Changes in Identity and Ideology in the Byzantine World in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century: The Case of Serbia

The twelfth century brought a paradigm-shifting change to the region of southeast Europe, exemplified by the case of the creation of medieval Serbia in the form and with the features that would characterise this polity until the end of the Middle Ages. The Serbia of the 1160s onwards and the Serbia of the eleventh and first half of the twelfth centuries were two clearly and conspicuously different political formations. This is particularly true regarding identity, ideology and religion, three basic features and markers of political self-perception and self-representation in the Middle Ages, which became unified in a coherent political platform