Part 25

In the north of Anatolia, which was directly in the hands of the Ottomans, there still remained the Empire of Trebizond, governed by a Greek prince, David Comnenus. Part of his dominions, Sinope and Paphlagonia, were conquered in 1461, and then the last Emperor of Trebizond turned for help to his Turkoman ally, Hassan, ruler of Armenia and part of Persia. Mohammed struck at his foes rapidly. Marching on Erzeroum, he forced Hassan to sue for peace, and so the Greek Emperor was left to meet the Turks unaided. The city of Trebizond was effectively encircled by land and sea, and David was soon brought to surrender, and afterwards, with many members of his household, was put to death. Equally implacable was Mohammed to the Seldjoukian emirates. At the death of Ibrahim, the Prince of Karamania, the Sultan intervened, while seven claimants were disputing over the succession, and after several campaigns annexed the emirate. Hassan’s time soon came. Feeling the insecurity of his rule, he asked help of Rhodes and Venice, especially requesting to be furnished with artillery, by the aid of which so many of the Ottoman victories were won. Two hundred Italian gunners were sent in answer to his call. In 1472 he took the Ottoman town of Tokat, and sacked it. This act caused Mohammed to take up the war against him in person. The two armies met on July 26, 1473, at Outlouk-Bali, near Terdjan, where a decisive victory was won by the Sultan. All the prisoners taken were massacred. The Turkomans had no desire to contest further the predominance of Ottoman rule, which was now extended without question over both Karamania and Anatolia.

It must not be supposed, however, that Mohammed was always successful. Albania held out against him under the heroic leader Scanderbeg, whose earlier exploits have been already chronicled. His success against the Ottomans continued without a break. Even when a nephew proved disloyal and brought an army of 40,000 Turks into the land, he rose up and smote the invaders after the manner of his earlier years (1461). For a time afterward peace prevailed; then, during the Venetian war, he stood as an ally of the republic. His old antagonist Mohammed had another opportunity of testing the valor of the Albanian chieftain at a decisive defeat of the Turkish army under the walls of Croia in 1465. Two years later Scanderbeg died at the age of sixty-seven, and his death was followed by civil strife.

The rounding off of the Ottoman Empire, a process by which the vassal states were absorbed, put an end to the internal movements against centralized rule, and enabled the Sultan to work out his policy of systematic aggression in the regions to the north. After the year 1470 Turkish armies ravaged Southern Hungary, Croatia, Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola; Belgrade, on account of its strong defensive position, was respected. In 1479 the Turks made an expedition in force into Transylvania, where, in the neighborhood of Hermannstadt, they burnt 200 villages. When they were on the point of withdrawing with their booty they were attacked on the Cornfields (Kenyermezo, October 13), and suffered severe losses. Not more successful were the acts of aggression on Hungarian territory in the following year; but the Hungarian King, Matthias, was satisfied with repulsing his enemies; he had no desire to prosecute the war against the Turks on a large scale, for he had none of the ambition or enthusiasm of his famous father, Hunyadi.

In the Greek islands the activity of the Turkish fleet produced positive and permanent results; Lesbos was taken in 1462, and to the list of Turkish successes in these years were soon added Lemnos, Imbros, Samothrace. Much more valiant defenders of their island were the Knights of Rhodes, whom the Sultan was especially desirous of punishing for the part they had taken in the already mentioned Venetian expedition against Asia Minor. In 1480 a large Ottoman fleet of about one hundred ships appeared in sight of the island, and a bombardment was begun, but the fortifications proved too strong for the Turkish guns to make any impression, though the siege lasted from early in May till the end of August, in which time, despite the assaults made on the citadel, only one tower was taken. The Grand Master, Pierre d’Aubusson, and his brother, had prepared most intelligently for the crisis by collecting from all provinces of the Order money, which they used in providing weapons, especially cannon. They had been furnished also by the Pope, just before the siege began, with a large store of food and provisions. Finally, after a heroic defense of eighty-nine days, two Neapolitan ships forced their way into the harbor and broke up the blockade.

In the Wallachian lands the Ottomans met a redoubtable warrior, who, in the annals of the Roumanian people, takes such a high place as a champion against the Turks that the record of his deeds gives him a rank alongside Hunyadi and Scanderbeg. Vlad, the Prince of Wallachia, 1456-1462, called by the Hungarians the Devil, and with equal significance spoken of by the Turks as the Impaler, had a reputation for violence even among his own people. He repressed the internal troubles of his vassals with an iron hand; for after Mircea’s death the country had gone through the same period of divisions and intrigues that is found with such frequency in all the Balkan lands, making them, as we have seen, an easy prey for the Ottoman.

It is told how Vlad brought Wallachia to a peaceful state by the execution of 20,000 men, and how, afterwards, in the same drastic style, he resolved to put an end to the annual tribute of 500 children demanded by his overlord the Sultan. Looking for allies in carrying on the resistance to Mohammed, he helped Stephen IV to secure the throne of Moldavia, and married a relative of Matthias, King of Hungary. Mohammed resolved to nip in the bud the independent movements of his dangerous vassal, and sent a renegade Greek official, Catabolinus, with a corps of 2000 Turks to depose Vlad and to replace him by his brother, Radu. Vlad, having surprised this small force, impaled all the prisoners he took; to the pasha who led them was accorded the honor of being impaled on the longest stake. After this outrage the Sultan sent three ambassadors to reinforce his demands; but, when the Moslem delegates refused to remove their turbans in his presence, Vlad ordered their headgear to be nailed to their heads.

This picturesque barbarity appealed to the imagination of the Turkish ruler, who, as an artist in cruelty, conceded that Vlad belonged to a class above him. When the Turkish sovereign made a punitive expedition to Bucharest, he found the approach to the town, half a mile long, lined with stakes, on which were rotting the bodies of 2000 dead Turks. “How,” Mohammed said, “can we despoil of his estates a man who is not afraid to defend it by such means as these?” Vlad hung on the invading army, always inflicting losses, without showing himself long enough to be attacked in a formal battle. Using his familiarity with the Turkish language, he penetrated with some companions into the midst of the Turkish camp, and would have succeeded in murdering Mohammed himself, had not a mistake been made in selecting the tent. Instead of the Sultan one of the pashas was killed. Though there are conflicting accounts as to the details of Vlad’s versatility in defense, we know that Mohammed gave up his plan of aggression against Wallachia and returned to his capital, Adrianople.

Vlad’s career was cut short by the enmity of his neighbor the Moldavian King, Stephen, who, afraid of his influence, drove him from his throne, although he had relied on Vlad to promote his own interests when the Moldavian succession was in dispute. This was, of course, a gross error in statesmanship, for the only possibility of resisting Turkish aggression in these extreme Eastern lands of Europe depended on the close coöperation of Moldavia and Wallachia. If Wallachia were once occupied by the Turks, Moldavia’s invasion was certain to be the next step. After Vlad’s expulsion, he took refuge at the court of Matthias of Hungary.

His successor, Radu, was entirely devoted to Turkish interests; and soon after this change of rule in Wallachia, Stephen of Moldavia was able to seize the seaport town of Kilia, whose inhabitants were not unwilling to accept an overlord of better reputation than Radu, whose close relations with the Sultan had made him an object of contempt (1465). In the hostilities that followed between Matthias of Hungary and Stephen of Moldavia, the Hungarian King, who had taken up Vlad’s cause, was beaten at the battle of Baia. Stephen then invaded Transylvania, captured Peter Aron, the pretender to the throne of Moldavia, and put him to death. Peace was restored with the Hungarians on terms that were advantageous to Stephen, who received two fortresses.

Not long after this Hungarian incident, which, like so many others, weakened the power of resistance to Turkish arms, Stephen invaded Wallachia with the intention of dethroning the Sultan’s favorite, Radu. The Moldavian prince prepared for war against the Turks by entering into negotiations with the Venetians, who, as we have seen, were indefatigable in organizing a general league against Mohammed. An ambassador, who had been sent by the republic to secure the coöperation of the Persian King, Louzoun Hassan, visited Stephen, and proposed him as leader in organizing a holy league against the Ottomans, “in order,” as he said, “that we may not be left alone to keep up the struggle against them.” But before the Venetian envoy had passed beyond the Balkan lands, Mohammed’s army, in great force, was already swarming over Moldavia. To meet them Stephen had only some 50,000 men, mostly of his own nation. With these and a few Hungarians he won a brilliant victory over 120,000 Turks at Rakova in 1475, where he killed 20,000 men, took 100 standards, and many prisoners, including four pashas. Pursuing the defeated army, he massacred a large part of them. A church was built to celebrate the battle, and a solemn fast was initiated, followed by the impaling of many Turkish prisoners. This success of Stephen was celebrated as a unique feat of arms in Western Europe, and deservedly so, for the trained troops of Mohammed had been hewn down by a peasantry armed only with pikes, scythes, and axes.

Stephen asked help from the Pope and from Venice to carry on the struggle; but he got no aid, for the Venetians were worn out with the long war against their Eastern foes, and the Pope explained that all money for defense had been turned over to Matthias of Hungary, the overlord of the Moldavian King. Matthias, however, proposed to spend the money at home, as he dreaded the inevitable increase of Stephen’s power if he were to inflict another decisive defeat on a Turkish army. When the Turks appeared again, the help of the peasant population could not be secured because they were simultaneously alarmed at the news of a Tartar invasion, said to have been timed to coincide with the passage of the Danube by the Turks.

The Moldavian nobles, however, and their men-at-arms, made an heroic stand against Mohammed’s army; their cannon did such execution that the Janitschars threw themselves on the ground to escape the rain of projectiles. The Sultan was forced to lead his men in person to save the day. So stout was the stand the Christians made that the combat lasted far into the night. When most of his nobles had been slaughtered Stephen withdrew from this battle, which was fought at Razboieni, July 24, 1476. After he had been pursued to the forest country in the north of Moldavia, he was finally forced to withdraw to the inaccessible mountain regions. Here, with characteristic enterprise, he gathered together a second army, and the Turks, who already were exhausted by the strenuous campaign in a country ill provided with food, and ravaged as they were by disease, were easily driven back across the Danube. After this success Wallachia was invaded the same year by the Moldavian Boyars, who were joined by the Transylvanians under their new leader, Bathory. The pro-Turkish prince of the country was dethroned, and Vlad, the mighty hammerer of the Turks, now again an ally of Stephen, was replaced by the latter on the throne; but the veteran leader did not long survive his restoration. He died in December, 1477, near Bucharest, in a fight with the Turks, who attacked him as soon as Stephen had withdrawn to Moldavia. He was buried in a monastery founded by him at Snagov, but no inscription marked the resting place of the Christian champion.

Mohammed’s own reign was closed on the 3d of May, 1481, in Anatolia. For some time, owing to his excessive weight, campaigning had been difficult and painful for him. In the latter years of his life he was often so incapacitated by gout that he was compelled to give up more than one important warlike expedition, and it was to this disease that his death was due. During his reign the Turkish Empire acquired much new territory; Anatolia was occupied as far as the northern reaches of the Euphrates, and in Europe the Balkan peninsula was made subject to his arms as far as the Danube. Many successful expeditions were also made far beyond these limits, both on the east and on the west. But two great obstacles to Turkish advance he failed to overcome: Rhodes and Belgrade, the latter stronghold commanding the Danube, while the former was the key to the Ægean.

VI SELIM AND SOULIMAN

In the line of succession were two sons, Bajesid and Djem. Bajesid managed, by rapid marching, to reach Scutari before his brother, and was proclaimed Sultan. Djem, who had occupied Broussa, proposed a division of the empire, but Bajesid refused, and defeated Djem in a decisive battle, fought at Yeni-Chchir (1481). The defeated brother took refuge first in Egypt, with the Sultan of the Mamelouks, and afterwards appeared as a suppliant at Rhodes, where the Grand Master, fearing to keep so valuable a hostage, sent him to France, where he remained for several years in captivity. Djem finally ended his life as a victim of the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI, who is charged with having murdered him to secure the favor of Bajesid. So long as Djem lived, Bajesid was wary of stirring up the enmity of Occidental Christendom; he feared the effect on the stability of his throne by the return of a pretender, backed up by Christian armies. He even refused to answer the appeal for aid sent him by the last King of Granada, only venturing to show ineffective sympathy by sending a fleet to cruise off the Spanish coast.

Charles VIII of France, encouraged by his successful expedition into Italy, planned a new general crusade against the Turk, and secured promises of coöperation from various Western powers. He kept in touch with the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire, and even looked forward to taking the imperial throne of Constantinople by purchasing title deeds to it from the Paleologi family.

After Djem’s death, which was soon followed by that of Charles, the Sultan had a free hand. From 1492 to 1495 he warred with partial success against the Hungarians; then came the turn of Venice, whose Italian dominions again saw a Turkish army. In the Morea, also, the republic lost some of the few cities it still possessed. There Nauplia held out, but Modon, Navarino, and Coron passed into the possession of the Turks. Under Papal leadership, an anti-Ottoman league was formed, and the Christian fleet proved its prowess by destroying two Turkish flotillas and by ravaging the shores of Asia Minor.

Internal troubles in Asia Minor, defeats in Hungary, and a long, troublesome war with the Sultan of Egypt brought the warlike enterprises of Bajesid to an end. The Sultan’s sons through their dissensions darkened the close of his reign; all three rebelled. Of the three, the most successful in opposing his father’s power was Selim, who won the Janitschars over to his side, and through their interference was able to enter Constantinople in triumph, and there enforce his own conditions. Bajesid first offered large sums if Selim would withdraw to the Asiatic province, of which he was governor; finally he consented to accept him as heir and co-regent on the throne; but Selim had secured the influence of the troops, and they demanded the Sultan’s immediate abdication. Bajesid was obliged to accede to their request, and only asked that he might be allowed to withdraw to die at Demotica, the place where he was born. The third day after his abdication he died. Because of its suddenness, his death, as was so often the case in those days, was said to be due to poison.

Selim’s path after his accession was anything but smooth; the troops were not amenable to discipline, and there were a host of brothers and nephews, who were in no mood to accept him as their lord. Besides his own son, Souliman, there were ten princes who stood near the throne. All were taken and murdered. Though Selim affected to explain their executions as due to reasons of state, his acts were severely judged by his contemporaries. The Turks called him “The Inflexible,” while in the West he was entitled “The Savage.” Foscolo, the Venetian, described him as the cruelest of men, “a man who dreams only of conquests and wars.” He was a well-educated man who favored the pursuit of literature, and it was said that the only individual who was ever able to induce him to revoke a death sentence was the grand mufti, Ali Djemali. His viziers felt the implacable nature of their master; seven of them were executed, for whenever the soldiers were restless the vizier was made a victim of the Sultan’s discontent. According to an old report one of them only agreed to accept the dangerous office after Selim had beaten him with his own hands. Intractable at home, Selim, so far as Europe was concerned, proved a pacific prince, his name being recorded only in connection with one expedition against the Christians. His Christian vassals, too, were left undisturbed; all that he exacted from them was the payment of a regular tribute. To the Moslem dissenters in Persia of the Shiite sect, he showed himself an implacable persecutor, all the more because his animosity was excited by the encouragement given to his rebellious brother Ahmed and his three sons by Ismail, the master of Persia. Ismail also negotiated an alliance with the Sultan of Egypt against the Osmanlis. Selim began in his own provinces by organizing a systematic massacre of the schismatics. Then followed a holy war against the Shah, in 1513, in which Selim led an army of 140,000 warriors; and after three campaigns, in one of which a great pitched battle was fought at Tchaldiran (August 24, 1514), he extended the domains of the Ottoman far to the east, bringing to submission Georgia and Kurdistan, and overrunning Mesopotamia and the parts of Syria that were controlled by the Moslem lord of Egypt.

By the expansion of his empire in this direction he soon came into conflict with the Sultan of the Mamelouks. Aleppo was taken, and, when Selim entered the city, he was hailed in the great mosque as the guardian of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a title which gave the Ottoman Sultan almost the rank of the Khalif of the faithful. Damascus also fell into his hands, and so rapid were the successes of the Ottomans, that early in the year 1517 Selim found himself within sight of Cairo. The Mamelouks made an heroic resistance; protected by their coats of mail they charged into the center of the Turkish position, killing the vizier and ten generals. But here, as so often, the superiority of the Turks in artillery decided the day, and Cairo was taken after a prolonged and desperate struggle. Selim proclaimed an amnesty in favor of the Mamelouks; 500 of them, trusting in the conqueror’s promises, surrendered and were decapitated, and 50,000 of the citizens of Cairo were massacred. Touman, who led the Egyptian forces, was finally taken and hanged.

Egypt was allowed to retain its ancient organization, with its irregular force, the Mamelouks, and its twenty-four Begs as military commanderies; but the direction of the government was placed in the hands of the Ottoman Pasha. With the possession of Egypt Selim became lord of Yemen, its dependency, and so exercised actual control over the holy places of the Moslem faith. At Cairo he had found a sheik, an obscure and neglected personage, called Elmo-stansir-bi-illah, who was reputed to be in the direct line of descent from the second branch of the Abbasides Khalifs. Selim kept him in confinement until, on the promise of securing his liberty, and for a small money payment and a pension, he agreed to transfer to the Turkish ruler all his claims to the Khalifate.

Selim’s victories made a great impression. Venice, whose commercial interests were affected, sent ambassadors to Cairo to arrange for paying the tribute that was due to the Sultan of Egypt for the island of Cyprus. Hungary asked to have the truce prolonged between the two powers, and the Shah of Persia sent gifts and congratulations. Selim died on September 22, 1520, while he was preparing for an expedition against the island of Rhodes. He was succeeded by his only son, Souliman, a ruler whose long reign, from 1520 to 1566, makes him a contemporary of the great European leaders of the sixteenth century, a fact which Paul Veronese recognized when he placed him in his celebrated painting, “The Marriage at Cana,” along with the chief sovereigns of the day.

As the lines of expansion in the East and in Africa had been closed by the remarkable achievements of Selim, Souliman’s hands were free to take up the traditional line of aggressive progress of Turkish power. Hungary was attacked on the ground that the payment of tribute was refused. In 1521, after two important battles, Belgrade was besieged by the Sultan; the fate of the city was decided by the defection of its Servian and Bulgarian allies. Twenty assaults were made, and there were only 400 able-bodied men in the garrison, when a mutiny among the inhabitants forced the town to capitulate on August 29, 1521.

The conquest of Rhodes, the center of Christian resistance in the East, was now not long delayed. A large navy of 200 vessels appeared off the island with a summons to the grand master, Villiers de l’lsle Adam, to surrender. Souliman had collected an army of 100,000 men to undertake the siege, but the defenders were not terrified. Every assault made on the great bastions of the citadel caused enormous losses among the Turks; but their prolonged artillery fire and the new supplies of men, drawn constantly from Asia, showed the mere handful of defenders that their struggle could have only one outcome. In December, 1522, the island capitulated on terms that were favorable to the heroic defenders; even the Sultan appreciated the tragedy, for he is recorded to have said to his favorite Ibrahim, that he was loath to force this Christian commander, in his old age, to leave his house and his goods.

[Illustration: SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT

(In Youth.)]