Chapter XV — The Fall of the Republic — The Republic of Ragusa by Luigi Villari

Chapter XV The Fall of the Republic

Ragusa now enters into the vortex of the Napoleonic wars, in which she, like her great rival Venice and many another still more powerful State, was to disappear. The story of her end is but an incident in that wonderful drama, but it affords some curious side-lights on the history of Europe at that period, and exhibits for the last time the peculiar character of the Ragusan Government and people.

In 1797 the French armies occupied Venice, put an end to the Republic, and annexed its possessions, while a French fleet seized the Ionian Islands. In the meanwhile Austrian troops were advancing into Dalmatia, which, as part of Venetian territory, in theory belonged to France, and ships of war of all nations began to appear in the Adriatic. The aristocratic Government of Venice was for a time succeeded by a democratic one modelled on French lines, and the new régime was to have been applied to Dalmatia as well. But by the preliminaries of Leoben that province and Istria were given over to Austria. The Dalmatians did not want a democratic constitution, and for some time Austrian agents had been preparing them for an Austrian occupation. They succeeded in inducing the people to acclaim the Emperor Francis II. as their King, and in July 1797 General Rukavina landed at Zara with an army; in a few weeks he had occupied the whole of Dalmatia and part of Albania. But trouble arose at Cattaro among the turbulent Bocchesi; some of them favoured the Austrian régime as the heir to that of Venice, others, chiefly Orthodox Christians, desired a union then, as now, with the Vladika of Montenegro, while a third party was imbued with French ideas and clamoured for a democratic constitution. The Vladika himself was hostile to Austria, and encouraged a rising in Albania. But General Rukavina conciliated the Cattarini and entered the town without opposition. By the Peace of Campoformio, Istria, Dalmatia, and Cattaro, as well as Venice and her mainland possessions, were ceded to Austria (October 18, 1797).535

The fall of Venice was on the whole satisfactory to the Ragusans, but the close proximity of the Austrians, who were useful protectors so long as they remained at a safe distance, was regarded as a danger. They sent protestations of fealty to Vienna and to the local Austrian authorities; their fears were not groundless, for Rukavina did actually intend to violate their neutrality, as appears from a despatch from the Austrian Minister Count Thugut to Count Thurn, who had been appointed Governor of Dalmatia. Thugut disapproved of this project, as he feared that it might cause trouble with the Turks as protectors of the Republic. But he complained to d’Ajala, the Ragusan Minister, that Ragusa was a hotbed of revolutionary ideas.536 The Emperor, however, expressed his intention of protecting the Republic in every way.

At the end of October a French squadron under Brueys appeared at Gravosa, and the Admiral offered the Republic the “good offices” of France, which were politely declined on the ground that Ragusa was under Turkish suzerainty. In August 1798 the French military authorities demanded the loan of some ships for the expedition to Egypt, and the request was granted. This caused General Brady, in command of the Austrians at Cattaro, to reprimand the Senate severely for its breach of neutrality, and he had to be appeased by a loan of 12,000 florins for his war chest. A short time afterwards a French agent named Briche came to Ragusa to raise a loan of 1,000,000 francs for France, and by means of threats induced the Senate to pay 400,000 down and issue two bills for 100,000 each. Austrian spies discovered this transaction, and informed their Government that the young men of Ragusa were imbued with French ideas. But the Senate cleverly protested against this forced contribution both in Vienna and in Constantinople, and suggested that the most adequate protection against similar extortions would be the presence of a few British frigates in the Adriatic. Caracciolo, their agent at Naples, opened negotiations with the British Minister for the purpose. At the same time their agent in Paris tried to obtain the remission of the bills, but without success, and the 200,000 francs had to be paid to Dubois, the French Commissary in the Adriatic. Another misfortune befell the Republic, which had a large sum of money invested in the Bank of Vienna. As the Emperor was again going to war the Bank made a call on the shareholders of 30 per cent. of their capital. Ragusa tried to shirk this payment, but in vain, and somehow the sum was procured. To meet these liabilities new taxes had to be raised, which fell chiefly on the peasants, hitherto almost exempt; the price of salt was increased, and every one was forced to buy a large amount of that commodity. This caused serious discontent, especially among the peasants of Canali, who had never been too loyal to the Republic; they now refused to pay the taxes, and rose in revolt. Eight Senators, who owned land in that district, went to try to induce them to hear reason, and this mission having failed, the Pasha of Trebinje was asked to place a corps of observation along the frontier to prevent the rebels from crossing over into Turkish territory, while General Brady was asked to send an Austrian detachment to help to quell the revolt, expressly requesting that they should be Germans, and not ex-Venetian soldiers. Brady, however, had too few troops to dispose of, and no authority to enter Ragusan territory. At the same time a deputation of Canalesi called on him and explained their grievances and the persecutions inflicted by the Ragusans, which they attributed to the fact “that they (the Canalesi) had refused to follow the nobles in their Jacobin ideas.” This was enough for Brady, to whom the very name of Jacobin was anathema; he at once took the Canalesi under his protection, and wrote to the Senate demanding that their grievances should be redressed. The Canalesi also sent a memorandum to the Emperor of Austria, complaining of the increase of the taxes since 1750, of the kidnapping of boys to serve on board Ragusan ships, and of girls to be used by the nobles for illicit purposes, and imploring him to free them from Ragusa’s yoke and take them under his protection. At the same time the Republic sent two envoys to Vienna to explain the situation from the Ragusan point of view, and to represent Brady as an accomplice of the Turks and the schismatics and a protector of rebels; and also an envoy to the Divan, to say that Austria was meditating an invasion of the Herzegovina.537 The Emperor ordered Brady to pacify the insurgents, but without using force. When the Austrian Foreign Office heard of the mission to Constantinople it was much incensed, but d’Ajala managed to hush the matter up. The Senate then redressed the grievances of the Canalesi, and succeeded in restoring order. But the leaders of the movement were subsequently punished on various pretexts, and this led to further trouble in future. The deficit was met by the suppression of the rich monastery of Lacroma, and the seizure of its property.

These immediate troubles and dangers having been warded off, there follows a period of five years (1800-1805) which is perhaps the most prosperous in the whole history of the Republic. All the other States of the Mediterranean, large or small, were involved in war; Ragusa alone remained neutral, and therefore enjoyed almost a monopoly of the carrying trade. Her ships were more numerous than they had ever been before, and her income enormous. English privateers harried French commerce, and French ones that of England; Venice was no longer of any mercantile importance; the Turks plundered all Christian ships except those of Ragusa. The Senate, with its traditional diplomacy, kept on good terms with everybody, especially with the Turks. A few frontier incidents with Austria occurred, but they were settled amicably. In 1804 Timoni was appointed Austrian consul at Ragusa. His instructions were to protect Austrian commercial interests, and to assure the Senate that the Emperor intended to protect the Republic and guarantee the integrity of its territory. When war broke out between France and Austria in 1805 Ragusa refused to commit herself, but Timoni informed his Government that the sympathies of the citizens were with the French, and when the “bad news” (of Austerlitz) arrived they did not conceal their satisfaction. Even in the Senate more than half the members were Francophil. “It appears,” wrote Timoni, “that this Government, of which the apathy, indolence, and venality are at their height, will undergo the fate for which it is destined.... I am convinced that if peace be not concluded, the French will try to get possession of this Republic, and form a body of troops here with whom to attack Cattaro. The only means by which this could be avoided, and which I venture to submit to the superior intelligence of your Excellency, is that in case hostilities should recommence you should place a garrison in the town until peace is declared, without, however, interfering in the affairs of the Government.”538

Bruère was at this time French consul at Ragusa. He was a cultivated, brilliant man, and had charming manners. He was also a littérateur, and composed sonnets and epigrams in French, Italian, and even in Slavonic. He thus soon acquired considerable influence over the young men of the town, and aroused French sympathies among them, for which, indeed, the reading of French books had prepared the way. But these sentiments did not prevent the Senate from politely refusing to make a further loan of ammunition and provisions to France, which Murat demanded in 1801, for they remembered what bad paymasters the French were. On the contrary, they tried once more to get their previous loan of 600,000 francs refunded. While the negotiations were going on the Senate wrote most respectfully to the First Consul, and when he was proclaimed Emperor they congratulated him enthusiastically in the best Ragusan style, and he replied with a letter in which he called them his “dear and good friends.”

The Russians had long desired to establish a footing in the Mediterranean, so as to attack Constantinople from both sides, and after various fruitless attempts they determined to seize Ragusa. In 1802 they appointed Charles Fonton their consul in the town. During the siege of Malta the French had received some provisions from Ragusan ships, and the Tsar Paul, deeming this a good excuse for aggressive action, instructed Fonton to assume the most brutal manner towards the authorities. He neglected no opportunity of making a quarrel. First, he demanded that a house should be provided for him at the Republic’s expense, and when this was complied with, he said it was not good enough. This ridiculous dispute lasted two years, and in his correspondence with the Government he was as insolent and arrogant as only a Russian consul knows how to be. He also insisted on the execution of the clause of the treaty of 1775, that Orthodox services should be held at Ragusa, and, although a Catholic himself, he converted an abandoned chapel into an Orthodox church, where a Montenegrin pope conducted the services. The Senate made remonstrances to Vienna, Constantinople, and St. Petersburg about Fonton’s outrageous behaviour, and tried to obtain his removal. But when these manœuvres were discovered, and the anger of Russia was feared, the Senate very ungratefully made d’Ajala their scapegoat, disowned him, and forced him to resign after thirty years of faithful service to the Republic.

The Russians, naturally, were anything but popular at Ragusa, and this strengthened the French sentiments of the people. César Berthier, the nephew of the Marshal, flaunted about in the public places and private houses surrounded by the young men of the best families, discoursing loudly of the glories of Napoleon, to the extreme disgust of Fonton.

By the Peace of Pressburg France regained Venetia, and consequently Istria and Dalmatia. To this last possession Napoleon attached great importance, as it formed an excellent base for operations in the Balkans and in the East. In February 1806 the French troops under General Molitor occupied the country as far as Makarska, and preparations were made for an attack on Cattaro, where resistance was expected on the part of the Montenegrins and Albanians, supported by the Russians.

During the war of 1805 Russia had sent a fleet of forty-two ships and transports, under Admiral Siniavin, into the Adriatic. After the battle of Austerlitz it concentrated at Corfu, and the Admiral was invited by the Montenegrins to occupy Cattaro. This he did, obliging the Austrian garrison to retire. Ghislieri, the Austrian Commissary, who had arranged the evacuation, was accused of cowardice, for although Austria had given up Dalmatia to France, he had not yet received orders to quit his post. The French were furious, and declared Austria responsible for the Russian occupation of Cattaro, which they would now have to attack in force. These events disturbed the Ragusans, who feared lest the passage of French troops through their territory should end in a permanent occupation. The Senate sent conciliatory letters to Napoleon, congratulating “the most glorious of Emperors” on his victories, and to Talleyrand, “the most virtuous of Ministers.” They offered to transport the French army by sea from Stagno to Ragusavecchia or Porto Rose, thus avoiding the passage through the town of Ragusa, and voted 30,000 piastres for the purpose. Unfortunately, Sankovski, the Russian Commissary, heard of the offer, and threatened that if these were the Republic’s intentions he would order the occupation of Ragusavecchia, adding that the garrison would be a Montenegrin one, well knowing how the Ragusans hated and feared those lawless mountaineers. Another Russian agent came to Ragusa on board a frigate, insisted that all arrangements with the French should be cancelled, and ordered the Senate to inform the Russians as to the movements of the French troops. The Senate instructed Bassegli and Zlatarić, their agents in the French camp, to do everything to hinder Molitor’s advance, by describing the strength of the Russians and the risks of the march. This they did, and Molitor was so impressed by their statements that he gave up the plan for the moment. His demand for a further loan of 300,000 francs was refused on the plea that the treasury was empty, although as a matter of fact it was not. Siniavin now proposed to attack Ragusa and occupy it, but the Senate’s protestations of loyalty to the Tsar, and possibly its bribes, induced him to desist from a move which would have secured him from all fear of a French attack.539

But now the French General Lauriston came on the scene, and prepared to advance; he concentrated a force at Makarska, and then moved on to Slano in Ragusan territory. The Senators were at their wits’ end; the old diplomacy had broken down in the clash of the Napoleonic wars; they could no longer temporise, and were under the necessity of calling in either the French or the Russians. The latter seemed the more dangerous, especially on account of their allies, the Montenegrins. Moreover, the French consul had made many friends, while his Russian colleague was deservedly hated. Count Caboga’s proposal that the population should emigrate en masse to Corfu or Turkish territory was rejected, and the majority decided in favour of the French. On the evening of May 27 Lauriston, with 800 men, reached Ragusa after a forced march of twenty hours. He found the gates closed and the drawbridge up; two Senators met him and requested him not to enter the town, but this was a mere formality. He repaired to the Palace, where the Minor Council was assembled, and declared that his orders were to occupy the fortified points of the State of Ragusa, but to respect the liberty of the Republic and the persons and property of the inhabitants. He offered them the protection of Napoleon, and said that as the Austrian Emperor had closed all his ports to the Anglo-Russian fleets, it was important that Ragusa should not remain the only harbour in the Adriatic open to the enemies of France. Meanwhile Colonel Teste with the troops had entered the town and seized the forts: Ragusa was thus occupied for the first time in her history by uninvited foreign troops. Great consternation ensued, and the Russians at once seized all the Ragusan ships in the harbour of Gravosa. On May 29 Lauriston issued the following proclamation:—

“Repeated concessions to the enemies of France had placed the Republic of Ragusa in a state of hostility, all the more dangerous inasmuch as it was disguised under the appearance of neutrality and friendship. The entry of the French troops into Dalmatia, far from putting an end to such conduct, has only given occasion to our enemies to exercise their influence on the State of Ragusa still further, and whatever may have been the motives of the condescension shown by the magistrates of this State, the Emperor could not fail to be aware of them; he desired to put an end to intrigues so contrary to the laws of neutrality.

“Consequently, in the name and by the authority of His Majesty the Emperor and King of Italy, I take possession of the town and territory of Ragusa.

“I declare, however, that it is the intention of His Imperial and Royal Majesty to recognise the independence and neutrality of this State as soon as the Russians evacuate Albania, Corfu, and the other former Venetian possessions, and the Russian fleet ceases to disturb the coasts of Dalmatia.

“I promise succour and protection to all Ragusans; I shall see that the existing laws and customs and the rights of property be respected; in a word, I shall so act that, according to the behaviour of the inhabitants, they will be satisfied with the residence of the French troops in the country.

“The existing Government is maintained; it will fulfil the same functions and have the same attributions as before; its relations with States friendly to France or neutral will remain on the same footing.

“M. Bruère, commissioner of commercial relations (consul), will act as Imperial Commissary to the Senate.

“Alex. Lauriston.

“Ragusa, May 28, 1806.”

This coup de main was most successful, but Lauriston did not execute the rest of his programme by attacking Cattaro, for he was himself besieged in Ragusa instead.

His forces amounted, as I have said, to about 800 men, but he sent to Molitor at Zara for reinforcements and supplies, which arrived from Spalato soon after; the garrison was thus raised to 2000. Ragusa was put in a state of defence, the guns in the arsenal were mounted, a cargo of powder for the Turks seized, and the Ragusavecchia-Obod line held by 200 Frenchmen. A few days later the Montenegrins and Orthodox Bocchesi, instigated by the Russians, advanced into Canali, which they proceeded to pillage, while 500 more landed from Russian ships near Ragusavecchia. The French drove them back, but fearing to be cut off if the Russians landed at Breno, they withdrew to that point, and then to Bergato, where they were joined by reinforcements under General Delgorgue. The Russian squadron sailed up and landed a force at Breno, which encouraged the Montenegrins to attack Delgorgue. He was hard pressed by the enemy, who availed themselves of every inch of cover. On June 17 he attempted a bayonet charge, which failed, and he himself was killed in the mêlée; the retreat became a rout, Bergato was abandoned, and the Russians seized Monte Sergio and Gravosa. Ragusa was filled with refugees flying before the Montenegrins, and from that day was closely invested. A Russian attack on Lacroma was repulsed, but on the 19th the bombardment commenced. The battery on Monte Sergio discharged 3374 shells in seventeen days, but only twenty-three people were killed. All the houses round the town were razed to the ground; the villas of the rich nobles were plundered, the more valuable contents being seized by the Russian officers, and the rest left to the Montenegrins, Bocchesi, Canalesi, Bosnians, and even Turks, who had swarmed down in the hope of loot. The inhabitants who did not get away in time were murdered and even tortured. On June 22 there was a suspension of hostilities, and the nobles tried to induce Lauriston to surrender, which he refused to do. On the 28th Admiral Siniavin summoned him to capitulate without success; the bombardment recommenced, but without much vigour, and the siege became a blockade.

Suddenly on July 6 a body of French troops appeared before the Porta Ploce, and soon after Molitor himself arrived, drove off the Russians, and entered the town. When the news of the defeat at Bergato reached Zara he had quickly collected 2000 men and advanced on Ragusa. He sent a message to Lauriston which was designed to fall into the hands of the Russians, announcing his arrival at the head of 10,000 men; he also made a small body of troops march several times past a spot near Ombla whence they could be seen by the enemy. The Russians, thus deceived as to the strength of the French, abandoned Monte Sergio, and together with the Montenegrins fled to the coast and embarked on board ship. The French were received at Ragusa with much show of enthusiasm, for although a large part of the population had no sympathy with them, they rejoiced that the siege was at an end, and the fear of a sack of the town by the Montenegrins removed.

Molitor returned to Zara, Lauriston remaining behind to organise the French protectorate at Ragusa. He discovered that the Senate had sent an agent to Constantinople with a report bitterly reviling the French, another to Vienna and St. Petersburg asking for intervention in favour of Ragusa, and a third to Paris with a humble letter to Napoleon, and instructions to ask the Turkish ambassador to protest against the occupation of a State tributary to the Porte. He also learned that the Republic had deposited 700,000 florins in Schuller’s bank at Vienna, of which a part had been withdrawn in March and June. The French Commissary thereupon declared that henceforth all affairs dealt with by the Senate and the Minor Council should be first communicated to him, and that no payments were to be made without his authority.

Although Lauriston in his proclamation of May 29, 1806, had promised that Ragusa would be evacuated when peace was declared, the French had no intention of doing so, and on July 21 Napoleon wrote to Eugène Beauharnais: “You will make General Lauriston observe that if I have said in the treaty (the peace of Oubril, which the Tsar afterwards refused to ratify) that I recognise the independence of Ragusa, that does not mean that I shall evacuate it; on the contrary, when the Montenegrins have gone home, I intend to organise the country, and then abandon it if necessary, retaining only Stagno.” The Ragusans did not know of this, and believed that they would soon be free, but their hopes were dashed to the ground when, on August 24, war broke out again.

The French paid the indemnities for the siege very liberally—13,000,000 francs—as the money was to be provided for by Austria, whom they held responsible for all the consequences of the Russian occupation of Cattaro. On the strength of this generosity the Senate tried once more through Count Sorgo, a Ragusan resident in Paris, to get the other loan of 600,000 francs refunded, but without success. At last, on July 8, 1807, the Peace of Tilsit was signed, by which Russia gave up Cattaro to the French. Berthier, in a letter to General Marmont, who was now in command in Dalmatia, wrote: “Ragusa must certainly be united to Dalmatia; you must therefore continue to fortify it.” On August 13 Marmont stopped at Ragusa on his way to Cattaro, and received the Senators very affably; but in the course of conversation he said to one of them: “Vous allez être des nôtres.” On being asked for an explanation of these ominous words, he added “that in the present circumstances they could not remain free: the delegates having said that without merchant shipping the State could not exist, Marmont replied that by belonging to the great Emperor His Majesty would find means of compensating them. The next day the General told the delegates who had called on him that he was instructed to inform them of their future destiny, and that pending the arrival of those to whom the organisation of the new Government was entrusted, that of Ragusa might continue in its functions.”540

The declaration seemed the death-knell of Ragusan independence, and Timoni describes the condition of the State in consequence of the French occupation: “Agriculture ruined, the merchant navy reduced to inaction, public finances dilapidated, private citizens crushed down by requisitions, the monasteries converted into barracks, the invasion of the Jews as army contractors, the establishment of a masonic lodge and a club, and on the top of all this the blindness of the people and the bourgeoisie who receive the French with open arms.” As Timoni observes, the French party was still strong among the middle and lower classes, who were tired of the oligarchic rule of the nobles.

As soon as Marmont had departed a secret meeting of the Senate was held, and it was decided to send a disguised messenger to Vienna with a petition to the Emperor of Austria. As usual insufficient secrecy was observed, and Marmont heard of their action, but did nothing for the moment. On November 4 a demand was made for 300 sailors for the Franco-Venetian fleet, to which the Senate replied that in Ragusa there was always an insufficiency of seamen, that a third of the crews were foreigners, and that many of their ships had been captured by the Russians or were abroad. Instructions were sent to Kiriko, the Ragusan consul at Constantinople, to try to obtain Turkish intervention. But the French ambassador, General Sebastiani, had so much influence with the Porte that Kiriko had been obliged to remove the Ragusan arms from his house, and to request the Ragusan ship-captains to substitute the tricolor for the banner of St. Blaize. For this the Republic dismissed him from his office, and sent Antonio Natali to inform the Sultan of the dangers which menaced “the oldest and most faithful tributary of the Porte.” On December 21 Lauriston informed the Minor Council that Ragusan ships must take out Italian patents within three days on pain of being seized on leaving the port. The Senate replied that it could not take such a step without consulting the Ottoman Government. Two days later Lauriston left Ragusa, and on the 26th Colonel Godart put up a notice declaring that any captain who did not hoist the Italian colours at once would be imprisoned. On January 2, 1808, General Clauzel took command of Ragusa, and on the 6th the tricolor was hoisted on the flagstaff in the Piazza. The Senate tried to send Count Caboga to the Emperor of Austria, but Clauzel prevented his departure. Urgent messages were despatched to Constantinople, and overtures were even made to Timoni. “Consul,” they said significantly, “Ragusans or Austrians.” The Pasha of Bosnia was also approached, but he was friendly to the French, and informed them of all the Ragusans’ communications. On the 30th Marmont returned to Ragusa, and summoned the Senate, saying that he had a declaration to make. “The Council,” writes Timoni, “gathered together in less than an hour, and Colonel Delort repaired to the Palace, followed by the Consul Bruère, the war commissary, the commander of the garrison, the interpreter Vernazza, and two other officers. The Colonel sat down beside the Rector, and read out to the Senate a document in which the Government of Ragusa was accused of disloyalty, of having set the Pasha of Bosnia against the French, of having tried to raise an agitation among the people; the intimation made by Marmont the preceding August not having had any effect, it was now necessary to take further measures. He then drew another paper from his pocket, and read as follows:—

“‘The General Commander-in-Chief in Dalmatia orders: The Republic of Ragusa has ceased to exist; the Government and the Senate, as well as the law-courts, are dissolved. M. Bruère is appointed provisional administrator of the State of Ragusa.’

“The Senators were silent for a while; then Count Biagio Bernardo Caboga arose, and informed the Colonel that neither the moment nor the circumstances permitted him to enter into a long justification; that, as far as concerned himself, his conscience was pure and clear, and that he could answer for the loyalty of his colleagues. The Senate was ready to submit to the Divine Will as manifested through the organ of His Majesty Napoleon the Great.”

Meanwhile troops seized the Palace, the Segreteria, and the custom house, on which seals were affixed. That night the burghers of Ragusa gave a ball to celebrate the end of the oligarchy! But though resistance might now seem indeed hopeless, the Senate continued to intrigue for a little while longer. Napoleon then ordered Marmont to arrest ten of the chief agitators and send them to Venice as hostages, and to threaten to shoot all who were found to be in correspondence with foreign Governments. The nobles ceased to agitate openly, but they did not yet renounce all hope of regaining their independence.

In March, 1808, Marmont was created Duke of Ragusa, a title of which, according to Pisani, he was not very proud, for in his memoirs he mentions it as having been conferred on him in 1807, perhaps because he did not like to be reminded of the fact that it was a reward for his services in the suppression of a free Republic.

Napoleon had appointed the Venetian Dandolo Provveditore of Dalmatia, while General Marmont retained the supreme military command. But Ragusa and Cattaro were given a separate administration under G. D. Garagnin, who was independent of Dandolo, and responsible only to Marmont. The territory of the Republic was divided into three districts: Ragusa, Stagno, and the Islands. Ragusa was given a council of eighteen members (six nobles, six burghers, and six plebeians), with Count Sorgo as mayor, and four adjoints. The State’s finances proved to be still in good condition in spite of all the troubles and the requisitions, and large sums were invested in foreign banks.

After the departure of the Russian fleet the British squadron appeared in the Adriatic and began to prey upon French and Dalmatian shipping. During the next three years fighting continued in Croatia between the Austrians and the French, and trouble was threatened in the Bocche by the native Orthodox Christians supported by the Montenegrins. The French General Pacthod visited Cattaro, made some arrests, shot three of the agitators, and calmed the rest of the population. But the British fleet ceaselessly cruised up and down, and prevented the French from maintaining secure communications between Italy and Dalmatia. The British crews had one great advantage over the French—they were all Englishmen, and veterans; whereas the French ships were manned by scratch crews, consisting of Italians and Slaves, as well as of Frenchmen. In 1810 Lissa was made the port of call for British ships, but not fortified. In October a Franco-Italian squadron under Captain Dubordieu, in the absence of British men-of-war, seized the island and captured a few merchantmen; but he abandoned it again on the return of the fleet, and the British now decided to occupy it permanently. Dubordieu received orders to try to recapture it, and on March 11, 1811, he set sail from Ancona with nine warships, 271 guns, and 2655 men. On the 13th he encountered a British squadron under Captain Hoste, consisting of four ships with 188 guns and 985 men. In spite of this great disparity of forces Hoste gave battle, and was completely victorious; most of the enemies’ ships were sunk or captured. The British were equally successful in subsequent engagements, and Lissa was strongly fortified and formally taken possession of in 1812. The island prospered enormously under British rule, and the population rose from 4000 to 11,000. In January Sir Duncan Robertson, commanding at Lissa, occupied Curzola, which was given a government like that of Lissa under Lowen, and became equally prosperous. The Ragusan island of Lagosta was occupied at the same time.

In the following May the British determined to occupy the other Ragusan islands. On February 18 an attack was made on Mezzo, but repulsed. The island was then blockaded; part of the garrison deserted, and the rest under Lieutenant Tock retired to the Forte della Montagna. A British force landed, seized the Forte Santa Maria, and placed a battery on a hill commanding Tock’s position. Unable to hold out any longer, he surrendered to Blake with the honours of war. Giuppana was also captured, and then Calamotta, and the Ragusan Count Natali was appointed Governor of the Archipelago under British protection. An attack on Ragusavecchia was repulsed by a Croatian battalion on October 11; but two days later that same battalion deserted from the French to the English side, and Count Biagio Bernardo Caboga was appointed Governor of the town. The same day another Croatian detachment abandoned the island of Daksa at the entrance of the harbour of Gravosa, and a British force occupied Stagno. Thus Ragusa was blockaded from the sea on all sides. On November 11, 1813, Hoste attacked the island of Lesina, and captured it without difficulty.

In this same year an Austrian army invaded Dalmatia and co-operated with the British fleet; the population being tired of French exaction rose in arms in favour of the Austrians. The French, attacked on all sides, were forced to abandon many towns and fortresses. For a time the British under Cadogan, the Austrians under General Tomasić, and the Dalmatian insurgents under Danese all worked together for the expulsion of the invaders. But in the operations round Ragusa and Cattaro a certain amount of friction arose between the British and the Austrians. The French forces too, however, were not homogeneous, and the number of desertions from the Italian and Croatian regiments, whose hearts were not in the fight, was very large. The Allies were assisted by an anti-French movement in Ragusa itself; but while the nobles and the peasantry desired the restoration of the Republic, the bourgeoisie still evinced French tendencies. The other Dalmatians wished to be under Austrian dominion.

The British fleet, as I have said, had occupied the Ragusan islands, where a provisional Government was set up under Ragusan nobles, and the old Ragusan laws were revived. With the capture of Stagno the whole country west of the Ombla rose in favour of the Anglo-Austrians, and Captain Lowen issued a proclamation to the Ragusans from Mezzo, declaring that “the English and Austrian forces were advancing towards this country to give it back its liberty.... Remember that you bear a glorious name, and fight as the Spaniards and the Russians have fought to restore your independence.” The Austrian proclamation issued by General Hiller contained no mention of the word independence.

In the meanwhile the Ragusans Count Caboga and Marchese Bona raised a force of 3000 Canalesi; as this was not sufficient to recapture Ragusa, it became necessary to apply for British assistance. But no one wished to be the first to ask for it, as it was feared that if the British did seize Ragusa they might end by retaining it; while if they failed, the French would show no mercy on the rebels. At last it was agreed to send a popular deputation of twenty-five peasants to Captain Hoste, who was in command of the squadron at Cattaro, asking for help from the Allies to re-establish the Republic. According to Bona, Hoste and Lowen gave them a safe-conduct, declaring that the Canalesi, under the protection of the Allies, were to act for the common cause, and promised to send an English force to Canali. The Canalesi rose in revolt, and drove the French gendarmes and patrols out of the country. As no English force arrived, a second deputation went to Hoste, who sent Lowen to Ragusavecchia, but no men to Canali. Caboga then proclaimed the general revolution, but was forced to fly from the French police. On October 28 a small British detachment under Lieutenant Macdonald landed at Ragusavecchia, raised the British flag, and declared that the ancient laws of Ragusa were revived in the place of the French ones, and Count Caboga was made commandant of the town pro tempore. The raising of the British flag and the appointment of Caboga displeased the Ragusan nobles, who regarded these acts as infringements of their own rights. They met in council, and proposed to send an agent to Constantinople to notify the restoration of the Republic to the Sultan and place it once more under his suzerainty. Caboga spoke against the proposal as constituting a slight to the English, whereupon he was at once accused of having sold himself to them. Lowen was then asked for permission to raise the Ragusan standard, but he said that he had no authority, and that application must be made to Admiral Fremantle, who held the chief command in the Adriatic. But when Hoste arrived at Ragusavecchia on November 15, he at once had the standard of St. Blaize hoisted, saluted it with twenty-one guns from his frigate, and proclaimed the independence of the Republic.

Caboga then determined to begin the attack on Ragusa with his insurgents. The town was at that time a first-class fortress. The Porta Ploce was defended by the Revellino, and the Porta Pile by the Forte San Lorenzo; while on Monte Sergio the Forte Imperiale had been erected the previous year. An assault on the latter having failed, the blockade was commenced. At first the operations were not very successful, for although Bona raised some of the people of the Primorije, the chiefs of the villages beyond Slano told him that they had been ordered by General Tomasić to swear fealty to Austria alone—a proof of that Power’s intentions with regard to Ragusa. Captain Hoste also refused to provide a landing party or a siege train. Lowen was next applied to, and he landed fifty men, appointing Caboga “Commander-in-Chief of the Insurgent Forces besieging Ragusa.” But the besiegers had no artillery, and at their headquarters at Gravosa there were only 300 or 400 men, while a party of the French-Ragusan National Guard, under Colonel Giorgi, had succeeded in arresting some of the nobles at Gravosa on November 25. Montrichard, who commanded the Ragusan garrison, determined on a sortie on the night of December 8. Native spies informed the besiegers of the plan, and an ambuscade was prepared to meet the attacking party as they issued from Porta Pile. But midnight, the hour fixed for the sortie, having passed, and no one appearing, the insurgents thought that the idea must have been given up, and returned to Gravosa. Then a Croatian detachment under Grgurić, and an Italian one under Paccioni, issued forth from Ragusa and attacked the insurgents’ headquarters at 2 A.M. But the advance was revealed by two deserters who fired off their rifles, and Paccioni failed to co-operate with Grgurić. The sortie was therefore repulsed, but with small losses on either side.

On January 3, 1814, the Austrian General Milutinović arrived before Ragusa at the head of two battalions, bringing letters from Baron Tomasić, who thanked Caboga and Bona for their services. His first act, however, was to attempt to disband the local volunteers, to which Caboga refused to agree, demanding the recognition of the insurgents as independent belligerents. This Milutinović granted, as he was not strong enough to refuse, and he left Caboga in command of the besiegers during his own absence at Cattaro. Having failed to take that town he returned to Gravosa on the 13th. The nobles were dissatisfied with Caboga, whom they regarded as being in the pay of foreigners, and on the night from the 17th to the 18th of January they met at Count Giorgi’s house at Gravosa, and proclaimed the re-establishment of the Republic. D’Ajala and Bosgiović notified the event to the Emperor of Austria and the Sultan respectively, and a deputation waited on Milutinović for the same purpose. The General pretended to acquiesce, as he was not in a position to do otherwise. Hoste, although he had little sympathy for the rebels, was not sorry to see Milutinović in difficulties. When the latter, however, asked him for artillery, after refusing, he agreed to supply two guns and four mortars, which were landed on the 20th. On the 21st the bombardment was commenced, but did little damage at first. An attack on Forte Imperiale failed, but a few days later another battery was raised at San Giacomo, and armed with ten British guns, brought into position by a difficult and circuitous route; it opened fire at once on Forte Imperiale and Lacroma.

On the 25th Montrichard, who was certainly no hero, communicated with the besiegers with a view to capitulation, and on the 26th explained their proposals to his council of defence. Grgurić, Paccioni, and Major Sèbe, who were the most energetic of his officers, replied that as the walls were intact, the population quiet, provisions ample, and there were 152 guns, the garrison was not in any of the cases justifying a capitulation according to the regulations. Montrichard pretended to give way, but the next day he arranged for a popular demonstration of some 200 people, who hooted the Italian troops, while a member of the crowd raised the Ragusan standard on one of the towers. This gave him the required excuse, and some hours later a capitulation was agreed upon, by which the Anglo-Austrians were to enter the town at midday on the 28th, but the insurgents were not to be admitted until disarmed. The French and Italian troops were to be shipped to Ancona without the honours of war. When Caboga heard the terms of the capitulation he was most indignant, because a few days previously Milutinović had promised that on the surrender of the town 200 armed insurgents should enter it together with the troops, that the Ragusan flag should be raised on the forts with that of Austria and Great Britain, and that the civil government should be carried on by Caboga and the commission of nobles. Finding himself thus betrayed, he ordered Count Natali to be ready with an armed body of insurgents at the Porta Ploce, to enter as soon as it was opened and proclaim the restoration of the Republic. The citizens got wind of this plan, and fearing that the insurgents might think more of plunder than of the Republic they informed Milutinović. The General worked all night to get the Porta Pile, which had been blocked up during the siege, open by dawn. In this he succeeded, and at an early hour his Croatians entered the town with two guns. In the meanwhile the insurgents were waiting outside the other gate, and when, at twelve o’clock, it was opened and they rushed towards the bridge, they found themselves faced by the Austrian troops with fixed bayonets and the two guns. They saw that the game was up, and dispersed to their homes. They returned later unarmed, carrying instead of rifles fruit and vegetables to sell in the market.

Milutinović dissolved the National Guard organised by the French, and the Austrian troops seized all the posts. On the 29th the Austrian standard was raised on the Orlando column, and Austrian and English detachments occupied the forts. The French garrison left, and a few days later the British fleet set sail. Its share of the booty consisted of a few guns, some powder, and tobacco.

The party of the nobles, although it was obvious that the Republic was no more, especially after the departure of the English, did not yet abandon all hope. On February 15 the civil officials swore fealty to the Emperor of Austria as King of Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Cattaro, and on March 2 the clergy did the same. The latter had sworn fealty a short time before to Napoleon, but Milutinović had won them over by his respect for Catholic ceremonies, although he himself was a member of the Orthodox Church. The Austrians now wished to round off their Dalmatian possessions by occupying the Ragusan islands; but Count Natali declared that the government of them had been entrusted to him by the British before Austria had joined the coalition, and that he would not surrender them until he received an authorisation from Admiral Fremantle. Count Caboga was appointed by Austria provisional Intendant of Ragusa, with instructions to follow the ordinances established by the French. The bourgeoisie accepted Austrian rule as a pis aller rather than return under the oligarchy. The peasants were overawed by the troops, and gave no further trouble. The nobles, however, were profoundly dissatisfied, and still continued to agitate in secret for a return to the status quo. General Tomasić instructed Milutinović to spare their feelings as much as possible. “In dealing with them,” he wrote, “you must not use the words müssen and sollen, but instead bitten, ersuchen.”541

In January Marchese Bona had gone to Vienna to plead the cause of Ragusan independence. He was at first received at the Imperial Chancery with great courtesy, but obtained no promises. When, however, the Ragusan intrigues at Constantinople and the double game played by the nobles were disclosed, he received orders from the police to quit the town within a fortnight. He then departed, leaving a dignified protest against the insults offered to him, and against the denial of justice to the claims of his fellow-citizens.

At Ragusa the nobles continued in their opposition, and assailed all the magistrates who did not belong to their own order. General Tomasić, to please them, dismissed three officials who were of the bourgeoisie and put nobles in their places. Emboldened by this concession, they went about declaring that the Congress of Vienna was going to proclaim the independence of Ragusa, like that of the Republic of Cracow. “The Ragusans,” as Pisani writes, “had but too much reason to compare their own fate to that of Poland, and in seeking the causes of their misfortunes one may find more than one feature of resemblance between them and the Poles.”542

At last General Milutinović lost patience, and when a deputation of nobles came to propose a series of administrative reforms which would have prepared the way for the restoration of the Constitution, he threatened to imprison all who took part in secret conclaves, and in his report of April 4 he denounced the nobles for their correspondence with the Turks. But when he departed to attack Cattaro for the second time, he left a Hungarian officer named Wittman, a weak and incapable person, in charge, and under his feeble rule the plots began again. The nobles succeeded in winning back Caboga to their side, by showing him (according to Pisani) some forged documents, in which it was stated that the Congress really intended to re-establish Ragusan independence; fearing, therefore, that if the nobles came into power once more they would exile him and confiscate his property, he communicated some valuable documents to them, such as Lowen’s proclamation at Ragusavecchia of Ragusan independence, which they sent to England to be submitted to the Congress by the British Ministers. But when Caboga saw that he had been hoodwinked, he returned to Austrian allegiance. A deputation of nobles went to Zara to wait on General Tomasić, but without result. On July 13 Milutinović returned in triumph from Cattaro, which he had reduced to order, and made the following proclamation:—

“The Imperial and Royal Chancery has been pleased to inform me by a Note of January 3 that, in consequence of an agreement between the allied Powers, the territory included under the name of Illyria during the rule of Napoleon, and consequently the State of Ragusa, the islands depending from it, and the Bocche di Cattaro are definitely made over to the Imperial and Royal Court of Austria.

“I notify this decision so that the inhabitants of the said provinces may learn their fate, and try to deserve, by a prompt and loyal submission, the effects of the benevolence of Our august Sovereign the Emperor and King Francis I.

“By the Civil and Military Government of Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Cattaro.

“Baron Tomasić, Feldmarschall-Lieutenant.

“By authentic copy.

“Milutinović, General-Major.

“Zara, July 7.”

This proclamation was received respectfully and in silence. Only one noble, Marchese Francesco Bona, tried to raise a rebellion among the peasants, and was at once arrested and imprisoned in the Forte San Lorenzo. On August 29 the Municipal Council was summoned to elect a deputation to the Emperor-King. Milutinović had returned to Cattaro, and although Wittmann, who was in charge, was present at the sitting, it proved a stormy one. Count Pozza-Sorgo declared that if a deputation were sent to the Emperor of Austria, another should also be sent to the King of England, whose forces had contributed at least as effectively as those of Austria in driving out the French. But as Marchese Michele Bona was already on a mission to the Allies it was useless to send another; the choice of the delegates was therefore adjourned, and the motion accepted by ten votes to eight. Caboga summoned the Council again on September 1, when the delegation was chosen; the Council was about to break up when the Mayor, Bosdari, received a sealed packet. On opening it he found that it contained the solemn protest of forty of the nobles who had signed the act of January 18. “It is we,” they declared, “who have been constituted from that day the sovereign Council, and have the sole authority to speak in the name of our country.” Wittmann took the protest and forwarded it to Zara, and he also informed Milutinović of the occurrence. The next day all the signatories of the document were arrested save eighteen, who fled to the islands under British protection. At 11 A.M. Milutinović arrived, and issued a proclamation describing the protest as an “act of frenzy,” and inviting the people to sign a counter-protest. This was done, and Bosdari requested the General to liberate all the nobles who were willing to sign a declaration of submission to the Emperor. Milutinović agreed, and included the fugitives in the amnesty, on condition that they returned within eight days. The nobles signed the oath, and on September 15 an assembly of the people elected a deputation to go to Zara and swear fealty in the name of all. Milutinović then addressed a very severe admonition to the nobles, and all of that order who occupied judicial positions were dismissed.543

The Ragusan archipelago remained under British protection until July 16, 1815. On August 3, 1816, Dalmatia and Ragusa received a definite organisation by Imperial rescript, and Baron Tomasić was appointed Statthalter or Military and Civil Governor, and Milutinović departed from Ragusa. The Emperor assumed the title of Duke of Ragusa, which his successors still bear.

Thus ends, after more than twelve hundred years, the history of the Republic of Ragusa. Its Government and citizens may have had their defects, but they were full of a real, if somewhat narrow, patriotism. The State conferred a prosperity and happiness on its inhabitants which have fallen to the lot of few peoples during that long and troubled period, while the peculiar, and almost unique, position occupied in European history and polity by the tiny Commonwealth may perhaps justify the appearance of this volume.

Footnotes

1 Historical Essays, Third Series, pp. 22, 23.

2 For traces of the Celtic strain see T. Graham Jackson’s Dalmatia, the Quarnero, and Istria, vol. i. p. 2.

3 The term Illyria or Illyricum comprises far more than the modern or even Roman Dalmatia, and corresponds roughly to the whole eastern shore of the Adriatic as far as Dyrrhachium, with a hinterland extending to Hungary.

4 Their name is connected with the town of Dalmium or Deminium, said by some to have been in the interior, by others on the site of the modern Almissa (formerly called Dalmisia).

5 Called the “Dalmatian Pompeii.”

6 Quoted in Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien während des Mittelalters, by Dr. C. J. Jireček, Prag, 1879, p. 3.

7 Cap. xxix. to xxxvi.

8 Jireček, op. cit., p. 4, note.

9 Jireček, Wlachen und Maurowlachen. They are now called Morlacchi in Northern Dalmatia.

10 Jireček, Handelsstrassen, pp. 22-25.

11 Ibid., pp. 25-27.

12 Jireček, Handelsstrassen, pp. 27-35.

13 Their municipal statutes, some of which have been published, present many analogies with those of Italy.

14 This form is preferred by Professor Jireček to Epidaurus.

15 Ἀφ’ οὗ δὲ ἀπὸ Σαλῶνα μετῴκησαν εἰς Ῥαούσιον, εἰσὶν ἔτη φʹ (500) μέχρι τῆςσήμερον, ἥτις ἰνδικτιῶνος ἑβδόμης ἔτους ͵ϛυνζʹ. (6457 A.M. = 949 A.D.). De Adm. Imp., cap. xxix.

16 Šafařik, Slawische Alterthümer, ii. 238; J. B. Bury, “History of the Later Roman Empire,” vol. ii. Book IV. Part II. chap. iv.

17 Constantine Porphyrogenitus says that the Slaves (whom he mixed up with the Avars) had destroyed τὸ κάστρον Πίταυρα, the inhabitants being mostly killed or captured. The survivors fled, and on an inaccessible rock founded the new city of Ῥαούσιον. In a Slavonic document quoted by Jireček (op. cit., p. 9, note 20) there is a native account of the foundation of Ragusa. The ancient Ragusa, it says, stood na Captate (at Cavtat), and possessed the whole župa of Canali; when the city fell and was destroyed, “the lords of Chum and Rascia” occupied this župa, and the inhabitants of the city took refuge on a strong place, where they founded the modern Ragusa. These are other more or less legendary accounts.

18 Op. cit., p. 10.

19 A deep inlet surrounded by high mountains at the extreme south of modern Dalmatia.

20 Gelcich, Dello Sviluppo Civile di Ragusa, p. 6.

21 The castle and bridge are both indicated in the drawing.

22 Published by the South-Slavonic Academy of Agram in the same volume as Ragnina’s chronicle. A small part of it is quoted by Gelcich, op. cit.

23 There is an Albanian tribe of the name of Dukadjin, south of Scutari.

24 They have not been identified.

25 In several early accounts it is said that the Saracens helped the Avars to destroy the city by attacking from the sea, but there is no satisfactory evidence on the subject.

26 Head of a farm; katun in modern Croatian signifies dairy; it is a neo-Latin word.

27 Venice, whose connection with the Eastern Empire was somewhat similar to that of the Dalmatian cities, now recognised Charlemagne’s supremacy. There was a Byzantine and a Frankish faction. See T. Hodgkin’s “Italy and her Invaders,” viii. p. 231; also H. Brown’s “Venice.”

28 The passage reads “de ogni Vulasi,” from every Vulasi, but the emendation “de donji Vulasi,” from Lower Vulasi or Wallachia (donji is Slavonic for lower), is suggested.

29 In Southern Dalmatia the word Morlacco is still a term of contempt.

30 This etymology is obviously impossible.

31 The first of these was Otho Ursus or Ottone Orseolo.

32 Quoted by Gelcich, op. cit., p. 9.

33 In the Italian city-republics, besides the head of the State, the Council of nobles, and the assembly of the people, there was also a minor or privy council of special advisers. It is very probable that there was something of the kind at Ragusa even at this time, as there was later.

34 Afterwards the archbishop.

35 “A wall of rubble and beams.”

36 Const. Porgh., cap. xxx. According to tradition, Ragusa had been delivered from the Saracens in 783 by Orlando, or Roland the Paladin. The legend probably has its origin in a confusion between Charlemagne’s suzerainty over Dalmatia and the Saracen siege of Ragusa in 847. The so-called statue of Orlando at Ragusa is of the fifteenth century.

37 Const. Porgh., cap. xxx.

38 The Naro of the ancients.

39 Primorije in Slavonic, Παραθαλάσσια.

40 Gelcich, op. cit., p. 2.

41 Serafino Razzi, in his Storia di Raugia, gives a long account of this miracle (cap. x.). The Venetian fleet designed to capture Ragusa by treachery, but the plot was revealed to a priest, who thus relates his vision: “I was in the church of St. Stephen about midnight, at prayer, when methinks I saw the whole fane filled with armed men. And in the midst I saw an old man with a long white beard holding a staff in his hand. Having called me aside, he told me that he was San Biagio, and had been sent by Heaven to defend this city. He told me further that the Venetians had come up to the walls to scale them, using the masts of their ships as ladders, but he, with a company of heavenly soldiers, had driven back the enemy; but he desired that in future the Ragusans should defend themselves, and never trust armed neighbours.” Ragnina dates the event 971.

42 San Bacco had been patron of the Latin settlement on the rocky ridge, while the Slavonic colony had been under the protection of the Eastern Saint Serge. When the two settlements amalgamated, as neither would accept the saint of the other, they compromised by adopting San Biagio.

43 Cedrenus, vol. i., § 1019, in Migne, vol. 121.

44 The name Rascia is generally used by old historians as synonymous for Servia, and is derived from the river Raška in Old Servia.

45 Num Ragusini ab omni jure Veneto a saec. X usque ad saec. XIV immunes fuerunt, thesis by the Abbé Paul Pisani, Paris, 1893, cap. ii.

46 According to Johannes Diaconus, the expedition started in the seventh year of Orseolo’s reign, which would be the year 998; but Monticolo, who edits that writer in his Cronache Antichissime (p. 156, note 1), observes that Diaconus says that he only heard the news of the victory when the Emperor Otho III. came to Pavia in his third descent into Italy, i.e. July 1000.

47 The name Beograd or Belgrad, i.e. white city, is a very common one in Slavonic lands.

48 “Seque suosque Orseolo Venetoque nomini dedunt.” Sabellico, Historia rerum Venetarum, Dec. I. lib. iv. cap. 3.

49 This pseudonym is an anagram for Sebastianus Slade de Ragusa; Slade is Slavonic for sweets = dolci.

50 MS. in the Museo Correr at Venice, quoted by Pisani, op. cit., introd. There is a copy at Zara and one at Ragusa.

51 Regno degli Slavi.

52 Chronica Ragusina, edit. South-Slav. Acad., p. 272.

53 Prospetto Cronologico della Dalmazia, p. 112.

54 This title is now borne by the Emperor of Austria.

55 Gelcich, op. cit., p. 3.

56 J. C. von Engel, Geschichte des Freystaates Ragusa, § 6.

57 Between 1096 and 1105 they had put three hundred ships on the sea (Horatio Brown, Venice, p. 87).

58 Serafino Razzi, Storia di Raugia.

59 Romanin, Storia Documentata di Venezia, tom. viii. p. 455, seq.; Farlati-Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, vi. 60-80.

60 H. Brown, op. cit., p. 101.

61 Spalato, however, remained subject to the empire until Manuel’s death in 1180.

62 In the Archivio Storico Italiano, viii. 154, lib. v.

63 This stipulation appears in nearly all the subsequent treaties of dedition by which Ragusa surrendered to Venice. By this act the Ragusan Church came under the authority of a Venetian prelate.

64 By Romania, mediæval historians mean the Eastern Empire.

65 Liber Pactorum, ii. p. 117, v.

66 Op. cit., cap. 30.

67 Jireček, op. cit., p. 12.

68 According to Miklosich, the word is of Arabic origin.

69 Jireček, op. cit.

70 Probably this is too early.

71 A braccio is about an ell.

72 Jireček, ibid.

73 The name is sometimes spelt Radosav.

74 Prijeki means “beyond” in Serb, and the church was so called because it was beyond the channel.

75 The figures given by Engel (§ 19)—20,000 horse and 30,000 foot—are probably exaggerated.

76 The Three Martyrs of Cattaro were saints murdered by the heathen, or, as some assert, by heretics.

77 The treaty is published in the Monum. spect. Historiam Slav. Merid., Agram, vol. i. Document xvii.

78 See ante.

79 Ibid., xxvi.

80 Ibid., xxvii.

81 Ibid., xxviii.

82 Ibid., xxix.

83 Quoted by Romanin, op. cit., loc. cit.

84 A further corroboration, if any were needed, of the surrender is found in the treaty of friendship between Stephen, Grand Župan, and Giovanni Dandolo, Count of Ragusa (Mon. Sl. Mer., vol. i. doc. xxxix.). No date is given, but it must be previous to 1222, as in that year Stephen received the title of King from Pope Honorius III., whence his designation of Prvovencani, or First Crowned.

85 On the sea coast of Montenegro, near the Lake of Scutari.

86 Dated “Ides of January, Indict. I.” (1078).

87 It will be noticed that Ragusa is alluded to first as a bishopric and then as an archbishopric in the same document.

88 Gelcich, op. cit., p. 10.

89 A heresy described in a later chapter.

90 Engel, § 20.

91 Gelcich, Delle Istituzioni Marittime e Secritarie delle Republica di Ragusa, Trieste, 1892, p. 3.

92 Marcius noster Constantinopolitanus, Vicecomes, Mon. Sl. Mer. I., doc. xiv.

93 Ibid., xxi.

94 Ibid., xxii.

95 Gelcich, op. cit., pp. 13, 14.

96 Peline is Slavonic for sage.

97 Now included in the Turkish vilayets of Kossovo and Scutari.

98 William of Tyre speaks of the “Rex Sclavorum” residing at Scutari at the time when the Crusaders were in Dalmatia. This is the Župan Vlkan (1089-1105).

99 In the plain of Kossovo, near Mitrovica (Mitrovitza).

100 This etymology is somewhat doubtful. Duša also means the soul.

101 B. Kállay, Geschichte der Serben; William Miller, The Balkans; F. Kanitz, Serbien.

102 See ante.

103 Klaić, Geschichte Bosniens.

104 Klaić, op. cit., cap. vi.

105 A treaty between Ragusa and Taddeo, Count of Montefeltro and Podestà of Ravenna and Cervia, 1216-1238 (Mon. spect. Hist. Slav. Mer., vol. i. doc. 49, pp. 35, 36; also in other documents of that collection between 1204 and 1226).

106 Resti, who erroneously records the date as 1202.

107 Mon. Slav. Mer., vol. i. p. 40.

108 Pisani, op. cit., vii.

109 Op. cit., p. 29.

110 Venice had received the same prohibition from the Pope.

111 That it was not absolutely free is proved by the Doge Jacopo Ziepolo’s Promissiom, dated March 6, 1229, which says: “And we are to receive the tributes of Cherso and Ossero, as well as of the country of Arbe and Ragusa” (Cod. Marc. DLI., class viii. Ital., quoted by Romanin).

112 Binzola Bodazza is always alluded to in this connection as one person, but in other documents, especially in the Reformationes, we find the names Binzola and Bodazza as those of two separate noble families.

113 This stipulation is repeated in various subsequent documents, but it was not always observed.

114 Sometimes written miari.

115 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 75.

116 We have often quoted this chronicle of “Esadastes,” not because of the value of its arguments, but as characteristic of Ragusan individuality, and of the way in which the Ragusans made every effort to prove and to secure their own independence. They regarded themselves not only as independent of Venice, but as distinct from the rest of Dalmatia, and they were always afraid that the great Republic might one day claim their alligiance. Hence their efforts to prove that that allegiance had never really existed, or at least that it had had no practical effect.

117 Liber Reform, ii. 322; Liber Statutorum, i. 1, 2; Gelcich, op. cit., pp. 30, 31.

118 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 78. This Koloman was evidently the son of Andrew, King of Hungary, by whom he had been appointed Duke (or Count) of Croatia and Dalmatia (1226-1241), Klaić, p. 92.

119 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 79.

120 Ibid., i. 80.

121 Klaić, p. 101.

122 Doubtless he had been appointed during the last secession of 1235.

123 Engel, § 25.

124 Mentioned by Caroldus and in the Liber Pactorum. The name sounds Ragusan.

125 Resti, ad ann. 1252. Ragusan writers frequently complain that the Venetians did not protect the city effectually against the Slaves, but it is difficult to see what they could have done against an almost inland state.

126 This institution is described on pp. 76-78.

127 In the various histories of Servia (e.g. B. Kállay’s Geschichte der Serben, p. 51) no mention is made of this coalition, and in fact the reign of Stephen Uroš, save for the Mongolian inroads, is described as peaceful. On the other hand, the treaty between Radoslav and Ragusa expressly mentions the alliance with Bulgaria against Servia. Probably the Mongol invasion of 1255 induced him to make peace with his neighbours.

128 Miklosich, Monumenta Serbica, pp. 60 and 69; translated in Klaić, op. cit., pp. 137, 138.

129 Uroš was deposed by his son in 1272.

130 For the position and importance of these envoys see Chap. III.

131 The chapters relating to the stanicum (stanak in Slavonic) are 19, 20, 49-57. The matter is ably dealt with in an article by Professor V. Bogišić in the Archiv für Slawische Philologie, Berlin, vol ii., 1877, pp. 570-593.

132 In the Liber Reformationum it is mentioned at rare intervals.

133 The commonest are: Bassegli, Bobali, Bodazza, Bona, Bonda, Bubagna, Caboga, Ghetaldi, Gondola, Gozze, Luccari, Raguina, Resti, Saraca, Sorgo, &c. Only a few, such as Zlatarich, are purely Slavonic. The whole question of the relative proportions of Italians and Slaves in Dalmatia is very obscure. Even to this day, owing to the bitterness of party feeling, it is impossible to obtain reliable statistics.

134 Save the treaties with the Slavonic states, which are mostly published in the original Servian in Miklosich’s Monumenta Serbica.

135 The number of members varied at different times.

136 Gelcich, p. 32.

137 Luccari.

138 Lib. Ref., v. p. 307.

139 The age was afterwards lowered to eighteen years.

140 This account is based on that given in Luccari, save for such changes as occurred between the Venetian period and the early seventeenth century, when Luccari’s book was published.

141 Stephen Uroš II. Milutin (1275-1321).

142 Lebret, Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig, i. 598. Engel, who gives a similar account, attributes the raid to Stephen Kotromanić, Banus of Bosnia, which is clearly a mistake, as Ragusa was at that time on excellent terms with him.

143 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 204 (1293-1331) and 261 (1294).

144 Ibid., 237.

145 Reform., 57.

146 Salt was a commodity lacking in the interior.

147 Liber Pactorum, 79.

148 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 294, 295, 296, 297.

149 Ibid., 303, 304, 306.

150 We find a Reformatio of May 1303 which alludes to the Servian war as still continuing, but it was probably only a case of isolated raids and acts of brigandage.

151 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 327.

152 Ibid., 254, Misti, 1313-1316.

153 Ragnina, ad ann. 1316, also Ref.

154 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 469.

155 Reigned until 1330.

156 Gelcich, op. cit., p. 34.

157 Gelcich, ibid.

158 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 204, Misti, ad ann. 1320-21.

159 It may have been the acts of piracy alluded to.

160 Ex Libr. Consilior, 1325, Aug. 15, and 1326, March 15, Cons. Roy. xl., Gelcich, pp. 34, 35.

161 Gelcich, Reform.

162 Engel, § 28.

163 Vol. i. 589.

164 Part of Montenegro.

165 A small island at the Narenta’s mouth.

166 Ad ann. 1322.

167 A name usually given to Greek priests in the Middle Ages.

168 This story is somewhat confused. Ragusan writers declare that the princess in question was deposed, together with her son, by a rebellious noble, Alexander, who made himself Tsar and offered to place Bulgaria under Servian suzerainty if Stephen secured the fugitives for him. But after Velbužd Michael’s widow fled, and his first wife, Anna, Milutin’s daughter, was placed on the throne jointly with her son Šišman II. by the victorious Serbs. Stephen Uroš died immediately after, strangled by his son Stephen Dušan, who held Bulgaria as a vassal state. Then came the rebellion of Alexander, who forced Šišman and his mother to fly from Bulgaria, and induced Dušan to marry his sister. Anna fled to Ragusa, and perhaps this may be the princess to whom the local historians allude. On the other hand, it does not seem likely that Dušan would wish to capture her, his own kinswoman. See Jireček’s Geschichte der Bulgaren, 290-298.

169 Lib. Ref., iii. 365.

170 Quoted in Gelcich, Istituzioni Marittime e Sanitarie della Republica di Ragusa, Trieste, p. 37.

171 Ibid., p. 38.

172 Annali, ad ann. 1348.

173 Mon. Slav. Mer., iii. 16.

174 Ibid., 182, 256, 272.

175 Ibid., 274.

176 See also Lib. Reform., 155-157, 162, 163, 169, 248, 249; and Resti, ad ann. 1349-1350.

177 Horatio Brown, Venice, p. 196.

178 Ibid., pp. 198-205.

179 Horatio Brown, Venice, p. 211.

180 Gelcich, Ragusa, p. 44.

181 Engel, Appendix viii.

182 Lib. Ref.; Gelcich, Ragusa, p. 44.

183 From Astaria, a mediæval Latin word meaning a flat tract of seacoast. In Du Cange “maritima, campus planus mari adjacens.”

184 Mentioned in 1254.

185 Gelcich, I Conti di Tuhelj, p. 22.

186 In 1331 a request was made to the King of Servia “de implorando ab eo castrum de Prisren in custodia, pro securitate mercatorum nostrorum conversantium in Prisren,” but it was refused (Gelcich, I Conti di Tuhelj, p. 23).

187 Near Petrovoselo.

188 Jireček, op. cit., pp. 13, 14.

189 For the Paulicians, see Conybeare’s Key of Truth, and Bury’s edition of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, vol. vi., Appendix 6, p. 540.

190 Jireček, Geschichte der Bulgaren, pp. 176 sqq.

191 Theiner, Mon. Slav. Mer., i. p. 20.

192 Klaić, op. cit., iii, iv, v, vii, and viii.

193 Lib. Ref., v., April 14, 1319, p. 139.

194 Gelcich, Ragusa, p. 21.

195 Ibid., 17, 18, 23, 25.

196 Whence the title of the English Duke of Clarence is derived.

197 The documents on this subject are lost, but the privileges are frequently mentioned by later writers.

198 Tafel und Thomas, Griechische Urkunde in the Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Wiener Akad. der Wissenschaften, Philos.-histor. Classe, vi. 508-529; Miklosich u. Müller, Acta Græca, iii., 58 sqq., 66-67; Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Lévant, i. 308 sqq.

199 Heyd, op. cit., i. 475.

200 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 40, Heyd, op. cit., i. 308.

201 Theiner, Mon. Hist. Slav. Mer. illustr., i. 121; Heyd, op. cit., ii. 50.

202 Caloian or Kalioannes.

203 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 79.

204 Ibid., 83.

205 Ibid., 111, 248, 251.

206 Ibid., 236.

207 It still exists in the upper part of the town, but is now used as a depot for military stores.

208 Gelcich, Istituzioni Marittime e Sanitarie, p. 14.

209 The word is said to be derived from “a Ragusa,” but it is doubtful.

210 Lib. Stat., vi. cap. 21 and 22.

211 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 78.

212 Lib. Ref., i. 1325, July 18, p. 176.

213 A complaint was made to King Robert of Naples because of the acts of piracy committed by the people of Manfredonia, Lib. Ref., i., 1325, Oct. 17, p. 184.

214 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 204, Misti, 1326-27.

215 Istituzioni Marittime e Sanitarie, p. 16.

216 The custom was an Italian one, and the word ceppo is still used for Christmas box, or even for Christmas itself.

217 Gelcich, op. cit., p. 17.

218 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 204, Misti, 1329.

219 Mjatović, Studies in the History of Servian Trade in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Glasnik, vol. 33, 37, 38; Jireček, op. cit.

220 Jireček, op. cit.

221 There are hardly any distinctive traces now of the Vlachs in Dalmatia, save in the name Morlacchi, given to the Slaves generally by the Italians of the coast towns. In Macedonia, however, the Kutzo-Vlachs are numerous, and preserve both their language, which belongs to the Neo-Latin group, and their nomadic habits. There they still ply the trade of cattle-drovers or that of wandering merchants. See Jireček, op. cit., p. 60; also his Wlachen und Maurowlachen, passim; and Turkey in Europe, by “Odysseus.”

222 Afterwards called Carina = custom house.

223 Geçcha or Geçecha in the Ragusan documents, mentioned as early as 1275.

224 Now called Plevlje (Turkish, Tašlydža) in the Sandžak of Novibazar. This stream, which flows through the town, is still called the Breznica, and a neighbouring monastery Vrhobreznica = high Breznica.

225 In the sixteenth century castle and monastery were still in good repair, and the latter was inhabited by fifty monks, and contained the body of St. Saba, the patron saint of the Southern Slaves (see Zen’s Diary in Starine x. of South-Slav. Acad.). The body was removed and burnt by the Turks in 1595, and the building fell into ruins by the end of the eighteenth century. Priepolje is now the southernmost point garrisoned by Austria in the Sandžak of Novibazar.

226 Mentioned by the Lib. Ref. in 1322.

227 For this route see Benedetto Ramberti, Libri. Tre delle cosi dei Turchi, lib. i.

228 There is still a village of that name.

229 Mostar did not exist in the Middle Ages. The ruins of Blagaj still form an imposing mass.

230 The seat of feudal family of the Pavlovići in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

231 Srebro = silver in Servian.

232 Slav. S. Dimitri, Dimitrovica, or Mitrovica.

233 Jireček, op. cit., pp. 75-82.

234 Zenta or Zedda was the name of a district comprising Montenegro and that part of Albania between the lake of Scutari and the Adriatic coast as for as Durazzo. The anonymous writer in Matković (Starine x., 1878, of the South-Slavonic Academy) describes the Via de Zenta.

235 Op. cit., p. 63.

236 Ulcinium, Dulcinium; in Slavonic, Olgun; in Albanian, Ulkin.

237 On the site of San Sergio is the village of Obotti, which has of late acquired some prominence since an Italian steamship company has established a service up the Bojana for developing Italian trade. An Austrian company has imitated its example, and it seems as if there was a chance of reviving the old trade routes once more although of course they can never regain their old importance so long as the Turks continue to misgovern the land.

238 1290. Jireček, op. cit., p. 65.

239 Lissos, Alexium, in Slavonic and Albanian Lješ.

240 Jireček, pp. 66-7; this is now the Mirdit country.

241 The name Πριξδριάνα is first mentioned as a Bulgarian bishopric in 1026.

242 Jireček, p. 68. The Beglerbeg of Rumelia was the commander-in-chief of the Turkish armies in Europe.

243 The Servian king imitated the Venetian ducats, but with a considerable amount of base metal, whence Dante’s allusion to the punishment awaiting “quel di Rascia, che mal aggiustò il conio di Vinegia,” Paradiso, xix. 140-141.

244 Ragusan consul at Brskovo mentioned in 1280. Its importance ceased with the Turkish conquest.

245 Jireček, p. 71, Bolizza.

246 Critobulus, ii. 7, 8, in Fragm. Hist. Græca, v. 109.

247 First mentioned in 1349.

248 First mentioned in 1376.

249 Mentioned in 1412.

250 Mentioned in 1346.

251 Mentioned in 1350.

252 Jireček, op. cit., 41-58. A very elaborate and interesting account of the Bosnian and Servian mines is given in this work.

253 This division is reflected in the prefixes Gornji and Donji (upper and lower), which are frequently found attached to the names of Bosnian and Servian towns.

254 According to Farlati, it is owing to the Ragusans that some traces of Latin Christianity survived in these lands of schism and heresy.

255 Purgari is evidently derived from the German word Bürger, but the etymology of Vaoturchi is unknown (Jireček).

256 Lib. Ref., March 8, 1332, p. 341.

257 Miklosich, Monumenta Serbica, Codice Geno (Ragusa); Jireček, op. cit., p. 60.

258 Jireček, op. cit., 60; Nicolas de Nicolay, Navigations et peregrinations orientales, Lyon, 1568.

259 In Servia, Byzantine influence was stronger and Italian-Dalmatian influence weaker than in Bosnia, as is attested by the few surviving churches of the pre-Turkish period. But in both countries contact with the Adriatic towns was closer than with the Eastern Empire.

260 Gelcich, Ragusa, p. 32.

261 So called because its bell was tolled to announce an execution of a criminal, a proclamation of exile, or the approach of a hostile fleet (Gelcich, op. cit., p. 278).

262 In 1346 forty additional sentries were added and distributed among the posts, and an extra body of archers was enrolled (Lib. Ref., i., March 24, p. 229). Of course when military expeditions were organised a much larger levy was made both in the city and in the territory.

263 T. G. Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero, and Istria, ii. p. 372.

264 Jackson, ibid.

265 R. Eitelberger von Edelberg, Die Mittelalterlichen Kunstdenkmale Dalmatiens, in his Gesammelte Kunsthistorische Werke, iv. pp. 343, 344.

266 Gelcich, Ragusa, 17, 23.

267 Eitelberger, op. cit., p. 334.

268 Jackson, ibid.

269 The word sponza was also applied to open loggie, built on the borders of the Republic as resting-places for the caravans. One of these existed at S. Michele della Cresta (1356), and another by the Canale di Narenta (Gelcich, p. 73).

270 De Diversis says it was enlarged in 1312.

271 Op. cit., ii. 360.

272 Gelcich, p. 19.

273 Ibid., p. 20.

274 Horatio Brown’s Venice, p. 212.

275 Gelcich, La Zedda, Preface.

276 Note to Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, vol. vi. p. 500.

277 The “Machova” of the Ragusan documents.

278 Klaić, p. 197.

279 Knez means lord or count.

280 The decadence of Servia can be traced in the titles of its rulers. Uroš IV. was the last Tsar, Vukašin was only Kral or king, and his son was Marko Kraljević, “the King’s son.”

281 Du Cange, Farlati, Lenormant, and Rovinski take the first view, Gelcich (La Zedda, p. 28) and Šafažik the second.

282 It is sometimes called Zenta or Zeta.

283 This form of succession was a very usual one in the Serb lands.

284 Gelcich, La Zedda, p. 13; Jireček, Handelsstrassen, p. 36 sqq.

285 These were allowed to lapse in favour of Vojslav Voinović.

286 Miklosich, Monumenta Serbica, p. 176.

287 Gelcich, La Zedda, p. 14; also his Memoire storiche sulle Bocche di Cattaro.

288 Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, Bury’s edition, vol. vii. pp. 29-31.

289 The ancient Tainaros, now called Cirmen.

290 Klaić, p. 199; Gelcich, La Zedda, p. 80.

291 After the year 1358 the Reformationes allude to the Rector, and no longer to the Rectores.

292 I.e. when his own acts or the election of one of his relatives was under discussion.

293 Ref., ii., January 1359.

294 Diplom. Ragus., 1359, 4, 5, 8; 1360, 12; 1361, 20.

295 Ref., 1360, Feb.

296 Ref Cons. Maj., 1361, July 1.

297 Ref., 1361, July.

298 The Slaves used Ragusa as their banking centre.

299 Jireček, p. 36.

300 Gelcich, Balša, genealog. table.

301 Monumenta Histor.-Jurid. Slav. Mer., i., Agram, 1882.

302 Mon. Rag., iii.

303 Ref., ii. pp. 276-280; Lett. e Comm. di Lev. 1350-80, Aug. 31, 1359; Gelcich, Balša, pp. 33-37; Ref., iii. 91, 98, 99; iv. 24, 117, 133-4, 139, 140.

304 Now Mičsić, in Montenegro. See Miklosich, Mon. Serb., p. 169.

305 Gelcich, Balša, p. 38.

306 Gelcich, Balša, p. 53.

307 Diplom. Rag., 42.

308 Klaić, p. 200; Jireček, pp. 36-37.

309 Klaić, p. 200.

310 Gelcich, Ragusa, p. 44.

311 Ref., iv., Oct 14, 1378.

312 Diplom. Rag., March 13, 1379, No. 62.

313 Ref., 1379, June 20 and June 26.

314 Engel, § 32.

315 Razzi, lib. i. cap. xxi.

316 Miklosich, Mon. Serb., 184-5.

317 Miklosich, Mon. Serb., 188.

318 Klaić, p. 206.

319 Charter dated December 2, 1382, in Miklosich, 201-202.

320 Kukuljevic-Sakcinski, Jura Regni Croatin, i. 150-151; Klaić, 209.

321 Mon. Slav., iv. 187-8, 194-5, 200-203.

322 July 20, 1385, Klaić, 211.

323 Klaić, 226.

324 Kossovo or Kosovo Polje.

325 Gelcich, Balša, 140.

326 The mountainous region behind Cattaro.

327 Lettere di Levante, 1403-1410, fol. 78; Gelcich, Balša, 162.

328 Ref., in Dipl. Rag., Sept. 17, 1390, and Jan. 26, 1391.

329 Gelcich, Balša, 161-3.

330 Mon. Slav., iv. 295, Oct 7, 1392.

331 Ref., 1395-7, fol. 75, 78; Gelcich, Balša, 174.

332 Gelcich, Balša, p. 175.

333 Gelcich, Balša, 183.

334 I.e. “the Duchy,” from Herzeg or Herzog.

335 Ref., in Dipl. Rag., March 20, 1392.

336 Hitherto it had only struck copper coins, using foreign silver and gold. Gold coins were never struck at Ragusa.

337 Gelcich, Balša, 200-201.

338 Gelcich, Balša, 205-306.

339 Klaić, 274.

340 Klaić, 278-9; he deduces this from the letter of the Ragusans to Hrvoje, April 8, 1400, in which they state that Ostoja had protested against their detention of the Turkish envoy. See also Pučić, Spomenici, i. 28, and Lucio, De Regno Dalm. et Croat., p. 258.

341 A few years before, in 1391, they had received part of Canali, with Dolnja Gora and Soko, from the Paulovići, so that now the territory of the Republic extended from the Narenta to the Bocche di Cattaro.

342 Diplom. Ragus., 91-102.

343 Diplom. Rag., 95, Nov. 16, 1403.

344 Fejér, Cod. Dipl., x. 4, p. 388.

345 Pučić, Spom., i. xv; Klaić, 280-290.

346 The Djed or chief priest of the Bogomil community was also present at this Parliament.

347 Pučić, i. 56 and 61.

348 Rački, Pokret, Rad. iv., Jugosl. Akad., 85; Klaić, 297.

349 Ref. 1407-1411, fol. 245.

350 Gelcich, Balša, 271.

351 Gelcich, Balša, 294.

352 Dipl. Ragus., July 21, 1409.

353 Hrvoje’s shiftiness had at last made him fall into disgrace.

354 Resti, ad ann., 1413.

355 Gelcich, Balša, 302; Dipl. Rag., v. 21, 1414.

356 Gelcich, Istituzioni Sanitarie et Marittime, p. 36.

357 See the Bull of 1373, in Theiner Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 398.

358 Gelcich, Ragusa, p. 52.

359 De Diversis.

360 See ante, pp. 195-7.

361 Gelcich, 46-47.

362 Matteo Saverio Zamagna, quoted in Gelcich, p. 51.

363 The Ragusan small braccio or lakat mali = 51 centimetres, Gelcich, 49-50.

364 Klaić 337-40.

365 Dipl. Rag., 202, June 8, 1426.

366 Ibid., 206, July 31, 1427.

367 Dec 31, 1427, in Miklosich, 336-50.

368 Resti; Dipl. Rag., 215.

369 Dipl. Rag., 212, April 30, 1430.

370 Ibid., 216, June 18, 1430.

371 Dipl. Rag., 220.

372 An account of them occupies the whole of the tenth book of Resti.

373 Matković, Rad., 235-36; Klaić, 351-52.

374 Dipl. Rag., 228, 230, 236-38, 240.

375 Jireček, Handelstrassen, 39 and 40.

376 Klaić, 352-53.

377 “Omnes de progenie ipsius domini Sandali appellata Cosaze,” Glasnik, xiii. 159.

378 Herzeg or Herzog, because he received Imperial investiture, hence the name Herzegovina.

379 Resti, 1435.

380 Jireček, 85.

381 Miklosich, Mon. Serb., 409-11; Klaić, 335-36.

382 It is reported by the author of the Anonymous Chronicle that when the Sultan tried to induce the Ragusans by threats and bribes to give up George, they replied: “We should rather give up our city, our wives, and our children than George or his family, for we have nothing but our good faith; and we should do the same with you if you came here under our safe-conduct.”

383 Resti, 1440 and 1441.

384 Resti, ad ann., 1441-1443.

385 Dipl. Rag., 244, 245.

386 Philippi Callimachi, De Rebus Vladislai, lib, i., in Schwandtner’s Scriptores Rer. Hung., i. 457; Klaić, 357.

387 Dipl. Rag., 266.

388 Ibid., 268, 270.

389 Hammer-Purgstall, 453.

390 Dipl. Rag., 284, Aug. 13, 1450.

391 Klaić, 380-81.

392 Ibid., 382.

393 Miklosich, Mon. Serb., 441; according to Resti he had had a quarrel with the city in 1449 concerning the castle of Soko, which he had tried to capture by treachery.

394 Miklosich, 444-47; Klaić, 385.

395 Klaić, 386.

396 Dipl. Rag., 274.

397 Ibid., 292.

398 Miklosich, 457-60; Klaić, 390.

399 In 1456 Mohammed II. addressed a letter to “the Sandjak Beg of the Duchy and to the Kadi of Novi and Hotač” (Miklosich, 465-69).

400 Appudini, i. 204; Engel, § 639; Luccari, 170.

401 Prof. Bury in the Cambridge Modern History, i. p. 68.

402 “Caput illius patriæ et ob mineras belli nervus.”

403 Dipl. Rag., 347.

404 Dipl. Rag., 353.

405 John Sabota’s letter, quoted by Klaić, 398.

406 Theiner, Mon. Hung., ii. 291-92, 297.

407 Klaić, 401.

408 Klaić, 419.

409 Miklosich, 485-91.

410 May 6, 1463, Rački in Starine vi. of the South Slav. Acad., 1 sqq.

411 Ibid.

412 Rački, ibid.

413 Klaić, 433 sqq.

414 Rački, ibid.; Dipl. Rag., April 30, 1463.

415 Engel, § 40. According to the legend, while Mohammed was riding towards Ragusa with hostile intentions he was stopped by the appearance of a venerable old man, and his horse refused to go forward; the Sultan was frightened by the omen and abandoned the enterprise. The city’s saviour was, of course, San Biagio.

416 The name is a Turkish form of Alexander, with the designation beg added.

417 Razzi, lib. ii. cap. v.

418 Dipl. Rag., Ref., Dec 2, 7, and 28, 1465; Jan. 3, 1466.

419 Dipl. Rag., Ref., Feb. 5, 1466, to Sept. 16, 1470.

420 Počić, Spomenici Srpski, ii. 130, Dec. 9, 1466.

421 Resti, 1470-1471.

422 Engel, § 40.

423 Hammer-Purgstall, iii. 191.

424 Hammer-Purgstall, iv. 4.

425 Engel, § 40.

426 Engel, ibid.

427 Dipl. Rag., 412.

428 An exiled prince of the Imperial family, and a pretender to the throne. He was a notable figure at the court of Pope Alexander VI.

429 Valentinelli, extracts from Marin Sanudo, p. 31, April 10, 1499.

430 Engel, § 41.

431 Razzi.

432 Engel, § 42.

433 Razzi, ad ann., 1526.

434 Dipl. Rag., 441.

435 Engel, § 43.

436 Valentinelli’s extracts from Sanudo, i. 297.

437 Theiner, Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 805.

438 Ragnina.

439 Tafel und Thomas, Kais. Wiener Akad. der Wissensch.; Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Lévant, ii. 292 sqq.; Makushev, Mon. Hist. Slav. Mer., p. 111.

440 I have spelt the names as they are in that book, inserting the modern spelling in brackets.

441 Jireček, op. cit., p. 61.

442 This is the celebrated Sutjeska gorge.

443 At present they are nearly all Muhamedans, having abjured Christianity, together with most of the inhabitants of Albania and many of those of Bosnia and other Balkan lands, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

444 In the Balkans there are many shrines worshipped by Christians and Turks alike, especially in Albania.

445 The present capital of Bulgaria.

446 Makushev, op. cit., 345.

447 Ibid., 440.

448 G. Müller, Documenti sulle Relazioni delle Città Toscane coll’ Oriente, p. 227.

449 Makushev, p. 477.

450 I. von Düringsfeld, Aus Dalmatien.

451 Gelcich, I Conti di Tuhelj, 68-70.

452 Ref., Cons. Rog., Oct. 23, Nov. 22, and Dec. 2, 1468.

453 Gelcich, Ragusa, 70.

454 This is the case at Ragusa to this day. In other Dalmatian towns, where the men are bilingual, the women often speak only Italian.

455 This characteristic is alluded to by Pouqueville (Voyage de la Grèce), who wrote 250 years later (see infra, chap. xii.).

456 This last statement is probably an instance of the wish being father to the thought, for there is no doubt that in the sixteenth century Ragusa was a first-class fortress, almost impregnable for those times. But Rambuti, being a Venetian, hoped to see the city one day fall under the power of the Lion of St. Mark.

457 I., 1884, pp. 131 sqq.

458 The Archbishopric of Ragusa was usually conferred on an Italian by the Pope, while the canons of the Cathedral were Ragusan nobles.

459 France was at this time (1538) allied to the Turks.

460 Razzi, Engel.

461 Razzi, lib. ii. cap. xiv.

462 Razzi, lib. ii. cap. xv.

463 The Barbary Corsairs, p. 105.

464 According to Engel (§ 45), out of 13 Ragusan vessels 7 were lost, and at Isola di Mezzo alone there were 300 widows.

465 Razzi, ii. xvii.

466 Horatio Brown, Venice, p. 364.

467 Lorenzo Miniati was then Tuscan consul at Ragusa, and was entrusted with the duty of informing his Government of all the rumours as to the movements of the Turks which he might hear; Makushev, op. cit., p. 495.

468 Ibid., 501, 1566.

469 Engel, § 45.

470 Razzi, iii. xx.

471 Min. Cons., June 5, 1570; Polizze Off. 5 Ragioni, Feb. 30, 1570.

472 Gelcich, pp. 84 and 87.

473 The Benedictine monastery, which still exists, is built on an island in a salt lake, or rather inlet, communicating with the open sea by a narrow channel.

474 Romanin, Storia Documentata di Venezia, vol. viii., Appendix.

475 Relatione dell’ Orribile Terremoto seguito nella Città di Ragusa, & altre della Dalmatia & Albania, Venice, 1667.

476 Gelcich, 97.

477 Rog., 1667, June 23, and Div. 1711, f. 58, dd. Feb. 3.

478 Quoted by Gelcich, 98.

479 The population of the island before the earthquake is said to have been 14,000, but this is probably an exaggerated estimate. It now barely supports 500.

480 Gelcich, 98.

481 Among the killed was George Crook, the Dutch ambassador to the Porte, and his family and four servants, who had arrived at Ragusa four days before the earthquake on their way to Constantinople; the rest of his suite, including Jakob Vandam, Dutch consul at Smyrna, were saved. Vandam wrote an account of this calamity in his Old and New State of Dalmatia.

482 T. G. Jackson, Dalmatia, vol. ii. pp. 387-88.

483 It consisted of five galleons and seven carracks, with a total burden of 7200 carra.

484 Fra Benedetto Orsini (Miniati), quoted in Gelcich’s I Conti de Tuhelj, p. 87.

485 Small barques.

486 Gelcich, ibid.

487 Ragusan Archives, 1600—lxix. 2119, in Gelcich, Tuhelj, 104.

488 Gelcich, Tuhelj, 128.

489 Farlati-Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, iv.; Engel, § 49.

490 Engel, § 59.

491 A. A. Paton, Highlands and Islands of the Adriatic, vol. ii. p. 130 sqq.

492 Article ix. and xi. of the Turco-Venetian Treaty; see Rycaut’s continuation of Knolles’s Turkish History.

493 Paul Pisani, La Dalmatie de 1797 à 1815, Paris, 1893.

494 Oct. 20, 1724, in Farlati, p. 272.

495 Engel, § 53.

496 Why they should have called themselves by the names of those two famous universities is not clear.

497 Engel, § 55.

498 Pouqueville, Voyage de la Grèce, vol. i.; Engel, § 56.

499 Pouqueville, ibid.

500 Quoted by Pouqueville.

501 Also the fact that France had destroyed the liberties of the Republic would tend to make Frenchmen of the time dwell on its defects, just as they did in the case of the Venetian Republic.

502 T. Watkins, Travels through Swisserland... to Constantinople, vol. ii. Letter xlii. p. 331 sqq.

503 T. Watkins, Travels through Swisserland... to Constantinople Letter xliii. p. 344.

504 Gelcich, p. 42.

505 Ibid.

506 Reform., ii., Oct. 3, 1349.

507 De Diversis, ed. Brunelli, p. 39.

508 Curzola has always been famous for its building stone, which is almost a marble, and acquires a rich yellow patina with age.

509 Ragusavecchia.

510 De Diversis, as quoted by Graham Jackson, who had seen the MS. in the Franciscan library at Ragusa, containing passages not in Brunelli.

511 Jackson, ii. 332, note.

512 Jackson, ii. 336.

513 Anonymous account of Ragusa, quoted by Gelcich, p. 76.

514 T. G. Jackson, ii. p. 380.

515 Ibid.

516 De Diversis, ed. Brunelli, p. 42.

517 Gelcich, p. 80.

518 T. G. Jackson, ii. 394.

519 Ibid., ii. 295.

520 Those of Stagno Grande have for the most part been pulled down.

521 Eitelberger von Edelberg, op. cit., iv. 357.

522 In the Herzegovina.

523 Op. cit., iv. 317.

524 For a more detailed description, see Graham Jackson, vol ii. p. 354.

525 Ibid., ii. p. 356.

526 Puipin und Spasowicz, Geschichte der Slawischen Literatur, vol. ii. p. 224.

527 Puipin und Spasowicz, ibid.

528 This, as well as the Slavonic works of other Ragusans, is published at Agram in the collection called Stari Pisci Hrvatski (Old Croatian writers).

529 In this, as in other works by Ragusans, no animus against the Turk is displayed. He was regarded by the Ragusans as a law of nature rather than as an enemy, and a wholesome fear made them careful to avoid doing or even saying anything to offend him.

530 Published at Venice in 1599.

531 Venice, 1547, 1550.

532 Ibid., 1550.

533 Several editions of the Osman have been published, and Appendini translated it into Italian.

534 Also spelt Boscovich.

535 Pisani, La Dalmatie de 1797 à 1815, pp. 33 sqq.

536 Ibid., pp. 125-126.

537 R. P. Pregadi, July; Pisani, ibid.

538 Pisani, ibid., pp. 135-136.

539 Pisani, passim.

540 Timoni’s despatches to the Austrian Chancery, quoted by Pisani, ibid., pp. 299-300.

541 I.e. “beg” and “request,” rather than “must” and “shall.”

542 Pisani, pp. 457-58.

543 Pisani, passim.

← Back to The Republic of Ragusa