The last sovereign, Stephen Tomašević, ruled briefly as Despot of Serbia in 1459 and as King of Bosnia between 1461 and 1463, before losing both countries – and his head – to the Ottoman Turks.

[nb 1] Some later historians, such as Lajos Thallóczy, have rejected the theory of a German origin of the Kotromanić, and instead argued the family was indigenous to Bosnia.

[2] Europäische Stammtafeln suggests that Prijezda and Ninoslav were first cousins, fathered by different sons of a certain Kotroman (Cotromanus).

[3] Prijezda I's realm was significantly smaller than Ninoslav's, the northern regions of Usora and Soli having been detached by the Hungarian crown.

The marriage had great consequences in the subsequent centuries, when Stephen and Elizabeth's Kotromanić descendants claimed the throne of Serbia.

In the course of his reign Stephen II expanded the Kotromanić realm to its farthest limits thus far ("from the Sava to the seaside and from the Cetina to the Drina"), doubling Bosnia's territory.

[7] Tvrtko initially lost a significant part of his patrimony to Louis, supposedly promised as Elizabeth's dowry,[8] and was briefly deposed in 1365-66 in favour of his younger brother, Vuk.

He conquered some remnants of the Serbian Empire and, citing his descent from Serbia's extinct Nemanjić dynasty through his grandmother Elizabeth, had himself crowned king in 1377.

[12] The royal authority weakened after Tvrtko I's death but the stanak, the assembly of Bosnian noblemen, consistently elected members of the Kotromanić family to the throne.

Tvrtko's successor, Dabiša (r. 1391–1395), likely an illegitimate brother or possibly a cousin, recognized as his heir the Hungarian king Sigismund, son-in-law of Stephen II's daughter Elizabeth.

Documents often identify him as Ostoja Kristić, which led early historians (including Orbini) to claim that he was not a Kotromanić.

He immediately repudiated his commoner wife, Vitača, and married Kujava Radinović, a member of a Bosnian noble family.

His third wife, Jelena Nelipčić, brought a considerable part of the Hrvatinić land to the Kotromanić royal domain in 1416.

The former ended in 1459 when Thomas arranged the marriage of his elder son, Stephen, with Helen, eldest daughter of the recently deceased Serbian despot Lazar.

[1] The demesne of the Kotromanić family was, for the most part, located in central Bosnia, including towns and mines such as Visoko, Bobovac, Sutjeska, Fojnica and Kreševo.

[13] Despite the nominal adherence of the family to Catholicism, the faith became important only to the last two Kotromanić kings, Thomas and his son Stephen.

[1] The last known generation of the family, Thomas' son Sigismund and daughter Catherine, converted to Islam some years after their capture by the Ottomans.