Serb Uprising of 1596–97

The Serb Uprising of 1596–97 was a short-lived revolt 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 War (1591–1606). The uprising broke out in the aftermath of the failed Banat Uprising (1594) and burning of Saint Sava's relics (April 27, 1595), and 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 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 had been consecrated by Patriarch Jovan Kantul, and the uprising had been aided by Serbian Orthodox metropolitans Rufim Njeguš of Cetinje and Visarion of Trebinje (s. 1590–1602). Ottoman Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha ordered the green flag of the Prophet Muhammed to be brought from Damascus to counter the Serb flag, as well as the sarcophagus and relics of Saint Sava located in the Mileševa monastery be brought by military convoy to Belgrade. Along the way, the Ottoman convoy had people killed in their path so that the rebels in the woods would hear of it. The relics were publicly incinerated by the Ottomans on a pyre on the Vračar plateau, and the ashes scattered, on April 27, 1595.

Among the Serbs, especially after the incineration of the relics of St. Sava, the liberation movement met a large response. The center of action for Herzegovina was since 1596 the Tvrdoš Monastery in Trebinje, where Metropolitan Visarion was seated. Many of the Orthodox bishops called to Austria for help in liberating their lands. The Uskoks were the main workers of the folk for Austria, being scattered over the whole area of Senj to Ragusa (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. Austria at one time thought of beginning action into Bosnia, where the Maltese knight Franjo Brtučević, a Dalmatian, worked in their favour. However, the Austrian government did not have the strength for such feat; with great effort they barely managed to resist the Ottomans in Hungary.

History
In 1596 the liberation movement would spread into Ottoman Montenegro and the neighbouring tribes in Herzegovina, especially under influence of Metropolitan Visarion. 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 or at least, symbolically, the Austrian flag as a proof of connection with Austria. At the end of 1596, after the Himariote rebellion, the Serbs started to revolt. According to V. Ćorović, the uprising broke out in Bjelopavlići, then spread to Drobnjaci, Nikšić, Piva and Gacko. The leader of the uprising was vojvoda Grdan of Nikšić. The Montenegrin tribes did not participate in the uprising, only the Brđani. At the time, Dervish Bey, the sanjak-bey of Montenegro threatened the Montenegrins through the provveditore of Kotor.

Two Serbian monks, Damjan Ljubibratić and a Pavle, were dispatched by Patriarch Jovan Kantul to Pope Clement VIII in 1597. Patriarch Jovan assured the pope 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 of the Serb history, the Nemanjić dynasty and Stefan Nemanja, stressing that "our land greatly cries", because there were no people of his kin any more. They asked 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 rest of the lands, would gather. In the case of action, they could count on 100,000 good fighters. It was said that since the Ottomans took St. Sava from them "God does not help them any more, Christians kill them from every side". The curia then charged the monks with "you pray to God for our Evil". The monks asked the pope to send a man to them as lord of the Serbs, a good Christian. That message showed the feelings which prevailed among some Serb spiritual and secular leaders. The Archbishop of Ohrid, Atanasije, who worked with Albanians, was at this time in Rome as his movement ended with little success. 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. The rebels were forced to capitulate due to lack of foreign support. Ahmed-paša Dugalić, the beylerbey of Bosnia (s. 1598–99), made peace with and forgave Grdan, doing nothing to him, not even stripping him of his voivodeship of the Nikšić nahija.

Aftermath
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. The Orthodox Christians in the Balkans sought the right moment to revolt against the Ottomans, and Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian and Albanian monks visited European courts for help. In 1607, Patriarch Jovan Kantul negotiated with Emanuel I to be sent a force for the liberation of the Balkans, in exchange for "the Crown of Macedonia". 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".

Legacy
The uprising would stand model for a series of uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the coming centuries.