Grdeša
12th century Slavic chieftain with a title župan

Grdeša (Serbian Cyrillic: Грдеша, Latin: Gerdessa, Gurdeses; fl. 1150-51) or Grd was a local Slavic chieftain from the region surrounding Trebinje, who ruled the area with a title of župan. He was mentioned in 1150-51 as one of the military commanders in the army of Grand Prince Uroš II of Serbia.
It is believed that Grdeša was born around 1120. In 1150 he was one of the military commanders in the army of Uroš II of Serbia that fought the Byzantine Empire; the combined Serbo-Hungarian army suffered defeat at the Battle of Tara, where Grdeša and fellow Duke Vučina (Bучинa) where captured. It is assumed the prisoners were taken to Sredets, but were released in 1151. The death of Grd is placed in 1178 or around 1180. He had a son, župan Pribilša, who "died in the time of Stephen Vladislav I of Serbia".
His tomb (stećak) was found at the local community of Police in Trebinje. The tablet mentions him "in the days of Grand Prince Mihailo" as the župan of Trebinje, and also his brother župan Radomir (Радомир), and his family. The stećak is the oldest found and is currently held at the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje. A spur of his is in the collection of the National Museum in Sarajevo.
A charter, believed to be written in 1151, was found, and in it Desa, the younger brother of Uroš II, gifted the island of Mljet to the monastery of Saint Mary in Apulia, of which witnesses were "iupanus Gerdessa, Desimir, setnicus Rastessa, iupanos Grubessa, Petrus comes Raguseorum...".

Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Grdeša”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Grd3.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
- Grd1.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
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