Abstract
<jats:p>This paper is an effort to reinterpret the position and significance of female members of the dynasty in dynastic changes on the throne in the Bosnian Kingdom at the end of the 14th century and in the Serbian Despotate in the mid-15th century, and also in the transfer of the titular Serbian despotal dignity to a new magnate family in Hungary at the beginning of the 16th century, by re-evaluating known historical facts. The comparison of circumstances in which Jelena Gruba, Mara-Jelena Branković, and Jelena Jakšić found themselves (the death of Gruba’s husband, King Dabiša, and her struggle for the throne with the pretender Ostoja, the death of Mara’s father, Despot Lazar Branković, and her marriage to the Bosnian heir apparent Stefan Tomašević, and the death of Despot Jovan Branković, husband of Jelena Jakšić, and her remarriage to Despot Ivaniš Berislavić, respectively), outlines the phenomenon of female dynastic legitimacy which manifested in the moments of dynastic breakdowns and discontinuities, precisely in order to downplay the perception of the breakdown and to facilitate the re-establishing of (the pretence of) continuity.</jats:p>