The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire by John Freely Page A
Authors: John Freely
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as the ‘son of Satan, perdition and death’. But disunity among the Christian rulers kept them from taking action, and when Pope Nicholas died on 24 March 1455 the crusade was abandoned, at least for the time being.
Nicholas was succeeded by the Catalan Alfonso Borgia, who on 20 April 1455 became Pope Calixtus III. On the eve of his coronation Calixtus wrote to the young King Ladislas Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary, declaring his dedication to a crusade against the Turks, ‘even to the shedding of his own blood’, so ‘that those most hideous enemies of the Christian name should be entirely expelled not only from the city of Constantinople, which they have recently occupied, but also from the confines of Europe’. The Hungarian leaders wrote back to Calixtus from Buda on 21 July, saying: ‘How very much indeed the pitiable condition of Christians now has need of your Holiness’s protection.’
The Venetian Republic was the Christian state most directly involved with the Ottomans, for its maritime empire included commercial concessions in Istanbul as well as possessions in Greece, Albania and the Aegean that were threatened by the Turks. In July 1453 the Senate decided to fortify Negroponte, Greek Chalkis, the town that they controlled on the narrow strait between the Greek mainland and the Aegean island of Euboea. The Venetian fleet under Giacomo Loredan, who had failed to come to the aid of Constantinople, remained on duty in the Aegean, and late in July he captured seventeen Turkish light galleys. The Senate congratulated Loredan on his action, and the following month they voted funds for the construction of fifty new galleys for his fleet.
On 17 July 1453 the Senate sent Bartolomeo Marcello as an envoy to Istanbul, instructing him to negotiate with Mehmet a renewal of the treaty that Venice had signed with Murat II on 10 September 1451. While the negotiations were under way the Peace of Lodi on 9 April 1454 ended war between Venice and Milan. Freed from the enormous expense of the Italian war, the Senate was better able to negotiate with Mehmet, and on 18 April Marcello concluded a treaty with the sultan. This treaty, which reaffirmed the terms of the 1451 pact, gave the Venetians protection for their property and commerce in the Ottoman Empire and free access to Istanbul and other Turkish ports, Mehmet promising that ‘they shall be safe on the sea and on the land as was customary before, in the time of my father’. Another term of the treaty gave the Venetians the right to have a commercial colony in Istanbul headed by a bailo , and Marcello was appointed to the post.
One of the Venetian emissaries, Giacomo de’ Languschi, gives a detailed description of Mehmet, adding four years to his age.
The sovereign, the Grand Turk Mehmed Bey, is a young man of twenty-six years of age, well formed and of a stature rather above the average. He is skilled in the use of weapons. His appearance inspires fear rather than respect. He laughs rarely, is cautious in his judgements, and is endowed with great generosity. He shows great tenacity in all his undertakings, and bravery under all conditions. He aspires to equal the glory of Alexander the Great, and every day has histories of Rome and other nations read to him… There is nothing which he studies with greater pleasure and eagerness than the geography of the world, and the art of warfare; he burns with the desire to rule, while being prudent in his investigation of what he undertakes. Such is the man, and so made, with whom we Christians have to deal.
Languschi goes on to write of Mehmet’s desire to put the entire world under his rule, reversing the eastward march of conquest of Western rulers such as Alexander the Great, an imperial ambition for which he seemed perfectly suited by nature.
He is a man continually watchful, able to endure weariness, heat and cold, thirst and hunger, inexorably set upon the destruction of Christians, and would admit to fearing
Nicholas was succeeded by the Catalan Alfonso Borgia, who on 20 April 1455 became Pope Calixtus III. On the eve of his coronation Calixtus wrote to the young King Ladislas Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary, declaring his dedication to a crusade against the Turks, ‘even to the shedding of his own blood’, so ‘that those most hideous enemies of the Christian name should be entirely expelled not only from the city of Constantinople, which they have recently occupied, but also from the confines of Europe’. The Hungarian leaders wrote back to Calixtus from Buda on 21 July, saying: ‘How very much indeed the pitiable condition of Christians now has need of your Holiness’s protection.’
The Venetian Republic was the Christian state most directly involved with the Ottomans, for its maritime empire included commercial concessions in Istanbul as well as possessions in Greece, Albania and the Aegean that were threatened by the Turks. In July 1453 the Senate decided to fortify Negroponte, Greek Chalkis, the town that they controlled on the narrow strait between the Greek mainland and the Aegean island of Euboea. The Venetian fleet under Giacomo Loredan, who had failed to come to the aid of Constantinople, remained on duty in the Aegean, and late in July he captured seventeen Turkish light galleys. The Senate congratulated Loredan on his action, and the following month they voted funds for the construction of fifty new galleys for his fleet.
On 17 July 1453 the Senate sent Bartolomeo Marcello as an envoy to Istanbul, instructing him to negotiate with Mehmet a renewal of the treaty that Venice had signed with Murat II on 10 September 1451. While the negotiations were under way the Peace of Lodi on 9 April 1454 ended war between Venice and Milan. Freed from the enormous expense of the Italian war, the Senate was better able to negotiate with Mehmet, and on 18 April Marcello concluded a treaty with the sultan. This treaty, which reaffirmed the terms of the 1451 pact, gave the Venetians protection for their property and commerce in the Ottoman Empire and free access to Istanbul and other Turkish ports, Mehmet promising that ‘they shall be safe on the sea and on the land as was customary before, in the time of my father’. Another term of the treaty gave the Venetians the right to have a commercial colony in Istanbul headed by a bailo , and Marcello was appointed to the post.
One of the Venetian emissaries, Giacomo de’ Languschi, gives a detailed description of Mehmet, adding four years to his age.
The sovereign, the Grand Turk Mehmed Bey, is a young man of twenty-six years of age, well formed and of a stature rather above the average. He is skilled in the use of weapons. His appearance inspires fear rather than respect. He laughs rarely, is cautious in his judgements, and is endowed with great generosity. He shows great tenacity in all his undertakings, and bravery under all conditions. He aspires to equal the glory of Alexander the Great, and every day has histories of Rome and other nations read to him… There is nothing which he studies with greater pleasure and eagerness than the geography of the world, and the art of warfare; he burns with the desire to rule, while being prudent in his investigation of what he undertakes. Such is the man, and so made, with whom we Christians have to deal.
Languschi goes on to write of Mehmet’s desire to put the entire world under his rule, reversing the eastward march of conquest of Western rulers such as Alexander the Great, an imperial ambition for which he seemed perfectly suited by nature.
He is a man continually watchful, able to endure weariness, heat and cold, thirst and hunger, inexorably set upon the destruction of Christians, and would admit to fearing
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