his obstinacy, of firmness. If the most reasonable | spirit. But he was soon awakened from this dream excuse be rejected, few acts of obedience will be of enthusiasm, by the Hungarian invasion; and his found impossible: and guilt must tremble, where obedient son was the foremost to urge the public innocence cannot always be secure. The tranquil- | danger and wishes of the people. Under the banlity of the people, and the discipline of the troops, ner of their veteran leader, the janizaries fought and were best maintained by perpetual action in the conquered; but he withdrew from the field of Varfield; war was the trade of the janizaries; and those na, again to pray, to fast, and to turn round with his who survived the peril, and divided the spoil, ap- Magnesian brethren. These pious occupations were plauded the generous ambition of their sovereign. again interrupted by the danger of the state. A To propagate the true religion, was the duty of a victorious army disdained the inexperience of their faithful mussulman: the unbelievers were his ene- youthful ruler: the city of Adrianople was abanmies, and those of the prophet; and, in the hands doned to rapine and slaughter; and the unanimous of the Turks, the scymitar was the only instrument of divan implored his presence to appease the tumult, conversion. and prevent the rebellion, of the janizaries. At the well-known voice of their master, they trembled and obeyed; and the reluctant sultan was compelled to support his splendid servitude, till, at the end of four years, he was relieved by the angel of death. Age or disease, misfortune or caprice, have tempted several princes to descend from the throne; and they have had leisure to repent of their irretrievable step. But Amurath alone, in the full liberty of choice, after the trial of empire and solitude, has repeated his preference of a private life.

Under these circumstances, however, the justice and moderation of Amurath are attested by his conduct, and acknowledged by the christians themselves; who consider a prosperous reign and a peaceful death as the reward of his singular merits. In the vigour of his age and military power, he seldom engaged in a war till he was justified by a previous and adequate provocation: the victorious sultan was disarmed by submission; and in the observance of treaties, his word was inviolate and sacred. The Hungarians were commonly the aggressors; he was provoked by the revolt of Scanderbeg; and the perfidious Caramanian was twice vanquished and twice pardoned, by the Ottoman monarch. Before he invaded the Morea, Thebes had been surprised by the despot: in the conquest of Thessalonica, the grandson of Bajazet might dispute the recent purchase of the Venetians; and after the first siege of Constantinople, the sultan was never tempted, by the distress, the absence, or the injuries of Palæologus, to extinguish the dying light of the Byzantine empire. But the most striking feature in the life and character of Amurath, is the 1442-1444. double abdication of the Turkish throne; and, were not his motives debased by an alloy of superstition, we must praise the royal philosopher," who at the age of forty could discern the vanity of human greatness. Resigning the sceptre to his son, he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia; but he retired to the society of saints and hermits. It was not till the fourth century of the Hegira, that the religion of Mahomet had been corrupted by an institution so adverse to his genius; but in the age of the crusades, the various orders of Dervishes were multiplied by the example of the christian, and even the Latin, monks. The lord of nations submitted to fast, and pray, and turn round in endless rotation with the fanatics, who mistook the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the

His double abdi. cation.

A. D.

m See Chalcondyles, (1. vii. p. 186. 198.) Ducas, (c. 33.) and Marinus Barletius, (in Vit. Scanderbeg, p. 145, 146.) In his good faith towards the garrison of Sfetigrade, he was a lesson and example to his son Mahomet. n Voltaire (Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, c. 89. p. 283, 284.) admires le philosophe Turc; would he have bestowed the same praise on a Christian prince for retiring to a monastery? In his way, Voltaire was a bigot, an intolerant bigot.

See the articles Dervische, Fakir, Nasser, Rohbaniat, in D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale. Yet the subject is superficially treated from the Persian and Arabian writers. It is among the Turks that these orders have principally flourished.

p Rycaut (in the present State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 242-268.) affords much information, which he drew from his personal conversation with the heads of the dervishes, most of whom ascribed their origin to the time of Orchan. He does not mention the Zichide of Chalcon

Turks,

After the departure of his Greek Eugenius forms a brethren, Eugenius had not been un-league against the mindful of their temporal interest; A. D. 1443. and his tender regard for the Byzantine empire was animated by a just apprehension of the Turks, who approached, and might soon invade, the borders of Italy. But the spirit of the crusades had expired; and the coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their headlong passion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy sepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of religion and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the defence of Christendom. Germany was an inexhaustible storehouse of men and arms: but that complex and languid body required the impulse of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the third was alike impotent in his personal character and his imperial dignity. A long war had impaired the strength, without satiating the animosity, of France and England: but Philip, duke of Burgundy, was a vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, without danger or expense, the adventurous piety of his subjects, who sailed, in a gallant fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont. The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were less remote from the scene of action; and their hostile fleets were associated under the standard of St. Peter. dyles, (1. vii. p. 286.) among whom Amurath retired: the Seids of that author are the descendants of Mahomet.

q In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,000 horse, men at arms, against the Hussites of Bohemia. (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 318.) At the siege of Nuys, on the Rhine, in 1474, the princes, prelates, and cities, sent their respective quotas: and the bishop of Munster (qui n'est pas des plus grands) furnished 1400 horse, 6000 foot, all in green, with 1200 waggons. The united armies of the king of England and the duke of Burgundy scarcely equalled one-third of this German host. (Memoires de Philippe de Comines, 1. iv. c. 2.) At present, six or seven hundred thousand men are maintained in constant pay and admirable discipline, by the powers of Germany.

r It was not till the year 1444 that France and England could agree on a truce of some mouths. (See Rymer's Fœdera, and the chronicles of both nations.)

The kingdoms of Hungary and Poland, which | and conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vancovered as it were the interior pale of the Latin | guard of ten thousand men, he surprised the Turkchurch, were the most nearly concerned to oppose ish camp; in the second, he vanquished and made the progress of the Turks. Arms were the patri- prisoner the most renowned of their generals, who mony of the Scythians and Sarmatians, and these possessed the double advantage of ground and nations might appear equal to the contest, could numbers. The approach of winter, and the natural they point, against the common foe, those swords and artificial obstacles of mount Hæmus, arrested that were so wantonly drawn in bloody and domes- the progress of the hero, who measured a narrow tic quarrels. But the same spirit was adverse to interval of six days' march from the foot of the concord and obedience: a poor country and a mountains to the hostile towers of Adrianople, and limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a the friendly capital of the Greek empire. The standing force; and the loose bodies of Polish and retreat was undisturbed; and the entrance into Hungarian horse were not armed with the sentiments Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. and weapons which, on some occasions, have given | An ecclesiastical procession was followed by the irresistible weight to the French cavalry. Yet, on king and his warriors on foot: he nicely balanced this side, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the the merits and rewards of the two nations; and the eloquence of cardinal Julian, his legate, were pro- pride of conquest was blended with the humble moted by the circumstances of the time; by the temper of christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine union of the two crowns on the head of Ladislaus, standards, and four thousand captives, were una young and ambitious soldier; by the valour of a questionable trophies; and as all were willing to hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was believe, and none were present to contradict, the already popular among the christians, and formida- crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, ble to the Turks. An endless treasure of pardons the myriads of Turks whom they had left on the and indulgences was scattered by the legate; many field of battle. The most solid proof, The Turkish private warriors of France and Germany enlisted and the most salutary consequence, of under the holy banner; and the crusade derived victory, was a deputation from the divan to solicit some strength, or at least some reputation, from the peace, to restore Servia, to ransom the prisoners, new allies both of Europe and Asia. A fugitive and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By this despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardour treaty, the rational objects of the war were obtainof the christians beyond the Danube, who would ed: the king, the despot, and Huniades himself, in unanimously rise to vindicate their religion and the diet of Segedin, were satisfied with public and liberty. The Greek emperor," with a spirit unknown private emolument; a truce of ten years was conto his fathers, engaged to guard the Bosphorus, and cluded; and the followers of Jesus and Mahomet, to sally from Constantinople at the head of his who swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested national and mercenary troops. The sultan of the word of God as the guardian of truth and the Caramania announced the retreat of Amurath, and avenger of perfidy. In the place of the gospel, the a powerful division in the heart of Anatolia; and Turkish' ministers had proposed to substitute the if the fleets of the west could occupy at the same eucharist, the real presence of the catholic deity; moment the straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman but the christians refused to profane their holy mysmonarchy would be dissevered and destroyed. teries; and a superstitious conscience is less forciHeaven and earth must rejoice in the perdition of bly bound by the spiritual energy, than by the the miscreants; and the legate, with prudent ambi- outward and visible symbols,'of an oath." guity, instilled the opinion of the invisible, perhaps the visible, aid of the Son of God, and his divine mother.

gary marches against them.

Ladislaus, king of Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, Poland and Hun- a religious war was the unanimous cry, and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, led an army of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the capital of the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two signal | victories, which were justly ascribed to the valour

In the Hungarian crusade, Spondanus (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 1443, 1444.) has been my leading guide. He has diligently read, and critically compared, the Greek and Turkish materials, the historiaus of Hungary, Poland, and the west. His narrative is perspicuous; and where he can be free from a religious bias, the judgment of Spondanus is not contemptible.

t I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus) which most writers affix to his name, either in compliance with the Polish pronunciation, or to distinguish him from his rival the infant Ladislaus of Austria. Their competition for the crown of Hungary is described by Callima chus, (1. i. ii. p. 447-486.) Bonfinius, (Decad. iii. I. iv.) Spondanus, and Lenfant.

u The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and Ducas, do not ascribe to their prince a very active part in this crusade, which he seems to have promoted by his wishes, and injured by his fears.

|

peace.

Violation of the

peace, A. D. 1444.

During the whole transaction, the cardinal legate had observed a sullen silence, unwilling to approve, and unable to oppose, the consent of the king and people. But the diet was not dissolved before Julian was fortified by the welcome intelligence, that Anatolia was invaded by the Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek, emperor; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice, and Burgundy, were masters of the Hellespont; and that the allies, informed of the victory,

x Cantemir (p. 88.) ascribes to his policy the original plan, and transcribes his animating epistle to the king of Hungary. But the Mahometan powers are seldom informed of the state of Christendom; and the situation and correspondence of the knights of Rhodes must connect them with the sultan of Caramania.

y In their letters to the emperor Frederic III. the Hungarians slay 300,000 Turks in one battle, but the modest Julian reduces the slaughter to 6000 or even 2000 infidels. (Æneas Sylvius in Europ. c. 5. and epist. 44. 81. apud Spondanum.)

z See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first expedition of La. dislaus, in the fifth and sixth books of the third Decad of Bonfinius, who, in his division and style, copies Livy with tolerable success. Cal. limachus (1. ii. p. 487-496.) is still more pure and authentic.

"And

Battle of Warna,
A. D. 1444.
Nov. 10.

and ignorant of the treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently | always be covered by a movable fortification of waited for the return of his victorious army. waggons. The latter was judiciously preferred: the is it thus," exclaimed the cardinal," "that you will catholics marched through the plains of Bulgaria, desert their expectations and your own fortune? It burning, with wanton cruelty, the churches and vilis to them, to your God, and your fellow-christians, lages of the christian natives; and their last station that you have pledged your faith; and that prior was at Warna, near the sea-shore; on which the obligation annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath defeat and death of Ladislaus have bestowed a to the enemies of Christ. His vicar on earth is the memorable name.b Roman pontiff; without whose sanction you can It was on this fatal spot, that, instead neither promise nor perform. In his name I absolve of finding a confederate fleet to second your perjury and sanctify your arms: follow my their operations, they were alarmed by footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation; and the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued if still ye have scruples, devolve on my head the❘ from his Magnesian solitude, and transported the punishment and the sin." This mischievous casu- forces of Asia to the defence of Europe. According istry was seconded by his respectable character, and to some writers, the Greek emperor had been awed, the levity of popular assemblies: war was resolved or seduced, to grant the passage of the Bosphorus, on the same spot where peace had so lately been and an indelible stain of corruption is fixed on sworn; and, in the execution of the treaty, the the Genoese, or the pope's nephew, the catholic Turks were assaulted by the christians; to whom, | admiral, whose mercenary connivance betrayed the with some reason, they might apply the epithet of guard of the Hellespont. From Adrianople, the infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus to his word sultan advanced by hasty marches at the head of and oath, was palliated by the religion of the times: sixty thousand men; and when the cardinal, and the most perfect, or at least the most popular, excuse Huniades, had taken a nearer survey of the numwould have been the success of his arms and the bers and order of the Turks, these ardent warriors deliverance of the eastern church. But the same proposed the tardy and impracticable measure of a treaty which should have bound his conscience, had retreat. The king alone was resolved to conquer or diminished his strength. On the proclamation of die; and his resolution had almost been crowned the peace, the French and German volunteers de- with a glorious and salutary victory. The princes parted with indignant murmurs: the Poles were were opposite to each other in the centre; and the exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps disgusted Beglerbegs, or generals of Anatolia and Romania, with foreign command; and their palatines accepted commanded on the right and left, against the adthe first licence, and hastily retired to their provinces verse divisions of the despot and Huniades. The and castles. Even Hungary was divided by faction, | Turkish wings were broken on the first onset: but or restrained by a laudable scruple; and the relics the advantage was fatal; and the rash victors, in of the crusade that marched in the second expedi- the heat of the pursuit, were carried away far from tion, were reduced to an inadequate force of twenty the annoyance of the enemy, or the support of their thousand men. A Walachian chief, who joined the friends. When Amurath beheld the flight of his royal standard with his vassals, presumed to remark squadrons, he despaired of his fortune and that of that their numbers did not exceed the hunting re- the empire: a veteran janizary seized his horse's tinue that sometimes attended the sultan; and the bridle: and he had magnanimity to pardon and regift of two horses of matchless speed, might admo- ward the soldier who dared to perceive the terror, nish Ladislaus of his secret foresight of the event. and arrest the flight, of his sovereign. A copy of But the despot of Servia, after the restoration of his the treaty, the monument of christian perfidy, had country and children, was tempted by the promise been displayed in the front of battle; and it is said, of new realms; and the inexperience of the king, that the sultan in his distress, lifting his eyes and the enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial pre- his hands to heaven, implored the protection of the sumption of Huniades himself, were persuaded that God of truth; and called on the prophet Jesus himevery obstacle must yield to the invincible virtue of self to avenge the impious mockery of his name and the sword and the cross. After the passage of the religion. With inferior numbers and disordered Danube, two roads might lead to Constantinople ranks, the king of Hungary rushed forwards in the and the Hellespont; the one direct, abrupt, and confidence of victory, till his career was stopped difficult, through the mountains of Hamus; the other by the impenetrable phalanx of the janizaries. If more tedious and secure, over a level country, and we may credit the Ottoman annals, his horse was along the shores of the Euxine; in which their pierced by the javelin of Amurath; Death of Ladis. flanks, according to the Scythian discipline, might he fell among the spears of the infana I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of Julian's speech, which is variously worded by Callimachus, (1. iii. p. 505-507.) Bonfinius, (Dec. iii. l. vi. p. 457, 458.) and other historians, who might indulge their own eloquence, while they represent one of the orators of the age. But they all agree in the advice and arguments for perjury, which in the field of controversy are fiercely attacked by the protestants, and feebly defended by the catholics. The latter are discouraged by the

misfortune of Warna.

b Warna, under the Grecian name of Odessus, was a colony of the Milesians, which they denominated from the hero Ulysses. (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 374. D'Anville, tom. i. p. 312.) According to Arian's Pe

laus.

riplus of the Euxine, (p. 24, 25. in the first volume of Hudson's Geographers,) it was situate 1740 stadia, or furlongs, from the mouth of the Danube, 1240 from Byzantium, and 360 to the north of a ridge or promontory of mount Hamus, which advances into the sea.

e Some christian writers affirm, that he drew from his bosom the host or wafer on which the treaty had not been sworn. The Moslems suppose, with more simplicity, an appeal to God and his prophet Jesus, which is likewise insinuated by Callimachus, (1. iii. p. 516. Spondan. A. D. 1444, No. 8.)

d A critic will always distrust these spolia opima of a victorious general, so difficult for valour to obtain, so easy for flattery to invent.