The Republic at once set to work to partition the land in the new territory among its citizens. Three-quarters of it were granted to the nobles, and the rest to the burghers; the grantees were forbidden to sell any land to the Slaves. A colour of piety was lent to this conquest by the determination of the Ragusans to stamp out Bogomilism and schism from the peninsula, and the caloyers[167] and heretical priests were exiled, and their places occupied by Roman Catholics. At the end of the century the Franciscans were established as an additional bulwark of the Church. In order to protect Stagno from more earthly dangers an elaborate system of fortifications was begun, which were to serve the Republic in good stead on more than one occasion. Both Stagno Grande and Stagno Piccolo were surrounded with massive walls, and a castle was built in each. A third was erected at the top of the hill, between the two seas; a long wall with towers at intervals was carried right across the isthmus, and other walls from both towns to the castle on the hill. These defences may be seen to this day, and although in a woeful state of neglect and disrepair, still form a most conspicuous feature in the landscape.

FORTIFICATIONS OF STAGNO GRANDE

The following year King Stephen rather repented his generosity, and demanded back the gift on the pretext that the Ragusans were incapable of defending it securely. But his envoys, who visited Stagno, being convinced by the sight of the Ragusan fortifications, and perhaps by that of Ragusan gold, that it was being rapidly made quite secure, induced him to confirm the grant. This he did, and forbade his subjects to attempt to enter the ceded territory. Another dispute with the fickle Servian king broke out in 1330, because the Ragusans had given shelter to the widow of the Bulgarian Tsar, who had been forced to fly after the defeat and death of her husband by the Serbs at the battle of Velbužd.[168] Stephen wished to secure the fugitive, and demanded her of the Republic. The latter refused the demand, in spite of promise of still further territories and privileges, and sent the Empress safely to Constantinople. Stephen then demanded back Stagno once more, and tried to take it by storm. But as it was too strongly fortified he limited himself to a raid on Ragusan territory on the mainland, until called away to defend his northern frontier against the Hungarians. Peace was made in 1335, and in 1336[169] a solemn Ragusan embassy was sent to honour him at Scutari.

The maritime trade of the Republic had brought great riches to the citizens, but contact with the East also brought the plague in its train, and in 1348 Ragusa, like the rest of Europe, was visited by the terrible scourge. It was probably introduced into the western world by the Tartars besieging Caffa in 1344, and although the town was saved, the relieving force caught the disease, which spread through Europe with lightning-like rapidity. The following document preserved in the book of wills in the Cathedral treasury at Ragusa, written by eye-witnesses, gives a vivid picture of the terror inspired by the fell scourge:—

“Our Lord God sent a terrible judgment, unheard of in the whole world, both on Christians and on pagans, a mortality of men and still more of women, through an awful and incurable disease, which caused the spitting of blood and swellings on various parts of the body, so contagious that sons fled from their fathers and still more often fathers from their sons; all the art of Apocrates, Galen, and Avizena proved useless, for no art or science availeth against Divine judgment. This disease commenced at Ragusa on the 15th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1348, and lasted for six months, during which 120 persons or more died each day; of the (Grand) Council there died 110 nobles.”[170] According to Gelcich, the total number of deaths in the town ranged from 7000 to 10,000, including 160 nobles and 300 burghers; it is impossible to conjecture how many died in the territory. It made its appearance at the same time at Spalato, preceded, according to the legend, by an eclipse of the sun, so complete that the stars were visible by day, and by a drought so great that the dust remained suspended in huge clouds in mid air.[171] Ragnina, who wrote more than a century after the event, declares that the belief that the Jews had poisoned the wells was very prevalent, while others believed that the cause of the disease was a conjunction of three planets under Jupiter and Mars.[172] At this time no sanitary precautions were taken against further visitations, but large sums were collected to build the votive church of San Biagio.

This same year there was another disagreement with King Stephen, as we find the Venetian Government authorising the Ragusans to purchase a further supply of arms;[173] in 1349 and 1350 Venetian embassies were sent to Servia to protest against his raids on Ragusan territory, a Venetian galley stationed in the harbour as a protection,[174] and two mangani or catapults were forwarded to the citizens.[175] Some of the Venetian documents on the subject allude to Bosnian as well as Servian raids. Klaić says that the Banus Stephen Kotromanić actually did make raids before 1345, but in that year made peace and never molested the Ragusans again. His nephews, however, the Nikolići counts of Hlum and Popovo, had many quarrels with Ragusa and raided her territory, and it is to them that the documents allude.[176] War now broke out between Servia and Bosnia, because the Banus would not consent to his daughter’s marriage with the King’s son, Uroš. The King invaded Bosnia on two occasions with a large army, and besieged the Banus in the royal castle of Bobovac, but could not capture him. These quarrels between Bosnia and Servia, like those between Servia and Bulgaria, were paving the way for the Turkish conquest, and the obscure battles in the Bosna and Drina valleys formed the prelude to the fatal day of Kossovo and the bondage of the South-Slavonic race. The Banus Kotroman died in 1353, and was succeed by his nephew, Stephen Tvrtko, who was the first King of Bosnia. He too was friendly to the Ragusans, and granted them important privileges.

The conditions of Venice in the middle of the fourteenth century were far from prosperous. The plague of 1348 had carried off three-fifths of the population, in spite of the most stringent precautions.[177] In 1350 the fratricidal war with Genoa was again renewed in consequence of disputes about the Black Sea trade. The battle of the Bosporus (1353) was indecisive; in that of Cagliari the Venetians were successful, but dared not attack Genoa, because the city had placed itself under the protection of the Visconti. But in the same year they were totally defeated at Sapienza in the Greek Archipelago and their whole fleet captured. In 1354 the conspiracy of Marin Faliero broke out, and kept the whole State in a turmoil for many months, until the execution of the Doge and his accomplices.[178] His successor, Giovanni Gradenigo, made peace with Genoa, and the Venetians set to work to rebuild their fleet and restore their exhausted treasury by means of new commercial enterprises in the Levant. But their possession of Dalmatia and the land frontier north of Treviso were now threatened by Lewis of Hungary. The latter allied himself with the Count of Gorizia and the Carraresi of Padua against Venice, and invaded the Trevisan march, defeating all the forces sent against him and capturing city after city. A five months’ truce was concluded in 1356, but when it expired hostilities broke out once more, and the treasury was soon empty. Merchandise might arrive by sea, but with the mainland in the hands of the enemy there was no outlet for its distribution.[179] New taxes were raised, causing much discontent, and the Republic was at last forced to sue for peace. Lewis made the cession of Dalmatia an express condition of his retirement from the Trevisan march. After much discussion and expostulation the Senate was forced to agree to these humiliating terms, and Dalmatia, which had been acquired and maintained at such great sacrifices, was now given up (Feb. 1358). The Republic had hoped to create a diversion by an alliance with the King of Servia, who had been fighting with the Banus of Bosnia, then a Hungarian vassal. But Stephen Dušan got more and more involved in the Greek war, and when the Hungarians invaded the Venetian terraferma he was marching towards Constantinople, but died on the way thither (1355).

The Ragusans were delighted at the successes of Lewis; they had received him with great honour when he touched at their city in 1349 on his return from the Neapolitan expedition,[180] and from that moment they began to contemplate the advisability of placing themselves under his protection. They had been afraid of the Hungarians when they threatened to conquer Bosnia and Hlum, but now there was little fear of that, and Hungary not being a great naval Power, could not threaten their liberties by means of the fleet as Venice could always do. When in 1356 the Venetians sent commissioners to claim the Ragusan contingent for the war, the Grand Council made professions of friendship, and agreed to send it. At the same time they were negotiating with the Hungarian king for the surrender of their city to him. On July 7, 1357, Lewis confirmed their possession of Stagno, which, having formed part of Bosnia, was in a measure under his authority, and it is probable that a preliminary treaty of dedition was signed at the same time. When, by the peace of February 1358, Venice gave up the whole eastern shore of the Adriatic, from the Quarnero to Durazzo, she attempted to retain her hold over Ragusa on account of that very claim to separation from the rest of Dalmatia which she had hitherto always combated. Blandishments were tried, and by a rescript of the Doge Giovanni Dolfin (Jan. 2, 1358) the Ragusans were granted Venetian citizenship and commercial equality with the Venetians.[181] But Ragusa had no wish to retain even a vestige of Venetian authority, and a few weeks later Marco Soranzo, the last Venetian Count, left the city by order of the Doge. The Ragusans treated him with courtesy and evinced no ill-feeling against him, whereas the Venetian officials in the other Dalmatian towns had departed amidst the jeers and curses of the inhabitants. A triumvirate of Ragusan nobles was elected by the Grand Council to carry on the government while arrangements with King Lewis were being completed. By a curious irony they sent commissioners to Venice in March to order “unum gonfalonem et aliquas banderias cum armis D. N. D. Regis Hungariæ pro galleis et lignis nostris,” and later “unum gonfalonerium ad modum penoni de sindone torto cum arma (sic) Regis Hungariæ cum argento albo et cum argentum (sic) deauratum pro duc. auri xxx.”[182]

On June 27 the final treaty was signed by Lewis of Hungary and Giovanni Saraca, Archbishop of Ragusa, at Višegrad. The Ragusans placed themselves under Hungarian protection, but were allowed to retain their own internal liberties more fully than under Venice. The King’s praises, instead of those of the Doge, were to be sung in the churches of Ragusa three times a year. The Hungarian standard was to be adopted as well as the banner of San Biagio, and 500 ipperperi a year were to be paid to the King. Should Hungary be engaged in naval warfare Ragusa must provide one galley for every ten Hungarian galleys whenever the Dalmatian fleet put to sea; if the Royal fleet alone were employed, Ragusa need only provide one for every thirty. The supreme government of the State was no longer to be vested in a foreign count, but in three native Ragusans (afterwards reduced to one) to be chosen by the Council. The only representative of the King was the captain of the Hungarian and Bosnian guard, but he too was really in the service of the Republic, and had no political authority. From this moment Ragusa may be considered an independent State, as Hungarian authority, save for the tribute, was little more than a formality.