Son, heir and rebel to Milutin, Stefan Decanski spent his youth as a hostage of the Tartar Khan Nogay. Redeemed in 1299, his father gave him the city of Zeta to govern. In return, Decanski joined the rebellion of Zeta's nobility against the crown in 1314. Defeated and partially blinded, Decanski was exiled for seven years to Constantinople, where he lived under the protection of Andronicus II.

Before his death, Milutin allowed his son to return. Serbian legend has it that at the death of his father, Decanski's sight miraculously returned. A rather timely miracle in light of the strictures against the inflicted holding the throne. Decanski fended off his family rivals and assumed the throne. He married first a daughter of the Bulgarian Tzar Smilac, and then a noble lady of the Byzantine Palaiologos family.

Cruel irony dictated that Decanski put his young son, Stefan Dusan, in command of Zeta, from where he rebelled against his father. Dusan though, succeeded where his father had failed and usurped the throne for himself. Dusan was to go on to become the greatest of all the Serbian kings.

The image above is from the frescoes at the monastery of Decani, which Stefan Decanski founded, and from which he took his surname. He died in the fortress at Zvecan on 11^th November, 1331. Tradition made a martyr of him, blinded by his father and strangled by his own son.