avenge the perfidy of the Emperor Manuel and to put an end to the Greek
Empire by the capture of Constantinople. For this purpose he collected
an army of veterans. He invested the city, making a long line of great
earthworks from the Golden Horn to the Sea of Marmora. From this he
bombarded the city walls by cannon, then for the first time used by
the Ottoman army, but which were not as yet very effective. He also
used movable towers, from which assaults could be made on the walls
of the city. He proclaimed that the great wealth of the capital would
be the prize of the soldiers if the assault on it were successful. He
made a special promise to a band of five hundred Dervishes, who were
to lead the assault, that all the nuns in the city would be given to
them as concubines. In spite of these great inducements to victory, the
assault was unsuccessful. The Greeks defended the walls of the city
with the utmost heroism, assisted, it was said, by a timely apparition
of the Holy Virgin, which stimulated their efforts and depressed
the assailants. Murad would probably have been successful with the
overwhelming forces at his disposal if he had persisted in the siege,
but he was compelled to raise it by a diversion cleverly contrived by
the Greek Emperor.
A rival to the Sultan was set up in Asia in another Mustapha, a younger
brother of Murad, who had not been put to death in pursuance of the
fratricidal policy of his family. This new claimant was supported by
the Karamanians and Kermians, and with their aid he defeated an Ottoman
army in Asia Minor. Murad found it necessary to abandon the siege of
Constantinople, and to transfer his main army to Asia Minor for the
purpose of dealing with this danger to his throne. He came to close
quarters as quickly as possible with Mustapha’s army, and defeated it.
Mustapha was taken prisoner and was hanged at once by his captors,
without giving an opportunity to Murad to exercise his clemency in
favour of his brother, had he so willed it. Murad then occupied himself
by reducing the Karamanian and other Emirs to complete subjection to
his Empire.
Meanwhile the Emperor Manuel died, and was succeeded by John
Palæologus. Murad, in lieu of renewing the siege of Constantinople, was
content to make another treaty with the new Emperor, imposing on him a
heavy tribute and stripping him of almost every possession beyond the
walls of his capital. The Empire thus obtained a reprieve for a few
brief years.
In the case of Salonika, which had been recently sold by the Greek
Emperor to the Republic of Venice, now desirous of effecting a lodgment
in Macedonia, Murad refused to recognize the right of the Emperor to
transfer to a foreign Power a city which at one time had been under
Ottoman rule. It had three times in the last hundred years been
captured by the Ottomans, and had as often been recaptured by the
Greeks. Murad led an army, in 1430, to attack it, and, after a vigorous
resistance by the Venetians, captured it by assault, and finally
annexed the city and its district to the Turkish Empire. It was thought
that Murad showed great clemency in not allowing his soldiers to
indulge in a wholesale massacre. The Greek inhabitants, however, were
sold into slavery, and their numbers were so great that a good-looking
girl was sold for the price of a pair of boots.
The suppression of rebellion in Asia Minor, the subjection of the
Greek Emperor to the position of a humble vassal, and the capture of
Salonika had occupied Murad for some years. Later he was involved in
long struggles with his neighbours, the Hungarians, on the northern
boundaries of his Empire. The Ottomans were engaged in constant raids
across the Danube, where vast districts were devastated, and thousands
of their population were carried off as captives for sale as slaves.
There arose about this time in Hungary a national hero, the celebrated
Hunyadi, a natural son of the late King Sigismund. He was a born
leader of men, not a great general, but a most valiant fighter. He had
gained great distinction in war in other directions. He now became
the soul of hostility against the Ottomans. He was known as the White
Knight, on account of his silver armour, which always shone in the
van of the impetuous charges of his cavalry. He was rightly regarded
by his countrymen as a patriot and a national hero. None the less, he
was a bloodthirsty ruffian. He made a practice of massacring all the
prisoners taken in battle. He found pleasure in having this effected,
in his presence, at banquets, where the guests were entertained by the
shrieks of the dying men.
Hunyadi for twenty years was a terror to the Ottoman armies. His first
encounter with them was at Hermannstadt, north of the Danube, which
was invested by an army of eighty thousand Ottomans. He led an army of
twenty thousand Hungarians against them, in relief of the fortress,
and inflicted a severe defeat on them, in despite of great disparity
of numbers. Twenty thousand of the Ottomans were killed, including the
general. The others were dispersed. Murad sent another army of eighty
thousand men against him, under another Pasha. Hunyadi again defeated
it with great slaughter at Varsag.
These notable victories roused great enthusiasm in Europe. It was
determined to take the offensive against the Ottomans, and to make
another effort to drive them out of Europe. A coalition was formed
for the purpose between Hungary and Poland, then united under King
Ladislaus, and Wallachia and Bosnia. Serbia, which under its king,
Stephen Lazariwitch, had been the firm ally of the Ottomans, and had
supported them in many campaigns in Asia and Europe, was now induced
to abandon this alliance and, under Stephen’s successor, George
Brancowitch, to join the confederacy against the Ottomans. The Pope,
Eugenius, was most active in support of this combination. His legate,
Cardinal Julian Cesarini, led an armed force in support of it. Money
was raised for the purpose of the war by a great sale of indulgences
to the faithful in every part of Europe. A large contingent of French
and German knights joined the allied army. It was, in fact, another
crusade, prompted by religious zeal on behalf of Christianity against
Islam. The allied army was under the nominal command of Ladislaus, but
Hunyadi was its real leader.
The Republics of Venice and Genoa gave their support, and as, at this
time, the Ottomans had no naval force, it was hoped that these Powers,
by means of their numerous and powerful galleys, would prevent the
transfer to Europe of Murad’s main army, which was again engaged in
conflict with the Karamanians in Asia Minor.
The allied army, under these favourable circumstances, crossed the
Danube in 1443. It defeated an Ottoman army on the banks of the Masova
and again at Nisch. It then crossed the Balkan range in winter—an
operation of extreme difficulty, which has since only twice been
effected, by General Diebitsch and General Gourko—and again defeated
the Turks in a battle at the foot of these mountains. Strange to say,
instead of marching onwards to Adrianople, as Diebitsch did in 1829,
Hunyadi was content with the laurels already achieved, and returned
with his army to Buda, where he displayed his trophies and received a
triumph.
Murad, on hearing of the retreat of the Hungarians across the Balkans,
determined to come to terms with them, and not to pursue them again
across the Danube. With some difficulty, and in spite of the sullen
opposition of Cardinal Julian and the French contingent, a treaty was
agreed to, at Szegeddin, with Ladislaus, by which Serbia was to be
freed from dependence on the Ottoman Empire and Wallachia was to be
ceded to Hungary. The treaty was to be in force for ten years. It was
solemnly sworn to on the Gospel and the Koran by Ladislaus and Murad.
While this treaty was being negotiated Murad, weary of war, and
desirous of spending the remainder of his life in sensual enjoyments
which had so long been denied to him, decided to abdicate his throne.
He was still in the full vigour of life at the age of forty-one,
though he was said to be growing rather fat. He did not propose, like
the Emperor Charles V, to retire to a monastery, but rather, like
Diocletian the Roman Emperor, to a luxurious palace, surrounded by
beautiful gardens, which he had prepared for his retreat at Magnesia.
On the ratification of the treaty of Szegeddin, in 1444, he carried
out this purpose, and his son Mahomet, at the age of fourteen, was
proclaimed Sultan in his place.
When this became known to the Hungarians a revulsion of opinion took
place against the recent treaty with the Turks. The Hungarian Diet
determined, at the instance of Cardinal Julian, backed up by the Pope,
to break the treaty. News had arrived of a fresh outbreak of the
Karamanians. The fleets of Genoa, Venice, and Burgundy were masters of
the Hellespont and would, it was believed, prevent the Ottoman army in
Asia Minor from crossing into Europe. The opportunity for crushing the
Turks and driving them out of Europe seemed to be most favourable.
Is it now [said Cardinal Julian to the Hungarian Diet] that you will
desert expectations and your own fortunes? Is it to your God and
your fellow-Christians that you have pledged your faith? That prior
obligation annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath to the enemies
of Christ. His vicar on earth is the Roman Pontiff, without whose
sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In his name I absolve
your perjury and sanctify your arms. Follow my footsteps in the path
of glory and salvation; and, if you still have scruples, devolve on
my head the punishment and the sin.
“This mischievous casuistry,” says the historian Gibbon, “was seconded
by his respectable character and the levity of popular assemblies.” The
Hungarian Diet resolved on war, and King Ladislaus, in spite of his
recent oath, determined to break the treaty. Hunyadi was, in the first
instance, strongly opposed to this, but his assent was obtained by the
promise of the throne of Bulgaria, in the event of the defeat of the
Ottomans and the conquest of that province. The Prince of Serbia, who
had regained his independence by the treaty, was persuaded to join with
the allies by the promise of an addition to his kingdom.
It was decided to send an army at once against the Ottomans. But it
was a much reduced one in comparison with that which had so recently
crossed the Balkans. Most of the French and German knights and their
attendants had already gone home. Not more than ten thousand remained
under Hunyadi. They were joined by five thousand Wallachians. They
invaded Bulgaria, and then, instead of crossing the Balkans, descended
the Danube to the coast and thence marched to Varna. Meanwhile the
Ottomans, in great alarm and fearing the incompetence of the young
Mahomet to conduct a great war, induced Murad to emerge again from his
retreat. He hastily gathered together an army in Asia Minor. He bribed
the Genoese, at the rate of a ducat for each man, to convey it across
the Hellespont. He arrived in front of Varna unexpectedly, before the
Christian army knew of his intentions. His army greatly outnumbered
that of King Ladislaus. In spite of this, the two wings of it were
driven back with great slaughter. Murad, in command of the centre of
his army, for the moment and for the only time in his life, lost his
presence of mind and was disposed to fly. But the Beglerbey of Anatolia
laid hold of the bridle of his horse and urged him to fight it out.
The battle was renewed. The Janissaries stood firm and successfully
repulsed the main body of the Christians. Ladislaus was unhorsed and
asked for quarter. But he was put to death on the field. His head was
stuck upon a lance and was held up by the side of another lance which
bore on high a copy of the violated treaty. The Christians, when they
saw the head of their dead king in its soldier’s helmet thus held
aloft, were struck with panic and fled precipitately. Hunyadi escaped
with difficulty. Cardinal Julian expiated by death on the field his
sin in advising the breach of the treaty. Two other bishops shared his
fate. Never was defeat and disaster more richly deserved. Two-thirds of
the Christian army were slain in the battle, and even greater numbers,
though a less proportion, of the Ottomans shared their fate.
Murad, having won this great victory, again, a second time, abdicated
his throne and returned to his retreat at Magnesia, and again the young
Mahomet was invested as Sultan. Though history supplies cases of great
kings seeking retirement from the cares of office, and of some of them
being induced to resume their thrones, it records no other case of a
second abdication and a second resumption. Murad was very soon recalled
from his abode of pleasure. A serious outbreak of the Janissaries
occurred at Adrianople. They ravaged the city and committed great
atrocities. The ministers of the young Sultan were greatly alarmed.
They felt that only a strong hand could keep a check on the unruly
Janissaries. Murad was again summoned from his retreat. The young
Mahomet was induced to go on a hunting expedition. In his absence Murad
again made his appearance at Adrianople and resumed power. Mahomet, on
his return from hunting, found that his father was again in the saddle.
Murad was received by his troops with a great ovation, and even the
unruly Janissaries gave in their submission to him. He did not again
seek retirement at Magnesia. He reigned for seven more years—another
period of almost incessant war. He first made an invasion of the
Morea, which the Greek Emperor’s brothers had divided between them and
governed as petty princes, or despots, as they were called. Murad had
no difficulty in storming and capturing the fortification by which
the isthmus of Corinth was defended. He compelled the two despots to
accept the position of vassals under the Empire.
Murad then again turned his attention to Serbia and Hungary. He
defeated the combined forces of Hungary, Serbia, and Bosnia, under
Hunyadi, on the field of Kossova, where in 1389 Murad I had first
subdued the Serbians. As a result of this great battle Serbia lost its
independence and was finally incorporated as an integral part of the
Ottoman Empire. Bosnia became a tributary State.
Murad was less fortunate in his efforts to subdue the Albanians. These
people were under the leadership of George Castriota—commonly called
Scanderbeg—who had been brought up at Murad’s Court as a Mussulman, and
had learned the art of war from him, but who had abjured Islam, with
a view to leadership of the Albanians. He carried on a guerrilla war
against the Ottoman invaders with great success, and Murad was unable
to complete the conquest of the State. This was practically the only
failure of Murad’s adventurous life. His generals met with many defeats
at the hand of Hunyadi, but Murad retrieved them in the two battles in
which he came in conflict with the great Hungarian hero. He died of
apoplexy in 1451.
Looking back at his career, it does not appear that he made war with
ambitious objects to aggrandize his Empire. War was, in almost every
case, forced upon him. Three times the Prince of Karamania declared war
against him, and three times Murad defeated him, and was content with
insisting on the vassalage of the province and not on its extinction
and incorporation with the Empire. It has been shown how perfidious
was the conduct of the Greek Emperor, and how fully justified Murad
was in reducing his territory to the narrowest limits. Murad’s attack
on Salonika when in the hands of the Venetian Republic was equally
justified, for the Greek Emperor had no right to sell it, and thus
invite a foreign Power to make a lodgment there. The wars on the
northern frontier were forced upon him by the Hungarians and the
Christian Powers in alliance with them. They appealed to arms, and
victory decided against them. It will be seen that as a net result of
Murad’s reign the Ottoman Empire was extended during these thirty years
by the acquisition of many petty principalities in Asia Minor, by the
complete subjection of Serbia and Bosnia, the conquest of Salonika
and its district, and by the conversion of the Morea into a tributary
State. It was, however, reduced by the loss of Wallachia as a vassal
State.
Gibbon, quoting from a Turkish historian, says:—
Murad was a just and valiant prince, of a great soul; patient of
labour, learned, merciful, religious, charitable; a lover and
encourager of the studious and of all who excelled in any art
or science. No man obtained more or greater victories. Belgrade
alone withstood his attacks. Under his reign the soldier was ever
victorious, the citizen rich and secure. If he subdued any country,
his first care was to build mosques and caravansaries, hospitals, and
colleges.
Though, _more suo_, Gibbon suggests doubts whether such praise could be
justified in the case of a Sultan “whose virtues are often the vices
most useful to himself or most agreeable to his subjects,” he admits
that
the justice and moderation of Murad are attested by his conduct and
acknowledged by Christians themselves, who consider a prosperous
reign and a peaceful death as the reward of his singular merits. In
the vigour of his age and military power he seldom engaged in war
till he was justified by a previous and adequate provocation. In the
observance of treaties his word was inviolate and sacred.[13]
VII
MAHOMET II, ‘THE CONQUEROR’
1451-81
IF Mahomet, the eldest son of Murad, at the age of fourteen, had been
reckoned too feeble to cope with the emergencies of the State, it is
very certain that he soon made wonderfully rapid progress. At the age
of twenty-one, when he again mounted the throne on the death of his
father, he was amply, and almost precociously, endowed with many of the
best, and many also of the worst, qualities of an autocrat, and was
quite able alone to take command of the State. He was undoubtedly the
ablest man that the house of Othman had as yet produced, not only as a
general, but as a statesman. He had also great intellectual capacity
and literary attainments. He spoke five languages fluently. He was
the most proud and ambitious of his race and the most persistent in
pursuing his aims. He combined with these high qualities, however,
extreme cruelty and perfidy and sensuality of the grossest and vilest
kind. He differed from his predecessors in his craving for absolute
power, free from control by his ministers, and in his reckless
disregard of human life. Hitherto, from Othman to Murad II, the Sultans
had been in intimate association with their viziers and generals,
and had shared their meals with them. They were accessible to their
subjects, high and low. Mahomet was very different. He was the true
despot after the Oriental fashion. He held himself aloof. He took his
meals alone. He made no confidants. He treated his viziers and pashas
as though they were his slaves. He had no regard for their lives. There
were men in his personal service who were adepts at striking off heads
by single blows of their scimitars. Two at least of Mahomet’s Grand
Viziers were put to death in this way in his presence without warning
or compunction. This levelling process was not apparently objected to
by his subjects.
On hearing at Magnesia of the death of his father, Mahomet, who was
eager to resume power, mounted at once an Arab horse, and exclaiming,
“Let all who love me follow!” he rode to the Hellespont, and thence
crossed to Gallipoli and made his way to Adrianople. He was there again
acclaimed as Sultan, not, however, without having to submit to onerous
presents to the Janissaries, a bad precedent which was later always
followed on the accession of a Sultan. The first act of his reign was
to direct that his brother, an infant son of Murad, by his latest wife,
a Serbian princess, should be put to death. He feared that the child,
when grown up, might dispute the throne with him, on the ground that
its mother was a legitimate wife of royal descent, while he himself
(Mahomet) was only the son of a slave. A high officer of the Court was
directed to drown the child in a bath. This was effected at the very
moment when the mother was engaged in offering her congratulations
to the new Sultan on his accession. The foul deed created a very bad
impression, and Mahomet found it expedient to disown the act. He did
so by directing the execution of the officer who had carried out his
order. He compelled the mother, in spite of her royal rank, to marry a
slave, an outrageous insult to the Serbian prince and to the memory of
his father.
From the earliest moment of his accession it became clear that Mahomet
intended to signalize his reign by the capture of Constantinople. With
this view, he came to terms for a three years’ truce with Hunyadi
and the Hungarians. He chastised and then gave easy terms to the
Karamanians, and accepted as a wife the daughter of their prince. He
sent an army to the Peloponnesus to prevent the two brothers of the
Greek Emperor, who were ruling there, from lending their aid to the
Greeks of Constantinople. He directed the erection of a great fortress
on the European side of the Bosphorus, at its narrowest point opposite
to another, which had been erected by Bayezid, very near to the
capital, so as to command the Straits. When the Greek Emperor sent an
envoy to protest against this, Mahomet replied:—
I make no threats against your city. By assuring the safety of my
country I am not infringing any treaty. Have you forgotten the
extremity to which my father was reduced when your Emperor, in
league with the Hungarians, endeavoured to prevent his crossing to
Europe by closing the Straits against him? Murad was compelled to
ask for the assistance of the Genoese. I was at Adrianople at the
time and was very young. The Mussulmans were in great alarm and you
Greeks insulted them. My father took an oath at the battle of Varna
to erect a fort on the European side. This oath I will fulfil. Have
you the right or the power to prevent my doing what I wish on my own
territory? The two sides of the Straits are mine—that of Asia Minor
because it is peopled by Ottomans, that of Europe because you are
unable to defend it. Tell your master that the Sultan who now reigns
in no way resembles his predecessors. My power goes beyond their
vows. I permit you now to withdraw, but in the future I will have
flayed alive those who bring me such messages.[14]
No more envoys were sent to him after this by the Greeks. Their
Emperor, Constantine—the last of his line—had succeeded his brother
three years before the accession of Mahomet. He was a brave and
conscientious prince, who gave lustre to the last days of the
Empire. But he was most unwise and provocative in his conduct to
the new Sultan, evidently under the belief that he had to deal with
the inexperienced youth who had been displaced by Murad six years
previously. He threatened to let loose, as a rival claimant to the
Ottoman throne, Orkhan, a grandson of Bayezid, who was under his
charge, if a larger allowance was not given for his maintenance.
Mahomet contemptuously rejected the claim. The Grand Vizier, Khalil,
who was suspected of being in the pay of the Greeks, warned the Emperor
of his extreme folly. “Your madness,” he said to the Greek ambassador,
“will put Constantinople in the hands of the Sultan. Proclaim Orkhan
Sultan in Europe, call in the Hungarians to your aid, retake what
provinces you can, and you will speedily see the end of the Greek
Empire.”
The new fortress was completed in the autumn of 1452. It was then seen
that, in combination with the fortress on the opposite shore, it gave
complete command of the Straits to the Ottomans. Venetian vessels which
attempted to pass were captured and their crews were sawn in halves.
Mahomet then declared his intention to attack Constantinople. In an
address to his principal pashas, after describing the conquests made
by his predecessors in Europe and Asia, he pointed out that the great
barrier to further progress was this city and the army of the Emperor.