Late Middle Ages · Europe · War

1342

Stefan Dušan takes Serres from Byzantium

1342

Exploiting the Byzantine civil war between John V Palaiologos and John Kantakouzenos, the Serbian king pushed his frontier deep into Macedonia, seizing fortress after fortress from a distracted empire. Within four years he would control Thessaly, Epirus, and most of Albania, governing one of the largest states of fourteenth-century Europe.