--Results of his
Victories.--Knes Lasar.--Invasion of Amurath.--Battle of
Kossovo.--Death of Lasar and Amurath.--Fall of the Servian
Monarchy.--General Observations.
I cannot present what I have to say on the feudal monarchy of Servia
more appropriately than in connexion with the architectural monuments
of the period.
The Servians, known in Europe from the seventh century, at which
period they migrated from the Carpathians to the Danube, were in the
twelfth century divided into petty states.
"Le premier Roi fut un soldat heureux."
Neman the First, who lived near the present Novibazar, first cemented
these scattered principalities into a united monarchy. He assumed the
double eagle as the insignium of his dignity, and considered the
archangel Michael as the patron saint of his family. He was brave in
battle, cunning in politics, and the convent of Studenitza is a
splendid monument of his love of the arts. Here he died, and was
buried in 1195.
Servia and Bosnia were, at this remote period, the debatable territory
between the churches of Rome and Constantinople, so divided was
opinion at that time even in Servia Proper, where now a Roman Catholic
community is not to be found, that two out of the three sons of this
prince were inclined to the Latin ritual.
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