Amurath, the Ottoman Sultan, who had already taken all Roumelia, south of the Balkan, now resolved to pass these mountains, and invade Servia Proper; but, to make sure of success, secretly offered the crown to Wuk Brankovich, a Servian chief, as a reward for his treachery to Lasar.

Wuk caught at the bait, and when the armies were in sight of each other, accused Milosh Kobilich, the son-in-law of Lasar, of being a traitor.  On the night before the battle, Lasar assembled all the knights and nobles to decide the matter between Wuk and Milosh.  Lasar then took a silver cup of wine, handed it over to Milosh, and said, “Take this cup of wine from my hand and drink it.”  Milosh drank it, in token of his fidelity, and said, “Now there is no time for disputing.  To-morrow I will prove that my accuser is a calumniator, and that I am a faithful subject of my prince and father-in-law.”

Milosh then embraced the plan of assassinating Amurath in his tent, and taking with him two stout youths, secretly left the Servian camp, and presented himself at the Turkish lines, with his lance reversed, as a sign of desertion.  Arrived at the tent of Amurath, he knelt down, and, pretending to kiss the hand of the Sultan, drew forth his dagger, and stabbed him in the body, from which wound Amurath died.  Hence the usage of the Ottomans not to permit strangers to approach the Sultan, otherwise than with their arms held by attendants.

The celebrated battle of Kossovo then took place.  The wing commanded by Wuk gave way, he being the first to retreat.  The division commanded by Lasar held fast for some time, and, at length, yielded to the superior force of the Turks.  Lasar himself lost his life in the battle, and thus ended the Servian monarchy on the 15th of June, 1389.

The state of Servia, previous to its subjugation by the Turks, appears to have been strikingly analogous to that of the other feudal monarchies of Europe; the revenue being derived mostly from crown lands, the military service of the nobles being considered an equivalent for the tenure of their possessions.  Society consisted of ecclesiastics, nobles, knights, gentlemen, and peasants.  A citizen class seldom or never figures on the scene.  Its merchants were foreigners, Byzantines, Venetians, or Ragusans, and history speaks of no Bruges or Augsburg in Servia, Bosnia, or Albania.

The religion of the state was that of the oriental church; the secular head of which was not the patriarch of Constantinople; but, as is now the case in Russia, the emperor himself, assisted by a synod, at the head of which was the patriarch of Servia and its dependencies.

The first article of the code of Stephan Dushan runs thus:  “Care must be taken of the Christian religion, the holy churches, the convents, and the ecclesiastics.”  And elsewhere, with reference to the Latin heresy, as it was called, “the Orthodox Czar” was bound to use the most vigorous means for its extirpation; those who resisted were to be put to death.