , married Juraj Radivojević during the lifetime of her grandfather Dabiša and nana Gruba, which is confirmed by Dabiša’s charter from 1395, in which the king presented the village of Veljaci to the management of his daughter Stana, with the fact that after her death, Vladava (Vladika) and her husband will inherit the management of the village. Queen Jelena was dedicated to maintain trade agreements with the Dubrovnik Republic, crucial for the economy of the Bosnian Kingdom.
Jelena Gruba by Emir Durmišević
Princess Milica Hrebeljanović was of Nemanjić family (1335 – November 11, 1405) and royal consort of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović. They ruled from Kruševac that time capital of Lazarević’s Serbian lands. After the battle of Kosovo in 1389 when Lazar died, she was a regent of Serbia during the minority of her son, despot Stefan Lazarević from 1389 to 1393. During her regency, and even after she took the monastic vows, she played intensive political and diplomatic activities in the Serbian state.
Representations of Lazar and Milica in Ljubostinja Monastery, Serbia
Vojsava Tribalda (ca. 1370s – after 1437), was the daughter of the lord of the ethnically mixed Polog region, Gregory, the unknown nobleman of Volkachin, or Gregory Branković. She was married to John Castriota, the father of the famous George Castriota Scanderbeg, a renowned 15th-century fighter against Ottoman expansion in the West Balkans and national hero of Albania, a dynastic marriage aimed at consolidating and perpetuating dynastic family in regions at the border between the Albanian-speaking and the Slavic-speaking worlds. It is believed that Scanderbeg under her influence decided to come back home and fight for Albanian independence.
Painting of Vojsava and Skender bey, National History Museum “Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu”, Kruje, Albania
Izabeta Crnojevic (late XV – early XVI) was the daughter of Venetian governor of Kotor Paolo Erico and the second wife of the Montenegrin ruler Djuradj Crnojevic. Her destiny is directly related to the end of the dynasty Crnojevic and the fall of Montenegro under Ottoman rule. She was a real renaissance lady who brought western influence to continental Montenegro. Djuradj and she bought in Venice a printing press. It was the first printing press in the South Slav countries and the second cyrillic printing press in all lands where Slavs lived. The printing press was working in Monastery of Our Lady in Cetinje, the only renaissance monastery in the continental part of Montenegro. After Montenegro fell under Ottoman rule, she had to leave Montenegro and the rest of her life spent in Italy.
Izabeta by Mihailo Jovićević
Maria Palaeologos was the Queen consort of Stephen Uroš III Dečanski of Serbia (1324–1331). She was the daughter of panhypersebastos John Palaiologos, and great-niece of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328). Her maternal grandfather was megas logothetēs Theodore Metochites. She was born in Constantinople but later lived in Thessaloniki since her father was the governor of the city in early 1320. She married Uroš III in 1324, as his second wife since her first wife died earlier. The royal couple’s marriage lasted until her husband’s death (1332). After his death, because of the historic circumstances in the royal family, Maria took monastic vows as Marta. She died on April 7, 1355, during the reign of Dušan the Mighty, and was buried somewhere around Skopje.
Maria Paleologova — medallion XIV century, site Gjurishte, Sveti Nikole, currently in the Archaeological Museum in Skopje