Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/808

 782 SERVIA were lost by his son, King Urosh V., whose assassination in 1367 closed this dynasty. He was succeeded by the waywode (governor) Vukashin, who fought with the Greeks against the Turks, and conquered Salonica in 1369, but was defeated and fell in battle in 1371. Laza- rus I. in 1374 established a new dynasty by conquering most of the Servian dominions. In 1389 he was defeated by Amurath I. on the high plains of Kosovo, and executed by order of the sultan, who had received a mortal wound from the hands of a brother-in-law of Lazarus. His son and successor Stephen, first as a vassal and then, in conjunction with the Hungarians, an adversary of Turkey, died in 1427 without issue, and was succeeded by his nephew George Brankovitch. He combated his son-in-law Amurath II., together with John Hunyady, who, after repeated victories, was vanquished in October, 1448, also on the plains of Kosovo. The sultan Mohammed II. completed the conquest of Servia in 1454, but in 1456 was compelled by Hunyady to raise the siege of Belgrade, a year before the death of Prince George of Servia. The latter's son Lazarus II. obtained the succession by poison- ing his mother and expelling his two brothers. He died in 1458, the last and the worst of his dynasty. In 1459 Mohammed II. incorporated Servia with Turkey, excepting Belgrade, which was held by the Hungarians until taken by Solyman the Magnificent in 1521. The Turks resented the heroic resistance of Servia by sending 200,000 of her citizens into captivity, and by exterminating whole families, while others emigrated to Hungary; and rapacious pashas ruled abominably for several centuries, and reduced the country almost to a wilder- ness. Austria received Belgrade and most of northern Servia at the close of her war with Turkey in 1718, but the peace of Belgrade (1739) restored the Turkish domination, and the Serbs were again subjected to dire calami- ties, especially by the excesses of the janis- ' saries. Their repeated applications for re- dress remaining unheeded at Constantinople, the people at length rose against the Turks, and Czerny George, a peasant, became in 1805 a successful leader of the revolt, and in 1807 was recognized as chief of the Servians by the sul- tan. (See CZERNY GEORGE.) After the treaty of Bucharest of 1812, Servia was deserted by Russia and France, and in 1813 the Turks again became masters of the country. But in 1815 Milosh Obrenovitch put a final end to their absolute domination. The stepbrother of Mi- lan Obrenovitch (son of Obren), whose name he assumed, he began life as a grazier, but subsequently became one of the most valiant officers of Czerny George, and in 1813 showed so much firmness that the Turks left him in charge of several districts and at the head of several thousand men, in the hope that he would reconcile the people to their rule. But he awaited only an opportunity for its over- throw, and finally on Palm Sunday, 1815, gave the signal for an insurrection. He defeated the Turks repeatedly, and secured in 1816 a partial independence for Servia; and after being head of the provisional government, he was elected hospodar or prince in Novem- ber, 1817, and subsequently recognized by the sultan. He incurred the hostility of former chiefs, and attempted in vain to allay agitation by adopting in 1835 a liberal statute and the code Napoleon. Russia and Turkey concocted a new statute, which the sultan promulgated, Dec. 24, 1838, in the form of a haUi-shertf, instituting a senate, the members of which could not be displaced without the sultan's consent. This body was chiefly composed of Milosh's enemies, who brought charges of peculation against him, it being known that he had large estates in Wallachia and Austria, besides vast funds deposited in Vienna. He was compelled to abdicate, June 13, 1839, in favor of his son Milan, who died on July 7 and was succeeded by Milosh's younger son Michael. Soon after assuming the govern- ment he incurred the hostility of the Turks by banishing their most zealous partisans, Vu- tchitch and Petronievitch, who in 1842 headed an insurrection against him, which resulted in his ignominious defeat. He was driven from Servia on Sept. 7, his dynasty was deposed, and Alexander Karageorgevitch, a son of Czer- ny (or Kara) George, was elected prince, Sept. 14. His complacency toward the Turks du- ring the Crimean war secured their assent to the placing of Servia, by the treaty of Paris of 1856, under the collective protection of the European powers; but at the same time he made himself odious in Servia for having in- voked Turkish assistance for the punishment of his enemies, and Turkish protection in the citadel of Belgrade against his own country- men. He was deposed Dec. 23, 1858, and Mi- losh, though almost an octogenarian, was re- instated. He died Sept. 26, 1860, and Michael again became reigning prince. After the dis- turbances at Belgrade in 1862, Michael ob- tained in 1867 the withdrawal of the Turkish garrisons from this and all other fortresses. He was assassinated June 10, 1868. (See ALEX- ANDER KARAGEORGEVITCH.) Prince Michael married Julia Hunyady, but had no children, and had adopted as his son his nephew Milan (born in Jassy, of a Moldavian mother, Aug. 22, 1854), who was educated in Paris (1864-'8), and was elected prince July 2, 1868, as Milan Obrenovitch IV. The sultan, fearing the al- leged preference of Russia for the prince of Montenegro as ruler of Servia, not only at once recognized him, but also acknowledged for the first time the hereditary rank of the dynasty. A regency of three members, of whom the minister Blagnavatz, who had chief- ly promoted his election, was the chief, con- ducted public affairs during his minority (1868- '72). Turkey had in 1834 restored six Servian districts which she had retained since 1813, and in the spring of 1872 she relinquished a