The conditions of the Slavonic states behind Dalmatia were at this time extremely disturbed. During the brilliant reign of Stephen Dušan, the Servian people were at the height of their greatness and power. Macedonia, Albania, and other parts of the Greek Empire, and a part of Bosnia, as well as Servia proper, acknowledged the rule of the Servian Tsar, and even Bulgaria paid him tribute. The great position of Servia under this ruler is not usually appreciated by historians of the Eastern Empire. Dušan, as Professor Bury observes,[276] was not only a great warrior, but a great legislator, and drew up the _Zakonik_ or code of laws, comparable with that of Jaroslav for Russia. Had he lived a few years longer, and been able to crush the turbulence of his feudal vassals and consolidate his possessions, Kossovo might never have taken place, and the Balkans never have been subjected to the horrors of the Turkish conquest. But on his death in 1355 the whole fabric of his Empire split up into a number of separate principalities. He was succeeded by his son, Uroš IV. (1355-1367), who was not strong enough to carry on his father’s work, and the Magnates and governors soon began to show signs of insubordination. Not only had he to deal with internal discontent, but he was also attacked by foreign neighbours. In 1358 Louis of Hungary made war upon him with such success that he conquered the erstwhile Hungarian district of Mačva,[277] south of the Save, and placed Nicholas of Gara to rule over it.[278] The most powerful Servian Magnates were the brothers Vukašin and Ulješa Mrnjavčić, Knez[279] Lazar Grebljanović, who was afterwards to achieve immortal fame on the field of Kossovo, Vuk Branković, the brothers Balša, and Knez Vojslav Voinović. This last and the Balšas obtained their independence during the lifetime of Uroš. In 1367 the last of the Nemanjas died, murdered, it is said, by Vukašin’s followers while out hunting. Vukašin himself, who had been greatly favoured by Dušan and appointed, by the terms of the Tsar’s will, chief State Councillor to Uroš, succeeded to the throne. But this only hastened the disruption of the Empire, for Knez Lazar, Vuk Branković, and Nicholas Altomanovic (the Governor of the Danubian provinces) rose against him, and not only proclaimed their own independence, but occupied part of his immediate possessions.[280]