The Stephen Kotromanic reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Stephen Kotromanic

Stephen Kotromanic (died 1353) was a Ban (ruler) of Bosnia. (see List of Bans and Kings of Bosnia)

Stephen's father, Kotroman, was the ruler of a territory in northern Bosnia. Stephen succeeded his father as ruler of the territory.

Stephen entered into a power struggle with the Šubić family, who appeared to have ruled the Banate of Bosnia for the first two decades of the fourteenth century. By 1322 Stephen had become Ban. He expanded the his territory into part of Dalmatia, including the coast between Split and Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik) and most of Hum (Herzegovina), uniting most of Bosnia and Herzegovina into a single political entity for the first time.

Stephen appears to have tolerated the independent Bosnian Church for most of his reign, although he he was thought to be Serbian Orthodox. Stephen seems to have converted to Roman Catholicism toward the end of his reign.

Stephen was buried in the Franciscan Monastery of Visoko. Upon his death his nephew, Tvrtko Kotromanic, became Ban, and later King, of Bosnia.

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