After their father's death, Vuk and his brothers
Grgur and
Nikola Radonja retreated to the valley of
Drenica (central Kosovo). During the final years of
Stefan Uroš V's rule, Grgur and Vuk's governance was limited to their heritance in Drenica. Vuk took advantage of the death of
King Vukašin in the
Battle of Maritsa (1371) and conquered
Sjenica,
Zvečan and part of the
Lim River valley. Vuk's marriage to Mara, the daughter of the most powerful Serbian magnate prince
Lazar Hrebeljanović, brought him substantial lands in Kosovo. This marriage sealed the alliance between two houses and secured Lazar's assistance for Vuk's future plans, although Vuk in return had to acknowledge Lazar as his feudal senior. Soon after the marriage, Lazar and King
Tvrtko I of Bosnia attacked župan
Nikola Altomanović, who ruled in the western part of Serbia, and conquered and divided his lands in 1373. In the partition of Altomanović's land, Vuk got areas of
Raška (including the old Serbian capital
Ras) and lands in
Polimlje (northern Montenegro). After the death of
Đurađ I Balšić (13 January 1378), Vuk captured his cities of
Prizren and
Peć (Peja), and the area of
Metohija. At its peak, the realm of Branković stretched from Sjenica in the west to
Skopje in the east, with the cities of
Pristina and
Vushtrri serving as its capitals. The most important cities in Vuk's province were Priština, Prizren, Peć, Skopje and Ras, as well as the rich mining settlements of
Trepča,
Janjevo,
Gluhavica and others. ==Battle of Kosovo==