Vuk Kosača

Who is Vuk Kosača?

Vuk Kosača was a 14th-century military commander of Dušan the Mighty, the Emperor of Serbia. He is the founding father of a medieval Herzegovinian noble family known as the Kosačas, that would later rule a semi-independent realm under the Bosnian crown. His lands were located left of the Drina, around Rogatica.

Vuk was a military commander in the army of Tsar Dušan the Mighty during the campaigns in the southern Balkans in the late 1340s, in specific Epirus and Thessaly.

According to Mavro Orbini, during a hunt in northern Serbia, he accidentally killed Branko Rastislalić, a fellow nobleman of the House of Rastislalić, which held lands of northeast Serbia. Vuk, who was accountable for the death, fled to Hungary. He subsequently made peace with the Rastislalićs and returned to the Serbian court. He was however, killed in 1359, when relatives avenged the death of Branko.

He had two sons, Vlatko and Hran Vuković.