Kosara was married ca. 1000 to
Jovan Vladimir, Prince of
Duklja, who had been defeated and taken prisoner by Tsar Samuel. An oral (?) tradition recorded in the early 14th century in the
Gesta Regum Sclavorum turns the marriage into a romantic tale of Kosara visiting Vladimir in his prison cell, eventually falling in love and asking to be married to him. The story of Vladimir and Kosara is the subject of one of the most romantic tales of early Montenegrin literature; this is the
Gesta’s description of how Vladimir and Kosara met: So Kosara fell in love with the handsome captive, and begged her father for his hand in marriage. Samuel, having conquered Vladimir's lands, wanted to bind his new subjects to himself in a more cordial way, not only with the sheer force. He allowed the marriage, returned Duklja to his new son-in-law, and besides gave him the whole territory of Dyrrhachium, to rule them from that point on as his
vassal. Although the
Gesta Regum Scalvorum piously asserted that Kosara and Jovan Vladimir lived saintly and chastely, a common trope, they apparently had a daughter, who married
Stefan Vojislav, prince of
Zeta. Their grandson,
Constantine Bodin of Zeta, would be briefly proclaimed emperor of Bulgaria as Peter III in 1072. Tsar Samuel died in 1014 and he was succeeded by his son
Gavril Radomir, but his reign was short: his cousin
Ivan Vladislav killed him in 1015, and ruled in his stead. Vladislav held that he would make his position stronger if he exterminated the whole family of Samuil, for which reason he plotted the murder of Jovan Vladimir. The new Tsar thus sent messengers to him to demand his attendance in
Prespa, but Vladimir did not want to go out his land; not even after many subsequent Vladislav’s promises and pledges that he meant no harm to him. Finally, Vladislav sent him a golden cross with his pledge on it, to which Vladimir replied: Two bishops and a hermit came to Vladimir, gave him a wooden cross, and confirmed that the Tsar had made the pledge on it. Vladimir kissed the cross, collected a few followers, and set off to Prespa. As soon as he arrived there, he went into a church for a prayer. When he came out of the church, he was struck down by Vladislav’s soldiers and beheaded, all the time holding the cross in his hands; it was May 22, 1016. Jovan Vladimir was buried in Prespa, in the same church in front of which he was martyred. Shortly after his death, he was recognized as a martyr and saint. Two or three years after Jovan Vladimir’s burial, Kosara transported his remains to Duklja. She interred him near his court in
Krajina, in the church of Monastery of the Most Holy
Theotokos. Kosara did not marry again; by her will, she was interred in the same church, at the feet of her husband. ==References==