We have seen the origin and early history of this power. After its western dominions passed to the Nicene Emperors and Sinôpê to the Turk, the Trapezuntine Empire was confined to the eastern part of the south coast of the Euxine, stretching over part of Iberia, and keeping the Imperial possessions in the Tauric Chersonêsos. Sometimes independent, sometimes tributary to Turks or Mongols, the power of Trebizond lived on for nearly eighty years as a distinct and rival Roman Empire. ♦Agreement between Constantinople and Trebizond, 1281.♦ Then, when Constantinople was again in Greek hands, John Komnênos of Trebizond was content to acknowledge Michael Palaiologos as Emperor of the Romans, and to content himself with the style of ‘Emperor of all the East, of Iberia, and of Perateia.’ This last name means the province beyond the sea, in the Tauric Chersonêsos or Crim. We thus see that the style of ‘Emperor of the East,’ which it is sometimes convenient to give to him of Constantinople, strictly belongs to him of Trebizond. The new Empire of the East suffered many fluctuations of territory, chiefly at the hands of the neighbouring Turkomans. Chalybia, the land of iron, was lost; the coast-line was split asunder; the Empire bowed to Timour. ♦Turkish conquest of Trebizond; 1461.♦ But the capital and a large part of the coast bore up to the last, and did not pass under the Ottoman yoke till eight years after the fall of Constantinople. ♦of Perateia. 1472.♦ The outlying dependency of Perateia or Gothia was not conquered till eleven years later still. As the Tauric Chersonêsos had sheltered the last Greek commonwealth, it sheltered also the last Greek principality.
§ 6. The Slavonic States.
The Greek and Frank states of which we have just been speaking arose, for the most part they directly arose, out of the Latin partition of the Empire. ♦Effects of the partition of the Empire on the Slavonic states.♦ On the Slavonic powers the effect of that partition was only indirect. Servia and Bulgaria had begun their second career of independence before the partition. The partition touched them only so far as the splitting up of the Empire into a number of small states took away all fear of their being again brought under its obedience. In Croatia and Dalmatia all trace of the Imperial power passed away. The Magyar held the inland parts; the question was whether the Magyar or the Venetian should hold the coast.
♦Servia and Bulgaria.♦
The chief independent Slavonic powers were those of Servia and Bulgaria. Of these, Servia represents the unmixed Slave, as unmixed, that is, as any nation can be; Bulgaria represents the Slave brought under some measure of Turanian influence and mixture. The history of the purer race is the longer and the more brilliant. The Servian people made a longer resistance to the Turk than the Bulgarian people; they were the first to throw off his yoke; one part of them never submitted to his yoke at all. ♦Extent of Servia.♦ The oldest Servia, as we 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. ♦Relations to the Empire.♦ But till the fall of the old Empire, the Imperial claims over Servia were always asserted and were often enforced. ♦1018.♦ Indeed common enmity to the Bulgarian, the momentary conqueror of Servia,[42] formed a tie between Servia and the Empire down to the complete incorporation of Servia by Basil the Second. ♦1040.
Conquest by Manuel Komnênos; 1148.♦ The successful revolt of Servia made room for more than one claimant of Servian dominion and kingship; but the Imperial claims remained, to be enforced again in their fulness by Manuel Komnênos. 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.
♦Relations towards Hungary.♦
They had to struggle against more dangerous enemies to the north in the Kings of Hungary. ♦Loss of Bosnia.♦ 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. ♦1286.♦ This land was more than once won back by Servia; but its tendency was to separation and to growth at the cost of Servia. ♦1326.♦ In the first half of the fourteenth century, Bosnia was enlarged by the Servian lands bordering on the Dalmatian coast, the lands of 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. ♦Servian advance eastward and southward.♦ Servia, thus cut short to the north and west, was driven to advance southward and eastward, at the expense of Bulgaria and of the powers which 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. ♦Her seaboard. 1296.♦ Shorn of her old Hadriatic seaboard, she gained a new and longer one, stretching from the mouths of Cattaro to Durazzo. ♦1319-1322.♦ Durazzo itself twice fell into Servian hands; but at the time of the highest power of Servia that city remained an Angevin outpost on the Servian mainland. ♦Reign of Stephen Dushan, 1331-1355.♦ That highest power was reached in the reign of Stephen Dushan, who spread his dominions far 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. ♦1346.
The Servian Empire.♦ The new Empire stretched uninterruptedly from the Danube to the Corinthian gulf. At one end Bosnia was won back; 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.
♦Break up of the Servian power, 1355.♦
But the Servian tzardom broke in pieces at the 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.[43] 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. ♦Later Kingdom of Servia.♦ 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 holding the lands between the Drina and the Morava. ♦Conquests and deliverances of Servia. 1375.♦ The Turk first took Nish, and brought the kingdom under tribute. ♦1389.♦ The overthrow at Kossovo made Servia wholly dependent. ♦1403.♦ With the fall of Bajazet it again became free for a generation. ♦1438.♦ Then the Turk won the whole land except Belgrade. ♦1442.
1444.♦ Then the campaign of Huniades restored Servia as a free kingdom; the event of Varna again brought her under tribute. ♦1459.♦ At last Mahomet the Conqueror incorporated all Servia, except Belgrade, with his dominions.
♦The Kingdom of Bosnia.♦