Stefan Dušan crowned king of Serbia

July 1331

After deposing his father in a bloodless coup, Stefan Dušan took the Serbian crown at twenty-three. Within fifteen years he would rule from the Danube to the Aegean and call himself emperor of Serbs and Greeks. His law code, the Zakonik, blended Byzantine procedure with Slavic custom and Latin marriage rules into the Balkans' most comprehensive medieval legislation.