Andrija, Prince of Hum


Andrija was the Prince of Hum in 1216–1218 and 1250.

Life

Andrija was the heir of Miroslav of Hum, who was the brother of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja. Miroslav's properties were divided between Stefan Nemanjić, who held the southern parts of Hum, while the Ston coast and Popovo polje was given to young prince Andrija. Andrija's brother Petar withdrew to the northern parts.
Historian Fine concludes that after Miroslav's death in 1198, the Hungarian Duke Andrew tried to seize Hum and managed to defeat some Serbs in Hum in about 1198, acquiring the part of Hum lying northwest of the Neretva. Duke Andrew was then either pushed out from that territory by Petar, a son of Miroslav supported by local nobles, or Duke Andrew was forced to withdraw his men from the territory when the war between him and his brother King Imre broke out in 1203, so that Petar simply assumed control of western Hum after his withdrawal. Petar, supported by various local nobles, then expelled his own brother Andrija, who had succeeded in eastern Hum, from his lands. Stefan Nemanjić, Andrija's cousin, then intervened on the behalf and in the name of Andrija and regained Hum to the Neretva. After the victory, Stefan appointed Andrija as puppet prince of Hum, but later, either because he felt strong enough, or because he felt that the arrangement was not going to succeed in binding Hum to Rascia, removed Andrija as governor and left him with only the district of Popovo and the coastland of Hum, and instead installed his own governor there, possibly his own son Stefan Radoslav. Petar, who had held the area between the Neretva and Cetina rivers, then acquired Andrija's holdings.
In 1250, Andrija promised the Republic of Ragusa, which had lost its protector Ban Matej Ninoslav of Bosnia, that he would not participate in an eventual war between Ragusa and Serbia and also promised to nicely receive Ragusan refugees in Hum. In that time, Andrija recognized the supreme power of Serbian King Stefan Uroš I, as his vassal, thus it is odd that he would make obligations contrary to Serbian interests – it seems that he prepared a cessation from Serbia, which indeed was made by his son Radoslav, who in 1254 is called a Hungarian vassal.
He founded a church in Mećurečje, in what is now Andrijevica. His seal depicted an eagle, which was not bicephalic, as his father used.

Family