AH Challenge: Serbian Empire Survives

The Serbian Empire of Stefan Dušan lasted from 1346 to 1371. Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial peak by seizing territories to the south, south-east and east at the expense of Byzantium. He also created the Dušan's Code, a juridical achievement unique among the European states of the time. After his death in 1355 he was succeeded by his less able son, Stefan Uroš V, called the Weak. Uroš could neither repel attacks of foreign enemies nor combat the independence of his nobility, and the Empire slowly slid into feudal anarchy.

Your challenge is to reverse these developments and keep the Serbian Empire as a regional power in the Balkans. There are several issues that need to be addressed, such as Stefan Uroš's incompetence to the rise of the Ottomans in the east. But what else must be done?

What can you think of?
 
The gradual fall of the Serbian Empire is strongly linked to the civil war which broke out between Dušan's son and half-brother after his death. It basically split the Empire in two and gradually made both of them lose control over their nobility.

So if this civil war never happens - or if it's quickly concluded with the total victory of one side - the monarch's authority and power will remain much stronger and the state will be in a better condition. Much greater internal stability would also mean a much greater chance to resist the Ottoman invasion.

So killing off either Uroš V or his uncle Simeon before 1355 might be enough.



EDIT: oops, zombie thread.
 
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