He was installed with his brother as Župan of Raška in [1083/84] after Serbia was reconquered in [1082] by Konstantin Bodin King of Duklja, he remained in power there for many years. After a major Byzantine offensive against Duklja in [1089/91], civil war broke out, and Raška, Bosnia and Zahumlje seceded from Dukljan control.
In the early 1090s, Vukan took the title Grand [veliki] Župan. At first based around Novi Pazar, he started raiding Byzantine controlled territory, firstly around Kosovo. The Alexeiad records that "Bolkan…ruler of all Dalmatia" invaded Byzantine land as far as "Lipenium", which he burnt down, but that Emperor Alexios I "marched against the Serbs" who sent ambassadors to arranged peace terms at Skopje, which included "sending members of [his] own family as hostages" to the emperor (although this was not complied with). He defeated an army led by the governor of Durazzo in 1092, after which Emperor Alexios I marched on Raška obliging Vukan to swear homage. After the emperor's departure, Vukan broke his allegiance and took Vranje, Skopje and Tetovo, but was obliged to make peace again in [1094/95]. The Alexeiad records that "Bolkan" eventually left "his own nephews Uresis and Stephen Bolkan" as hostages with the emperor. It is not certain that the peace conditions were complied with, as the Alexeiad records in a later passage that "John the sebastocrator's son" was defeated in Dalmatia, that the emperor "sent a considerable force to help him but Bolkan very craftily made inquiries about peace negotiations…[and] provided the hostages Alexius had demanded", after which Emperor Alexius stayed in the area "for a year and two months" before retiring to Thessaloniki. The birth of the emperor's twin grandchildren (dated to Feb 1106) is recorded in the passage which immediately follows, which places this renewal of hostilities with Vukan to late 1104.
The name of Vukan's wife is not known. 1
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