3-082-150 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ten Days in Bosnia - Jajce: view from the River Pliva, 1895. 'This conquest of Bosnia, with the fierce and protracted struggle it engendered, is one of the most fascinating pages in the history of the land. In the year 1446, the Grand Inquisitor Zarai had laid down at the Diet of Konjitcha such severe laws against the Bogomiles that 40,000 of them left the country. A fearful civil war followed. Hungary came to the assistance of the Catholic Church, but to no purpose. King Thomas, then ruling the State, was murdered by his own son, who called in the help of Mohammed II. It was thought that the rule of the Turk could be no worse than the disastrous internecine strife then waging in the mountains; but the hope was ridiculous. For many years the great war smouldered in the mountain fastnesses. The beautiful citadel of Jajce was not taken until the year 1527. Again and again the Croatians defeated the Turks, until, worn with the protracted struggle, ill-led and disheartened, they laid down their arms and put their necks beneath the heel of the Sultan'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.