Servia, the Poor Man's Paradise, etc

Front matter

SERVIA THE king of servia SERVIA THE POOR MANS PARADISE pa- HERBERT VIVIAN, M.A. officer of the royal order of takovo WITH POIiTRAIT AND MAP LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1897 All rights reserved DEDICATION MOJIM LJUBAZNIM PRIJATELJIMA, NJIHOVIM EKSTSELENTSIjama Gospodinu Stevi D. Popovicu I Gospodinu Chedi Mijatovictj ; mome dobrom pobratimu Kapetanu Ljubisavljevicu ; I svima mojim dragim poznanitsima, koji su me tako obilato obasipali nebrojnim ljubaznostima za vreme moga bavljenja u krasnoj Srbiji, sa PUNO ZAHVALNOSTI I LJUBAVI POSVECUJEM OVE SHSTOVE.1 V. 1 Translation :— To my kind friends, their Excellencies MM. Steva D. Popoyi<5 and Chedo Mijatovi6 ; to my good pobratim, Captain Ljubisavljey*5 ; and to all the charming acquaintances who lavished countless courtesies upon me during my visit to smiling Servia, I most gratefully and affectionately dedicate these rages.

Preface

An intelligent child in a Board School may rattle off facts or fancies about Montezuma, Leonidas, or Eienzi, while the very elect of our historians may be nonplussed by a reference to Dushan, or Tsar Lazar, or Marko Kraljevic, or even Kara George. We waste serious thought upon the sordid squabbles of corrupt republics across the Channel and the Ocean, we shed mawkish tears over the punishment of financial intrigues in Armenia and the Transvaal, and we compass sea and land to gather a precarious interest for plethoric capital amid fever-swamps, wild beasts, and wilder men. Meanwhile we do not seem to suspect that within little more than two days' rail from our capital there lies an undeveloped country of extraordinary fertility and potential wealth, possessing a history more wonderful than anjr fairy tale, and a race of heroes and patriots who may one day set Europe by the ears.

Nothing serious has been written about Servia for some thirty years, and for the sake of our commerce, our foreign policy, and our self-respect, it is of moment that the veil should be lifted. I have now made a careful study of Servia and the Servians. I have visited the principal parts of the SERVIA VIII country — mills, mines, monasteries, schools, studs, farms, barracks, military exercises, the ruins of her past and the foundations of her future ; I have seen the people en fete, the people preparing for a great political demonstration, and the people in repose ; I have cross-examined party leaders, bishops, archimandrites, village popes, Nachelnitsi,1 Kmeti,2 officers, traders, peasants, and even hajdutsi 3 in clanking chains ; I have read the breathless histories and studied the manners and customs in all their vivid, old-world originality.

The Servians have said to me, over and over again, ' We want merely justice ; relate only what you have seen.' To which I have replied, ' My good people, if I related only one-half of all the wonderful things I have seen, not a soul in England would believe me. I should be told I had written — not about Servia, but about Atlantis or Utopia.' I have therefore taken pains to curb my enthusiasm, and have availed myself of moments of depression to dilute the rose-colour which plays upon this smiling land. If I have remained too optimistic, the fault is not mine ; for until I saw Servia I disbelieved in modern nations. The blame, if any there be, must be laid at the door of the strange little kingdom which has no poor within its borders, where good-humour is chronic and hospitality universal, where alone upon the whole face of the world the name of England is loved and held in honour. I hold no brief for Servia. I went to Belgrade in the course of aimless travels, intending to spend a few 1 Prefects. - Mayors. 3 Brigands.

PREFACE.

IX hours. I found the town agog upon an historical occasion — the first visit of a Montenegrin Prince since Kosovo, five centuries ago. I became interested, I spent many months going to and fro in the land, and now I record what I have seen. Nor do I hold a brief for any particular party in Servia. I went there with a large share of that monu mental ignorance which characterises the majority of my countrymen respecting all things Servian. This enabled me to approach every person and pretension with a perfectly open mind ; and if I have seemed since to take a side, I have only been led to do so by applying the everlasting principles which are the mainsprings of aU political honour and prosperity. The lesson I have learned and the precept I wish to enforce are briefly these : That England has done wrong to concern herself so little with the development of Servia, and that no time must be lost in remedying the omission.

As an ally in the solution of the perennial Eastern Question, her loyalt}', her sturdy common-sense, and her jealousy of Eussia may be invaluable to us. As a market for our cottons, iron, steel, and machinery, and also as a 'granary more trustworthy and more accessible than those of the New World, she may easily affect our commercial destiny. In any case, she is a dainty miniature and cannot fail to please the eye of every artist. Beautiful Servia ! my soul will always linger amid the rapture of thy purple hills. V. Brighton : Michaelmas Day, 18117. CONTENTS r\OK Dedication v Preface ............. vii Transliteration and Pronunciation xiii Authorities xv Historical Introduction xix

Chapter I

The Court 1 II. Political Parties . . .15 III. Foreign Policy 29 IV. The Army 48 V. The Church 65 VI. Finance 102 VII. Industry, Commerce, and Communications . . . . 109 VIII. Agriculture 150 IX. Administration 172 X. Literature and Education 185 XL Beautiful Belgrade ........ 195 XII. Towns and Country 236 Index 293 Portrait of King of Servia .... . Frontispiece Map of Servia at end of book TEANSLITEEATION & PEONUNCIATION Writers on Slav countries have gone far out of their way to confuse the pronunciation of proper names. Some have adopted the German form of transliteration, others have followed the French into error, while others again have brought new systems into being without the faintest regard for plausibility or common sense. The Servians themselves must be blamed for contri buting to this confusion.

I have before me a high pile of the visiting-cards which they were so good as to leave upon me, and I find that where they print their names in Latin characters they do so entirely without system, groping helplessly after French, German, even Hungarian, and other fancy pronuncia tions. Now, as the Servian and Croatian languages are practically identical, and as the Croatians use the Latin alphabet, it is evidently much simpler and much more reasonable to adopt the Croatian transliteration. This I have done throughout, excepting in the case of a few signs which have an exact English equivalent, for in that case it seemed pedantic to perplex the English reader unnecessarily. In this way I have been able to confine myself to our alphabet, with the solitary exception of the Croatian letter 6. This occurs particularly at the end of patronymics, and is rendered by the French tch, by the Germans tsch, just as if it were the Croatian letter c. The two letters are, however, distinct ; and though lazy people will be understood if they pro nounce c like the English ch, it is best rendered by a short sneeze.

As a guide to pronunciation, it will suffice to say that a, e, i, u are souuded as in Italian : viz., a— ah i=-ee e = eh u = oo SERVIA j is sounded as in German, and is the equivalent of our consonant y. The compound letters Ij, nj, dj, which are single letters in Servian, answer : Ij to the French 11 in filleul or the Italian al in rjli. nj to the Spanish si or the Italian an in ogni. dj to the French cli in Dieu, or to the sound at the beginning of the English word duty. The Croatian letters z, c, 6, s, and dz, I have rendered zh, ts, ch, sh, and dzh respectively — zh representing the French j in jour. All other letters are to be sounded as in English. The reader must not be surprised to find the letter r occasionally figure as a vowel. Nor, without learning Servian, can he hope to avoid an occasional false quantity.

I believe we are alone among nations in speaking of ' Servia ' and ' Servians,' words which are resented as implying servitude, though they do not do so any more than ' Slav ' implies slavery. The country calls itself Srbija, and some writers have affected accuracy with the renderings Serbia and the Serbians. But as the v has by this time taken so definite a place in our language, it seems pedantic to follow their example. Moreover, such a course would lead us far afield, and we might be expected to style Roumania, Romania; Germany, Deutschland; or even Hungary, Magyarorszag. But, except in the case of Belgrade, I have called all Servian towns by their Servian names — even Smede rovo, which some persist unnecessarily in dubbing Semendria. A U T H 0 B I T I E S HISTORY ' La Serbie au XIXe Siecle.' Par Saint-Rene Taillandier.

Paris, 1875. An excellent history, written in picturesque style. Deals chiefly with the risings of Kara George and Milosh, and exhibits a sound, judicial historical acumen. 'The Balkans.' By William Miller ('The Story of the Nations Series '). London, 1896. Mr. Miller possesses the rare gift of vivifying the dry bones of history, and presents the whole career of Servia and her neighbours in palatable form. He commits mistakes, however, in inter preting Dushan to mean ' throttler,' and in ascribing the murder of Kara George to the instigation of Milosh. And he occasionally exhibits the cloven hoof of Liberal ideas. Pamphlets (published in Servian) relating to the case of Queen Nathalie. These, which I have read in French MS. translations, give a n-raphic account of the persecutions to which the good Queen has been subjected. ' Das Leben des Fiirsten Milosch und seine Kriege.' Von P. A. F. C. Possart.

Stuttgart, 1838. ' Die Serbische Revolution.' Von L. von Ranke. Berlin, 1878. ' The History of Modern Servia.' By Elodie Lawton Mijatovic. London, 1872. A careful and impartial narrative. ' Two Months with Tchernaieff in Servia.' By PhUip H. B. Salusbury. London, 1877. An account of the experiences of a volunteer during the Servo-Turkish War of 1876. Very light reading, and occasionally flippant, but not without interest. ' Service in Servia under the Red Cross.' By Miss E. M. Pearson and Miss L. E. McLaughlin. London, 1877. Full of absurd prejudices. ' Adventures in Servia among the Bashi-Bazouks.' By Dr. Alfred Wright. London, 1884. Flippant ; amusing. ' Essai sur les Revolutions et 1'Independance de la Serbie.' Par Dr. Cunibert. Leipzig, 1855. 'Etudes contemporaines sur TAllemagne et les Pays Slaves.' Par Edouard Laboulaye.

Paris, 1872. Contains a pretty account of the episode of Militsa and the crows. SERVIA Herr von Kallay's ' Geschichte der Serben ' must also be mentioned, for it gives one of the brightest and most sympathetic accounts of Servia to be found anywhere. But the author, having donned the livery of Austria, has repented of his conclusions and suppressed his book, which is now difficult to obtaiD. LITERATURE ' Histoire de la Litterature contemporaine chez les Slaves.' Par C. Courriere. Paris, 1879. ' Poesies populaires serbes.' Par Auguste Dozon. Paris, 1859. ' Kossovo : an Attempt to bring Serbian National Songs about the Fall of the Serbian Empire at the Battle of Kossovo into one Poem.' By Elodie Lawton Mijatovic. London, 1881. An useful translation, which serves to make us acquainted with the Servian temperament.

KaradjiCs book of -Peswe (Servian bardic poems); Goethe's, Gebhardt's, Talyv's, and Kapp's translations from Servian poetry. ' Les Freres d'Election.' Par Jean Dornis. Paris, 1896. Very pretty stories, illustrating pobratimstvo, vile, and other Slav customs and legends, but by no means accurate. ARMY ' Handbook of the Armies of the Minor Balkan States.' By E. C. Callwell. London, 1891. CHURCH ' Servia and the Servians.' By the Rev. W. Denton. London, 1862. Mr. Denton's visit is still remembered in Servia, and his book deserves most careful perusal. He views the country mainly from the ecclesiastical aspect, but his reflections on all subjects are vivid and entertaining. Dean Stanley's Lectures on the Eastern Church, and Dr. Neale's writings on the same subject, also afford many sidelights.

MISCELLANEOUS ' The Balkan Peninsula.' By E. de Laveleye. London, 1887. It were presumption to praise M. de Laveleye's work. I know no book more interesting on any subject, nor any writer who is at once so lively and profound. ' Serbien : Historisch-ethnographische Reisestudien aus den Jahren 1859-68.' Von F. Kanitz. Leipzig, 1868. Herr Kanitz is always a fund of information ; but all his books are mere dry material, which require the digestion of an ostrich. ' The Statesman's Year-Book.' Edited by J. Scott Keltie. London 1897. No other book contains so much information about all countries in so small a space. ' La Principality de Serbie.' Par M. Balme. Paris. ' Servia.' By Captain Gambier. London, 1878. ' Srbija.' By V. Karic. Belgrade, 1888. ' The Principality of Servia.' By M. G. Milichevifi.

Belgrade, 1876. AUTHORITIES XVII ' The Kingdom of Servia.' By M. G. Milichevic. Belgrade, 1884. ' La Serbie economique et commerciale.' Par Rene Millet. Paris, 1889. ' The Growth of Freedom in the Balkan Peninsula.' By J. G. 0. Minchin. London, 1886. ' La Serbie et le Montenegro.' Par J. Reinach. Paris, 1876. ' Les Serbes.' Par Vladimir Jovanovic. Paris, 1870. ' Seljanka.' By Janko Veselinovic". The works of Lazar Lazarevid. Realistic stories of Servian ife, many of which I have read in MS. translations. ' La Mission de Serbie dans la Question d'Orient.' Par S. Boskovic". Florence, 1887. ' Le Royaume de Serbie.' Par P. Coquelle. Paris. ' The European Concert on the Eastern Question.' By T. E. Holland. Oxford, 1885. ' Recueil statistique sur les Contrees serbes.' Par Vladimir Jakchid. Belgrade, 1875. ' Poznavanje u nega Tsveca.' By Dr. Radic.

Belgrade, 1895. ' Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey in Europe.' By G. Muir Mackenzie and A. P. Irby. London, 1877. Prejudiced. ' Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot during the Insurrection, August and September, 1875.' By Arthur J. Evans. London, 1877. Contains much incidental information about the Servian people. ' Siidslavische Wanderungen.' Von S. Kapper. Leipzig, 1853. ' Voyage en Orient.' Par Lamartine. Paris, 1859. 'Reise in Serbienim Spatherbst 1829.' Von Otto von Pirch. Berlin, 1830. The various Consular reports issued by our Foreign Office contain great stores of useful information, and I must not omit to acknowledge my indebtedness to them, particularly to those written with so much lucidity and common-sense by Mr. Ranald Macdonald, now British Consul at Belgrade.

I have also to thank the various Government departments of Servia for supplying me with their official publications, and his Excellency M. Chedo Mijatovic, the Servian Minister to the Court of St. James, for many precious hints and an unfailing courtesy. I have also read interesting articles on Servia in the East Anglian Daily Times for July 20th, August 10th, 17tb, 24th, 31st, and September 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 1896.

My acknowledgments are due to the editors of the Daily Netvs, Saturday Review, National Observer, British Revieiv, New Bevieiv and World for permission to republish portions of articles with which I have dignified their pages. a HISTOEICAL INTEODUCTION Pride of the past — Roman times — Slav Colonisation —Patriarchal Government — Overrun by Bulgarian Tsar — Dynasty of Stefan Nemanja (1185) — Bulgarian Empire broken up — Dushan's glorious empire — His death when advancing on Constantinople (1356) — Tsar Lazar — Battle of Kosovo (1389) — Servian ' despots ' — George Brankovic- — Turkish rule preferred to Hungarian — Marko Kraljevic; — Servia under the Turks (1463-1804) — Prince Eugene's raid — Massacre by Janissaries — Kara George supports the Sultan against them — Conflict with Turkey — Battle of Mishar (1806) — Settled dictatorship of Kara George — His cowardice and flight — Milosh Obrenovic — He temporises with the Turks — Insurrection of 1815 — Turks concede local self-government — Death of Kara George — Milosh proclaimed Prince (1817) — Acknowledged by the Sultan (1830) — A benevolent despotism — Constitution of 1835 — Abdication of Milosh (1839) — Michael — Deposition and exile — Alexander Karageorgevid — Deposition and exile — Restoration of Milosh (1859) — Michael's second reign — Bombardment of Belgrade — Withdrawal of Turkish garrisons — Murder of Michael — Milan — War with Turkey — Treaty of Berlin — Servia a Kingdom — War with Bulgaria — Misfortunes of Milan — Abdication — The persecution of Queen Nathalie — Her expulsion — King Alexander's state-strokes — An encouraging outlook To understand Servia, it is imperative to master her history, which still remains, down to its remotest and minutest detail, a living reality to every man, woman, and child in the land.

In England we have perhaps a lingering respect for Wellington and Nelson, but our national heroes of previous centuries arouse little more enthusiasm than the heroes of the latest novelette. In Servia, on the other hand, the humblest peasant takes as vivid and personal an interest in events which hap pened over five hundred years ago as we do in the exploits of a cricket team or a county council. a SERVIA XX When I was travelling on a Save steamer one day, I noticed four peasants engaged in a discussion so vehe mently animated that I was moved to inquire its pur port. My companion returned with a smile on his face. ' They are discussing,' said he, ' whether Milosh Obilic, who killed Sultan Murad after the battle of Kosovo, was buried by the feet or the heads of the two Emperors ! ' And the subject evidently interested them deeply, for half an hour later they were still engrossed in it, with fervent gesticulations and flashing eyes.

Nor was this by any means a solitary instance of the historical en thusiasm which I was privileged to behold. Surely nowhere else in the world, unless it be in Ireland, may we find so patriotic a pride of the past. Despite the loving interest which it evokes, the early history of Servia, down to the beginning of this century, is, however, dependent almost entirely upon legends. The authorities which might have been con sulted, and more particularly the ecclesiastical docu ments of the middle ages — the lives of S. Sava and S. Simeon, the chronicles of Archbishop Danilo and his successors — have been left unpublished and almost undusted in the archives. Until some German drudge shall have collected all the dry bones of Servian history, and some man of genius shall have breathed into them the breath of life, we must be content to grope uncer tainly through the dark ages.

The present kingdom is roughly coterminous with the Eoman province of Mœsia Superior, which was inha bited by Thracian tribes until, in the sixth and seventh centuries, bands of Servians, a Slav tribe from beyond the Carpathians, came as ravaging colonists. Favoured by the Byzantine Emperors, whose suzerainty they accepted, the Servians extended their dominion to the frontier of Macedonia and to the Adriatic, where they made Eagusa their capital. Actuated then as now by a spirit of decentralisation, each of these tribes was governed patriarchally by a zhupan or chief, and all the zhupans in Skupshtina 1 assembled elected a Grand Zhupan or Prince. Then as now there was also a chronic anti pathy between the Servians and the Bulgarians, who, though speaking a Slav dialect, are of pronounced Tartar type.

In the middle of the ninth century we find recorded the definite conversion of Servia to ChristianitjT, and the first Servo-Bulgarian war. This war heralded a see-saw of Servian and Bulgarian supremacy in the Balkans. The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon ravaged Servia, reducing it to the condition of a vast, gloomy un inhabited forest, and virtually blotting it out of the map. Presently the Byzantine Emperors helped Servia to raise her head again, for it was their policy to play one race off against the other, but before long they found their opportunity and swallowed up both Servia and Bulgaria. In the middle of the eleventh century Servia was freed by the same methods which secured her emancipation from the Turks in modern times. It is indeed remarkable how Servian history tends to repeat itself. Stefan Voislav initiated a guerilla warfare from the fastnesses of Montenegro, and his son, Michael Vois lavic, was addressed as King by Pope Gregory VII., who sent him a consecrated banner in the fond hope of alluring him to Eomanism.

The greatness of mediæval Servia dates from the dynasty of Stefan Nemanja in the middle of the twelfth century. After annexing Bosnia in 1169, he warred against the Byzantine Empire with varying success. At one time he was forced to crawl to the Emperor's 1 Now applied to the Chamber of Deputies. SERVIA XXII camp with bare feet and a halter round his neck, but in 1185 he proclaimed his independence, and received the Emperor's daughter as a bride for his son. Such was his renown that Barbarossa visited him at Bel grade. In 1195 he abdicated and retired to a cloister on Mount Athos. His eldest son Stefan, surnamed ' the first crowned,' was then crowned King by another son, S. Sava, first Archbishop of Servia. Stefan was recognised by the Emperor Baldwin as ' by the grace of God, King of all Servian lands even to the sea-coast.' The Servian monarchs then went on from strength to strength, and on June 28, 1330, Stefan Urosh broke up the Bulgarian Empire at the battle of Velbuzhd.

His son Stefan, one of the few really strong statesmen who have illuminated history, hearing of a plot to oust him from the succession, rebelled and strangled his father. He was surnamed Dushan,1 a name now held in su preme honour by every Servian from its associations with the zenith of the imperial glory of the race. Throughout the peninsula he inspired a wild devotion which has not yet expired, and peasant mothers hushed their babies with the terror of his name. He was a great conqueror, a great lawgiver, the creator of a national church. By the treaty of 1340 he consolidated dominions extending from Belgrade to Janina and from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. The Byzantine Emperor was glad to conclude with him pobratimstvo, or blood-brotherhood. Dushan coquetted with the Pope to serve his own ends, but he was loyal to the national church, and never relaxed the article in his 1 Dusha means a soul.

A Servian mother or lover would use the term ' Dushane ! ' ('my soul ' or ' my darling'), and the great Servian ruler retained through life the endearing name which had been givlb him in boyhood. code which sent ' Latin heretics ' to labour in ' the deepest mines.' Then, as now, the aspiration of Servia was to secure an outlet on the Ægean. Dushan extended his dominions to the Gulf of Volo and besieged Salonika. Bulgaria became his vassal ; Bosnia, Herzegovina, Albania, and Macedonia owned his sway. He took the style and title of 'Emperor of the Eomans, Tsar of Macedonia, loving the Christ.' The Byzantine Emperor, John Cantacuzene, grew alarmed, and embarked upon intrigues with the Ottoman Turks. Dushan saw that the only hope for Europe to stem the Turkish advance was to set up his own Empire at Constantinople.

This was then, as now, the supreme aspiration of the Slav race, and on Michaelmas Day 1356 he set out with 80,000 men — a fabulous host in those days, and a respectable army as late as the campaigns of Buona parte. Everything pointed to a mere military parade ; Adrianople fell, and the Servian vanguard was actually at the gates of Constantinople, when, on the 18th of December, Dushan, the invincible Tsar, suddenly succumbed, whether to fever or poison will never certainly be known. The spirit of decentralisation which characterises Servian rule had induced him to divide up his Empire into provinces, each under a powerful chieftain. So long as his iron hand was there to keep ambitious subordinates in awe, all went well, but with the acces sion of his son Urosh V., a weak and unwarlike ruler, the magnificent Empire began to crumble like a house of cards.

Thessaly declared independence ; .Albania re verted to her perennial lawlessness ; Bosnia was pro claimed an independent kingdom ; Hungaiy re-took Belgrade ; and Bulgaria shook off her vassalage. The SERVIA XXIV Turks defeated the Greeks and Servians near Adrianople, and Vukashin, King of Macedonia, put the last of the dynasty of Nemanja to flight and death. Vukashin led a great army against the Turks, but it was annihilated on the Maritsa, and Lazar, who had married into Dushan's family, was elected to the Imperial dignity. He was the last of the Servian 'f sars, and has attracted around him countless melancholy legends, which have inspired Servian bards during the lapse of centuries. He consolidated the Balkan States to union against the common foe, and gathered together a host, which has imaginatively been described as like the leaves of the forest in numbers, to combat the Turks.

A decisive battle, one of the very few decisive battles in the world's history, was fought on the 15th of June, 1389, at Kosovo, the field of the blackbirds. Every Servian legend and bardic hymn treats of Kosovo, and the Montenegrins still wear crape on their caps in mourning for it. The battle might have been won, had not Vuk Brankovic, in jealousy of Lazar and Milosh Obilic, deserted at the crisis of the battle with 12,000 men. He is the Judas Murray of the period, and his name has been handed down for execration to the present day. Lazar and his nine brothers-in-law and the flower of the Servian aristocracy perished, and black crows brought the news of the disaster to the Tsarina Militsa as she sat watch ing in her tower at Krushevats. The assassination of Sultan Murad by Milosh Obilic on the battlefield did not save the Servian cause from disaster.

The glorious Servian Empire had fallen, and now only survives in the hearts of Servian patriots, to be restored perhaps by the young hero, King Alexander, in whom the hopes of every Servian patriot now centre. For the next seventy years the Turks permitted Servian ' despots ' to exercise a nominal power. Ser vians migrated to Montenegro, Bosnia, and Hungary. where their families have remained to this day, hoping continually for the restoration of a Servian Tsar. After Kosovo, Stefan Lazarevic, Lazar's son, reigned as the vassal of Bajazet. His court was a cloister. He lived in prayer and contemplation, careless of political events, preferring religion to patriotism. His sister Mileva married his Suzerain, whose heirs thereby ac quired the legitimate reversion of Servia, as William the Conqueror acquired that of England.

Stefan Lazarevic fought at the battle of Angora when Bajazet was taken prisoner and immured in an iron cage by Tamerlane, a disaster which afforded the Servians a respite, and enabled them to retake Belgrade. Stefan died in 1427 without heirs, and named George Brankovic, son of the traitor of Kosovo, his successor. He built the fortress of Smederovo and made alliance with the King of Hungary, but Murad II. claimed the crown of Servia as a grandson of Mileva, and overran the country, compelling Brankovic to take refuge at Eagusa. In 1440 Servia was entirely under the Turks, and acknowledged the Government of a Pasha. There was, however, one last respite before Servia succumbed and became an integral portion of the Ottoman Empire. John Hunyad, ' the white Knight of Wallachia,' believed by Turks and Christians alike to be a supernatural being, appeared as a deliverer, was joined by the Hungarians, who aspired to impose Eomanism upon Servia, raised the siege of Belgrade, and achieved signal successes.

Only the severity of the winter prevented the utter annihilation of the Turkish army, and the Treaty of Szegedin, 1444, secured the evacuation by the Turks of Servia, which was once more governed by her SERVIA native princes. Brankovic died in 1457, at the ripe age of ninety-one, and, after one more heroic struggle, Servia finally succumbed, being definitely annexed to the Turkish Empire in 1459. A final attempt was made by Lazar Brankovic s widow, Helen Paleologæ, to pre serve the political independence of Servia by offering it as a fief of the Papacy, but the Servians wisely declared that they would rather be subject to Turkey than Eome. George Brankovic had given his daughter in marriage to Sultan Murad II., thereby investing the Turks for the second time with a legitimate claim to the succession, and the Servian nobles invited the brother of the Grand Vizier to be their monarch.

Smederovo opened her gates to him, and city after city followed her example. Better far the tolerant Turk than the intolerant Papist, was the universal sentiment. In 1463, the last King of Bosnia lost his life and his throne, and, with the exception of the dwellers in Montenegro, all Servians either accepted Turkish rule or emigrated to Hungary. A sketch of Servian history during the Turkish dominion would be strangely incomplete without a reference to Marko Kraljevic, who is the Slav Cid or King Arthur, and wears a halo of innumerable legends which vividly pourtray the national ideal. Kraljevic means ' King's son,' the King in question being Vukashin, who supplanted Urosh, son of Dushan. Marko pro tested against this act of disloyalty, whereupon Vuka shin cursed him, praying that he might have neither tomb nor posterity, and might be doomed to serve ' the Tsar of the Turks.' But Urosh blessed him, and prayed that he might know no equal in wisdom or prowess, and that his name might everywhere be celebrated so long as sun and moon should endure. ' Thus they spake, and thus it came to pass,' is the commentary of an old Servian piesma.1 Marko fought in the Sultan's armies, but the Sultan feared him, ' for the wrath of Marko was terrible ; ' and though the peerless Knight has no known sepulture, he lived, if legends may be trusted, for three hundred years ; he still lives in the heart of every patriotic Servian, and there are many who believe that he will awake one day from his long sleep and come forth to restore the glories of the ancient Empire.