Mihailo Ovčarević ( sr-cyr, Михаило Овчаревић; 1550–79) was a

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history, and language. They primarily live in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

''vojvoda'' (commander) of the

Šajkaši ''Šajkaši'' (In Serbian, sr-cyrl, шајкаши, ) refers to the river flotilla troops guarding the Danube and Sava, and especially, the Port of Belgrade, against the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to the 19th century. During that period, the r ...

(river flotilla). Mihailo Ovčarević belonged to the Ovčarević family, a notable Serb family in Habsburg service in the 16th century, and was a relative of the earlier Petar Ovčarević (fl. 1521–41), a Šajkaši commander and spy, and contemporaries Dimitrije Ovčarević (fl. 1552–66), captain of Gyula, and Jovan Ovčarević (fl. 1557), an emissary. He is mentioned in 1550 as a ''vojvoda'' of the Šajkaši., After a

denunciation Denunciation (from Latin ''denuntiare'', "to denounce") is the act of publicly assigning to a person the blame for a perceived wrongdoing, with the hope of bringing attention to it. Notably, centralized social control in authoritarian states r ...

, Emperor Ferdinand I had Mihailo imprisoned, where he stayed for several months until having proved his innocence. As compensation, Ferdinand I issued him a yearly 50 gold coins, which was then changed to 25. In 1557 he asked the War Council to appoint him a ''vojvoda'' in

Komárno Komárno (, , ), colloquially also called ''Révkomárom'', ''Öregkomárom'', ''Észak-Komárom'' in Hungarian language, Hungarian, is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Historically it was formed by the "old ...

. It is unknown whether he succeeded. It seems that he continued living on his low pension which was not paid regularly; the payment issue is evident from his many appeals. He is last mentioned in 1579.

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* * * * {{cite web, last=Stojkovski, first=Boris, title=The cultural and historical heritage of Vojvodina in the context of classical and medieval studies, editor=Đura Hardi, publisher=Filozofski fakultet, location=Novi Sad, year=2015, pages=205–222, url=https://www.academia.edu/11767832 16th-century Serbian people Serbian military leaders Habsburg Serbs Serbs of Vojvodina 16th-century Hungarian nobility