Serb uprising of 1596–1597

's remains after the Banat Uprising provoked Serbs in other regions to revolt against the Ottomans. 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 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. ==Uprising==

In 1596, the liberation movement spread into Ottoman Montenegro and the neighbouring tribes in Herzegovina, especially those under the influence of Metropolitan Visarion. 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. At the time, Dervish Bey, the sanjak bey of Montenegro, threatened the Montenegrins through the provveditore ("overseer") of Kotor. 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. 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. 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 6 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 Neapolitan court for final energetic action. Preoccupied, Spain could not do much in 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 Emmanuel I to send 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. ==See also==