140 
T U R 
Sent to their living in exile in an island of the Archipelago. 
The Wallachians, who had countenanced the spurious Mus¬ 
tapha, drew merited chastisement on themselves. Their 
country was ravaged in 1421, and the tribute paid by them 
was augmented. Scarcely was this expedition terminated, 
when Mahomet was attacked by a bloody flux, which in a 
short time put a period to his life, after a reign of eight years, 
at the age of forty-seven. 
142 ]— 1451 .—Amurath (properly Murad) II. ascended 
the throne at the age of eighteen; but his father had pre¬ 
viously habituated him to command, by committing to him 
the government of Amacyeh and the chastisement of rebels 
in Asia. Accordingly, from the very beginning of his reign 
he manifested great firmness. When Manuel sent to him to 
demand his two younger brothers, to whom Mahomet had 
appointed him guardian, Amurath replied, that he could not 
entrust an infidel with the education of Ottoman princes, 
and that he should not comply with an arrangement which 
his father neither could nor ought to have made. To revenge 
himself, Manuel again brought forward the pretended Mus- 
tapha, who, still accompanied by Sineis, quitted Lemnos 
and landed at Gallipoli, where he was received as the right¬ 
ful prince. Amurath sent his vizir against the adventurer, 
who found means to win over the troops, and even persuaded 
the general to join his party. This child of fortune began 
to think himself secure in her favours, when the Greeks de¬ 
manded places which he had agreed to give up to them as 
the price of their as istance; Mustapha refused them, on 
which Manuel, incensed at his perfidy, espoused the cause of 
Amurath. Meanwhile Mustapha, encouraged by his success 
in Europe, crossed the strait and offered battle to Amurath, 
who, knowing Sineis to be an able general and a great 
traitor, thought it more prudent to seduce than to fight him. 
He was offered the government of Smyrna, which he ac¬ 
cepted, and went over with the greatest part of the army to 
the camp of Amurath. Mustapha, deserted by his partisans, 
fled, was taken, and put to death. 
Amurath did not forget that it was Manuel who had raised 
up this rival against him: he augmented the number of his 
troops, ravaged Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, and 
threatened Constantinople. The Greek emperor, with a view 
to divert the impending danger from his capital, excited fresh 
troubles in the family of the sultan, who thought it right to 
sacrifice to his own safety the lives of his two brothers, whom 
he caused to be strangled, together with all the accomplices 
in their revolt. Amurath had one more traitor to punish ; 
this was Sineis, who, again guilty of perjury and rebellion, 
was obliged to flee. Being at length taken in the forests, 
where he lived as a robber, he was doomed to suffer the most 
ignominious death. 
About this time Manuel died. The new emperor sued for 
peace to Amurath, ceding to him all the towns which he 
had already taken, and even Thessalonica which had not 
yet surrendered: but that city claimed the protection of the 
Venetians, who sent thither a governor. The sultan however 
proclaimed that he would give up to his troops ail the slaves 
and the booty which should be found in the city, and Thes¬ 
salonica was carried by assault in April 1429, and all the 
inhabitants reduced to slavery. After taking some towns 
in Etolia, Amurath made peace with the Venetians, but for 
twelve whole years he was engaged in wars with his vassals, 
stripping them one after another of their possessions, and 
appointing successors on whom he imposed very heavy 
tributes. One of these deposed petty princes retired to the 
court of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Poland, and placed 
under his protection the city of Belgrade. Amurath laid 
siege to it, but the effect of the artillery employed for the 
first time against the Turks in 1435, surprised and terrified 
them to such a degree that they abandoned the siege with 
disgrace. Hunniades, waywode of Transylvania, one of the 
greatest generals of that age, harassed and beat the army of 
Amurath, who was obliged in 1444 to conclude a truce for 
ten years with Ladislaus. 
Caraman Oghly, prince of Caramania, who had married 
Vol. XXIV. No 1633. 
KEY. 
Amurath’s sister, was the most refractory of his vassals. From 
the extremity of Asia he raised against his brother-in-law a 
confederacy of European princes, who placed Ladislaus at 
their head. Pope Eugene IV. authorized the king of Hun¬ 
gary to break the treaty which he had concluded; and the 
confederates equipped a fleet, which, however, could not 
prevent the sultan from penetrating into Europe. The 
Turks marched towards Varna, on the shore of the Black 
Sea, to meet the allies. The army of the latter consisted of 
a motley mixture of men of all nations, without experience 
or discipline, and no match for the janissaries, who ad¬ 
vanced in good order, bearing at the point of a lance the 
treaty which the Christians had violated. The battle, fought 
on the 10th of November, 1444, was extremely sanguinary. 
The king of Hungary, having had the imprudence to pene¬ 
trate into the thickest of the fight, fell, pierced with many 
wounds, in the midst of the janissaries. His death filled the 
Christians with consternation, and their army was dispersed. 
Amurath did not follow up his victory: weary of the fatigues 
of government, he determined, after the battle, to resign the 
empire to his son, Mahomet, then scarcely fifteen years of 
age. He caused him to be proclaimed emperor of the Turks, 
in the city of Adrianople, and retired to Magnesia, where 
he gave himself up entirely to repose and pleasure. It was 
not long before the internal tranquillity was disturbed by 
seditious persons, who took advantage of Mahomet’s youth 
to commit all sorts of excesses. The ministers, in alarm, 
entreated Amurath to reascend the throne. This prince was 
received with transport, caused the factious to be punished, 
and the young emperor was sent to Magnesia, there to 
remain till years should teach him to command. 
Success had hitherto pretty constantly attended the sultan ; 
but in his latter years he had to contend with a formidable 
foe, whom he had cherished in his bosom. This was the 
famous Scanderbeg, of whom historians relate the most ex¬ 
traordinary stories. He was the son of Castriot, prince of 
Epire, who having submitted to the conqueror, with the 
other Greek princes, had sent his sons as hostages to the 
court of Amurath. George Castriot, the only one of these 
children who survived, became a favourite with the sultan, 
who brought him up in the Mahomedan religion, and took 
him along with him to war, where his strength and courage 
caused the Turks to give him the name of Scander, or Alex¬ 
ander, and the title of Beg, prince. On the death of the 
prince of Epire, Amurath appointed a pacha in his stead, 
regardless of the rights of Scanderbeg. The young soldier, 
stung by this injustice, vowed to be revenged: he stole away 
from the court, drew the rei's-effendi (secretary of state) into 
his tent, forced him to sign and seal the deposition of the 
pacha of Epire, and an order for his own investiture with the 
sovereignty of that state; after which he killed the re'is- 
effendi and buried him on the spot, to conceal all traces of 
this action. He then set out immediately for Croya, the 
capital of Epire, obtained possession of it by means of the 
order, which none suspected to be a forgery, released the 
Albanians from their allegiance to the sultan, raised troops 
and strengthened himself in a sovereignty wrested from his 
house by injustice, and recovered by perfidy. Favoured by 
the Venetians, this fugitive was already a formidable enemy, 
when the sultan set about reducing him. With a small 
army, Scanderbeg made head against the Turks, who laid 
siege to Croya: he compelled them to raise the siege, killed 
great numbers of them, and harassed them in their retreat. 
Amurath was preparing to attack him in person when an 
acute disease carried him ofif in three days, on the 9th of 
February, 1451. 
1451—1482.— Mahomet II. — Young Mahomet inherited 
the affection which the people had entertained for his father; 
but he marked the first year of his reign by an act of ba;- 
barity. He put to death his brother, an infant at the breast, 
whom Amurath had had by the daughter of the despot of 
Sinope, and compelled the unhappy princess to contract a 
fresh marriage. Preparing in silence for the blows he meant 
to strike, he renewed the alliance with all the tributaries, and 
2 Q reduced 
