Stephen's marriage to Helen took place on 1 April, the first Sunday following Easter. Following the presumably Catholic ceremony, the bride was known as Maria. He assumed the title of despot, despite the fact that the title was neither hereditary nor tied to a specific territory, but a grant from the Byzantine emperor. It is possible that his mother-in-law, a member of Byzantium's last imperial family, believed that she had the right to grant the title in the absence of an emperor. Within a week of the wedding, Stephen exiled his wife's uncle from Serbia. King Thomas boasted to the Duke of Milan that his son had been made despot "with the agreement and will of all the Rascians", but Stephen's regime was not particularly popular; chroniclers writing about his treatment of his wife's uncle cursed him as a schismatic.