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.

forms a

against the

1443

After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had Eugenius not been unmindful of their temporal interest; and his tender league regard for the Byzantine empire was animated by a just appre- Turks, A.D. hension 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 Fkanks 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; 18 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; 19 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. 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 progress of the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians and Sarmatians; and these nations might appear equal to the contest, could they point, against the common foe, those swords that were so wantonly drawn in bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same spirit

18 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 [Neuss] 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 (Mémoires 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.

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

Cesarini]

was adverse to concord and obedience; a poor country and a limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a standing force; and the loose bodies of Polish and Hungarian horse were not armed with the sentiments and weapons which, on some occasions, have given irresistible weight to the French chivalry. Yet, on this side, the designs of the Roman pontiff and the [Juliano eloquence of Cardinal Julian, his legate, were promoted by the circumstances of the times; 20 by the union of the two crowns on the head of Ladislaus,21 a young and ambitious soldier; by the valour of an hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was already popular among the Christians and formidable to the Turks. An endless treasure of pardons and indulgences were scattered by the legate; many private warriors of France and Germany enlisted under the holy banner; and the crusade derived some strength, or at least some reputation, from the new allies, both of Europe and Asia. A fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardour of the Christians beyond the Danube, who would unanimously rise to vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor,22 with a spirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the Bosphorus, and to sally from Constantinople at the head of his national and mercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania 23 announced the retreat of Amurath and a powerful diversion in the heart of Anatolia; and, if the fleets of the West could occupy at the same moment the straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman monarchy would be dissevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth must rejoice in the perdition of the miscreants; and the legate, with prudent ambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible,

[George Brankovic]

20 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 historians 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.

21 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 Callimachus (1. i. ii. p. 447-486), Bonfinius (Decad. iii. 1. iv.), Spondanus, and Lenfant.

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.

23 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.

perhaps the visible, aid of the Son of God and his divine mother.

Ladislaus, king of Po

Hungary,

against

(A.D. 1443]

[Battle of

Nov.]

Kunoviza.

Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious war was the land and unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, led marches" an army of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the capital them of the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two signal victories, which were justly ascribed to the valour Nitzch, 3rd and conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten [Battle of thousand men, he surprised the Turkish camp; in the second, 25th Dec.l he vanquished and made prisoner the most renowned of their generals, who possessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The approach of winter and the natural and artificial obstacles of Mount Hamus arrested the progress of the hero, who measured a narrow interval of six days' march from the foot of the mountains to the hostile towers of Hadrianople 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 ecclesiastical procession 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 conquest was blended with the humble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine standards, and four thousand captives were unquestionable trophies; and, as all were willing to believe and none were present to contradict, the crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads of Turks whom they had left on the field of battle.25 The most solid proof and the most salutary consequence of victory was a deputation from the The Turkdivan to solicit peace, to restore Servia, to ransom the prisoners, [The Peace and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By this treaty, the ain rational objects of the war were obtained: the king, the despot, and Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin, were satisfied with public and private emolument; a truce of ten years was concluded; and the followers of Jesus and Mahomet, who swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested the word of God as the guardian of truth and the avenger of perfidy. In the place of

[For this expedition see Katona, Histor. crit. reg. Hung. Stirpis mixtae, vi. p. 245 sqq.; Nesri (in Thúry's Török történetírók, vol. i.) p. 58; the Anonymous of 1486, ib. p. 18, 19; Sad ad-Din, ib. p. 136 sqq.; Zinkeisen, Gesch. des osmanischen Reiches, i. 611 sqq.]

25 In their letters to the emperor Frederic III. the Hungarians slay 30,000 Turks in one battle, but the modest Julian reduces the slaughter to 6000 or even 2000 infidels (Eneas Sylvius in Europ. c. 5, and epist. 44, 81, apud Spondanum).

ish peace

of Szege

din]

Violation of the

1444

27

the Gospel, the Turkish ministers had proposed to substitute the Eucharist, the real presence of the Catholic deity; but the Christians refused to profane their holy mysteries; and a superstitious conscience is less forcibly bound by the spiritual energy, than by the outward and visible symbols, of an oath.26 During the whole transaction the cardinal-legate had obpeace, A.D. served 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, and ignorant of the treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently waited for the return of his victorious army. "And is it thus," exclaimed the cardinal, "that you will desert their expectations and your own fortune? It is to them, to your God, and your fellow-Christians, that you have pledged your faith; and that prior obligation annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath to the enemies of Christ. His vicar on earth is the Roman pontiff; without whose sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In his name I absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms; follow my footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation; and, if still ye have scruples, devolve on my head the punishment and the sin." This mischievous casuistry was seconded by his respectable character and the levity of popular assemblies. War was resolved on the same spot where peace had so lately been sworn; and, in the execution of the treaty, the Turks were assaulted by the Christians to whom, with some reason, they might apply the epithet of Infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus to his word and oath was palliated by the religion of the times; the most perfect, or at least the most popular, excuse would have been the success of his arms and

26 See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first expedition of Ladislaus, in the vth and vith books of the iiid Decad of Bonfinius, who, in his division and style, copies Livy with tolerable success. Callimachus (1. ii. p. 487-496) is still more pure and authentic.

"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. 1. 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 Varna.

the deliverance of the Eastern church. But the same treaty
which should have bound his conscience had diminished his
strength. On the proclamation of the peace, the French and
German volunteers departed with indignant murmurs; the Poles
were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps disgusted with
foreign command; and their palatines accepted the first licence
and hastily retired to their provinces and castles. Even Hun-
gary was divided by faction or restrained by a laudable scruple;
and the relics of the crusade that marched in the second expedi-
tion were reduced to an inadequate force of twenty thousand
men. A Walachian chief, who joined the royal standard with his
vassals, presumed to remark that their numbers did not exceed
the hunting retinue that sometimes attended the sultan; and
the gift of two horses of matchless speed might admonish
Ladislaus of his secret foresight of the event. But the despot
of Servia, after the restoration of his country and children, was
tempted by the promise of new realms; and the inexperience
of the king, the enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial
presumption of Huniades himself were persuaded that every
obstacle must yield to the invincible virtue of the sword and
the cross.
After the passage of the Danube, two roads might
lead to Constantinople and the Hellespont: the one direct,
abrupt, and difficult, through the mountains of Hamus; the
other more tedious and secure, over a level country, and along
the shores of the Euxine; in which their flanks, according to
the Scythian discipline, might always be covered by a moveable
fortification of waggons. The latter was judiciously preferred:
the Catholics marched through the plains of Bulgaria, burning,
with wanton cruelty, the churches and villages of the Christian
natives; and their last station was at Warna, near the sea-shore,
on which the defeat and death of Ladislaus have bestowed a
memorable name." 28

Warna,

It was on this fatal spot that, instead of finding a con- Battle of federate fleet to second their operations, they were alarmed by AD. 1444, the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued from his

28 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 Arrian's Periplus 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, 2140 from Byzantium, and 360 to the north of a ridge or promontory of Mount Hemus which advances into the sea.

10th Nov.