LXVII. endless rotation with the fanatics, who mistook CHAP. the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the fpirit". But he was foon awakened from this dream of enthufiafm, by the Hungarian invasion; and his obedient fon was the foremoft to urge the public danger and the wishes of the people. Under the banner of their veteran leader, the Janizaries fought and conquered; but he withdrew from the field of Varna, again to pray, to faft, and to turn round with his Magnesian brethren. These pious occupations were again interrupted by the danger of the state. A victorious army difdained the inexperience of their youthful ruler: the city of Adrianople was abandoned to rapine and flaughter; and the unanimous divan implored his prefence to appease the tumult, and prevent the rebellion, of the Janizaries. At the well-known voice of their mafter, they trembled and obeyed; and the reluctant fultan was compelled to fupport his fplendid fervitude, till, at the end of four years, he was relieved by the angel of death. Age or difeafe, misfortune or caprice, have tempted feveral princes to defcend from the throne; and they have had leifure to repent of their irretrieveable step. But Amurath alone, in the full liberty of choice, after the trial of empire and folitude, has repeated his preference of a private life, A 15 Rycaut (in the Prefent State of the Ottoman Empire, P. 242-268.) affords much information, which he drew from his perfonal conversation with the heads of the dervishes, most of whom afcribed their origin to the time of Orchan. He does not mention the Zichide of Chalcondyles (1. vii. p. 286.), among whom Amurath retired; the Seids of that author are the defcendants of Mahomet. After CHAP. forms a league Turks, A. D. After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had not been unmindful of their temporal Eugenius intereft; and his tender regard for the Byzantine empire was animated by a just apprehenfion of the against the Turks, who approached, and might foon invade, the borders of Italy. But the fpirit of the crufades had expired; and the coldness of the Franks was not lefs unreasonable than their headlong paffion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could precipitate Europe on Afia for the recovery of the holy fepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most preffing motives of religion and policy were infufficient to unite the Latins in the defence of Christendom, Germany was an inexhaustible. ftore-house of men and arms : but that complex and languid body required the impulfe of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the third was alike impotent in his perfonal character and his Imperial dignity. A long war had impaired the strength, without fatiating the animofity of France and England" but Philip, duke of Burgundy, was a vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, 16 16 In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,000 horse, men at arms, against the Huffites of Bohemia (Lenfant, Hift. du Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 318.). At the Siege of Nuys on the Rhine in 1474, the princes, prelates, and cities, fent their refpective quotas: and the bishop of Munfter (qui n'est pas des plus grands). furnished 1400 horfe, 6000 foot, all in green, with 1200 waggons. The united armies of the king of England and the duke of Burgundy fcarcely equalled one third of this German hoft (Memoires de Philippe de Comines, 1. iv. c. 2.). At prefent, fix or seven hundred thousand men are maintained in conftant pay and admirable difcipline, by the powers of Germany. 17 It was not till the year 1444, that France and England could agree on a truce of fome months (See Rymer's Fœdera, and the chronicles of both nations). without LXVII. without danger or expence, the adventurous piety CHAP. of his fubjects, who failed, in a gallant fleet, from the coaft of Flanders to the Hellefpont. The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were lefs remote from the fcene of action; and their hoftile fleets were affociated under the ftandard of St. Peter. The kingdoms of Hungary and Poland, which covered as it were the interior pale of the Latin church, were the most nearly concerned to oppose the progrefs of the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians and Sarmatians, and thefe nations might appear equal to the conteft, could they point, against the common foe, thofe fwords that were fo wantonly drawn in bloody and domeftic quarrels. But the same spirit was adverse to concord and obedience: a poor country and a limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a standing force; and the loofe bodies of Polish and Hungarian horfe were not armed with the fentiments and weapons which, on fome occafions, have given irresistible weight to the French chivalry. Yet, on this fide, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the eloquence of cardinal Julian, his legate, were promoted by the circumstances of the times 13; by the union of the two crowns on the head of Ladiflaus ", a young 18 and 18 In the Hungarian crufade, Spondanus (Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 1443, 1444.) has been my leading guide. He has diligently read, and critically compared, the Greek and Turkish materials, the hiftorians of Hungary, Poland, and the Weft. His narrative is perfpicuous; and where he can be free from a religious bias, the judgment of Spondanus is not contemptible. 19 I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus) which moft writers affix to his name, either in compliance with the Polish pro LXVII. CHAP. and ambitious foldier; by the valour of an hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was already popular among the Chriftians, and formidable to the Turks. An endless treasure of pardons and indulgences was fcattered by the legate; many private warriors of France and Germany enlisted under the holy banner; and the crufade derived fome ftrength, or at leaft fome reputation, from the new allies, both of Europe and Afia. A fugitive defpot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardour of the Chriftians beyond the Danube, who would unanimously rife to vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor, with a fpirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the Bofphorus, and to fally from Conftantinople at the head of his national and mercenary troops. The fultan of Caramania 2 announced the retreat of Amurath, and a powerful diverfion in the heart of Anatolia ; and if the fleets of the Weft could Occupy at the fame moment the ftreights of the Hellefpont, the Ottoman monarchy would be diffevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth muft rejoice in the perdition of the miscreants; and 21 3.13 pronunciation, or to diftinguifh him from his rival the infant Ladislaus of Austria. Their competition for the crown of Hungary is defcribed by Callimachus (1. i, ii. p. 447-486), Bonfinius (Decad. iii. 1. iv.), Spondanus, and Lenfant. 20 The Greek hiftorians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and Ducas, do not ascribe to their prince a very active part in this crufade, which he feems to have promoted by his wifhes, and injured by his fears. 21 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 feldom informed of the ftate of Christendom; and the fituation and correspondence of the knights of Rhodes muft connect them with the fultan of Caramania. the 1 LXVII. the legate, with prudent ambiguity, inftilled the CHAP. opinion of the invifible, perhaps the visible, aid, of the Son of God, and his divine Mother. king of gary, against them. Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious Ladinlaus, war was the unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after Poland paffing the Danube, led an army of his confede- and Hunrate fubjects as far as Sophia, the capital of the marches Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two fignal victories, which were juftly afcribed to the valour and conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten thoufand men, he surprised the Turkish camp; in the fecond, he vanquished and made prisoner the most renowned of their generals, who poffeffed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The approach of winter, and the natural and artificial obftacles of mount Hæmús, arrested the progrefs of the hero, who measured a narrow interval of fix days march from the foot of the mountains to the hostile towers of Adrianople, and the friendly capital of the Greek empire. The retreat was undisturbed and the entrance into Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. An ecclefiaftical proceffion was followed by the king and his warriors on foot: he nicely balanced the merits and rewards of the two nations; and the pride of conqueft was blended with the humble temper of Chriftianity. Thirteen bafhaws, nine standards, and four thousand captives, were unquestionable trophies; and as all were willing to believe, and none were prefent to contradict, the crufaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads of Turks whom they had left on the field of battle. 17 |