Travels in Southeastern Europe

The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.

36 THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. Dushan's sway as it had done Asen's, but the Comnenus line survived him, too, and the Despoty of Epirus was finally absorbed by George Balsha, a Serb noble, and by various Albanian chieftains, of whom more anon. With this slight sketch to illustrate the slender nature of the threads that bound the big Balkan Empires together, we must pass on to the state of the Peninsula after Dushan's death. Within a few years it was a mass of separate principalities. Bulgaria and Bosnia both broke loose; the latter, indeed, showed signs of becoming a power under a King of its own, but they were not fulfilled. The district known as the Zeta (which includes modern Montenegro and a large part of North Albania) was ruled by George Balsha, whose capital was Skodra. Notably this is the beginning of the history of modem Albania. We hear of powerful Albanian chieftains; of the Topias, lords of Durazzo and Kruja; of Musaki, whose rule reached as far as and included Kastoria, and who still gives his name to the land near Berat; and of Gropa, Lord of the Ochrida district. The power of Byzantium was dead, and the Albanians spread rapidly over the land from which they had been formerly driven by the Slavs. Servia-a much diminished Servia-was ruled by the usurper Vukashin, one of Dushan's Generals, who murdered young Stefan Urosh and seized his throne. Last and direst fact of all, the Turks had entered Europe, and had come to stay.
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Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 36
Publication
London :: Nelson,
[1905]
Subject terms
Eastern question (Balkan)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel.

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"The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham." In the digital collection Travels in Southeastern Europe. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 1, 2025.
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