maria's queenship did not last long either; in 1462, her husband made a fatal decision of refusing to pay tribute to the ottomans, who started preparing an attack which ended the independent kingdom of bosnia. following the ottoman invasion in may 1463, the royal family appears to have decided to split and flee towards the neighbouring croatia and dalmatia in different directions to confuse and mislead the attackers. king stephen, who had sent maria to dalmatia along with saint luke's relics, was captured and executed. the two queens, maria and catherine, were the only members of the royal family to escape the invaders and both eventually reached the territories of the republic of ragusa. the 16th century chronicler mavro orbini wrote that queen maria was captured by the ban of croatia, pavao špirančić, during her journey to the coast, but this is unlikely because pavao himself was in turkish captivity around that time.