So the Turks the Servian monarch vanquish'd,
So Lasar fell—the Tzar of Servia—
With Lasar fell all the Servian army.
But they have been honor'd, and are holy,
In the keeping of the God of heaven.
All that the Nemanyas, all that the Serbian people had done toward national unity was destroyed at Kossovo. Throughout Serb lands, the anniversary of Kossovo is still kept as a memorial day for all Serbian heroes, both for those who fell then and those who have since fallen in defense of their country.
For seventy years after Kossovo, Serbia, though nominally ruled by despots, was really subsidiary to the Sultan. George Brankovitch, one of the despots, worked for an alliance between Serbia and Hungary to overthrow the Turks. The Turks were defeated at Kunovista, and lands previously taken were restored to him. This brave man died at the age of ninety of wounds received in a duel with a Hungarian nobleman. But in spite of the efforts of Brankovitch, the days of Serbia were numbered. In 1459 she became a Pashilik under the direct government of the Porte—and this was her condition for nearly three hundred and fifty years.
If in her darkest hour some strong nation had sympathized with Serbia, her future might have been different. The nations of Europe were now having a revival of life—a renaissance—but they had no thought of Serbia, their young sister. She was hidden among her mountains and she made no outcry. She had tried to do what she could for herself. She had had her moments of power and happiness. Now came a long, long night.
Church at Ravinitza—where Lazar was buried
In the darker days many Serbs fled to the mountains, sometimes to carry on their occupation of farmer so far as they could, unmolested by the Turk; sometimes to become Haiduks—the Robin Hoods of the mountains and forests—to steal from the Moslem when it was possible, to give to the poor Serb; always to keep up an unceasing guerrilla warfare.
Serbians were sold as slaves by the ten thousands to Constantinople and to Egypt. Whenever they could, they fled their country to Venice, to Dalmatia, to Hungary. Those who stayed in Serbia were not meek and so far as they could they resisted their oppressor. The Church was the mainstay of the nation; indeed, even to-day, the Serbian Church is a national rather than a religious organization. Before the end of Serb power came, southern Hungary had begun to receive many Serbian immigrants; by the middle of the sixteenth century they were numerous along the borders of Croatia and Slavonia. Although to a large extent farm laborers, they were soldiers as well, and fought in many battles for Austria. In the latter part of the fifteenth and the early part of the sixteenth century, the Serbs in the Hungarian army formed the famous "Black Legion" and won great fame. In the latter part of the seventeenth century thirty-seven thousand Serbians went in a body to South Hungary, and fifty years later one hundred thousand, migrating to Russia, formed a colony by themselves. In 1690 the Emperor Leopold had granted a fair amount of liberty, civil as well as religious, to the large organized body of Serbs who had settled in South Hungary. Their privileges were from time to time confirmed, especially when the Emperor needed help from the Serbs against some one of his numerous enemies. At other times the Serbs in Hungary had no flowery path. Austria was always playing fast and loose with them, and at last, toward the end of the eighteenth century, though Austria was treating them well, they saw they had little cause to hope that she would free them from the Turkish yoke. The ancient ill will of Hungary against Serbia persisted, and sometimes laws passed in her favor by Austria were in the end suppressed or nullified by Hungarian efforts.