The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

approached the very heart of the Serbian Empire. The decisive battle was at hand. The Turks, who found the Serbs a most stubborn enemy, made overtures, begging them on their side to open them the gate of Central Europe. The Serbian nation and its rulers were sorely tempted. They knew that their forces were too small to resist the swollen Turkish flood. No help was forthcoming from any other quarter. Europe, divided and terrified, looked mute and motionless upon the unequal struggle. Should the Serbs betray their noble mission as the champions of Christendom? Should they side with the enemy of their race and religion? No and Never! But better than by any words of mine the description of that supreme hour of temptation is given in one of the Serbian national songs. There we are told how the Serbian Tsar Lazar received a letter from the Virgin Mother asking him which Kingdom he preferred, the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of the Earth. Tsar Lazar and all his nation chose the Heavenly Kingdom. Better to perish than to lose their honour and to betray the cause for which they had stood until then. Then Tsar Lazar made a supreme effort. He appealed to all the Serbian Princes to join him at Kossovo in a decisive battle against the overbearing Turk. They responded to the call, among them being Tvrtko, King of Bosnia, and fought one of the most bloody battles ever chronicled in AT