Though the Despot Ivaniš was only a despot in name, and inasmuch as her personal fiefdoms allowed him to govern them as any landowner, he (just as his Branković predecessors) had auspices to one day drive back the Turk and re-establish the Serbian despotate. His elevation to the title was contentious – he was from Slavonia, and a Catholic – his wife an Orthodox Christian from a long lineage of Serbian nobility. The influential classes, what few of them there are, in Belgrade had opposed the elevation of Berislavić, hoping instead that a man from Jelena’s line, the Jakšić family, would be made Despot by King Vladislaus. The encouragement from the King for Jelena to marry Ivaniš, did assuage some of these concerns for the Jakšićs, allowing them to retain their influence in the form of the despotissa, but Ivaniš wanted more to be done, especially if he hoped that the Jakšić family to agree to the succession of his son, Stjepan.

He drafted a letter to a former despot, now the Metropolitan of Belgrade and Srem, Maksim Branković. The Brankovići were one of the great families of Serbia, vast landowners who had held influential roles in the medieval Serbian state and had whose daughters had married some of the most powerful men in Europe (Maksim’s aunt, Mara, was the fourth wife of Murad II and advisor to the conqueror Mehmed). The letter that Ivaniš addressed to Maksim, was urgent.

Brother in Law,

As the appointed defender of the Orthodox in Belgrade and all Serbia, it is my duty to implore you to step up where other have faltered. The Turk occupies the Holy Site of your Church in Peć. I do not expect you to swear fealty to Rome, but I do expect you to stand for your people, even if it alongside myself and though we see each other as Heretic. Elevate the Metropolitanate, I will fund it personally.

There is a power vacuum, dear brother in law. The Serbian people need a spiritual leader. We have seen what has occurred in the lands of Herzegovina, where the Bogomil heretic church left no succession and now the scourge of Islam has led our countrymen to lead armies against our lands. Together we will expand the Metropolitanate Maksim, we will make it an Archbishopric, and, God-willing, the Old Serbian Patriarchate will be able to be reformed.

Whatever it is you require, I will strive to provide it for these purposes – the defense of Belgrade must begin with the spiritual defense of its people!