and all the subsequent Nemanjić kings of Serbia took the honorific Stephen in addition to their Slavic name upon their accession. The popularity of the name in medieval Serbia stems from the influence of Byzantine culture and the status of Stephen the Protomartyr as both patron saint of Serbia and symbol of the Byzantine Empire. The veneration of Saint Stephen was so important that he was depicted on the reverse of the royal seals of the early Nemanjić rulers and on their basic coins. Historians such as Dušan J. Popović and John Van Antwerp Fine, Jr. maintain that to Serbian rulers, Stephen was more than "a mere name" and "came close to being part of a title". According to Sima Ćirković, it had a special symbolical meaning to the Serbian state. When the Nemanjić line went extinct with the death of Stephen Uroš V (r. 1355–71) in 1371, Serbia's throne became vacant and the country disintegrated. The Bosnian ban Tvrtko I (r. 1353–91), a cognatic great-grandson of Stephen Dragutin (r. 1276–1316), started advancing his own claim on the defunct kingdom and had himself crowned King of Serbia and Bosnia in 1377. In an effort to emulate the Nemanjić, Tvrtko added the name Stephen to his own and at times even omitted his real name, using only the royal honorific. Even though the Kotromanić claim to Serbia lost all practical significance already during Stephen Tvrtko I's reign, the subsequent kings of Bosnia followed his suit and adopted the name Stephen upon accession. The last of them, Stephen Tomašević (r. 1461–63), having been christened with the name, even called himself Stefan Štipan (Стефан Штипан) or Štefan Stipan (Штефан Стипан) after his accession (effectively being "Stephen Stephen"). The kings of Bosnia were not the only to claim the title Stephen. They were never accepted as suzerains by the lords of petty states that developed following the disintegration of the Serbian Empire. Lazar Hrebeljanović (r. 1373–89) and his son-in-law Vuk Branković (r. 1378–89), who ruled two of these states, at times called themselves Stefan although they never claimed the kingship. References Sources Honorifics Kotromanić dynasty Nemanjić dynasty Bans of Bosnia Bosnian monarchs Serbian monarchs Serbian royal titles Bosnian royal titles