224 THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
Isak Beg himself sustained a reverse, and most of Albania was cleared of the Turks.1 But the wars amongst the Slaves made organised resistance impossible, and Sandalj Hranic, whose power now extended throughout Hlum to the borders of Croatia in the north, far into the Zedda in the south, and as far as Podrinje in the east, took the opportunity of the war between the King of Bosnia and the Despot of Servia to join the latter in buying of the Sultan the right to despoil the former of his kingdom. The Despot received Usora and Zvornik, while Sandalj was to take the rest.2 Tvrtko, whose power had been slipping from him, was now forced to fly, and took refuge with Sigismund of Hungary ;8 but the civil war continued. On March 15, 1435, Sandalj died, leaving his broad lands to his nephew, Stephen Vukcic, generally known as Stephen Kosaca,4 who afterwards assumed the title of Duke5 of St. Sava, because the shrine of that saint was in his dominions. The same year Ivan Nelipic, the last of the independent Croatian counts, died, and his estates were annexed by the Hungarian king and divided among the Ragusan citizens Matthew, Francis, Peter, and John of Talovac (or Thallovez) as a reward for their services to Hungary. Kosaca, regardless of the Turkish danger, continued his petty intrigues ; he at once began to quarrel with Radosav Paulovic, who was in a sense his vassal, and each made a bid for Turkish help.
    1	Dipl. Rag., 228, 230,236-38, 240.
2	Jirecek, Handelstrassen, 39 and 40.	3 Klaic, 352-53.
4 “ Omnes de progenie ipsius domini Sandali appellata Cosaze,”
Glasnik, xiii. 159.
6 Herzeg or Herzog, because he received Imperial investiture, hence
the name Herzegovina.