Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/79

 THE SERVIANS. 01 troops and defeated. The two peoples formally established a Wallach - Bulgarian state under a king named John. Two years afterwards a "Wallach, whom the Byzantine writers call Chrysos, made an attempt to carve out for himself a Walla- chian principality in Macedonia. He was able to hold his own against the imperial troops. Strumnitza and Ilosak were ceded to him, and he ended by marrying a princess of the im- perial blood. In 1202, John of Bulgaria, wishing to throw oil all connec- tion with the emperors of the New Rome, sent to Pope Inno- cent the Third in order that he might receive the crown from Jiim as the representative of the elder Rome. I shall have further occasion to mention that the popes contributed not a little towards disturbing the loj^alty of the nascent North Balkan states. The hostility towards the Orthodox Church always urged them to try and weaken the patriarchal author- ity by detaching these states from their allegiance towards Constantinople. In 1202 Innocent sent a legate to Servia to endeavor to persuade its church to place itself under his rule. Servia, a state formed out of the Slav peoples already men- The Servians tioncd, had uow becomo of considerable importance, empire. and towards the close of the century frequently at- tacked the empire. The Serbs are usually called Triballes by the Byzantine writers, and were regarded by them as bar- barous mountaineers and robbers. For upwards of a century they had been turbulent and little disposed to submit to the rule of the empire. In 1121 they rose in insurrection, were defeated by the emperor, and, in accordance with a plan very usually followed, a body of them was detached from the race and was settled in Asia Minor, this time near Nicomedia, the modern Ismidt. Under Manuel, a few years later, the Serbs again revolted, and, after a desultory war, were only reduced to subjection in 1170. Two years afterwards, aided by the Venetians, they again rebelled and were again defeated. In 1192 they had so far been able to hold their own under Nemania, or Neeman, and Morava that the emperor treated with them for peace, and Servia was recognized as an inde- pendent state.