anti-Ottoman league by writing to the Republic of Venice and the
King of Hungary a letter which described the achievements of the
“Saracens” in Thrace, their defeat of the “Servian lords in Greek
lands,” and the prospects of a farther advance of the infidel towards
the Adriatic. Bad news had come from Greece, too, of the possibility
of the Turkish invaders penetrating towards the south. A congress of
the Balkan states was called to meet at Thebes, a place under Frankish
and Roman Catholic rule; and it was a significant fact that no member
of the Eastern Church was asked to be present. A gathering of such a
restricted character could do nothing. There were at Thebes only a few
representatives of the small Latin principalities in Continental Greece
and the islands. Immediately after this gathering the Byzantine clergy
put forth in Constantinople a formal protest against the See of Rome
and appealed for help to the Knights of Rhodes.
Peter of Cyprus had been murdered by his barons in 1369, and the island
had fallen into the hands of the Genoese. In 1374 the small Frankish
kingdom of Armenia, an enclave between the Turkish and Mongol lands in
Asia, had come to an end with the capture of Sis. In 1378 the great
church schism in the West brought about a situation that prevented
the Papacy from taking further thought for what was now left of the
Christian East. Four years later Louis of Hungary died, leaving his
kingdom, a land especially interested in preventing the extension of
Turkish power in Europe, a prey to a civil war induced by the division
he had made of his dominions between his two daughters. There was no
longer even the semblance of a chance that European forces would unite
on a large scale to resist the Turks. The contest was left to the
weak and divided efforts of the small Frankish states in Greece; to
the Bulgars and Servians in the Balkans, who followed only desultory,
haphazard methods, and to the Greeks of the Empire, who were living on
the traditions of a great past.
Meanwhile, the Osmanlis were not disturbed by questions of religious
orthodoxy, and they were also spared the necessity of calling
congresses to decide the next step in their stealthy progress. In 1372,
under the personal supervision of Murad, expeditions were made by
which the whole of Roumelia to the Black Sea was not only made subject
to his rule, but Moslem families were settled in the conquered lands
and a regularly ordered system of local military government provided.
Then came the turn of the few remaining provinces still held by the
Greek Emperor. When Vizya (in Turkish, Wissa), an important city,
fell into Murad’s hands, John, whose bitter necessities had forced
him to pay tribute to the Turk and even to furnish a contingent for
military service, tried to recover his lost city. A punitive expedition
appeared in consequence near Constantinople, and some strong castles
were annexed; but nothing near the sea coast was taken, for the Sultan
had no desire to bring down upon himself the ill will of the Venetians
and other Italians, who would not tolerate any interference in their
control of the important waterways near Constantinople. For the same
reason, though constant additions were being made to Turkish territory
close to Thessalonika, no attempt was made to close in on the city for
fear of complications with the Latin powers, complications which might
excite such an outbreak of the crusading ardor that the Italian navies
might be used.
Considerably more important were the operations of the Sultan’s
lieutenant, Lala-Schahin. There were internal dissensions between the
Bulgars and the Roumanian Layko, a feudatory of the King of Hungary.
Allying himself with Layko, Lala-Schahin succeeded in capturing Sofia,
and for a while even Nisch was occupied. No attempt was as yet made by
the Slavs after their earlier defeat to protect themselves on a large
scale. At this point the method and aim of the pacific penetration
policy of the Sultan, which alternated with carefully devised methods
of military aggression, can be seen in the picturesque story of the
plot entered into by Andronicus, the son of John the Emperor, and
Sandschi, the son of Murad, to take the lives and the crowns of their
respective fathers. The conspiracy was detected and defeated, and
the young Turkish prince died from the effect of having hot vinegar
poured in his eyes. Andronicus, escaping from his prison, after the
common Byzantine penalty of blinding his sight had been, perhaps
intentionally, inflicted with such mildness that he regained it, made
a treaty with the Genoese and with Murad. He agreed to confer special
privileges on the Turks if they would help to secure for him the
imperial crown. For three years the usurpation lasted, and John and
his faithful son Manuel were only restored to their rights by Murad’s
friendly connivance, which was secured by the promise of 3000 ducats a
year. Of less value must have been the additional agreement that the
Byzantine princes would serve in the Sultan’s army.
Andronicus had fled to the Turkish lines and, through the intervention
of Murad, he received later Thessalonika as an appanage. He was
aided by the Genoese, while his father had as allies the Venetians,
a division of interests out of which grew the celebrated naval war,
called that of Chioggia, between the two rival cities of Italy. Murad
preferred to keep quiet while the two Italian naval powers were in
force in his neighborhood, and he devoted himself with much sagacity to
fishing in the troubled waters of the Asiatic emirates, with results
both in war and diplomacy that were eminently satisfactory.
In 1387 after there had been such successes of the Turks to record
as the surrender of Monastir, and Prilep, and Schtip, and even the
temporary seizure of Thessalonika, the Servians undertook, under the
direction of a feudal lord, Lazar, to organize a systematic plan of
resistance. Lazar was first aided by a Bosnian king, Tourtko, who had,
however, ambitious designs on certain lands under the Hungarian crown,
designs that soon robbed his promised co-operation of its influence.
Schischman of Bulgaria was drawn into the league, and in Lazar’s army
there appeared also contingents of Albanians and Roumanians standing
side by side with the Slavs. The crisis was fully appreciated by Murad.
He summoned new troops from Asia, and all the greatest generals took
part in the campaign, in addition to his two sons, Bajesid and Jakab.
The decisive battle was fought on ground that was part of Lazar’s own
domains near Prischtina, on the wide plains called Kossowopolje. Murad
was surrounded by his band of Janitschars; to hold back the enemy the
camels of the Asiatic troops were drawn up in front. The Christians
were confident in their superior number, for they had 200,000 men under
arms ready to begin the attack.
From a contemporary account comes the narrative of the death of the
Sultan. It is there told how ten young men of distinguished birth,
bound by oath to stand by one another, succeeded in forcing their
way to the tent of Murad. One of these, Mulasch Obilitsch, managed
to inflict two fatal wounds on the neck and body of the aged ruler.
But this successful stroke did not end the fight, for Bajesid, who
was renowned for the rapidity and daring of his generalship, drove
his wing of the Ottoman army into the Christian ranks, broke through
them, and put them to flight at the very moment they thought themselves
victorious. It is said that in the panic Lazar lost his life; probably
he was captured and subsequently sacrificed in revenge for the murder
of Murad. (June 15, 1389.)
Both armies withdrew after the battle. Murad’s fate made him a martyr
to the faith, and he is one of the Sahibs or Elect of Islam. Even the
Greeks praise his character as being benevolent towards the conquered,
whom he understood how to win over to his side after he had conquered
them by the irresistible force of his arms. He laid the foundations
of the Moslem state, adapting it shrewdly for rule over conquered
populations. They were accepted as tenants of the new owners of the
soil, paying tithes. The Sultan himself received the Kharadsch or
tribute money. At the same time the subject races retained their faith,
their customs, their church, their courts, and their aristocracy. The
warrior class was made up of native Turks and some renegades. These
became the sole owners of the land and had to take their place in
the regular yearly campaigns. There was, besides, a standing army of
young foot soldiers composed of captives taken in war, the Janitschar
class, who looked up to the Sultan as their father. For administrative
progress there was a corps of officials, whose functions descended
from father to son, composed of “Begs.” At the top of this bureaucracy
was a Beglerbeg for each half of the kingdom, one for Asia and one for
Europe, and a Wesir or Pascha, the equivalent in Turkish of the former
word, which is Arabic. The administrative divisions under the Begs
were called Sandjaks (flags) because these were carried by the Begs as
emblems of their authority.
The battle of Kossovo, in which both opposing armies lost their
leaders, became in Servian folklore and poetry a source of inspiration
of the kind that among Romance peoples gathers about the defeat
of Charles the Great in the Pyrenees and the death of Roland. The
incidents of the heroic theme take up the tragedy of the battle; Slavic
improvisers sing of the death of Lazar, of his father-in-law, the
aged King, and his nine brothers-in-law. Mulasch, the slayer of Murad,
who met his death in the flight, is not passed over, nor the 12,000
infidels who perished. Like Murad, Lazar, the “Servian crown of gold,”
is celebrated as a martyr of his faith, a hero who went voluntarily to
his death. The legend tells how St. Elias, in the form of a falcon,
came from the Holy City of Jerusalem, bringing him a letter from the
Mother of God, in which he was offered the choice of the heavenly
empire or dominion over the earth. Lazar made the choice which gave him
the spiritual kingdom.
III BAJESID
The first act of Bajesid’s accession was the murder of his younger
brother, whom he summoned to his presence and caused to be strangled.
This deed left Bajesid the sole representative of the house of Osman;
there was no rival now for him to fear. He wished to stand alone as
creator of his own statecraft, for he refused to respect any of the
arrangements or conventions made by Murad. His own ideal was foreign to
the loose feudalized system previously established; he desired to clear
away all the dependent dynasties, and to substitute for them officers
of his own, directly controlled by him.
The first important military operation of the new reign was directed
against Mircea, a Roumanian lord, who had seized and occupied
Nicopolis, lately surrendered to Ali-Pascha, Murad’s vizier, by
Schischman, before the battle of Kossovo. All the vassals were called
under arms to follow the Sultan, who crossed the Danube to where Mircea
was awaiting his attack in a position difficult of access on account of
roads and swamps. No details of the fight are given, but Bajesid was
the victor. (October 10, 1394.) Mircea fled to the Carpathians.
As one result of their victory the Turks left Bucharest in the hands
of an Ottoman garrison under the direction of a Roumanian Boyar Vlad,
who was appointed to take the place of Mircea, because of the latter’s
failure to perform the obligations of a faithful vassal, though he had
met with generous treatment from Bajesid after the battle of Kossovo.
He was not present at the battle itself, but rendered himself liable
to punishment by sending armed contingents of his own men to help
the Christian cause. He had been captured and exiled to Broussa; but
he was released on condition of paying a small tribute, and retained
his right of sovereignty over his subjects. More remarkable still,
Bajesid had undertaken not to permit any Turks to establish themselves
in Wallachia, or to found mosques in Mircea’s country. By presuming
on this favorable and exceptional treatment, Mircea again had brought
himself into the status of an exile.
Sigismund of Hungary saw the necessity of helping his unfortunate
neighbor Mircea with the Turks so close at hand. Moreover, the
Hungarian ruler’s relations with Western Europe, through his connection
with the house of Luxembourg, and his inheritance from Prince Louis of
Anjou, placed him in a good position to appeal to the warlike lords
and knights of France to aid him against infidel aggression. He turned
also to the Republic of Venice as a partner in the undertaking, but the
prudent merchants of that commonwealth showed no immediate interest in
the projected crusade.
The movement initiated from Hungary put heart into the Byzantines, who,
because of the change from the mild Murad to the relentless Bajesid,
were now hard pressed in the small corner of territory still left them.
There was moral depression as well, for Manuel II, when made co-Emperor
with his aged father John, had been obliged to accompany the Sultan
in all his campaigns with a contingent. This obligation revealed the
desperate straits of the Greek Empire, especially as the contingent
numbered only a hundred men. One Greek city, Philadelphia, the single
imperial possession in Asia Minor, had been attacked by Bajesid because
the citizens refused to receive a Turkish garrison, though John had
previously agreed to surrender it to Murad. Among the other vassals
who were called to take part in this campaign were Stephen, Prince of
the Servians, and Manuel, the Byzantine Emperor. As a further sign of
dependence on the Sultan’s will, who seemed bent on devising schemes to
humiliate the miserable Greek prince, Manuel had been forced to help
to repair the fortifications of Gallipoli, and also to coöperate with
the Turks in their preparations to send expeditions to Attica and some
of the islands of the Ægean. When John V began to restore some of the
ruined fortifications around the imperial city, Bajesid ordered him to
desist, threatening, if the command were not obeyed, to deprive Manuel
of his sight, for the heir, and co-Emperor, was, as usual, doing duty
as a vassal in one of the Turkish military expeditions.
On the death of John V, in 1391, Manuel was allowed to succeed to the
title, and, officially, good relations were observed between the Sultan
and the ruler of Constantinople. Bajesid, however, had no intention of
permitting Manuel, whom he knew to be a man of ability and decision,
to gain any new ground. The few places contiguous to Constantinople,
over which the Greeks still ruled, were constantly being harassed
by Ottoman aggressions. Manuel was really being besieged in his own
capital. His constant appeals for help were made in vain; the Venetians
found it commercially more advantageous to draw closer to the Osmanlis,
especially since Bajesid, by absorbing various emirates in Asia Minor,
was in control of important trading towns on that coast. A treaty was
concluded between the two powers, and the Venetians went so far as to
deny their help to the Frankish lords of the Ægean, and were preparing
to weaken continental Greece by efforts to gain territory in that
quarter at the expense of the Greek master of the Morea, a son of the
Emperor.
While Sigismund was seeking allies in the West against the Turks, and
Bajesid was elaborating plans for an invasion of the whole country
south of his European holdings, Thessalonika was retaken from the
Greeks. Without much difficulty Turkish troops in a raid westward
penetrated into the Morea, or Peloponnesus, itself, though a wall had
been built by the Venetians across the Isthmus. No permanent settlement
was made, but still the country suffered, for many of the inhabitants
were sold, and, during the course of the expedition, many cities of
Greece experienced, for the first time, the barbarism of a Turkish
invasion. This expedition to the south was like so many others under
the command of the local “Begs,” because Bajesid himself was bent on
completing the conquest of Bulgaria. After a long siege Tirnovo was
taken by assault; its churches were sacked, and it was, in general,
made an example by the ruthless conqueror. Even the dead were left
unburied. Along with a multitude of prisoners, the Bulgarian Patriarch
was taken to Asia. As to Sischman, he is reputed to have died, either
on the battlefield or in captivity; his capital, which had been the
residence of the Bulgar Tsars since 1200, sank to the level of a
small market town, though once it had been famous for its beautiful
buildings, constructed to rival or imitate those of Constantinople.
Bulgaria, already a poor fragment of its original extent after the
first stage of the invasion, now ceased altogether to exist as a Slav
state.
At this disastrous conjuncture for the Christian cause (1394),
Sigismund of Hungary intervened by sending representatives to Bajesid
to ask by what right he had destroyed Bulgaria. As an answer to the
delegation, Bajesid is said to have shown the bows and arrows which
decorated the hall of audience. Long anticipating the warlike aims
of the Hungarian King, Bajesid made ready to complete the siege of
Constantinople, and so to prevent any coöperation between the Greeks
and the Christian power farther north. Sigismund, who, as we have
mentioned, had relied on his influence in the West to get aid adequate
to the undertaking he had in hand, now knew that his embassy which
had visited France had been well received by the King, Charles VI, and
his great nobles, many of whom had agreed to take up arms. As head of
the expedition, John the Fearless, son of the Duke of Burgundy, had
been selected; there were gathered round him many well-known lords as
counselors, and a contingent of 10,000 men, foot and horse. Besides
these, there were contingents of knights from Germany, Luxembourg,
England, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. Even Venice was induced
to supply galleys and money for the cause. The Knights of Rhodes sent
their fleet and their Grand Master with it. The Slavs of Poland and the
Roumanians also joined the crusade. Even Manuel took heart and promised
to keep some of the Turkish army occupied by making an offensive
movement.
In July, 1396, the various contingents from the Occident met the
Hungarian and Roumanian armies at Bada. Mircea, who had had personal
experience with the Turkish military power, advised, with the wisdom
that comes from defeat, a policy of defensive action, that the allies
should wait for Bajesid’s advance into Hungary. But this dilatory
program was not acceptable to the Western knights, who declared that
they were there to fight, not to waste time in the inaction of a camp.
Accordingly the army went down the Danube to Ossovo, and the river was
crossed near the so-called Iron Gates.
After winning some initial successes in a land where only the garrisons
were Turkish, the crusaders, on September 12, reached Nicopolis, a
place well fortified and strongly held by a veteran Ottoman general,
Dogon-beg, who commanded a garrison of seasoned troops. At first the
French knights tried to take the place by storm; but there were not
enough ladders. It was, therefore, resolved to starve it out. The siege
was in progress when Bajesid arrived from Constantinople. When he heard
of the danger of his general he burnt his siege machines and hastened
to Nicopolis. The crusaders would not at first believe that the Sultan
was marching upon them; those who first reported the news in the camp
were treated as spies and had their ears cut off. When it was found to
be true, the Christians massacred the prisoners already taken.
In preparing for the battle there was a fatal diversity of views.
Sigismund wished to put Mircea’s men in the first line, since they
were not regarded as good warlike material; next to this division he
wished to station the Hungarians, and then, as the chief support of the
whole, the knights from the West. But the French would hear nothing of
this plan, which they regarded as equivalent to an insult; the place
in front belonged, they thought, to them by right. A few of the most
experienced counselors of John of Burgundy agreed with Sigismund, but
nothing could be done to persuade the mass of the French warriors to
give way. In the Ottoman army there were no differences of opinion;
the Sultan’s vassals were answerable to his command, and, it is to be
noted, that Stephen, the young Servian despot, with a contingent of
trained warriors, fought for Bajesid against the crusaders. But with
this exception the Sultan’s army, in all reckoned at 110,000, was
composed of Moslem troops. Out of the 110,000 ranged on the other side,
there were about 20,000 crusaders, of whom 16,000 were French. These,
with the bravado that came from the traditions of western chivalry,
undertook to bear the brunt of the fighting. Sigismund again tried to
secure the adoption of his more cautious plan, but without result. The
constable of France, Count d’Eu, gave the signal to advance, and the
French knights moved to the onslaught with cries of “Vive St. Denis,
Vive St. George.” Sigismund’s army, composed of trusty Transylvanians,
Hungarians, and Tschechs, was in the center, and on the right wing
behind the crusaders, while Mircea’s men made up the left. The Turks
were drawn up in three lines; in the first were irregular troops,
“akindji” and “azabs,” and a body of mercenaries; in the second Asiatic
foot soldiers flanked by two squadrons of “spahis”; behind were
stationed what might be called the guard regiments, the Janitschars and
the spahis of the Porte; a short distance away in individual formation
stood the 5000 Servians under Stephen.
In their reckless dash forward the knights carried everything before
them, the irregulars first, and Janitschars afterwards, though these
were protected by a line of inclined pointed stakes. The horsemen
had no difficulty in leaping over these obstacles, and made fearful
execution with their swords on the Turks in the level plain. But,
while the French were driving through their enemies in front like a
flying wedge, the Turks on the two wings were reforming to make an
inclosing movement around the knights. As these could not withdraw,
they continued the charge right into the second line of Bajesid, where
they put “hors de combat” five thousand Turks. But by this time both
men and horses were exhausted, and the ranks were broken. The more
cautious leaders advised Count d’Eu to fall back on the Hungarians for
support, but he gave orders to renew the charge. The third line of the
enemy could not, however, be broken; the Western crusaders were being
overwhelmed by fresh bodies of Ottomans.
The Frenchmen might have been aided easily by their allies behind them,
but at this moment Mircea, with his Wallachians and the Transylvanian
contingent, suddenly deserted the field. This cowardly action threw
the rest of the army into a panic. Soon Sigismund was left with but a
fraction of his army, the men from the Christian lands in the East lent
no aid, nor did they stand their ground. The Hungarian King advanced
to rescue the Western crusaders, but a charge made by the Servians,
who had as yet kept out of the battle, prevented the union of the now
separated portions of the Christian army. The French, though left
alone, performed great feats of arms, fighting, as the chronicles
say, like mad wolves and frothing boars. Gathering together in small
groups of eight or ten, the knights, using their long swords, fortified
themselves behind the heaps of dead and wounded Turks. It was told
how the standard of the Virgin, defended by John de Vienne and his
companions, was six times struck to the ground, only to be proudly
lifted again until the heroic Frenchman himself fell, still clasping in
his arms the tattered standard. Sigismund also fought desperately, but
there was no escape except by retreating northward to the Danube, where
the galleys of Rhodes and Venice took on board what was left of the
great army of the crusaders.