lar epithet of the royal vulture, and signifies a "bone-breaker," has been recognized by the Turks as not disagreeably symbolical of the national character and mission; and so completely do they identify their state with the race of its founder, that they have foregone all other denominations for the dignity, style, and title of the Ottoman Porte. 1291, preceded but by eight years the enthrone- he accidentally rendered to a native prince, was ment of the first Othman; so that the origin of acknowledged by a grant of land; and the estate the Turkish state was almost exactly contempora- was soon expanded into a respectable territory, by neous with the withdrawal of Christian arms from the talents which had originally acquired it. The the scene of its growth. That the extinction, inheritance of Ortogrul devolved, in 1289, upon his too, of the crusading principle was then complete, son Osman or Othman, who, at the death, ten may be inferred from the violent suppression, years later, of his patron, the Sultan of Iconium, only ten years later, of that military order which no longer hesitated to proclaim his independent had been mainly instrumental in checking the sovereignty. Such was the origin of the house march of the misbelievers. The commencement of Othman. The name itself, which is a vernacuof the Ottoman dynasty is placed in the year 1299; and, in the year 1309, the Knights Templars, except as captives or pensioners, had ceased to exist. Nor was the rise of the Turkish power an event calculated, at its first announcement, to create any extraordinary consternation. As regards Asia Minor, the entire peninsula, with the exception of its western sea-board, had long been in the possession of kindred tribes; and the mere substitution of Ottomans for Seljukians could hardly be thought to menace the interests of Europe. Even the actual passage of the Straits, which was the first critical point of Turkish progress, presented no unparalleled phenomenon; for a Moorish kingdom still flourished on the Guadalquivir; and a Tartar horde had just established its sovereignty over the dismembered duchies of Russia. It is certainly true that the exigencies of Mogul invasions, and the remnants of crusading zeal, did originally suggest the concert of nations, which became afterwards systematized by the standing requirements of a political equilibrium; and, perhaps, the dread of Ottoman aggression produced the first faint foreshadowings of those state combinations which characterize the modern history of Europe. But it was not so at the outset. Adrianople had been made a Mahometan capital, and the metropolis of the Eastern Cæsars had become a mere enclave in Turkish territory, before the aid of European princes was solicited against the new invaders-and solicited in vain! and when at length the Christian allies and the infidel forces joined battle in the field of Nicopolis, the Ottoman power had been impregnably strengthened by the impunity and successes of a century. As any particular narrative of these events would carry us beyond our limits and our design, we can only venture on a few brief remarks in elucidation of the subject directly before us, and in aid of the general interest of our disquisition. Towards the close of the thirteenth century—that is to say, at the very moment when the election of a Swiss knight to the Germanic throne was laying the foundations of the imperial house of Austria, events of equal singularity were preparing the seat of the rival Cæsars for the progeny of a Turkish freebooter. The Asiatic continent, from its central highlands to the shores of the Mediterranean, had been utterly convulsed by the tremendous irruptions of Zingis Khan; and, in the course of the subsequent commotions, a Turcoman chief named Ortogrul, from the banks of the Oxus, found himself wandering in the hills of Anatolia at the head of four hundred families. A service, which The new dynasty enjoyed the signal though accidental advantages of long reigns and worthy representatives; while its opportunities of aggrandizement were so peculiar that far weaker hands might have turned them to account. On one side of them lay the Roman empire, shrunk to the dimensions of Constantinople and its environs; on the other the fragmentary or effete principalities of the Seljukian Turks, who had been quartered for two centuries on these spoils of the Eastern Cæsars, and whose power had been recently shattered by the shock of the Mogul invasion. The house of Othman struck right and left. Before the sixty years of its two first chiefs had terminated, the north-western portions of Asia Minor had been effectually subdued, and a capital had been found at Prusa for the new dominion. Already the passage of the Hellespont had become an ordinary incident of their expeditions, and by the middle of the fourteenth century the European shore of the straits was studded with Turkish garrisons. Starting from the ground thus gained, Amurath, first of his name and third of his race, added the whole province of Thrace to his territories, erected a second metropolis at Adrianople, and advanced the Ottoman frontiers to the Balkan. Our sketch runs rapidly to a close. A few years more, and we find these Turks of the third generation at the very limits of their present empire, and on the very scenes of their present fortunes. By 1390, they had occupied Widdin, and before five years more had elapsed, the Moslem and Christian hosts were delivering, as we have said, the first of their countless battles on the banks of the Danube. During these transactions, although the relative positions of Turkey and Christendom were wholly and alarmingly changed, and though the attitude of the new invaders on the borders of Germany did really portend more serious results than the transient devastations of Tartar inroads, yet the deportment of the European powers appears to have undergone no corresponding alteration. The battle of Nicopolis had indeed been fought; but the crusade which this encounter commenced and terminated, originated rather in the influence of family connections than in any impulse of political foresight or religious zeal. The King of Hungary, whose realm was menaced by the arms of Bajazet I., was son of one German emperor, brother to another, and destined to be emperor himself; and he possessed therefore the obvious means of attracting to his standard the capricious chivalry of the West. But there was no effective combination of forces, nor any permanent sense of the danger which required it. The progress of the Ottoman arms exercised little perceptible influence on the councils of Europe, nor did the impending fate of an imperial and Christian city provoke any serviceable sympathy. After the Thracian and Bulgarian conquests, to which we have alluded, Constantinople, for the first time in its existence, was completely environed by enemies; and it became clear to the Greek emperors that the invaders with whom they had row to deal were of a very different mould from the swarming hordes which had so often swept past them and retired. Yet, though four emperors in succession visited Western Europe in search of aid, and though one of them brought his petition even to the king of this island, and Kentish yeomen saw a Greek Cæsar entertained in St. Austin's monastery, and received on Blackheath by a Lancastrian sovereign, there was no substantial aid forthcoming. This failure was doubtless principally ascribable to the disrepute into which crusading expeditions had fallen, and to the occupation with which both the French and English monarchs were then provided in their own kingdoms. There are, however, other circumstances which, for the full comprehension of the state of opinion at this period, it will be necessary to recollect. of Europe, took the form of conciliatory overtures to the Romish See; and, excepting in the case of the Emperor Manuel, the negotiations of the imperial visitors were confined to the limits of the Papal court. Neither could the Greek state be exactly represented to European sympathies as a Christian city brought finally to bay, and despe rately battling against the overwhelming forces of the infidel. The terms on which Turks and Greeks had for some time been living precluded any such description of their mutual relationship. The presumptive antagonism of the two states had been long openly compromised by concessions, by tributes, and, what was worse, by the ordinary passages of amity and good-will. Ottoman princes were educated at the Christian court, and Christian princes honorably lodged in the camp of the Ottomans; a mosque was tolerated in Constantinople; and a daughter of John Cantacuzene was given in marriage to the second of the Turkish sovereigns. That these arrangements were not wholly voluntary on the side of the weaker party we may safely believe; but it will still be evident how materially such a combination of circumstances must have operated to the disadvantage of the emperors in their appeal to the sympathy of Christian Europe. Meantime the Turkish power had been growing with a certainty and steadiness unexampled in the history of an oriental people. Two or three of the causes which principally conduced to this remarkable result it may be right here to specify. The passage of the Ottomans into Europe might have been long retarded by the simple expedient of guarding the straits. While the power of the Greek empire consisted almost solely in the relics of its fleet, still respectably appointed, and fur Though the Greek emperors were not only Christian sovereigns, but even coheirs of the polit-nished with the most formidable appliances of ical supremacy of Christendom, yet this very naval warfare known to the age, the Turks were rivalry had combined with their geographical isola- totally destitute both of ships and of the science tion and foreign tongue to estrange them from the which concerned them. A few galleys might have powers of Europe. As early as the reign of sufficiently protected the channel against all the Heraclius, the intercourse between the East and forces of Orchan and Amurath; and yet not only West began visibly to slacken, and the great re- were the Ottomans permitted to pass undisturbed, ligious schism of the eleventh century completed with such means as they could extemporize, but the disruption. After this time, Constantinople even the intelligence of their having secured a was scarcely regarded, either spiritually or politi-lodgement, and fortified themselves on the Eurocally, as entering into the community of European states. Even the contact induced by the crusades rather increased than diminished the alienation. On more than one occasion Greek emperors were leagued with the Saracens against the soldiers of the Cross; and the imperial city itself, after triumphantly sustaining so many sieges, was captured and sacked for the first time by Christians and Franks. It may be imagined, perhaps, that the differences between the Greek and Latin churches could not much affect the dispositions of Norman barons; but it must be remembered that in these romantic expeditions the moderator and exponent of European opinion was no other than the Roman pontiff-without whose coöperation it would have been scarcely possible to organize an effectual crusade. The application, therefore, of the Eastern emperors to the powers pean side, produced nothing but careless scoffs in the imperial court. The next point requiring notice is, that the conquests of the Turks were mainly effected by the agency of European troops. The Ottomans will be found to have conquered the Byzantine provinces as we conquered India-by enlisting and disciplining the natives of the country. Only 400 families had originally obeyed the voice of Ortogrul; and it is clear, therefore, that the subjects of his successors must have been swelled in numbers by accessions from other tribes; in fact, the progress of the Ottomans was merely the onward flow of the population of Asia Minor. Even this, however, would have been deficient in impulsive force, but for the singular institution which we are now to mention. The Janizaries were originally formed and recruited from the impressed children of Christian and at length, by the extinction of other claims, We are now arrived at a period when the destinies of the Ottoman house were to be finally determined. Up to this time the progress and captives; afterwards from those of any Christian | cious of the sons of Bajazet, waited his time; subjects of the Porte, and at length from the sons of the soldiers themselves; so that a pure military caste, with habits and interests totally distinct from the rest of the people, was gradually established in the very heart of the nation. The number of the Janizaries in the middle of the fourteenth century was only one thousand; but this muster-roll was repeatedly multiplied by successive emperors, till at length, under the Great Solyman, it reached to twenty thousand, and in the German wars, under Mahomed IV., to double that strength. It is not a little singular that a body so constituted should have been not only the main instrument of Turkish aggrandizement, but should have been so inveter-renown of the Turkish arms had stimulated Eu→ ately identified with Ottoman traditions, as at all times to have formed the chief obstacle to any social or constitutional reforms. Nor should it be overlooked, that the creation and maintenance of this standing army, isolated from all popular sympathies by descent and character, contributed most powerfully to consolidate the authority of the new dynasty, and to furnish the Turkish sovereigns with those permanent resources, in virtue of which they escaped the ordinary vicissitudes of oriental dynasties, and encountered the tumultuous levies of Hungary and Germany with all the advantages of despotic power. The pretensions of the house of Othman kept pace with its achievements. Originally its chief had been content with the title of Emir; but Bajazet I., by means to which we shall immediately refer, procured for himself, towards the end of the century, the more dignified denomination of Sultan. Already, in justification of his new assumptions, had he invested Constantinople, when events occurred by which the very course of Fate itself appeared to be threatened with a change. We can do no more than specify in a few words the occurrences which abruptly subverted the whole superstructure of Turkish power; which scattered all its acquisitions to the winds, and which render its ultimate restoration one of the most extraordinary incidents in the records of history. In the height of his power and presumption, Bajazet was conquered and carried into captivity by Timour. By this defeat the inheritance of his house became to all appearance entirely dissolved. Its Asiatic possessions, though contemptuously abandoned by the conqueror, were seized upon by the Seljukian Turks; who regained the positions from which they had been dislodged; while in Europe the opportunity was turned to similar account by the reviving spirit of the Greeks. To complete the ruin, civil war between the sons of Bajazet presently ensued; and the heirs of the Ottoman house, instead of repairing their fortunes by concord and patience, were fighting desperately among themselves for a heritage which hardly existed save in name. The perfect restoration of a state, dismembered and dismantled, at such a stage of its existence, by so destructive and shattering a shock, may be described as without parallel in history-and yet within ten years it was completely effected. Mahomet, the most saga As rope to nothing but a few insincere leagues and a was actually declared against the new empire of the East in the Frankfort Diet; and, five years later, it was formally resolved, at the Congress of Mantua, that 50,000 confederate soldiers should be equipped for the expulsion of the infidel, and the conclusive deliverance of Christendom. Neither of these designs, however, proceeded beyond the original menace; and the Turks were left in undisputed possession of their noble spoil. discovered the value. The empire of the East, might admit of combination and exertion in the according to their assertions, had neither been ter- event of an actual irruption of barbarians or infiminated nor dissolved, but had merely passed, like dels, as when Frederic II. repulsed the Mogus, other kingdoms of the earth, to stronger and more or Charles V. scared the Ottomans under the deserving possessors. They claimed to represent great Solyman; but for aggressive enterprise in the majesty of Constantine, and to inherit his distant regions they were no longer available. dominion. From such presumptions it was easy The writings of Æneas Sylvius-one of the earto derive warrants, if warrants were needed, for liest statesmen who surveyed the several powers war against the Venetians, whose possessions in of Europe in connection with each other-give the Archipelago and the Levant were but spoils an intelligible picture of the condition of affairs at ravished from the declining strength of Constanti-this period. The fall of Constantinople had nople; or against the Germans, whose rival pre-excited some sympathies, but more selfishness. tensions to imperial supremacy were easily im- A certain commiseration, quickened by the refupugned. To the other titles of the Ottoman gees dispersed over the countries of the West, sovereigns was now added, accordingly, that of was felt for the exiled Greeks: but a far more Keesar of Roum; and they were furnished, inde-lively sentiment was excited by the demonstrations pendently of the standing dictates of their religion, of the triumphant Ottoman against the Italian with pretexts of some plausibility for carrying peninsula. So reasonable were the apprehensions their aggressive arms across the Adriatic. on this head made to appear, that, within twelve We should probably not be justified in attribut-months of the capture of the city, war ing to any accurate perception of these risks, the anxiety and terror which are described as pervading the courts of Christendom at the final intelligence of this catastrophe. There was serious agitation in Rome, considerable alarm on the Danube, and great scandal everywhere. A Christian capital of ancient name and famous memory had been sacked by an unbelieving race, whose name for generations past had been the horror of Europe. Yet abruptly as the blow was at last felt to descend, it had long been visibly suspended; and, although no human power could have permanently protected the Greek Cæsars in their capital, while the Turks were established in unquestioned sovereignty between the Danube and the Euphrates, the actual circumstances of the siege were, nevertheless, such as to cast heavy imputation and responsibility upon the powers of Europe. The imperial city had been allowed to sustain the full shock of the Ottoman forces, with a weak and inadequate garrison of eight thousand men, three fourths of whom were supplied from the population within the walls; so that the chivalry of Christendom was represented, at this critical period, by two thousand auxiliaries! Yet, that there was both room and opportunity for effectual succor, was evident, not only from the manner in which the defence, even under such circumstances, was protracted, but from the diversion which had been accomplished, during Bajazet's investment, by a force of only six hundred men-at-arms, and twice as many archers, under Marshal Boucicault. Between this turning point of Turkish destinies, and the new epoch to which we must now direct our attention, there intervened a period of great general interest, and of remarkable importance to the Ottoman empire-but not inducing any material changes in the relations of this power with Western Europe. The avowed designs of Mahomet II. upon the capital of Christendom, illustrated as they were by his attitude on the Danube and his actual lodgement at Otranto, were not indeed without their influence, as was shown by the multitude of volunteers who flocked to the standard of the intrepid Hunniades. But when the idea of Ottoman invincibility had been corrected by the victories of the allies at Belgrade, by the successful defiance of Scanderbeg, and by the triumphant resistance of the knights of Rhodes, this restlessness soon subsided, and the course of events became presently such as to substitute new objects of concern in European counsels for the power and progress of the Turks. Perhaps the wild and indefinite projects of Charles VIII., is that gigantic national foray upon Italy which disorganized the medieval constitution of Europe, But the truth was, that, although the actual may be taken as a fair representation of the ideas catastrophe created a momentary consternation, prevailing respecting Constantinople, thirty years and even occasioned the revival in certain quarters after the fall of the city. If the forces of France of crusading vows, there existed, as we have and Spain, instead of contending in deadly strugalready said, no fellow-feeling with the Greeks gles for the possession of Italy, had been combined sufficiently strong to suggest an effective expe- against a common enemy upon the Hellespont, it dition; nor in fact any facilities for such an enter- is certainly possible that something might have prise in the social or political condition of Europe. been achieved. The great Gonzalvo did, indeed, The Turks were no new enemies; nor were they once appear upon the scene as an ally of the now seen for the first time on the northern shore Venetians, and with an effect proportionate to bis of the straits. The resources of Christendom [reputation. But in computing the chances of any such enterprise, it must be remembered that the rise of the Ottoman power occurred at such a period Turks had hitherto achieved their conquests, not and under such circumstances as to deprive the by mere force of numbers, like the Tartar hordes, phenomenon of any great singularity or terror; that but by superiority of discipline, tactics, equip- even the passage of the Turks into Europe, their ments, and science. In this respect, at least, they appearance on the Danube, and the permanent were no barbarians. Their army was incompara-investment of Constantinople which virtually enbly the strongest in Europe-and especially in sued, exercised no proportionate influence on the those departments which indicate the highest mil- opinions of Western Europe, wearied as it was itary excellence. For many years afterwards, with crusades, and detached as it had long practitheir artillery and engineers surpassed those of cally been from any civil or religious intercourse the best appointed European troops. These ad- with the Greeks of the Lower Empire; and that vantages would have told with tenfold effect from the Ottoman invaders thus finally stepped without such ramparts as those of Constantinople, while material opposition into an imperial inheritancenothing, on the other hand, short of a recapture which supplied them opportunely and in full perof the city, and a complete dislodgement of the fection with what they most needed for the conintruders, could have effected the objects of the solidation of their conquests-a local habitation and Christian powers. Above all, it should be recol-a recognized name among the powers of Europe. lected, what was so clearly proved in the sequel, But for the occupation of Constantinople, the dothat these powers could not then be relied on for minion of the Ottomans might possibly have been any steadiness of concert, or any integrity of pur- little more durable than the dominion of the Horde pose; and that the religious zeal of former days on the Don. Lastly, we may remark, that the was certainly not now in sufficient strength to power of resistance to further aggression, developed furnish an extraordinary bond of union. The at Belgrade, and exemplified by the evacuation of Turks were no longer politically regarded as the Otranto, contributed, in connection with the divercommon foes, either of the human race or the sion of Turkish conquests to other quarters of the Christian name. Already had the ordinary trans-globe, to reassure the kingdoms of the West; and actions of bargains and contracts become familiar to prepare the way for the eventual admission of between them and the Venetians; dealings of aa Mahometan power into the political community more degrading kind had compromised the Papal See, and the Ottoman arms had in various expeditions been repeatedly aided by small Christian succors. It is related, indeed, that high pay and liberal encouragement attracted recruits from all countries to the Turkish ranks; nor is there, we believe, much reason to doubt that many an European Dalgetty was serving under the stand-of amity and concord had been struck between the ard of the Prophet. The number of renegade vizirs and pashas that have figured in the Turkish service is something extraordinary. of Christian states. Some of the earlier causes conducive to this remarkable consummation we have already pointed out; but others, of no inferior interest, remain yet to be noticed. In the month of February, 1536, the nations of Europe were scandalized-we may still employ the expression-with the intelligence that a treaty Grand Seignior of the Turks and the first king of the Christian world! At an earlier period Francis I. of France had not hesitated to enter into one of To these considerations must be added the fact, those nominal leagues against the Turk, which that during the seventy years thus interposed be- decency was still thought occasionally to dictate, tween the capture of Constantinople and the acces- and of which it was the immediate interest of sion of the great Solyman, the designs of Ottoman Charles V. to perpetuate the spirit. But the ease ambition had been diverted from the North and West and readiness with which these considerations to the East and South-from the shores of the were now subordinated to the very first suggesAdriatic and the Danube to the defiles of Armenia tions of practical policy, furnish edifying matter of and the plains of Cairo. Though the supremacy observation. The political system of European of the Turks was, it is true, steadily supported states-that is to say, the system in pursuance on the scene of its recent triumphs, and even un-of which a reciprocal relationship is established usually signalized on the waters of the Archipelago, between the several members of the community for yet the chief efforts of the two immediate successors the preservation of a general equilibrium—was then of Mahomet were concentrated upon the territories in process of formation; a more curious example of Persia and Egypt. It does not enter into our of its tendencies could hardly be given than this present plan to discuss the interesting results with which we are now attempting to represent, in which which these efforts were attended. We need only the single idea contained in the term "balance of remark, that while the overthrow of the Mameluke power" sufficed, first, to introduce an infidel state dynasty and the conquest (in 1516) of the kingdom into the company of Christian sovereigns; secof Egypt, compensated for the less productive in- ondly, to bring aid and countenance to that state vasions of the Persian provinces, the two objects in its very aggressions; and, lastly, when the course together combined to divert the attention of the of events had hastened the premature hour of its sultans from Europe, and to suspend, for an inter-decline, to protect its weakness, to assert its cause val, the apprehensions of Christendom. Looking against even Christian adversaries, and to guarantee back, therefore, for a moment from the point which it, long, apparently, beyond the proper term, in a we have now attained, we can see that the first political and national existence. |