Serb uprising of 1596–97

The Serb uprising of 1596–97, also known as the Herzegovina uprising of 1596–97, was a rebellion organized by Serbian Patriarch Jovan Kantul (s. 1592–1614) and led by Grdan, the vojvoda ("duke") of Nikšić against the Ottomans in the Sanjak of Herzegovina and Montenegro Vilayet, during the Long Turkish War (1593–1606). The uprising broke out in the aftermath of the failed Banat Uprising in 1594 and the burning of Saint Sava's relics on April 27, 1595; it included the tribes of Bjelopavlići, Drobnjaci, Nikšić and Piva. The rebels, defeated at the field of Gacko (Gatačko Polje) in 1597, were forced to capitulate due to a lack of foreign support.

Background
In early 1594, the Serbs in Banat rose up against the Ottomans. The rebels had, in the character of a holy war, carried war flags with the icon of Saint Sava. The war banners were consecrated by Patriarch Jovan Kantul, and the uprising was aided by Serbian Orthodox metropolitans Rufim Njeguš of Cetinje and Visarion of Trebinje (s. 1590–1602). In response, Ottoman Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha demanded that the green flag of the Prophet Muhammed be brought from Damascus to counter the Serb flag and ordered that the sarcophagus containing the relics of Saint Sava be removed from the Mileševa monastery and transferred to Belgrade via military convoy. Along the way, the Ottoman convoy killed all the people in its path as a warning to the rebels. The Ottomans publicly incinerated the relics of Saint Sava on a pyre atop the Vračar plateau on April 27, 1595, and had the ashes scattered.

The incineration of Sava's relics provoked the Serbs, and empowered the Serb liberation movement. From 1596, the center of anti-Ottoman activity in Herzegovina was the Tvrdoš Monastery in Trebinje, where Metropolitan Visarion was seated. Many of the Orthodox bishops appealed to the Archduchy of Austria for help in liberating their lands. The Uskoks, irregular soldiers in Habsburg Croatia, supported Austria, being scattered over the whole area between Senj and Ragusa (modern day Dubrovnik). With a daring raid on April 8, 1596, the Uskoks even managed to occupy the Klis Fortress, though they were unable to hold it. At one point, Austrian officials considered taking military action in Bosnia, where Dalmatian-born Maltese knight Franjo Brtučević was in their service. However, they did not have the strength to fight the Ottomans in Bosnia. Earlier, Austrian forces had gone to great lengths and still barely managed to resist the Ottomans in Hungary.

Uprising
In 1596, the liberation movement spread into Ottoman Montenegro and the neighbouring tribes in Herzegovina, especially those under the influence of Metropolitan Visarion. Of the priests, Patriarch Jovan depended mostly on Visarion, and of the chieftains, mostly on Grdan, the vojvoda ("duke") of Nikšić. A Ragusan document from the beginning of 1596 claimed that the metropolitan and many Herzegovinian chieftains gathered in the Trebinje Monastery where they swore oath "to give up and donate 20,000 heroes to the [Austrian] emperors' light." The rebels sought help from the Austrians, and asked to be handed an Austrian flag to show the Ottomans that they had at least symbolic Austrian support. Shortly thereafter, on April 8, 1596, Klis was captured by the Uskoks, prompting a wave of excitement among Christians from Lika to Herzegovina. At the end of 1596, after the outbreak of the Himara Revolt, Serbs began to rebel against the Ottomans. The uprising, led by Grdan, broke out in Bjelopavlići, then spread to Drobnjaci, Nikšić, Piva and Gacko. Save for the Brđani, the Montenegrin tribes did not participate in the uprising. At the time, Dervish Bey, the sanjak bey of Montenegro, threatened the Montenegrins through the provveditore ("overseer") of Kotor.

Two Serbian monks, Damjan Ljubibratić and Pavle, were dispatched by Patriarch Jovan Kantul to Pope Clement VIII in 1597. Patriarch Jovan assured the pope of his "loyalty and obedience" to the Church of Rome, and sought help "to liberate the Serb people from the Ottomans". The monks made an exhibition to the papal curia on Serbian history and, among other things, petitioned the pope to send an army to Herceg Novi, which would aid vojvoda Grdan on the land; the tribes of Zupci, Nikšić, Piva, Banjani, Drobnjaci and Gacko would rise up in arms. From there, they would go to Onogošt (Nikšić), where all chieftains of all Montenegro, Dukađin, and the nearby lands, would gather. In the case of action, they could count on 100,000 fighters. It was said that since the Ottomans took Saint Sava from the Serbs "God does not help them any more, Christians kill them from every side". The curia then accused the monks, of "[praying] to God for our Evil." The monks asked the pope, with the support of Serb spiritual and secular leaders, to send a respectable Christian to oversee them. The Archbishop of Ohrid, Atanasije, after his movement had largely failed in Albania, was now in Rome. The Serb uprising had no better luck; the Herzegovinian tribes, Drobnjaci, Nikšić and Piva began fighting, but were defeated at the field of Gacko (Gatačko Polje) by Dervish Bey sometime in 1597. According to the Venetian Lazzaro Soranzo (1599), the Piperi, Kuči, Klimenti, Bjelopavlići and others tried to liberate themselves from Ottoman tyranny, and upon hearing the false claim that Sultan Mehmed III lost the battle and his life at the Siege of Eger, "they all rose up under the command of vojvoda Grdan and there was a great slaughter of Turks who were on their land. As I tried to find out more, I heard the contrary, that they unhappily withdrew into their mountains"; Montenegrin historian Gligor Stanojević, based on Soranzo's account, which he described as "the most interesting and most contradicting note on the movement of the Brda and Herzegovina tribes in this time", believed that the rebellion did not have the scale of a national uprising.

"[There were] spontaneous uprisings or rebellions which often erupted caused by some event and quickly died away. Such disturbances, insurrections or rebellions took place earlier and later in all parts of the Balkans, and the Turks very quickly and efficiently reacted to them. If those rebellions did not lead to anything, they were another drop of hatred between the conquerors and the people."

When the talks between the rebels and the papacy led to nothing and no foreign support arrived, the rebels were forced to capitulate to the Ottomans. Ahmed-paša Dugalić, the beylerbey ("governor") of Bosnia, pardoned Grdan of his crimes, and did not even strip him of his lands in Nikšić.

Aftermath and legacy
After the failure of the uprising, many Herzegovinians moved to the Bay of Kotor and Dalmatia. The earliest more significant Serb migrations took place between 1597 and 1600. Grdan and Patriarch Jovan would continue to plan revolts against the Ottomans in the coming years. Jovan contacted the pope again in 1599, without success. Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian and Albanian monks visited European courts to solicit help. The first decade of the 17th century saw some successful Montenegrin battles against the Ottomans under Metropolitan Rufim. The tribe of Drobnjaci defeated the Ottomans in Gornja Bukovica on 6th of May 1605. However, Ottomans retaliated the same summer and captured the duke Ivan Kaluđerović, who was eventually taken to Pljevlja and executed. From the assembly in Kosijerevo monastery, on 18 February 1608, Serb leaders urged the Spanish and Neopolitan court for final energic action. Preoccupied, Spain could not do much in the Eastern Europe. However, the Spanish fleet did attack Durrës in 1606. Finally, on 13 December 1608, Patriarch Jovan Kantul organized an assembly in Morača Monastery, gathering all the rebel leaders of Montenegro and Herzegovina. The assembly officially negotiated with Emanuel I to sent a force for the liberation of the Balkans, in exchange for "the Crown of Macedonia", at the same time requesting that Pope Paul grant the Serbian Orthodox Church special privileges. "In our parts," they demanded, "we do not want any Jesuits, or anyone else, who intends on turning the Christian folk to Roman law." Jovan assured him that an army of 20,000, 25 guns and weapons for 25,000 more to be distributed in the Balkans would overwhelm the Ottoman sultan. After years of planning, nothing concrete resulted in it, because such an operation "required Spanish naval and logistical support". The rebellion slowly faded through 1609 towards the end of 1610. The 1596–97 uprising would stand as a model for multiple anti-Ottoman uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the coming centuries.