Emperor of the Serbs in the context of "Dušan the Mighty"

The fall of the Serbian Empire was a decades-long process in the late 14th century. Following the death of the childless Emperor Stefan Uroš V in 1371, the Serbian Empire was left without an heir and the magnates, velikaši, obtained the rule of its provinces and districts (in so-called feudal fragmentation), continuing their offices as independent with titles such as gospodin, and despot, given to them during the Empire. This period is known as the dissolution or the beginning of the fall of the Serbian Empire.

Between 1365 and 1371, King Vukašin was the co-ruler of Emperor Uroš, ruling the southern half, thus the Empire may be viewed as a de facto diarchy. Before 1371, the nobility were either directly subordinate to Emperor Uroš or to Vukašin. Vukašin died in the Battle of Maritsa (1371) against the invading Ottoman Empire, and southern Serbian provinces became nominal Ottoman vassals. Four months later, Uroš died. The lords could not agree on the rightful ruler; they dismissed Prince Marko, the son of Vukašin, and conflicts started between the nobles within a year. An assembly was held in 1374 without any success since the nobles were unable to agree on whether Marko or Prince Lazar would head the Serbian confederation as the Serbian king and the state continued as before, fragmented and without central authority.

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Урош IV Душан), also known as Dušan the Mighty (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Силни; c. 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians from 16 April 1346 until his death in 1355. Dušan is considered one of the greatest medieval Balkan conquerors.

Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs of the era. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the most powerful state in Southeast Europe and one of the most powerful European states. At the time, Serbia was an Eastern Orthodox, multi-ethnic, and multilingual empire that stretched from the Danube in the north to the Gulf of Corinth in the south, with its capital in Skopje. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a patriarchate, completed his father's mausoleum Visoki Dečani Monastery (now a UNESCO site), and founded the monastery of the Holy Archangels, among others. Under his rule, Serbia reached its territorial, political, economic, and cultural peak.

Tsar (/zɑːr, (t)sɑːr/; also spelled czar, tzar, or csar; Bulgarian: цар, romanized: tsar; Russian: царь, romanized: tsar'; Serbian: цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word caesar, which was intended to mean emperor in the European medieval sense of the term—a ruler with the same rank as a Roman emperor, holding it by the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official—but was usually considered by Western Europeans to be equivalent to "king".

Tsar and its variants were the official titles in the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018), Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396), the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1908–1946), the Serbian Empire (1346–1371), and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721).The first ruler to adopt the title tsar was Simeon I of Bulgaria. Simeon II, the last tsar of Bulgaria, is the last person to have held this title.

Saint Stefan Uroš V (Serbian Cyrillic: Стефан Урош V, pronounced [stêfaːn ûroʃ peːti] ; 1336 – 2/4 December 1371), known in historiography and folk tradition as Uroš the Weak (Serbian: Урош Нејаки, romanized: Uroš Nejaki), was the second Emperor (Tsar) of the Serbian Empire (1355–1371), and before that he was Serbian King and co-ruler (since 1346) with his father, Emperor Stefan Dušan.

This is an archontological list of Serbian monarchs, containing monarchs of the medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia.The Serbian monarchy dates back to the Early Middle Ages. The Serbian royal titles used include Knyaz (Prince), Grand Župan (Grand Prince), King, Tsar (Emperor), and Despot.