Editing Arthur Evans (section)

===Agent in the Balkans===
==== Private adventurer arrived in Old Herzegovina and discovered Roman city near Pljevlja ====
After resolving to leave Göttingen, Evans and Lewis planned to spy against the [[Principality of Montenegro]] in the rebellious mountain village of [[Bobovo, Pljevlja]] at the time of their journey the strongest point of resistance in triple mountain ranges of [[Ljubišnja]] and [[Tara River Canyon|Tara gorges]]. During the struggle in Bobovo on 15 August 1875 during the [[Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877)]] they were expelled from Province of [[Pljevlja]] by the Ottoman authorities and went to board a ship in the city of [[Dubrovnik]] via Pljevlja, a city with a large settlement from the [[Heritage museum Pljevlja|Roman]] period, which Evans named as the Municipium S.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} 

They knew that the region, a part of the [[Ottoman Empire]], was under [[martial law]] and that the Christians were in a state of insurrection against the Muslim [[bey]]s placed over them. Some Ottoman troops were in the country in support of the beys, but mainly the beys were using irregular forces, the [[bashi-bazouks]], loosely attached to the Ottoman military. Their notorious cruelty, which they practised against the natives, helped to turn the British Empire under [[W. E. Gladstone]] against the Ottoman Empire, as well as to attract Russian intervention at [[Principality of Serbia|Serbian]] request. At the time of Evans' and Lewis' initial adventure, the Ottomans were still trying to lessen the threat of intervention by placating their neighbours. Evans sought and obtained permission to travel in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]] from its Ottoman military governor.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The two brothers experienced little difficulty with either the Serbs or the Ottomans but they did provoke the neighbouring [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] and spent a night in "a wretched cell". After deciding to lodge in a good hotel in [[Slavonski Brod]] on the border, having judged it safer than [[Bosanski Brod]] across the [[Sava]] River, they were observed by an officer who saw their sketches and concluded they might be Russian spies. Politely invited by two other officers to join the police chief and produce passports, Evans replied, "Tell him that we are Englishmen and are not accustomed to being treated in this way". The officers insisted and, interrupting the chief at dinner, Evans suggested he should have come to the hotel in person to request the passports. The chief, in a somewhat less than civil manner, won the argument about whether he had the right to check the passports of Englishmen by inviting them to spend the night in a cell.<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1876|pp=80–81}}</ref>

On the way to the holding cell the two young men were followed by a large crowd, whom Evans lost no opportunity to harangue, even though they understood only German. He threatened the authorities in the name of the British fleet, which, he asserted, would sail up the Sava river. He demanded the mayor, offered the jailer a bribe for food and water, but went into the cell unfed and without water. Meanwhile, the incident came to attention of Dr Makanetz, leader of the National Party of the Croatian Assembly, who happened to be in Brod. The next day he complained to the mayor. Evans and his brother were released with profuse apologies.<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1876|pp=82–84}}</ref>

They crossed the Sava into Bosnia, which Evans found so different that he regarded the Sava as the border between Europe and Asia. After a number of interviews with Ottoman officials who attempted to dissuade them from travel on foot, the passport from the pasha prevailed. They were given an escort – one man, enough to establish authority – as far as [[Derventa]]. From there they travelled directly south to [[Sarajevo]] and from there to [[Dubrovnik]] (Ragusa) on the coast, in [[Dalmatia]]. In Sarajevo they learned that the region through which they had just passed was now "plunged in civil war".<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1876|p=235}}</ref>

====Reporter for ''The Manchester Guardian''====
Home again, Evans wrote of his experiences, working from his extensive notes and drawings, publishing ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73712 Through Bosnia and Herzegovina]'', which came out in two editions, 1876 and 1877. He became overnight an expert in Balkan affairs. ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' hired him as a correspondent, sending him back to the Balkans in 1877. He reported on the suppression of the Christian insurrectionists by the [[military of the Ottoman Empire]], and yet was treated by the Ottomans as though he were an ambassador, despite his anti-Turkish sentiments. His older interests in antiquities continued. He collected portable artefacts, especially seal stones, at every opportunity, between sending back article after article to ''The Guardian''. He also visited the Freemans in Sarajevo whenever he could. A relationship with Freeman's eldest daughter, Margaret, had begun to blossom. In 1878 the Russians compelled a settlement of the conflict on appeal by the Serbs. The Ottomans ceded Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a protectorate.

In 1878, Evans proposed to Margaret Freeman, three years his senior, an educated and literate woman, and until now secretary for her father. The offer was accepted, to everyone's great satisfaction. Freeman spoke affectionately of his future son-in-law. The couple were married near the Freeman home in [[Wookey]], Somerset, at the parish church. They took up residence in a Venetian villa Evans had purchased in Ragusa, Casa San Lazzaro, on the bluffs overlooking the Adriatic. One of their first tasks was to create a garden there. They lived happily, Evans pursuing his journalistic career, until 1882.

Evans's continued stance in favour of native government led to a condition of unacceptability to the local regime within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He did not see [[Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as an improvement over Ottoman. He wrote: "The people are treated not as a liberated but as a conquered and inferior race...."<ref>{{harvnb|Gere|2009|p=63}}.</ref> The Evans's sentiments were followed by acts of personal charity: they took in an orphan, invited a blind woman to dinner every night. Finally Evans wrote some public letters in favour of an insurrection.
Evans was arrested in 1882, to be put on trial as a British ''[[agent provocateur]]'' stirring up further insurrection. His journalistic sources were not acceptable friendships to the authorities. He spent six weeks in prison awaiting trial, but at the trial nothing definitive could be proved. His wife was interrogated. She found most offensive the reading of her love letters before her eyes by a hostile police agent. Evans was expelled from the country. Gladstone had been apprised of the situation immediately, but, as far as the public knew, did nothing. The government in Vienna similarly disavowed any knowledge of or connection to the actions of the local authorities. The Evans returned home to rent a house in Oxford, abandoning their villa, which became a hotel.<ref>{{cite web | author=yvr101 | title=Excelsior Hotel, Dubrovnik | url=https://www.panoramio.com/photo/30115046 | publisher=Panoramio | access-date=4 April 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525220936/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30115046 | archive-date=25 May 2015 | url-status=dead }} The villa sits on a bluff at the base of a ring of hills. Adjoining it a modern hotel towers over the scene.</ref> However, Evans's reputation among the Slavs assumed unassailable proportions. He was invited later to play a role in the formation of the pre-Yugoslav state. In 1941 the government of Yugoslavia sent representatives to his funeral.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1993|pp=26–27}}</ref>

During [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Gascoyne-Cecil's]] first tenure as Prime Minister from 1885 to 1886, the English public held negative views of the [[Kingdom of Serbia]] and instead supported the [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]]. A ''Times'' correspondent said Serbia was the biggest threat to peace in the Balkans. This view was refuted by Evans, who stated that [[Kosovo Serbs|Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija]] were facing terror from the hand of local [[Kosovo Albanians|Albanian population]], with murders being a daily occurrence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marković |first=Slobodan G. |title=Grof Čedomilj Mijatović: Viktorijanac među Srbima |publisher=Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, Dositej |year=2006 |location=Belgrade |pages=130–131}}</ref>