for Ragusa was the introduction of the plague from the lands beyond the mountains.[305] The Balšas, however, were able to extend their territory along the coast as far as Dulcigno, and in 1367 the dignity of warden of Budua passed to George Balša, and he and his brothers thenceforward styled themselves “magnificent barons of Maritime Slavonia.” They were now able to negotiate with Venice, and became an important Power in the Adriatic. This ultimately proved advantageous for the Ragusans, to whom they granted many privileges and opened the trade routes up the rivers of Northern Albania. They also obtained for the Republic from the Servian Tsar the full possession of the island of Meleda.[306] But the peace failed to prevent the molestations of the lawless Count of Hlum, Nicholas Altomanović. In April 1371[307] the Ragusans wrote to the King of Hungary complaining of his raids, and describing him as “the worst of all the Rascian barons, although they are all false and infamous.” Not content with the gifts they had made to him, he had demanded the tribute due to the Servian Tsar, and on their refusal he invaded their territory and tortured the prisoners he made by pouring boiling lard over them. The Ragusans added that the Banus of Mačva, who was the King of Hungary’s vassal, had done nothing to restrain Altomanović, but was secretly his friend. The whole of the interior being in a state of anarchy, inland trade was almost at a standstill, and the Republic requested the King to intercede with the Pope for the renewal of the licence to send two ships every year to the lands of the Infidel. The Ragusan forces, however, managed on several occasions to defeat the bands of Altomanović, and later in the year the Republic joined the alliance of Knez Lazar and Tvrtko, Banus of Bosnia, against that prince. The latter now had won the Balšas to his side by the gift of Canali, Trebinje, and Dračevica, but the coalition succeeded in conquering a large part of his possessions. Knez Lazar occupied Rudnik, and Tvrtko the upper valley of the Drina, and drove George Balša from Trebinje. The King of Bosnia’s possessions were thus extended by 1376 over the greater part of the Servian lands as far as Trebinje, Cattaro, and Nikšić in the south, to Senice in the east, and included the important monastery of Mileševo, where St. Sava, the Apostle of the Serbs, was buried.[308] He was now the most powerful ruler in this part of the Balkans, and had himself crowned at Mileševo with two crowns, styling himself “Stephen Tvrtko in the name of Our Lord Christ King of Servia and Bosnia and the Primorije (coast land).”[309] Ragusa was the first State to recognise him, and proved quite willing to pay the 2000 _ipperperi_ a year due to him as lord of Servia.