This summary is taken from a book titled The Dawn of a New Era 1250-1435 written by Edward P. Cheney, the first book in the 20-volume historical series The Rise of Modern Europe. The original copyright was in 1936; this particular copy is dated 1971, so the monetary figures in �modern value� are not accurate.
The Eastern Frontiers of Europe
The group of countries from the Baltic along the eastern confines of Europe nearly to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean � Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria �were in an unstable state, with changing boundaries and dynasties, frequent regroupings among themselves and invasions from elsewhere.
Bohemia, Poland and Hungary
Each of these countries saw the demise of the old native dynasties and the crown at the mercy of election by foreign and internal intrigue and distant female lines of inheritance.
John of Luxemburg, a royal knight errant, was to sit on the throne of Bohemia. A descendant of the Angevin kings of Naples sat on the throne on Hungary. The last king of the Polish line was brought up in the half-Italian court of his Hungarian brother-in-law and subject to its influences.
In the mid 14th century all three countries had a long-seated and competent sovereign: Casimir the Great of Poland (1333 to 1370); Louis the Great of Hungary (1347 to 1382 and ruled Poland from 1370); Emperor Charles IV who was the king of Bohemia (1346 to 1378).
Prague was a literary and cultured center and Bohemia was rich and prosperous. Hungary was enriched by French and Italian culture, and the king�s court at Buda was a center for the native aristocracy and foreign visitors. All countries had prospered from trade. Bohemia was rich in metals and had a productive silver mine at Kuttenberg. There were great salt deposits in Poland. In Hungary, Transylvania was a mining region. Joining the 14th century-established universities of Vienna, Heidelberg, Cologne and Leipzig were universities in Prague and Cracow.
German and Latin culture were established in these countries. Germans took residence in their cities, taking their charters and civic life with them. Annexing lands with a superior culture also benefited this region. Louis of Hungary was the master of the Dalmatian coast for thirty-two years, gaining much civility from the Venetians. [Dalmatia, on the Adriatic Sea, was more or less the territory of what is now Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.]
Most of the economic and cultural advances were not due to planning, however, since the unsettledness of these dynasties caused the kings to be preoccupied with their inheritances. Their marriages were arranged so they would be paired with a representative of the old royal families, for added prestige. In Poland, however, the potential links to Bohemia, Hungary and Germany were rejected and Hedwig, daughter of Louis, who was named Queen of Poland in 1384, was married to Jagellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania, which was the only remaining heathen country in Europe.
The Teutonic Knights
In the 14th century Lithuania was the remaining heathen country in midst of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Europe, Slavic peoples living on the southeastern and eastern shores of the Baltic and up the river valleys of the Vistula, the Niemen and the Dwina. Some Scandinavian and German towns were among them and the Order of the Sword was formed on the model of the Templars for protection against the heathens of Prussia, Livonia, Kurland, Estonia and Lithuania.
The Order of the Teutonic Knights had been introduced in 1231. They had conquered and repopulated Prussia and some of the other districts. German immigrants replaced the natives that were either killed or driven eastward. Towns and fortresses were raised and in 1309 the residence of the Grand Master of the Order established in the great fortress of Marienburg.
Lithuania had remained un-subdued and unconverted and due to the attacks by the Teutonic Knights had drawn together into a centralized state. After 1300 they began a period of expansion, by conquest and marriage. The marriage of Hedwig to Jagellon (1386) led to the combined state of Poland-Lithuania extended over more territory included in any other country in Europe. Part of the marriage agreement was for Jagellon and his country to convert to Christianity.
The Teutonic Knights benefited from Poland�s prominence, as they would continue their wars of conquest with Poland as their main target. The Knights and Poland gathered considerable armies and in the battle of Tannenberg (or Grunewald) in 1410 the Poles defeated the Teutonic Knights, and the following year they submitted to the dictated peace of Thorn. From hereon was the gradual decline of the Knights.
The Beginnings of Russian Greatness
The union between Poland and Lithuania was not complete. After Hedwig died Jagellon became king of Poland. His cousin, Witold, became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. His continuation of the conquest southward and to the east brought him into conflict with Russia.
Russia was building its reorganization around Moscow, which paid tribute to the Tartars of the Golden Horde. In 1359 Moscow had as its duke a nine-year-old named Dimitri. His guardian and adviser was the Archbishop Alexi. In 1367 Moscow was encircled by stonewalls and its fortress of the Kremlin was strengthened. In 1368 an attack by the city of Tver was repelled.
In 1380 Dimitri led an army against the Tartars and defeated them in the battle at Kulikovo. Dimitri died soon after the battle, but he was able to prove that the Tartars could be beaten.
The Serbian Empire of Stephen Dushan
In the mid 14th century the Ottoman Turks crossed the Dardanelles as invaders. The only hope of resistance was in the tier of Slavic states between the Danube and the borders of the Eastern Empire, the old kingdoms of Serbia and Bulgaria, with the Bosnians and the Croatians in the north and the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, the modern Rumania, which were at the time forming.
Serbia seemed to be on the verge of becoming a great state under Stephen Dushan. With Uskub as a capital Dushan reigned from 1331 to 1355. He took control of the cities of Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus and Thessaly. He gave protection to a fugitive Byzantine usurper and in return obtained a grant of the cities he had captured. Stephen most likely had plans to capture Constantinople or form a rival empire. But without political organization and economic support his empire was more of a mirage. In less than a generation after his death his empire had dissolved. This was the last episode in the history of Serbian independence and the powerless Eastern Empire would have no hope against the coming Turkish invasion.
The Decay of the Eastern Empire
The eastern Empire had been declining since the Fourth Crusade and during the 14th and 15th centuries the decline accelerated. During this period in the Byzantine Empire its territory narrowed, its population decreased, its income diminished and its armed forces became smaller. The Osmanlis were making inroads into the Balkan Peninsula until Constantinople fell in 1453.
The loss of territory began with the conquests of Stephen Dushan. Along with the land lost were also the loss of potential soldiers and taxes. The Turkish conquest of the imperial lands in Asia Minor also stung the Empire. Also working against it was that the upper classes paid little taxes to the state and the peasant�s plight was severe enough for them to either flee when danger drew close or to offer no resistance to new masters.
While the location of Constantinople made it one of the greatest trading ports in the world the Byzantine government made little profit from commerce. Treaties allowed foreign cities from Italy, France and Spain to be free from duties and even allowed them to possess the ports. In 1423 the Empire sold Thessalonika, its second largest and wealthiest city, to the Venetians.
With its imperial fleet neglected the Empire had to rely on mercenaries to fight its battles. In the 14th and 15th centuries Eastern and Western Europe hired Serbians, Catalans, Germans and even Turks. These mercenaries were expensive and untrustworthy. These were the soldiers hired by the Eastern Empire and their rowdy conduct in Constantinople led to pillaging, violating women and outrageous demands. The number of soldiers, both of native and mercenaries, varied from 2,000 to 20,000 depending on the opposition. During the final siege of Constantinople there were only a few thousand Greeks and two thousand Venetians, Genoese and mercenaries.
The Entrance of the Ottoman Turks into Europe
The Ottoman Turks, also known here as the Osmanlis, took control of southeastern Europe from the Byzantine Empire. The Turks entered Europe from western Asia, crossing the Dardanalles in mid 14th century. Their army first consisted of cavalry. Added to this was the infantry, the Janissaries or �new troops.� They became the practically unbeatable force of the sultan. Over time the additions to the infantry were the men of the conquered districts, who were converted to Islam. This means that when in Europe, the Turks took Christian boys, converted them and added them to their forces; some even would become governors in the Ottoman state. Along with the cavalry and the Janissaries were other irregular troops, mounted and on foot. They also used much artillery. Once they conquered a region they would allow the inhabitants to practice their own religion, provided that they paid a tax.
The Turks first entered Europe early in the 14th century as mercenaries, pirates, merchants and invaders in the Aegean. The Osmanlis entered the scene in 1345. John Cantacuzenos, the chancellor and principal adviser of the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus III, had on the Emperor�s death bed established himself in Thrace and usurped the crown. His plan was to seize Constantinople, which was held by the Emperor�s widow and her young son. Cantacuzenos offered to Orkhan, the Osmanlis chief, the hand of his daughter Theodora in return for the services of 6,000 soldiers. The Ottoman troops crossed Hellespont and battled their way to Adrianople, the Black Sea and into Constantinople where Cantacuzenos and his wife were crowned joint rulers with the old empress and her son. One of Cantacuzenos� daughters married the young emperor and the arranged marriage with Orkhan was also carried out, making the Osmanlis ruler allied to both imperial houses. Twenty thousand Ottoman soldiers were then supplied for a battle against the Serbians, and the Ottomans again assisted Cantacuzenos when he waged a civil war against the young emperor. Ottoman mercenaries also fought for the Genoese against Venice in 1351.
In 1354 Soleiman, son of Orkhan, under his father�s orders took his troops across the Hellespont to invade Europe. Occupying the fortress of Tzympe, near the Aegean end of the straights, they seized the city of Gallipoli the following year. Settlers from Asia Minor followed, to colonize the European coast of the Sea of Marmora and almost in the sight of Constantinople. Over the following few years there was a break between the Ottoman sultan and the Greek emperor. Then the Turks took Demotika and Rodosto, cutting off Constantinople from the western possessions of the empire. They then captured Adrianople and made it their military headquarters. They progressed to Thrace and Macedonia and in 1363 the emperor recognized Murad I, the second successor of Othman, as his suzerain. This led to the promise of military service against the Asiatic enemies of the sultan. A decade later the emperor was forced to pay an annual tribute to the sultan and surrender his son as hostage. For the next hundred years this agreement was honored, broken and renewed.
The Conquest of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece
The Ottomans spread to the west, north and south to Serbia, Bulgaria, Wallachia and Moldavia all of the vast Balkan Peninsula. Also in sight were Dalmatia and Greece. Three princes from Stephen Dushan led their troops to confront the Turks in 1371 and were defeated. Two of the princes died and the Ottomans went onward through Macedonia and southern Serbia, repopulating the areas and replacing Christian churches with Mohammedan mosques. They captured the Serbian cities of Sofia, Nish, Monastir and Salonika. The Serbian leader became the Sultan�s vassal. The Christian European subjects of the sultan would fight for him against other Europeans.
A battle in 1389 destroyed what remained of Serbian independence. A small victory for the combined forces of Bosnia and Serbia occurred the previous year when the Sultan Murad left for Anatolia. After the victory the Bulgarians, Wallachians and Albanians joined the European forces, but when the sultan returned with his soldiers he gathered his Serbian and Albanian subjects for a battle on the plain of Kossovo where they crushed the Serbians and their allies. When the Sultan was assassinated by someone in his own camp his successor ordered the Ottoman soldiers to kill all the prisoners.
In 1365 the Bulgarian tsar died and conflicts broke out among his sons. Hungary got involved and a Byzantine ruler was held for ransom by a Bulgarian chieftain. The Turks saw their opportunity in the midst of this mess and advanced towards the Danube River.
In 1369 the most powerful of the Bulgarian princes became Murad�s subject and gave him a sister as a wife. Two years later another prince became the sultan�s vassal. The Ottomans had control of all of Bulgaria, who soldiers had a hand in the ruin of Serbia in 1389. Then in 1393 Ottomans marched into Bulgaria and sacked its capital and took much of the population into captivity. The Turks strengthened themselves along the Danube, immigrants replaced the population, the remaining Europeans converted to Mohammedanism and Bulgaria belonged to the Ottoman Empire for the next four and a half centuries.
The eastern emperors appealed to the west for help during the 14th and 15th centuries, they few times that help was sent ended in catastrophe. The incentive for this assistance was the offer of the unifying of Christendom under the Roman Catholic Church. John Cantacuzenos made one such offer to the pope and in 1363 several princes volunteered for the new crusade. In 1369 Emperor John V made the same offer.
From 1399 to 1402 Emperor Manuel II also tired with no success. There were other negotiations from 1435 to 1439, but no agreements were made. During this time there were the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, wars between Venice and Genoa and the Great Schism and the church councils. Also stopping unity was the fact that eastern and western Europe were not willing to support each other.
There were two attempts, however. In 1366 the Count of Savoy went with a fleet of galleys and 1,500 soldiers to the Black Sea and ravaged the Bulgarian coast and other mischief. Thirty years later Marshal Boucicault and some French troops sailed on an expedition to Constantinople.
The Venetians and Genoese were concerned about commerce in the Aegean and Euxine possessions. Their grain supply from Russia and Anatolia were also threatened. But instead of joining forces and using their naval powers to confront the Turks Ragusa (in 1365), Genoa (1388) and Venice (1389) made treaties with the Ottoman government and paid a subsidy.
The northeastern states that were within reach of the Ottomans found it necessary to resist. Hungary, Poland, Bohemia and even the German empire felt the threat to their lands. When it was heard that the Turks seized the northern strip of the possessions of the Eastern Empire, Casimir the Great of Poland invited to his capital at Cracow several European kings and princes. The German Emperor Charles IV, the kings of Hungary, Denmark and Cyprus were present. An army consisting of Hungarians, Serbs, Bosnians and Wallachians totaling up to 20,000 sought to recapture Adrianople in 1364, but were slaughtered before they got there.
The most valiant effort was fought along the Danube. In 1394 Sigismund, King of Hungary sent letters to Venice and the following year to the kings of France and England, the emperor and other ruling princes, seeking volunteers for a war. In 1396 at Buda gathered nobles and their attendants from Germany, France, England and the Netherlands, up to 100,000 strong.
The French marched across Transylvania and Wallachia into northern Bulgaria and the Hungarians and others went by the way of the Danube and through Serbia, pillaging the countries they passed through. Gathering under the walls of Nicopolis on the right bank of the Danube they besieged it for two weeks, but did not assault the city, deliberating whether they should march on to seek the sultan and his army or wait for them to arrive. Sultan Bayezid abandoned his siege of Constantinople and beckoned his Christian allies to send their quota of soldiers. In two weeks time they we ready to confront the crusaders and advanced towards the plain before Nicopolis.
Waiting for them were the incompetent French, English and German knights who had no plan of attack or defense. Although they made their way through the first line of Turkish troops the veteran Turkish soldiers beyond them were ready to rout the Europeans. Many were killed, some were taken as prisoners and others fled. Hungarian King Sigismund, the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John and some others deserted the troops and jumped a galley and headed for home.
Serbian troops helped the Turks kill the European knights, most of whom fled the scene to be killed in flight or to drown in the Danube River. Some of those who escaped the Turks ran right into the wrath of the peasants whom they plundered on the way to the battle. In return the peasants killed them as they made their way across the Carpathian Mountains into Hungary.
In retaliation for the slaughter of prisoners by French knights the sultan ordered the execution of all of his European captives. The Count of Nevers, Marshal Boucicault and twenty others were spared due to the offer of a huge ransom. They were forced to watch the execution of all the others. The day was spent killing the captives and when the sun set any remaining prisoners were to be sold into slavery. Johannes Schiltberger, a German youth spared because of his age, put the estimate of the number killed at 10,000.
The spared nobles were taken to Brusa. Sultan Bayezid was expecting 20,000 pieces of gold in return for them, and within a year it was paid, the surviving hostages then released.
After the victory at Nicopolis the Turks began to raid deep into Hungary and Wallachia, ravaging fields, burning towns and taking thousands to be sold into slavery. The conquest of Greece was also completed and was later made into a Turkish province.
The sultan also resumed his siege of Constantinople. In 1402 he ordered it to surrender on pain of massacre of the entire population if they continued to resist. There was another delay in the fate of Constantinople when the sultan had to deal with a foe from the east.
Timur the Lame, better known as Tamerlane, was a petty chieftain of Turkish origin who claimed to be a descendant of the Mongol conquerors. He waged a succession of victorious campaigns that included incredible cruelties during his conquests of much of Central Asia, India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Georgia and reached the eastern border of the Ottoman conquests. He and the Ottomans took turns as conquerors of northern Anatolia. After Bayezid conquered land to the east and executed the rulers who acknowledged Timur as sovereign, Timur reconquered the districts and buried while they were still alive 4,000 Christian soldiers who were subjects of Bayezid, and committed other atrocities.
Bayezid set aside Constantinople and sought war against Timur. The sides met in 1402 near Angora in Asia Minor where the Ottomans were defeated. Bayezid was captured and died in prison the following year. Timur continue until his conquests reached to the boundaries of Europe. He stopped there then made plans for an invasion of China. He died suddenly in 1405 and his empire broke up into fragments.
Constantinople was also spared, at least for a while. Wars of succession were waged by Bayezid�s successors and during this period of over a quarter of a century the Ottoman boundaries receded. Then Sultan Murad II regained most of Bayezid�s territories and laid siege to Belgrade, the farthest advanced post of the Hungarians on the Danube.
At the time of Murad�s advance there was an Albanian soldier, George Castriota, reared at Constantinople, who served in the Ottoman army. He returned to his roots and repeatedly led his countrymen to the removing of the Turks from Albania. Also at this time was John Hunyadi, a Transylvanian knight, who had become the governor of that province. He led his people to two successive victories over the Ottomans and drove them across the Danube. The new king of Hungary and Poland, Ladislas III formed an army for a southerly advance in 1443. Hunydai and his troops led the way to a victory at Nish and in the recapture of Sofia. The caused Murad II to sign a ten years� truce.
Cardinal Cesarini, who was sent by the pope, urged Ladislas and Hunydai to break the truce. They advanced through Bulgaria to the Black Sea at Varna. The sultan returned in 1444 and won the battle in which Ladislas was killed. In 1448 Hunydai, as the regent of Hungary, was defeated in a second battle of Kossovo. Only George Castriota continued to have success against the Turks. For the next century the northern and western boundaries of the Ottoman Empire changed from one battle to the next.
The Fall of Constantinople
Sultan Mohammed II, son of Murad, made his plans to take Constantinople in 1451. He eliminated or made truces with his enemies, built a castle on the Bosporus River above Constantinople, cast cannons more numerous and larger in size than anyone had before, and amassed a store of powder, cannonballs, bows and arrows and all kinds of siege material. He also destroyed all the villages in the vicinity of Constantinople and placed an army of 15,000 men under its walls. In April of 1453 the sultan formally demanded its surrender.
The emperor rejected the terms of surrender and went about the preparations for the defense of his city. He had 5,000 native troops and 3,000 foreigners, mostly Venetians and Genoese in the galleys and some mercenaries were also at his command. Giustiniani, a Genoese, was second in command.
The harbor, known as the Golden Horn, was defended by a chain stretched across its mouth, which so far kept the Turks from advancing by sea. But in the midst of the siege the sultan�s engineers built a wooden track across mile of land from the straights to the upper end of the Horn, and dragged a fleet of 60 to 80 boats across it so they could attack from the rear of the city. Weeks passed with no victory for the Turks.
The walls that encircled the city were thirteen miles in length, and forty feet high in a triple series with a wide moat in the most vulnerable areas on the landward side. But the constant bombardment from the cannon caused the walls to crumble. There were four assaults on the city, all repelled by the Greeks and the walls were partially repaired. On May 29th came the greatest assault on Constantinople. At midnight the Turks broke through the outer walls at several points only to be driven back. At dawn 12,000 Janissaries with archers and additional infantry surmounted the walls and cut through their opponents and entered the city. The emperor died fighting. One or two days later the sultan entered and his soldiers spent the next three days sacking the city. Constantinople became the capital of the sultans. They changed its name to Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire ruled over the whole of southeastern Europe.