146 SERVIA, AUSTRIA, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA. 



Emperor Stefan-Dooshan, soon after his accession to the Throne, 

 advanced into Hungary and defeated Louis I., which he followed 

 up by the subjection of Bosnia, Albania, and subsequently Roumelia 

 ^nd Bulgaria, which he considered as subject to his rule, for he 

 claimed the title of Emperor of the Roumelians, and the " Mace- 

 donian Christ-loving Czar." This was " the glory that preceded. 

 Servian decay," for in 1356, whilst at the head of a victorious army, 

 determined on the conquest of Constantinople, he suddenly died at 

 Deabolis, in Albania; and when he died the Empire became a chaos, 

 for it was distracted by a succession of struggles between Voyvodas 

 and Voyvodas, and between Voyvodas and the people for the 

 possession of supreme power, and in this chaotic confusion it 

 became an easy prey to the capacious maw of the Moslem hordes. 



In 1389 a determined effort was made by an alhance of Servia 

 with Hungary, to resist the progress of the Mahomedan arms, and 

 on the plains of Kossovo, in Albania, the rival armies of the two 

 Empires met, the Servians under the command of Lazar, the suc- 

 cessor of Dooshan, and the Turks under the command of the Sultan 

 Amurath II., and at this great battle the Turkish arms were vic- 

 torious, and the subjugation of Servia was completed. 



For upwards of a century, from the date of the catastrophe at 

 Kossovo, the Servians were able to maintain a monarchical system of 

 Government, under the rule of native Princes, but in spite of every 

 effort made by their Princes in alliance with Hungary, and the 

 Osmanli, to preserve their ancient independent Monarchy, Servia 

 and her Empire succumbed to the thraldom of the Ottoman power. 



This happened in 1459, and from this period the Servian Empire 

 of /' Dooshan the Mighty " crumpled and fell, and she became a free 

 State subject to a despotic Power, to whom she paid an annual 

 tribute, and at the end of the fifteenth century the Ottoman Porte 

 subdivided the territory of Servia into Turkish Pashaliks, subject to 

 the Sovereign authority of the Sultan Mahmoud. 



After this complete overthrow of the Empire of Servia in the 

 fifteenth century the bravest and boldest of her people withdrew 

 from their fatherland, and found an asylum of liberty in the moun- 

 tain fastnesses of Montenegro, (commonly called the Black Moun- 

 tain), where they resolved to struggle for the defence of their 

 national freedom and independence ; and the Ottoman Porte soon 

 found to their cost that whilst the armies of the Sultan were able to 

 overrun and conquer the territory of Servia, they were powerless to 

 efface or stifle the patriotic spirit of the Servians in favour of freedom. 



