Formation of the Servian Monarchy.--Contest between the Latin and
Greek Churches.--Stephan Dushan.--A Great Warrior.--Results of his
Victories.--Knes Lasar.--Invasion of Amurath.--Battle of
Kossovo.--Death of Lasar and Amurath.--Fall of the Servian
Monarchy.--General Observations.
I cannot present what I have to say on the feudal monarchy of Servia
more appropriately than in connexion with the architectural monuments
of the period.
The Servians, known in Europe from the seventh century, at which
period they migrated from the Carpathians to the Danube, were in the
twelfth century divided into petty states.
"Le premier Roi fut un soldat heureux."
Neman the First, who lived near the present Novibazar, first cemented
these scattered principalities into a united monarchy. He assumed the
double eagle as the insignium of his dignity, and considered the
archangel Michael as the patron saint of his family. He was brave in
battle, cunning in politics, and the convent of Studenitza is a
splendid monument of his love of the arts. Here he died, and was
buried in 1195.
Servia and Bosnia were, at this remote period, the debatable territory
between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, so divided was
opinion at that time even in Servia Proper, where now a Roman Catholic
community is not to be found, that two out of the three sons of this
prince were inclined to the Latin ritual.
Stephan, the son of Neman, ultimately held by the Greek Church, and
was crowned by his brother Sava, Greek Archbishop of Servia. The
Chronicles of Daniel tell that "he was led to the altar, anointed with
oil, clad in purple, and the archbishop, placing the crown on his
head, cried aloud three times, 'Long live Stephan the first crowned
King and Autocrat of Servia,' on which all the assembled magnates and
people cried, _'nogo lieto_!' (many years!)"
The Servian kingdom was gradually extended under his successors, and
attained its climax under Stephan Dushan, surnamed the Powerful, who
was, according to all contemporary accounts, of tall stature and a
commanding kingly presence. He began his reign in the year 1336, and
in the course of the four following years, overran nearly the whole of
what is now called Turkey in Europe; and having besieged the Emperor
Andronicus in Thessalonica, compelled him to cede Albania and
Macedonia. Prisrend, in the former province, was selected as the
capital; the pompous honorary charges and frivolous ceremonial of the
Greek emperors were introduced at his court, and the short-lived
national order of the Knights of St. Stephan was instituted by him in
1346.
He then turned his arms northwards, and defeated Louis of Hungary in
several engagements. He was preparing to invade Thrace, and attempt
the conquest of Constantinople, in 1356, with eighty thousand men, but
death cut him off in the midst of his career.
The brilliant victories of Stephan Dushan were a misfortune to
Christendom. They shattered the Greek empire, the last feeble bulwark
of Europe, and paved the way for those ultimate successes of the
Asiatic conquerors, which a timely union of strength might have
prevented. Stephan Dushan was the little Napoleon of his day; he
conquered, but did not consolidate: and his scourging wars were
insufficiently balanced by the advantage of the code of laws to which
he gave his name.
His son Urosh, being a weak and incapable prince, was murdered by one
of the generals of the army, and thus ended the Neman dynasty, after
having subsisted 212 years, and produced eight kings and two emperors.
The crown now devolved on Knes, or Prince Lasar, a connexion of the
house of Neman, who was crowned Czar, but is more generally called
Knes Lasar. Of all the ancient rulers of the country, his memory is
held the dearest by the Servians of the present day. He appears to
have been a pious and generous prince, and at the same time to have
been a brave but unsuccessful general.
Amurath, the Ottoman Sultan, who had already taken all Roumelia,
south of the Balkan, now resolved to pass these mountains, and invade
Servia Proper; but, to make sure of success, secretly offered the
crown to Wuk Brankovich, a Servian chief, as a reward for his
treachery to Lasar.
Wuk caught at the bait, and when the armies were in sight of each
other, accused Milosh Kobilich, the son-in-law of Lasar, of being a
traitor. On the night before the battle, Lasar assembled all the
knights and nobles to decide the matter between Wuk and Milosh. Lasar
then took a silver cup of wine, handed it over to Milosh, and said,
"Take this cup of wine from my hand and drink it." Milosh drank it, in
token of his fidelity, and said, "Now there is no time for disputing.
To-morrow I will prove that my accuser is a calumniator, and that I am
a faithful subject of my prince and father-in-law."
Milosh then embraced the plan of assassinating Amurath in his tent,
and taking with him two stout youths, secretly left the Servian camp,
and presented himself at the Turkish lines, with his lance reversed,
as a sign of desertion. Arrived at the tent of Amurath, he knelt
down, and, pretending to kiss the hand of the Sultan, drew forth his
dagger, and stabbed him in the body, from which wound Amurath died.
Hence the usage of the Ottomans not to permit strangers to approach
the Sultan, otherwise than with their arms held by attendants.
The celebrated battle of Kossovo then took place. The wing commanded
by Wuk gave way, he being the first to retreat. The division commanded
by Lasar held fast for some time, and, at length, yielded to the
superior force of the Turks. Lasar himself lost his life in the
battle, and thus ended the Servian monarchy on the 15th of June, 1389.
The state of Servia, previous to its subjugation by the Turks, appears
to have been strikingly analogous to that of the other feudal
monarchies of Europe; the revenue being derived mostly from crown
lands, the military service of the nobles being considered an
equivalent for the tenure of their possessions. Society consisted of
ecclesiastics, nobles, knights, gentlemen, and peasants. A citizen
class seldom or never figures on the scene. Its merchants were
foreigners, Byzantines, Venetians, or Ragusans, and history speaks of
no Bruges or Augsburg in Servia, Bosnia, or Albania.
The religion of the state was that of the oriental church; the secular
head of which was not the patriarch of Constantinople; but, as is now
the case in Russia, the emperor himself, assisted by a synod, at the
head of which was the patriarch of Servia and its dependencies.
The first article of the code of Stephan Dushan runs thus: "Care must
be taken of the Christian religion, the holy churches, the convents,
and the ecclesiastics." And elsewhere, with reference to the Latin
heresy, as it was called, "the Orthodox Czar" was bound to use the
most vigorous means for its extirpation; those who resisted were to be
put to death.
At the death of a noble, his arms belonged by right to the Czar; but
his dresses, gold and silver plate, precious stones, and gilt girdles
fell to his male children, whom failing, to the daughters. If a noble
insulted another noble, he paid a fine; if a gentleman insulted a
noble, he was flogged.
The laity were called "dressers in white:" hence one must conclude
that light coloured dresses were used by the people, and black by the
clergy. Beards were worn and held sacred: plucking the beard of a
noble was punished by the loss of the right hand.
Rape was punished with cutting off the nose of the man; the girl
received at the same time a third of the man's fortune, as a
compensation. Seduction, if not followed by marriage, was expiated by
a pound of gold, if the party were rich; half a pound of gold, if the
party were in mediocre circumstances; and cutting off the nose if the
party were poor.
If a woman's husband were absent at the wars, she must wait ten years
for his return, or for news of him. If she got sure news of his death,
she must wait a year before marrying again. Otherwise a second
marriage was considered adultery.
Great protection was afforded to friendly merchants, who were mostly
Venetians. All lords of manors were enjoined to give them hospitality,
and were responsible for losses sustained by robbery within their
jurisdiction. The lessees of the gold and silver mines of Servia, as
well as the workmen of the state mint, were also Venetians; and on
looking through Professor Shafarik's collection, I found all the coins
closely resembling in die those of Venice. Saint Stephan is seen
giving to the king of the day the banner of Servia, in the same way as
Saint Mark gives the banner of the republic of Venice to the Doge, as
seen on the old coins of that state.
The process of embalming was carried to high perfection, for the mummy
of the canonized Knes Lasar is to be seen to this day. I made a
pilgrimage some years ago to Vrdnik, a retired monastery in the Frusca
Gora, where his mummy is preserved with the most religious care, in
the church, exposed to the atmosphere. It is, of course, shrunk,
shrivelled, and of a dark brown colour, bedecked with an antique
embroidered mantle, said to be the same worn at the battle of Kossovo.
The fingers were covered with the most costly rings, no doubt since
added.
It appears that the Roman practice of burning the dead, (probably
preserved by the Tsinsars, the descendants of the colonists in
Macedonia,) was not uncommon, for any village in which such an act
took place was subject to fine.
If there be Moslems in secret to this day in Andalusia, and if there
were worshippers of Odin and Thor till lately on the shores of the
Baltic, may not some secret votaries of Jupiter and Mars have lingered
among the recesses of the Balkan, for centuries after Christianity had
shed its light over Europe?
The Servian monarchy having terminated more than half a century before
the invention of printing, and most of the manuscripts of the period
having been destroyed, or dispersed during the long Turkish
occupation, very little is known of the literature of this period
except the annals of Servia, by Archbishop Daniel, the original
manuscript of which is now in the Hiliendar monastery of Mount Athos.
The language used was the old Slaavic, now a dead language, but used
to this day as the vehicle of divine service in all Greco-Slaavic
communities from the Adriatic to the utmost confines of Russia, and
the parent of all the modern varieties of the Southern and Eastern
Slaavic languages.