Notes

LOCAL HEREDITARY RULERS

Our family was descended from a Serbian princely dynasty of the 7th century,of the name of Velimirovitch.

Like other similar Balkan dynasties,they suffered from family strife on account of the traditional laws of succession. There was one particular episode in the eleventh century when an enemy prince tried to wipe out the entire Bojidarovitch family by murdering six brothers. However, a son of one of them survived and lived to become a man, to marry and to continue the Bojidar succession.

He was Bozidar Vlastmiri, younger son of the last King Vlady of Serbia(otherwise known as Servia). He can be considered our progenitor, escaping from Serbia to Herzegovina (the Duke's County) in 910 A.D. near to the border with Montenegro.The hereditary princely rulers, known as Joupansor Zupanes, by the name of Bosdari, owned extensive landed estates in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 910 A.D. until 1711. These princely rulers had power of life and death over their subjects.

The family possesses a monastic document drawn up by the Abbot of the Monastery of the Assumption, Trebinje, Herzegovina,Yugoslavia, in 1767 showing the records. It refers to the long line of Zupanesor princes who migrated from Serbia in 910 A.D. and who finally lost their landed estates in Herzegovinain 1711. It was verified and obtained in 1887 by my grandfather, Dr Gabriel de Wesselitsky Bojidarovitch.

The reason for the upheaval was the continuous attack and invasion of south eastern Europe around this time by the Ottoman Turks. At the Battleof the River Pruth in 1711 the Turks decisively defeated Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, the serbians and local rulers, and then steadily occupied much of southeast Europe.

Note: The River Pruth now forms part of the southern frontier of the USSR with Romania. It flows into the River Danube through Moldavia.

The last Zupane, Petar (Peter) lost his patrimony whilst still a young man, and then led a roving life. We know very little about him. He was born in 1690 and died in 1760. His only son Peter lived from 1730 to 1806. Peter migrated to Russia and travelled to St Petersburg.

Vliadomir Petar Veselicic Bojidarovitch,1690 — 1770

Born late in the seventeenth century in Herzegovina, he was a hereditary ruler. His dates are uncertain. Petar owned estates in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro, mainly in the vicinity of Trebinje and Ragusa ( now known as Dubrovnik). Trebinjeis some ten miles inland to the north from the sea port of Dubrovnik.

In 1711 Petar and his people were defeated at the Battle of the River Pruth by the invadingTurks.The family were dispossessed of their estates,and in due course travelled to Russia and to its capital city, St Petersburg.

His son Petar later became a Russian diplomat, Peter de Wesselitsky Bojidarovitch. Petar Veselecic Bojidarovitch

Peter de Wesselitsky Bojidarovitch1730 - 1790

The early part of his life was unsettled as his father, Vladomir Petar, last of the Joupansin Herzegovina,was dispossessed of his estates by the invading Ottoman Turks.

Petar settled in Russia in 1760.In due course he travelled to St Petersburg, to the Court of the Empress of Russia,and was received by Catherine the Great during the late 1770s. He was well received by the Empress,and was sent on two diplomatic missions on behalf of the Empress as her Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Crimea, then a Turkish province.The missions were carried out successfully.

Petar was later Russian minister to the Crimea for two periods of time. Catherine rewarded him with an excellent grant of some thousand acres of land just outside the city of Kieff in the Ukraine.Petar was admitted to the hereditary nobility.

Before the Crimea was annexed by Russia in 1783, it was occupied by the Ottoman Turks. On one occasion Peter was captured by the Turks and taken with his wife to Constantinople, where they were confined in the mediaeval castle and Prison of the Seven Towers.The Turks wanted to execute the diplomat and his wife, but refrained from doing so on account of their religious laws, as his wife was expecting a baby. Peter's son Gabriel was born there.

In later years Gabriel lived to become a soldier and a Lieutenant-General in the Russian Army, and to receive in due course the surrender of a Turkish army many years later.

Peter had two sons, Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel,the elder son, had a long career in the army. Only Gabriel had descendants. Michael also had a military career as an officer, but without reaching such high rank. He owned an estate in White Russia to which 1,200 serfs were attached. Documents to this effect are held by the family.

APPENDICES

The Balkans.

Cyril and the Cyrillic Script.

Land of the Southern Slavs: Yugoslavia. An historical

Serbia and the Serbs

Family Trees

Family Document of 1767 (procured in 1875).

Coastal Yugoslavia: historical notes.

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