CHAP. X. Relations to the Empire. have seen, stretched far beyond the bounds of the present principality, and had a considerable Hadriatic sea'board, though interrupted by the Roman cities. Among the Zupans or princes of the many Servian tribes, the chief were the northern Grand-Zupans of Desnica on the Drina, and the southern Grand-Zupans of Dioklea or Rascia, so called from their capital Rassa, the modern Novi-Bazar. This last principality was the germ of the historical kingdom of Servia. But till the fall of the old Empire, the Imperial claims over Servia were always asserted and were often enforced. Indeed common enmity to the Bulgarian, the momentary conqueror of Servia, formed a tie between Servia and the Empire down to the complete incorporation of Servia by Basil the Second. The successful revolt of Servia made room for more than one claimant of Servian dominion and kingship; but the Imperial claims reKomnenos. mained, to be enforced again in their fulness by Manuel Komnenos. At last the Latin conquest relieved Servia from all danger on the part of Constantinople; Servia stood forth as an independent power under the kings of the house of Nemanja. 1018. 1040. Conquest by Manuel 1148. Relations towards Loss of They had to struggle against more dangerous Hungary. enemies to the north in the Kings of Hungary. Even before the last Imperial conquest, the Magyars had cut away the western part of Servia, the land beyond the Drina, known as Bosnia or Rama. Under the last name it gave the Hungarian princes one of their royal titles. This land was more than once won back by Servia; but its tendency was to separation and to growth at the cost of Servia. In the first half of the fourteenth century, Bosnia was enlarged by the Servian 1 See above, p. 377. 1286. 1326. KINGDOM AND EMPIRE OF SERVIA. 425 X. advance and south Her sea board. lands bordering on the Dalmatian coast, the lands of CHAP. Zachloumia and Terbounia, which were never permanently won back. So the lands on the Save, between the Drina and the Morava, taking in the modern capital of Belgrade, passed, in the endless shiftings of the frontier, at one time to Bulgaria and at another to Hungary. Servia, thus cut short to the north and Servian west, was driven to advance southward and eastward, eastward at the expense of Bulgaria and of the powers which ward. had taken the place of the Empire on the lower Hadriatic coast. From the latter part of the thirteenth century onwards, Servia grew to be the greatest power in the south-eastern peninsula. Shorn of her old Hadriatic seaboard, she gained a new and longer one, stretching from the mouths of Cattaro to Durazzo. 1296. Durazzo itself twice fell into Servian hands; but at 1319-1322. the time of the highest power of Servia that city remained an Angevin outpost on the Servian mainland. That highest power was reached in the reign Reign of of Stephen Dushan, who spread his dominions far Dushan, indeed at the cost of Greeks and Franks, at the cost of his old Slavonic neighbours and of the rising powers of Albania. In the new Servian capital of Skopia, Skoupi, or Skopje, the Tzar Stephen took an Imperial crown as Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. The new Empire 1316. stretched uninterruptedly from the Danube to the The Corinthian gulf. At one end Bosnia was won back; Empire. at the other end the Servian rule was spread over Aitôlia and Thessaly, over Macedonia and Thrace as far as Christopolis. It only remained to give a head to this great body, and to make New Rome the seat of the Servian power. Stephen 1331-1355. Servian But the Servian tzardom broke in pieces at the Break up X. of the Servian power, 1355. CHAP. death of the great Servian Tzar; and before he died, the Ottoman was already in Europe. In fact the historical result of the great advance of Servia was to split up the whole of the Greek and Slavonic lands, and to leave no power of either race able to keep out the barbarian. We have seen how the titles of Stephen's Empire lived for a generation in the Greek part of his dominions.1 In Macedonia and Thrace several small principalities sprang up, and a power arose at Skodra of which we shall have to speak again. To the north Bosnia fell away, and carried Zachloumia with it. Servia itself comes out of the chaos as a separate kingdom, a kingdom wholly cut off from the sea, but stretching southward as far as Prisrend, and again Conquests holding the lands between the Drina and the Morava. The Turk first took Nish, and brought the kingdom under tribute. The overthrow at Kossovo made Servia wholly dependent. With the fall of Bajazet it again became free for a generation. Then the Turk won the whole land except Belgrade. Later Kingdom of and delive rances of Servia. 1375. 1389. 1403. 1438. 1442. 1444. 1459. The King dom of Bosnia. Then the campaign At of Huniades restored Servia as a free kingdom; the The history of Bosnia, as a really separate power, holding its own place in Europe, begins with the breakup of the momentary Servian Empire. The Ban Stephen Its origin, Tvartko became the first king of the last Bosnian dynasty, under the nominal superiority of the Hungarian crown. Thus, at the very moment of the coming of the Turk, a kingdom of Latin creed and associations became the 1376. 1 See above, p. 420. KINGDOM OF BOSNIA. 427 X. extent of 1382. Jayce, 1391. Saint Saba first power among the south-eastern Slaves. For a while CHAP. it seemed as if Bosnia was going to take the place which had been held by Servia. The Bosnian kingdom at Greatest its greatest extent took in all the present Bosnia and Bosnia, Herzegovina, with, it would seem, all Dalmatia except Zara, and the north-west corner of Servia stretching beyond the Drina. But the Bosnian power was broken at Kossovo as well as that of Servia. In the time of confusion which followed, Jayce in the north-west Loss of corner became a power connected with both Hungary and Bosnia, while the Turk established himself in the extreme south. The Turk was driven out for a while, but the kingdom was dismembered to form a new Latin power. The Lord of the old Zach- Duchy of loumia, a Bosnian vassal, transferred his homage to the or Herze Austrian king of the Romans, and, became sovereign 1440. Duke of Saint Sava, perhaps rather of Primorie. Thus arose the state of Herzegovina, that is the Duchy, commemorating in its half-German name the relation of its prince to the Western Empire. But neither kingdom nor duchy was long-lived. Within ten years after 1449. the separation of Herzegovina the Turk held western Bosnia. Fourteen years later he subdued the whole Turkish kingdom. The next year the duchy became tributary, Bosnia, and twenty years after the conquest of Bosnia it was of Herzeincorporated with the now Turkish province of Bosnia. 1483. But in the long struggle between Venice and the Turk various parts of its territory, especially the coast, came under the power of the Republic. Meanwhile one small Slavonic land, one surviving fragment of the great Servian dominion, maintained its independence through all changes. In the break-up govina. conquest of 1463; govina, СНАР. Dominion of the house of Balza at Skodra. Loss of Skodra, 1394. of Monte of the Servian Empire, a small state, with Skodra for its capital, formed itself in the district of Zeta, reaching northwards as far as Cattaro. For a moment its princes of the house of Balsa spread their power over all Northern Albania; but the new state was cut short on all sides by Bosnia, Venice, and the Turk, and Skodra itself was sold to Venice. In the middle of the fifteenth century, the state took a more Beginning definite shape, though with a smaller territory, under negro, 1456. a new dynasty, that of Tzernojevich. This independent remnant answered to the modern Tzernagora or Montenegro, with a greater extent to the east and with a small seaboard taking in Antivari. Its capital Zabljak was more than once lost and won from the Turk; at the end of the century it was found hopeless to defend the lower districts, and prince and people withdrew to the natural fortress of the Black Mountain with its newly Establish founded capital of Tzetinje. The last prince of the dynasty resigned his power to the metropolitan bishop, and Montenegro remained an independent state under its Vladikas or hereditary prelates, till their dominion was in our own time again exchanged for that of temporal princes. During all this time the territory of Montenegro was simply so much of the mountain region as could maintain its independence against the ceaseless attacks of the Turk. Yet Montenegro, as the ally of England and Russia, bore her part in the great European struggle, and won for herself a haven and a capital at Cattaro. Her allies stood by while Cattaro was filched by the Austrian ; and, more than forty years later, when a definite frontier was first traced, Western diplomacy so traced it as to give the Turk an inlet on both sides to the uncon ment of Tzetinje, 1488. The Vladikas, 1499. Lay princes, 1851. 1813. 1858. |