done to Ragusan territory in future by his vojvods was to be paid for by him (1432). In 1431 the Council of Basel had met, and one of its most active members was Johannes Stoicus of Ragusa, who made every effort to promote the union of the Eastern and the Western Churches, and end the religious strife in the Balkans with a view to common action against the Turks. He requested the Ragusan Senate to try to induce the chief princes of Servia and Bosnia, whether schismatics or Bogomils, to send envoys to Basel. The attempt was actually made, but the whole country was in such a state of anarchy and rebellion that none of them were able to pay any attention to the matter.[373] A war had broken out between the King of Bosnia and Stephen Lazarević, Despot of Servia, which was destined to last for thirty years. All the Slave princes were fighting amongst themselves, and Ragusa had another opportunity of extending her dominions far into the interior had she been so minded. But according to Resti, the reason why she abstained was that she realised that the Turks had earmarked all that country, and that for her to occupy it would be to court annihilation, and Trebinje, which was now offered to her, was refused. It seemed more prudent to content herself with a small compact territory and with acting the part of intermediary between East and West, civilisation and barbarism, Christianity and Islam, than to aspire to dangerous conquests. The Ragusan despatches for the next few years are full of the Turkish advance. In 1432 Isak Beg invaded Croatia, passing through Bosnia with 3000 men, and raided the territory of Zara, while another army entered Wallachia and Transsilvania, forcing the lord of Wallachia to recognise the Sultan’s supremacy. Two years later, however, the Turks met with a serious check in Albania, where a native force under Arneth Spata defeated the invaders several times; in 1435 Isak Beg himself sustained a reverse, and most of Albania was cleared of the Turks.[374] But the wars amongst the Slaves made organised resistance impossible, and Sandalj Hranić, 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.[375] Tvrtko, whose power had been slipping from him, was now forced to fly, and took refuge with Sigismund of Hungary;[376] but the civil war continued. On March 15, 1435, Sandalj died, leaving his broad lands to his nephew, Stephen Vukčić, generally known as Stephen Kosača,[377] who afterwards assumed the title of Duke[378] of St. Sava, because the shrine of that saint was in his dominions. The same year Ivan Nelipić, the last of the independent Croatian counts,