28.3 Europe: a.d. 1301 to 1400  (Page 2/12)

Southern europe (see map on page 660)

Eastern mediterranean islands

The islands close to the eastern shore were involved in some of the Crusade adventures and in this century Rhodes was taken by the Knights Hospitalers. Most of the other islands were dominated by Venice. Cyprus was worst hit by the Black Death in 1347. (Ref. 86 , 38 , 222 )

Greece

After the murder of their leader, Roger de Flor (see TURKEY, page 659), the Catalan Company raided through the Balkans and down into Greece, setting up their own dynasty in Athens in 1311. As the Serbian Empire grew, most of northern Greece became part of the Serbian Principalities, while the Despotate of the Morea (Peloponnesus) passed from the Latin French, who had controlled it in the last century, first to some Aragonese and then to some free-booters from Navarre. Most of the Aegean islands were controlled by Venice. Although corrupt and frail, the Byzantine state was competent enough administratively to stand as somewhat of a bulwark against the spread of Islam and by the end of the century was making some inroads back into control of part of Greece.

The Turks of the Ottoman Empire, however, settled the question in 1389 by overwhelming the Serbian chivalry at the battle of Kossovo and as the Serbian Empire shriveled, most of Greece went to the Ottoman sultanate. A few Latin states remained in the west and Venice held on to the southern tip of Morea. (Ref. 139 , 137 )

Upper balkans

The mercenary Catalan Company laid waste to Thrace and Macedonia between 1305 and 1311 but otherwise the early 14th century saw the peak of progress for all the Slavic peoples in this region. Serbia, under Stephen Dushan, Czar of the Serbs and Greeks, had a parliament of nobles and coded laws and a magnificent period of art. (Ref. 8 ) Militarily the Serbs conquered Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia and Thessally and put an end to Bulgar power until Dushan's death, when the empire fell apart. Then Bosnia (west central Yugoslavia), which came under Hungarian rule after 1328, became independent in 1353 and had a short period of glory. Croatia, on the coast, and Slavonia were both under Hungarian rule. The Latin-speaking Wallachians and Moldavians, inhabiting modern Romania, were first mentioned at the beginning of this century. Although they later claimed to be descendants of Roman colonists of the 2nd century, this is improbable.

Almost certainly the Vlachs came from the western Balkans and only migrated into Romania as the nomads abandoned it in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Wallachia was under Hungarian suzerainty until 1369, then independent until 1389 when it became an Ottoman tributary. Moldavia became independent in 1365 but fell under Lithuanian control in 1399. Bulgaria, under John Alexander, had its last great age. (Ref. 8 , 137 )

The expansion of the Ottomans during the reigns of- Orklan and Murad I (1316-1389) was actually due to the action of semi-independent Turkish marcher lords, but with the a ascension of Bayezid I in 1389, the conquest speeded up, with the absorption of Bulgaria and the reduction of Serbia to vassal status. Some of the Serbian Christians even helped the Turks in their conquest and more of ten than not Greek, Serb and Bulgarian peasants welcomed the conquerors as liberators from the oppression of Christian, rural aristocrats. The final test of strength between the heirs of the Serbian Nemanjic family leadership and the Ottomans came at Kosovo Polje in 1389, with the former meeting complete defeat. One of the effects of the Ottoman expansion was the conversion to the Moslem faith of bright young Christian boys who were taken to Moslem schools and their family memories purged, to the end that they were forged into a corps of fearless and devoted followers of the Turkish regime. Some were used as pages and administrative aides while others were put in regiments of the guards, forming the famous Janissaries, pledged to fight the enemies of the sultan and Allah. (Ref. 8 , 139 , 131 )