As I said in my frist blog, I'm from Smederevo, Serbia. That's important because my nickname is also nickname of the woman who built Smederevo with her husband. In this blog I'll write about her.
Prokleta Jerina can be translated into English as Cursed Jerina. She's name is Irene Kantakouzene (Greek: Ειρήνη Καντακουζηνή), she was born about 1400 and she lived up to 3.May 1457. She married for Despot Djuradj Brankovic in December 1414 and so became Despotess Jerina. He was the Serbian Despot from 1427 to 1456.
She was unpopular in the folk tradition because of the construction of the city Smederevo. Because of the situation in the country (constant wars), the fortress in Smederevo had to be built quickly, she managed the construction and she claimed people to build fast. They didn't like that and she got her nick name. Serbia was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries, cities fell one by one and the last one was Smederevo 1439. Then the Turks occupied the whole territory of Serbia.
With Despot Djuradj she had five children.
Mara Brankovic also known as Sultana Marija, in order to prevent further wars, she had to marry for Sultan Murat II, but the attacks continued. She was in a harem with another 300 women. Mara as a Sultan was not sufficient for the guarantee that Serbia would not be in the war, they also took Grgur and Stefan, Jerina's and Djuradj's sons. They had one more daughter, Katarina. Her marriage was also contracted, political marriage. Djuradj and Jerina had to go to exile, to Dubrovnik and Zeta. There came news that Sultan Murat II blinded their sons Grgur and Stefan. The reason was that the Turks intercepted a message that the father sent to his sons from exile, in which he wrote that he hoped he would succeed in regaining the state. The appeal of Mara came too late, and the Sultan's executioners were quicker. In 1441, the Turks captured Grgur and Stefan Brankovic and on 8 May they were blinded by the orders of Sultan Murat II.
According to the story, Stefan is blinded by the needle's eye pain, until all the fluid has come out of them. In order to do this, he had to sit quietly for a couple of hours, tied and only looking at one point. They had another son, Lazar, he was the youngest. He was succeeded his father after his death.
Legend says, the youngest son Lazar poisoned Jerina. She died in May 1457.
Personally, I think she's a tragic figure in history, but people love legends and there are many legends and poem about Jerina.
I will try to write more about this in the next blogs, this was an introduction to the story, getting to know her.
There are many mistakes in my blog, I am sorry for that. I was told in my first blog that I don't speak English well.
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