The history of Bosnia, as a really separate power, holding its own place in Europe, begins with the break-up of the momentary Servian Empire. ♦Its origin, 1376.♦ The Ban Stephen 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 first power among the south-eastern Slaves. For a while it seemed as if Bosnia was going to take the place which had been held by Servia. ♦Greatest extent of Bosnia, 1382.♦ The Bosnian kingdom at its greatest extent took in all the present Bosnia and 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. ♦Loss of Jayce, 1391.♦ In the time of confusion which followed, Jayce in the north-west 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. ♦Duchy of Saint Saba or Herzegovina. 1440.♦ The Lord of the old Zachloumia, a Bosnian vassal, transferred his homage to the Austrian king of the Romans, and, became sovereign 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. ♦1449.♦ Within ten years after the separation of Herzegovina the Turk held western Bosnia. ♦Turkish conquest of Bosnia, 1463;♦ Fourteen years later he subdued the whole kingdom. ♦of Herzegovina, 1483.♦ The next year the duchy became tributary, and twenty years after the conquest of Bosnia it was incorporated with the now Turkish province of Bosnia. 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 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. ♦Dominion of the house of Balsa at Skodra.
Loss of Skodra, 1394.♦ 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 definite shape, though with a smaller territory, under a new dynasty, that of Tzernojevich. ♦Beginning of Montenegro, 1456.♦ 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. ♦Establishment of Tzetinje, 1488.♦ 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 founded capital of Tzetinje. ♦The Vladikas, 1499.
Lay princes, 1851.♦ 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. ♦1813.
1858.♦ 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 unconquered Christian land. ♦Montenegrin conquests, 1876-1877.♦ In the latest times the Montenegrin arms set free a large part of the kindred land of Herzegovina, and won back a considerable part of the lost territory to the east, including part of the old seaboard as far as Dulcigno. ♦1878.♦ Then Western diplomacy drew another frontier, which forbade any large incorporation of the kindred Slavonic districts, while a small extension was allowed in that part of the lost ancient territory which had become Albanian. Of three havens won by Montenegro in the war, Dulcigno has been given back to the Turk. ♦Spizza.♦ Austria has been allowed to filch Spizza, as she had before filched Ragusa and Cattaro. The third haven, that of Antivari, was left to those who had won it under such restrictions as armed wrong knows how to impose on the weaker power of right.
The continued independence of Montenegro enables the Servian branch of the Slavonic race to say that their nation has never been wholly enslaved. ♦The third Bulgarian kingdom.♦ The case has been different with Bulgaria. We have seen the origin of the third Bulgarian, or rather Vlacho-Bulgarian, kingdom which won its independence of the Empire in the last years of the twelfth century. From that time to the Turkish conquest, one or more Bulgarian states always existed. And throughout the thirteenth century, the Bulgarian kingdom, though its boundaries were ever shifting, was one of the chief powers of the south-eastern peninsula.
The oldest Bulgaria between Danube and Hæmus was the first to throw off the Byzantine dominion, and the last to come under the power of the Turk. ♦Bulgarian advance. 1197-1207.♦ But the new Bulgarian power grew fast, and for a while called back the days of Simeon and Samuel. Under Joannice the frontier stretched far to the north-west, over lands which gradually passed to Servia, taking in Skupi, Nish, and even Belgrade. ♦Dominion of John Asan. 1218-1241.♦ Under the Tzar John Asan the new Bulgaria, the kingdom of Tirnovo, reached its greatest extent. The greater part of Thrace, Philippopolis and the whole land of Rhodopê or Achridos, Hadrianople itself, Macedonia too stretching away to Samuel’s Ochrida and to Albanon or Elbassan, were all under his rule. If his realm did not touch the Hadriatic or the Ægæan, it came very near to both; but Thessalonikê at least always remained to its Frank and Greek lords.[44] But this great power, like so many other powers of its kind, did not survive its founder. ♦Decline of Bulgaria. 1246-1257.♦ The revived Greek states, the Nicene Empire and the Epeirot despotat, cut the Bulgarian realm short. The disputes of an older and of a later time went on.[45] ♦Shiftings of the frontier.♦ There was undisputed Bulgaria north of Hæmus, an ever-shifting frontier south of it. The inland Philippopolis, and the coast towns of Anchialos and Mesêmbria, passed backwards and forwards between Greek and Bulgarian. ♦Philippopolis finally Bulgarian. 1344-1366.♦ The last state of things, immediately before the common overthrow, gave Philippopolis to Bulgaria and the coast towns to the Empire.
♦Wars with Hungary. 1260.♦
An attempt at extension of the north by an attack on the Hungarian Banat of Severin, the western part of modern Wallachia, led only to a Hungarian invasion, to a temporary loss of Widdin, and the assumption of a Bulgarian title by the Magyar king. ♦Cuman dynasty in Bulgaria. 1280.♦ Presently a new Turanian dynasty, this time of Cuman descent, reigned in Bulgaria, and soon after, the kingdom passed for the moment under a mightier overlord in the person of Nogai Khan. ♦Break-up of the kingdom. 1357.♦ In the fourteenth century the kingdom broke up. ♦Principality of Dobrutcha.♦ The despot Dobroditius—his name has many spellings—formed a separate dominion on the seaboard, stretching from the Danube to the Imperial frontier, cutting off the King of Tirnovo from the sea. Part of his land preserves his memory in its modern name Dobrutcha. Presently we hear of three Bulgarias, the central state at Tirnovo, the sea-land of Dobroditius, and a north-western state at Widdin. ♦1362.
1365-1369.♦ By this time the Ottoman inroads had begun; Philippopolis was lost, and Bulgarian princes were blind enough to employ Turkish help in a second attack on Severin, which led only to a second temporary loss of Widdin. ♦1382.
1388.♦ The Turk now pressed on; Sofia was taken; the whole land became a Turkish dependency. ♦Conquest by Bajazet, 1393.♦ After Kossovo the land was wholly conquered, save only that the northern part of the land of Dobroditius passed to Wallachia. Bulgaria passed away from the list of European states both sooner and more utterly than Servia. Servia still had its alternations of freedom and bondage for sixty years. In after times large parts of it passed to a rule which, if foreign, was at least European. In later days Servia was the first of the subject nations to win its freedom. But the bondage of Bulgaria was never disturbed from the days of Bajazet to our own time.
§ 7. The Kingdom of Hungary.
The origin of the Hungarian kingdom and the reasons for dealing with along with the states which arose out of the break-up of the Eastern Empire have already been spoken of.[46] ♦Character of the Hungarian kingdom.♦ The Finnish conquerors of the Slave, admitted within the pale of Western Christendom, founding a new Hungary on the Danube and the Theiss while they left behind them an older Hungary on the Kama, have points of contact at once with Asia and with both Eastern and Western Europe. ♦Its position in south-eastern Europe.♦ But, as closely connected in their history with the nations of the south-eastern peninsula, as sharers in the bondage and in the deliverance of Servia, Greece, and Bulgaria, in our geographical survey they claim a place where they may be looked at strictly as part of the south-eastern world.
♦Effects of the Magyar invasion.♦