The Serbians, who belonged to the western branch of the southern Slavs, had long lived under their tribal chiefs, called knezes, between the political spheres of power of Byzantium and Bulgaria. After the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018, Serbia became an autonomous territorial unit (Serbian župa) within the Byzantine Empire, under the rule of a Serbian grand župan nominated by Byzantium. In respect of religion, the Serbian Orthodox Church was part of the autocephalous archbishopric of Ohrid. The power of an independent Serbia began to rise during the rule of Grand Župan Nemanja, at the end of the twelfth century. His son Stefan Nemanjić became the first independent Serbian ruler whose international recognition was assured by his coronation as king of Serbia by the legate of Pope Honorius III in 1217. (That is why he was later given the epithet prvovenčani, ‘first crowned’.) The autonomous Serbian Church was established a few years later in 1219, when Stefan Prvovenčani's brother Sava Nemanjić created an autonomous Serbian archbishopric under the direct jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Constantinople, at that time exiled in Nikaia. Serbia emerged as a truly great power in the Balkans under the long reign of Stefan Uroš I (1243–76).

CUMANS AT GACKO, 1276

The first appearance of Cumans on the Serbian scene came about as a result of their Serbo-Hungarian contacts.