LXIV.

the field, he observed that the greatest part of the CHAP. flain confifted of beardless youths; and liftened to the flattering reply of his vizir, that age and wisdom would have taught them not to oppose his irrefiftible arms. But the fword of his Janizaries could not defend him from the dagger of despair; a Servian foldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a mortal wound. The grandfon of Othman was mild in his temper, modeft in his apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue; but the Moflems were fcandalifed at his abfence from public worship; and he was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to reject his teftimony in a civil caufe: a mixture of fervitude and freedom not unfrequent in Oriental history ss.

55

The character of Bajazet, the fon and fucceffor of Amurath, is ftrongly expreffed in his furname of Ilderim, or the lightning; and he might glory in an epithet, which was drawn from the fiery energy of his foul and the rapidity of his deftructive march. In the fourteen years of his reign 5,

56

he

55 See the life and death of Morad, or Amurath I. in Cantemir (P-33-45.), the ist book of Chalcondyles, and the Annales Turcici of Leunclavius. According to another ftory, the fultan was ftabbed by a Croat in his tent: and this accident was alleged to Bufbequius (Epift. i. p. 98.) as an excufe for the unworthy precaution of pinioning, as it were, between two attendants, an ambaffador's arms, when he is introduced to the royal prefence. 56 The reign of Bajazet I. or Ilderim Bayazid, is contained in Cantemir (p. 46.), the iid book of Chalcondyles, and the An.. nales Turcici. The furname of Ilderim, or lightning, is an

The reign of Bajazet

I. Ilderim,

A. D.

13891403.

March 9.

LXIV.

His conquefts, from the

to the

1

CHAP. he inceffantly moved at the head of his armies, from Bourfa to Adrianople, from the Danube to the Euphrates; and, though he ftrenuously laboured for the propagation of the law, he invaded, with impartial ambition, the Chriftian and Mahometan princes of Europe and Afia. From Angora to Amafia and Erzeroum, the northern regions of Anatolia were reduced to Euphrates his obedience: he stripped of their hereditary poffeffions, his brother emirs of Ghermian and Caramania, of Aidin and Sarukhan; and after the conquest of Iconium, the ancient kingdom of the Seljukians again revived in the Ottoman dynafty. Nor were the conquefts of Bajazet less rapid or important in Europe. No fooner had he impofed a regular form of fervitude on the Servians and Bulgarians, than he passed the Danube to feek new enemies and new fubjects in the heart of Moldavia ". Whatever yet adhered to the Greek empire in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thesfaly, acknowledged a Turkish master: an obfequious bishop led him through the gates of Thermopyla into Greece; and we may observe, as a fingular fact, that the widow of a Spanish chief, who poffeffed the ancient feat of the oracle of Delphi, deserved his favour by the facrifice of a beauteous daughter. The Turkish communication

57

example, that the conquerors and poets of every age have jelt the truth of a fyftem which derives the fublime from the principle of terror.

57 Cantemir, who celebrates the victories of the great Stephen over the Turks (p. 47.), had compofed the ancient and modern ftate of his principality of Moldavia, which has been long promifed, and is ftill unpublifhed.

LXIV.

between Europe and Afia had been dangerous CHA P. and doubtful, till he stationed at Gallipoli á fleet of gallies, to command the Hellefpont and intercept the Latin fuccours of Conftantinople. While the monarch indulged his paffions in a boundless range of injustice and cruelty, he impofed on his foldiers the most rigid laws of modefty and abftinence; and the harvest was peaceably reaped and fold within the precincts of his camp. Provoked by the loose and corrupt administration of justice, he collected in a house the judges and lawyers of his dominions, who expected that in a few moments the fire would be kindled to reduce them to afhes. His minifters trembled in filence: but an Ethiopian buffoon prefumed to infinuate the true cause of the evil; and future venality was left without excufe, by annexing an adequate falary to the office of cadhi 58. The humble title of emir was no longer fuitable to the Ottoman greatnefs; and Bajazet condefcended to accept a patent of fultan from the caliphs who ferved in Egypt under the yoke of the Mamalukes : a laft and frivolous homage that was yielded by force to opinion; by the Turkish conquerors to the house of Abbas and the fucceffors of the Ara

58 Leunclav. Annal. Turcici, p. 318, 319. The venality of the cadhis has long been an object of scandal and fatire; and if we distrust the obfervations of our travellers, we may confult the feeling of the Turks themfelves (d'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orientale, P. 216, 217, 229, 230.).

59 The fact, which is attefted by the Arabic history of Ben Schounah, a contemporary Syrian (de Guignes, Hift. des Huns, tom. iv. p. 336.), destroys the teftimony of Saad Effendi and Cantemir (p. 14, 15.), of the election of Othman to the dignity.

fultan.

VOL. XI.

Gg

bian

LXIV.

CHAP. bian prophet. The ambition of the fultan was inflamed by the obligation of deferving this au

Nicopolis,

A. D. 1396, Sept. 28.

gust title; and he turned his arms against the kingdom of Hungary, the perpetual theatre of the Turkish victories and defeats. Sigifmond, the Hungarian king, was the fon and brother of the emperors of the Weft: his cause was that of Europe and the church: and, on the report of his danger, the braveft knights of France and Germany were eager to march under his ftandard and Battle of that of the crofs. In the battle of Nicopolis, Bajazet defeated a confederate army of an hundred thousand Chriftians, who had proudly boafted, that if the sky fhould fall they could uphold it on their lances. The far greater part were flain or driven into the Danube; and Sigifmond, escaping to Conftantinople by the river and the Black Sea, returned after a long circuit to his exhausted kingdom. In the pride of victory Bajazet threatened that he would befiege Buda; that he would fubdue the adjacent countries of Germany and Italy; and that he would feed his horfe with a bufhel of oats on the altar of St. Peter at Rome. His progrefs was checked, not by the miraculous interpofition of the apostle; not by a crufade of the Chriftian powers, but by a long and painful fit of the gout. The diforders of the moral, are fometimes corrected by thofe of the phyfical, world; and an acrimonious humour falling on a fingle fibre of

1

6 See the Decades Rerum Hungaricarum (Dec. iii. 1. ii. p. 379.) of Bonfinius, an Italian, who, in the xyth century, was invited into Hungary to compose an eloquent history of that king dom. Yet, if it be extant and acceffible, I fhould give the pre ference to fome homely chronicle of the time and country.,

one

one man, may prevent or fufpend the mifery of CHAP.

nations.

61

LXIV.

Crufade and captivity of the French

A. D.

1398.

Such is the general idea of the Hungarian war; but the difaftrous adventure of the French has procured us fome memorials which illuftrate the victory and character of Bajazet ". The duke Princes, of Burgundy, fovereign of Flanders, and uncle 1396of Charles the fixth, yielded to the ardour of his fon, John count of Nevers; and the fearless youth was accompanied by four princes, his coufins, and thofe of the French monarch. Their inexperience was guided by the fire de Coucy, one of the best and oldeft captains of Chriftendom 2; but the conftable, admiral, and marshal, of France 3 commanded an army which did not exceed the number of a thoufand knights and fquires. Thefe fplendid names were the fource

62

61 I should not complain of the labour of this work, if my materials were always derived from fuch books as the chronicle of honeft Froiffard (vol. iv. c. 67. 69. 72. 74. 79-83. 85. 87.89.), who read little, enquired much, and believed all. The original Memoirs of the marechal de Boucicault (Partie i. c. 22-28.) add fome facts, but they are dry and deficient, if compared with the pleafant garrulity of Froiffard.

62 An accurate memoir on the life of Enquerrand VII. fire de Coucy, has been given by the baron de Zurlauben (Hift. de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xxv.). His rank and poffeffions were equally confiderable in France and England; and, in 1375, he led an army of adventurers into Switzerland, to recover a large patrimony which he claimed in right of his grandmother, the daughter of the emperor Albert I. of Austria (Sinner, Voyage dans la Suiffe Occidentale, tom. i. p. 118-124.).

63 That military office, fo refpectable at prefent, was still more confpicuous when it was divided between two perfons (Daniel, Hift. de la Milice Françoife, tom. ii. p. 5.). One of these, the marshal of the crufade, was the famous Boucicault, who afterwards defended Conftantinople, governed Genoa, invaded the coaft of Afia, and died in the field of Azincour.