Tsar Lazarus

Also known as: Lazar / Lazarus / Prince Lazarus / Tsar Lazar / the glorious Prince Lazarus · Family: Serbians · Role: Tsar · First appears: Chapter VI · The Tsarina Militza and the Zmay of Yastrebatz · Part 1

In Chapter VI · The Tsarina Militza and the Zmay of Yastrebatz, Tsar Lazarus asks Tsarina Militza to learn which hero the Zmay fears and considers superior. When she tells him what she learned, Lazarus sends Zmay-Despot Vook to Kroushevatz to kill the Zmay of Yastrebatz, promising gold and Sirmia for life. After seeing the Zmay’s head, Lazarus is seized by a severe fever; at Sirmia, he gives Vook the gold and authority to rule independently there for the rest of his life. They live happily, helping one another as fellow-countrymen.

In Chapter IX · Tsar Lazarus and the Tsarina Militza, Lazarus agrees that Boshko Yougovitch may stay with Militza at the white castle instead of going to war, and excuses his servant Golouban from war service so he too can remain with her. At Kossovo, ravens report that two tsars have perished and the Serbian survivors are wounded. Miloutin returns grievously wounded, and Militza asks whether he has betrayed Lazarus. Lazarus perishes on Kossovo; Vouk Brankovitch, one of Lazarus’s sons-in-law, is said to have betrayed him by leading twelve thousand Serbian cuirassiers astray.