Serbs in Macedonia

In 1081, Bodin became a successor of his father throne and a ruler of Zeta. Immediately after that, he occupied Mocra, a part of the region of Ohrid, at the pedestal of Bagora, a mountain near to the mountains of Ohrid (according to Theophilact). After Bodin had occupied Drach, he made a pact with Komenen and gave Drach back to him. In the late eighties of the 11th century, Byzantium was imperiled by Vukan, the ruler of Rashka, who occupied the region of Ohrid and Skopje, but Comnenian, after three military actions (in 1091, 1093 and 1094) managed to take them back. Comnenian was forced to make a pact with Vukashin, because of the attacks of the Comnenians.

Serbian power in Macedonia

The revived Byzantium ruled with Macedonia peacefully for two decades. In 1272, Czar Mihail VIII Paleolog renewed the authority and the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid with a decree. But in 1282, during the reign of king Milutin, the Serbian army entered Macedonia and occupied Polog, Skopje, Ovche Pole, Zletovo, Kichevo, Debar and Porech. In 1330, the Czar Andronik III Paleolog was defeated at Velbuzd by the Serbian army. The new Serbian ruler Dushan occupied Ohrid, Zeleznets, Prilep, Chermen and Strumitsa. Jovan Kantakuzen, a Byzantine aristocratic dicident, asked for a support in the mutual Byzantine conflicts from Dushan and got it. ??? Dushan got Kostur, Lerin and Voden. Serbia became a superpower and, in 1350, Dushan proclaimed himself as a Czar of the Serbs and the Greeks and he sublimed the Serbian Archbishopric on a rank of patriarchy. In 1350, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Kjelist, anathematized Dushan and the Serbian patriarchs.