The invincible courage of this handful of Christians repulsed the Turks in all their fierce assaults. The fortifications on the land-side were formed of a double wall, with an interval between. In vain did the enormous artillery of Mahomet batter large breaches in the outside; there was still another, to which the defenders retired, and from which they could not be dislodged; and after fruitless attempts to penetrate this last retreat, Mahomet was about to abandon the siege in despair, when he thought of an expedient as incredible as apparently hopeless. The city had been defended on the sea-side by a series of iron chains, drawn across the mouth of the harbour, which effectually excluded the Turkish fleet. He now conceived the idea of conveying his ships by land, from the Bosphorus, across the peninsula; and this he effected. Having prepared every thing, as soon as it was dark his machinery was laid−the ships were hauled up the valley of Dolma-Bactché and across the ridge which separated it from the harbour; and the next morning the astonished Greeks, instead of their own, beheld the Turkish fleet under their walls. A general assault was now commenced on all sides, the good and gallant Palæologus, the last and best of the Greek emperors, was killed in one of the breaches, and the Turks poured in over his body.
The Greeks now rushed in despair to the church of Saint Sophia. They were here assured that an angel would descend from heaven with a sword, and expel their enemies from the city, and they waited for the promised deliverance; but the Turks, armed with axes, battered down the outer gates, and rushed in among the infatuated multitude. The city was given up to plunder, and those who escaped the carnage were sold as slaves. Among them were 60,000 of the first families−females distinguished for their beauty and accomplishments, and men eminent for their rank and literary attainments. Poets, historians, philosophers, and artists, all were reduced to a common level, and sold as slaves, to hew wood and draw water for the rude and brutal barbarians who bought them. Such was the end of the great Christian empire of the East, which was extinguished by the downfall of Constantinople, after it had flourished, from its first dedication to Christ, 1123 years. It was founded in May 330, and it terminated in May, 1453. The feebleness of its government, the vices of its emperors, and the weak superstition of its people, were natural causes to accelerate its fall, and induce us the less to regret it; while, by the arrangements of a good providence, the lights of literature, the arts and sciences which improve social life, and the gentle courtesies which endear us to our kind, hitherto shut up exclusively in this city, were now diffused over a wider sphere; and the fugitives that escaped, and the slaves that were sold, brought with them those qualities into various countries, and so were instruments which, no doubt, tended to improve and ameliorate society wherever they were scattered.
When Mahomet had thus obtained the full fruition of his wishes, he speedily gave a greater latitude to that selfish cruelty, and disregard for human life, which had always distinguished him. Some acts of this kind are recorded of him, from which the ordinary feelings of our nature revolt as altogether incredible. He was particularly fond of melons, and cultivated them with his own hand. He missed one, and in vain attempted to discover who took it. There was a certain number of youths, educated as pages, within the walls of the seraglio, called Ichoglans, and his suspicion fell on them; he ordered fourteen of them to be seized, and their stomachs to be ripped up in his presence, to discover the offender. But his treatment of the woman he loved, has no parallel in the history of human cruelty. He had attached himself to Irené, a Greek, as beautiful and accomplished as she was good and amiable; she softened his rude nature, and controlled his ferocity: and such was the ascendancy she had gained over him, that he desisted from many intended acts of brutal inhumanity, through the gentle influence he suffered her to exercise. His attachment was so strong, that the Janissaries began to murmur. To silence their clamour, he assembled them together, and caused Irené to be brought forth on the steps of the palace; he then unveiled her face. Even those rude and unpitying soldiers could not contain their admiration: the loveliness of her features and the sweetness of their expression at once disarmed their resentment, and they murmured approbation and applause. Mahomet immediately drew his sabre, and severing her head from her body, cast it among them.−He himself died of an attack of cholera in his fifty-third year, having reigned thirty. He it was who changed the name of Sultan, by which the sovereigns of his nation had been hitherto distinguished, into that of Padischah, which is a prouder title, and which the Turks confer on their own sovereign exclusively at this day; the appellation of the city was also altered to that of Stambool, or Istambol, by which the Orientals now distinguish it.3
Selim I. began his reign in 1512, and it was distinguished by some remarkable events. He is represented, by the historian Chalcocondyles, as exhibiting in his countenance a singular display of his predominant passions−a cruelty inexorable, an obstinacy invincible, and an ambition unmeasurable. He had the wrinkled forehead of a Tarquin, the fearful eye of a Nero, and the livid complexion of a Scythian; and, to complete the expression of his countenance, his mustaches were rigid, and drawn up to his ears, so that his head resembled that of a tiger. Yet he had many great qualities, which distinguish him among the sultans. He erected the Tersana, or arsenal, on the Golden Horn, and so was the founder of the Turkish navy. He was an historian, a poet, and, contrary to the law of the Prophet, a painter of human figures, and in this way commemorated his own battles. He added Egypt to the Turkish dominions. The fierce militia who governed it had been originally Christian slaves, like his own, and had established a dynasty which had lasted 200 years; but the Mamelukes now fell before the superior energies of their brethren the Janissaries. Another accession was made to his subjects. His hatred to Christianity was extreme, and his persecution of those who professed it relentless; and on this account he encouraged the Jews to supply their place at Constantinople. This people had increased exceedingly in Spain, under the Moors; but, on the returning power of the Spaniards, they were everywhere expelled by the inquisition. They set out from Spain, to the number of 800,000 persons, and received that protection from Turks which Christians would not afford them. They were invited to establish themselves at Constantinople and the villages on the Bosphorus, where 100,000 were located, and others in different parts of the empire. Several points of their belief and practice recommended them to the Mohammedans−their strict theology, their abhorrence of swine’s flesh, their rite of circumcision, were all points of resemblance between them. They called them Mousaphir, or visitors, and treated them, accordingly, with kindness and hospitality. They are at this day distinguished as a people, still speaking the Spanish language in the Turkish capital, which they brought with them from the country from which they were expelled.
An attempt was made to destroy Selim by a singular poison: Mustapha pasha composed a ball of soap with various aromatic ingredients, but one of so deadly a poison, that, like prussic acid, it was immediately absorbed by the skin, and destroyed the person to whose face it was applied; and this was sent to the sultan’s barber, as a precious invention, to be used when shaving his master. It was accompanied by a packet enclosed in a case of lead; a precaution which excited suspicion, and led to discovery. The pasha, barber, and all connected with them, were strangled, and the sultan escaped. He afterwards died of a foul cancer, in the eleventh year of his reign, having justly acquired the name of Yavuz, “the Ferocious.” He displayed his qualification of poet by writing his own epitaph, which is seen upon his tomb, and describes his “ruling passion, strong in death.”
Soliman I. (or as he is by some classed II.) is represented as the greatest prince that ever sat upon the Turkish throne; and he obtained the name of “the Magnificent,” for the splendour of his achievements. He commenced his reign in 1520, which lasted forty years; and made three vows, which he hoped to accomplish before his death: to complete the hydraulic works of Constantinople−to erect the finest mosque in the world−and to establish the western capital of Islamism at Vienna. The two first he effected, and nearly succeeded in the last. After conquering all the countries between the Euxine, Caspian, and Red seas, he turned his arms to Europe, in order to accomplish his vows, and penetrated to Vienna, to which he laid siege without success; but he established a strong garrison at Buda, the capital of Hungary, and held possession of it, to renew his attempt. In the mean time, his fleets, united with the piratical states of Barbary, under the banner of Barbarossa, or “Red Beard,” ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean; and captive nobles from Spain, the most western country in Europe, were seen in chains among his slaves at Constantinople. Carrying thus his conquering arms from the Caspian to the Atlantic, and from the centre of Europe to the centre of Africa, there was but one little spot which opposed his plan of universal empire: that spot was the island of Malta. The crusaders had left this single remnant behind them, so excellent and noble as to redeem all their other failings. The knights of St. John had retired from Palestine to Rhodes, and from thence to Malta; and there they stood, the last barrier and bulwark of Christianity against the overwhelming torrent of Turkish dominion. These were now to be exterminated, and their island made the stepping-stone to establish the religion of the Prophet in the western world. The siege which Malta sustained on this occasion is the most gallant and interesting to be found in the records of human actions. The knights amounted but to 700 men; they organized a force of 8000, and with this they had to oppose a fleet of 200 sail, carrying an army of 50,000. After incredible acts of heroism and devotedness, they compelled the Turks to withdraw the remnant of their forces; and the first effectual check was given to their hitherto resistless power.
The character of Soliman, as drawn by historians, is more perfect than that of any other sovereign who occupied the throne of the Osmanli. His love of literature, his enlightened mind, his inviolable faith, placed him in strong contrast with his fellow-sultans; yet his private life is stained with more than Oriental barbarity. He had children by two wives, one of whom was the celebrated Roxalana; the elder, Mustapha, was heir to the throne, and a youth of great promise, but Roxalana was determined to prefer her own, and to that end stimulated Soliman to put Mustapha to death. He sent for him to his tent; and as soon as he entered, caused him to be seized by several mutes, who were in waiting with a bowstring to strangle him. The young man made a vigorous resistance, when the father, fearing he might escape, raised his head above the canvass partition of the tent, and with menacing gestures threatened the mutes with his vengeance if they did not despatch him. The unhappy youth caught his father’s eye, and passively submitted to his fate. He was strangled, and his body thrown on a carpet, to be exposed in front of the tent. Mustapha had yet another brother, whom it was necessary to dispose of also. He was a mere boy, and, as his mother kept him carefully secluded within the walls of her apartments, the wily Kislar Aga, who was sent to visit her, was obliged to have recourse to stratagem to separate them. He represented to the mother that Soliman was tortured with remorse for the death of her eldest son, and wished to repair his fault by affection for the younger. He was afraid his health would suffer by confinement, and it was his wish that he and his mother should take air and exercise; and for this purpose a horse, splendidly caparisoned, was sent for the boy, and an arrhuba for herself and her female slaves. The credulous mother was persuaded, and they set out to visit a beautiful kiosk on the shores of the Bosphorus. The boy rode on “in merry mood,” with the Kislar Aga, and she followed in the arrhuba. When arrived at a rough part of the road, the carriage, which had been previously prepared, broke down, and the truth instantly flashed upon the wretched mother’s mind; she sprung out, and rushed after her son, who had by this time entered the kiosk with his companion. She arrived breathless, and found the door closed; she beat at it with frantic violence, and when at length it was opened, the first object that presented itself, was her only remaining son, lying on the ground, strangled, his limbs yet quivering in his last agonies, and the bowstring of the eunuch yet unloosed from his throat.
The last years of the wretched old man were imbittered by the conduct of the sons, for whose advancement he had suffered those foul murders to be committed. His son Bajazet was a rebel to his father’s authority; and Selim, who succeeded him, was the most weak and wicked of the Mohammedan line. His noble mosque, and the tombs that contain the ashes of himself and his wife Roxalana, are shown by the Turks to strangers as the most splendid monuments left by their sultans.
Selim II. succeeded to the throne in 1566, and was entirely devoted to the gratification of his appetites. His father was temperate in wine, and forbade its use under the severest penalties. It is said he attributed the failure of the attack on Malta to the violation of the law of Mohammed in this respect, and he caused caldrons of boiling oil to be kept in the streets, ready to be poured down the throat of any person, Turk, Jew, or Christian, who was found intoxicated. Selim, as if in contempt and mockery of his father, indulged in wine to such excess, that he despatched an expedition to Cyprus, and annexed that island to the empire, for no other reason but because it produced good wine. The loss of the sanguinary battle of Lepanto, in his reign, was another blow following the defeat at Malta, which shook the mighty fabric of the Turkish empire. Selim died after a reign of eight years and five months, a rigid observer of all the Prophet’s laws, except sobriety.
The people of the West had now begun to recover from the terror which the first eruption of these terrible barbarians into Europe had excited, and to consider the many commercial advantages to be derived from an intercourse with them. The French and Venetians, in the reign of Selim, had already established this intercourse; and the English were supplied with Oriental produce by the latter, who sent Argosies, or ships of Ragusa, in the gulf of Venice, to England, freighted with the wealth of the East. One of these rich vessels was wrecked on the Goodwin sands, and the Venetians were afraid to send another. But the English having tasted of Asiatic luxuries, could not dispense with them; and the enterprising Elizabeth, in whose reign the accident happened, sent Raleigh and Drake to explore the West, while Harebone was despatched to open a communication with the East. She wrote a Latin letter, addressed, Augustissimo invictissmoq. principi Sultan Murad Can; in which she seems not only to prize highly the incipient reformation in England, but also to recommend herself to the Turk by a principle common to Islamism, “an unconquerable opposition to idolatry.” Her letter was well received, and Sir E. Barton was appointed her first resident ambassador. He accompanied Amurath in his Hungarian wars, and died on his return to Constantinople. He was buried in the island of Chalki, and his monument still exists in a Greek convent there. Hence originated an English residence at Constantinople, and the establishment of the Levant Company, a body of merchants who, for 240 years, have caused the name of England to be respected in the East, among the most honoured nations of Europe.
Amurath III. was distinguished by the extraordinary number of his children. He had attached himself to a fair Venetian, sold to him as a slave, and raised her to the dignity of Sultana; but she had no children, and the Janissaries began to express their discontent. They accused her of sorcery, and caused her attendants to be put to the torture, to discover what philtres she had used to entangle the sultan’s affection. None were discovered, except a good and amiable disposition. Amurath, however, soon attached himself to so many others, that he filled the seraglio with 200 of his progeny. He died in the year 1595, at the age of 50, leaving 48 children alive.
The first care of his successor, Mahomet III. was the usual resort of Turkish policy. He strangled twenty-four of his brothers−nor was he satisfied with this carnage. He escaped an insurrection of the janissaries, and, suspecting that his favourite Sultana and her son were concerned in it, he caused them to be sewed up in sacks, and drowned in the sea of Marmora. He died in 1603, after a reign of 8 years.
Achmet I. also commenced his reign with a measure of Turkish precaution. He had a brother, and, to render him incapable of reigning, he caused his eyes to be put out. This horrid process is performed in various ways−either by scooping out the eyes; by compressing the forehead till the balls are forced out of their sockets; by rendering the lens opaque with boiling vinegar; or, finally, by heating a metal bason red-hot, the intense glow of which, held to the eye, soon destroys the sensibility of the optic nerve. This latter is said to be the least painful, and has been practised by the more humane. Not satisfied, however, with the operation, and still apprehensive of the janissaries, he caused his blind brother to be strangled. He was, notwithstanding, celebrated for his taste and magnificence; and the mosque, of his erection, and called by his name, is a lasting memorial of these qualities. He died at the early age of twenty-nine, in the year 1617. His reign is remarkable for the first introduction of tobacco into Constantinople, by the Dutch, who then began to trade there, and brought with them this plant from America. It was at first strongly opposed by the mufti as a violation of the koran; but the grand vizir, who became fond of it, ordered it to be served out in rations to the janissaries, and they soon silenced all opposition.
Amurath IV. ascended the throne in 1524. He took Babylon, and caused 30,000 of its inhabitants to be massacred in cold blood, under his own eyes. In addition to the usual cruelty, and disregard of human life, which distinguished other sultans, he adopted a practice peculiarly his own. It was his custom to issue from the palace at night with drawn scimitar in his hand, and not return till he had committed some murder. Another of his favourite amusements was to place himself in a window with a bow and arrows, and pin to the opposite wall any casual passenger. Historians represent him as so fond of shedding human blood, that it seemed to be the aliment on which he lived. His caprice was equal to his cruelty; he found, or made, cause for displeasure in every thing, as a pretext to justify him. He sent thirty poor pilgrims to the galleys, because he did not like their dress. It was his delight to render those unhappy, whom he hesitated to deprive of life. Whenever an ill-assorted marriage was likely to cause this, he adopted it. He broke suitable arrangements, and compelled young girls to marry decrepit old men, and youths of eighteen to unite themselves with women of eighty. He indulged freely in the use of wine, but disliked tobacco, and was so determined that no one else should enjoy it, that he instantly stabbed with his yategan the man on whom he detected the smell of it. One instance only of mercy is recorded in the course of his life. A certain Tiraki was an inveterate smoker, and, to indulge it, he dug a hole in the ground. Here the sultan stumbled upon him, and proceeded at once to despatch him; but the smoker bade him observe, that his edict was issued for the surface of the earth, and was not meant to extend below it. For the first time, he spared the life of an offender. He died in 1640. Unfortunately for his subjects, he reigned fourteen years.
Mahomet IV. was placed on the throne at the age of nine years, but the talent of his vizir compensated for his own want of experience. His reign was distinguished by several remarkable events. The great island of Crete, or Candia, had hitherto resisted Turkish rule. It was determined to reduce it, and, after an obstinate resistance of twenty-four years, it was at length taken by treachery. The Turks lost 200,000 men; and such were the ravages committed, that this fine island remained a desert. A second siege of Vienna followed. Tekeli, the noted Hungarian rebel, had raised the standard of revolt against his sovereign: to aid his plans, the renegade Christian called in the assistance of the greatest enemy of his faith; and Mahomet advanced with an immense army, now certain of realizing the plans of Soliman the Magnificent, and declaring himself Sultan of all Christendom. But his projects were arrested in the moment of their accomplishment, and from a quarter least expected. John Sobiesky advanced from his deserts with his gallant Poles, and signally defeated the Turks in two engagements. They were driven from their strong hold in Pest, the capital of Hungary, of which they had held obstinate possession for 157 years, and retired behind the Danube. Since that time, instead of being the assailants, pushing on their advances into Europe, they merely struggle to keep their position in a European soil. To console himself for his losses, the Sultan, whose disposition seemed susceptible of other enjoyments besides those of war, became attached to rural occupations. The Turks have always been distinguished by their fondness for flowers, and he engaged in the pursuit of cultivating them with more pleasure than any of his predecessors. To encourage it, his vizir, Cara Mustapha, collected, in every pashalik of the empire, whatever was rare and curious in the vegetable world; the seeds, bulbs, and roots of which were conveyed to Constantinople. Hence, as some erroneously say, originated4 that love of flowers which at this day distinguishes the Turks; and Europe is supplied with its most beautiful specimens of floriculture by a rude people, whose coarse and brutal indulgences in other respects, seem incompatible with so elegant an enjoyment. He shortly after caused his favourite vizir to be strangled, on the suspicion of intending to master Vienna, in order to establish a dynasty for himself in Europe. His own death soon followed, by the hands of the discontented Janissaries, after a reign of thirty-nine years.
Achmet II. was more distinguished by the talents of his grand vizir, Kiuprili, than by any act of his own. The father of this man was an instance of the singular and unexpected fortune for which some are remarkable in Turkey. He was a Frenchman, born in a village called Kuperly, in Champaigne, from whence he took his name. He committed a murder, and was obliged to fly, but the boat in which he escaped was taken by Algerine pirates. Under this circumstance, whoever assumes the turban is no longer a slave. He did not hesitate to abjure his faith, and enrolled himself among the Janissaries at Constantinople, where he obtained paramount influence in that turbulent corps. His son was raised to the rank of grand vizir−governed the great Turkish empire−and set up and deposed sovereigns at his pleasure. His destruction was resolved on by the Kislar Aga, who feigned a plot in which he was concerned against the sultan,−while in the act of revealing it, a mute raised the curtain of the tent. Accustomed to listen rather by sight than sound, he at once learned the subject of the conversation by the motion of the lips, and revealed it to Kiuprili. The Kislar Aga was strangled, his secretary hanged in his robes of office with his silver pen-case suspended from his girdle, and Kiuprili remained in the ascendant. As if to mark his hatred of the religion for which his father had apostatized, he caused two patriarchs of the Greek church to be strangled in prison. He was killed in battle in Servia−the Turks were everywhere defeated−and his master soon after died of grief in 1695.
The reign of Mustapha II. was marked by calamities which have never since ceased to afflict the Turkish empire. Besides the ordinary inflictions of war, every other seems to have been laid, by the hand of Providence, on this ruthless nation: Constantinople and Pera were utterly destroyed by fire−a bolt of thunder fell on the imperial mosque, and left it in ruins−the caravan of pilgrims proceeding to Mecca was attacked by Arabs, and 25,000 of them put to the sword−the turbulent Janissaries, availing themselves of every pretext for discontent, were again in a state of insurrection, and compelled the sultan to fly for his life to Adrianople, along with the mufti. Here he was obliged to surrender the unfortunate head of the church, who was treated with every indignity, and then thrown into the river, where he perished. The new mufti, with his son, were seized, tortured, and executed; and the sultan himself was soon after deposed in 1703, and his brother Achmet set on his throne. This military revolt was the most serious that had afflicted the empire since its foundation, and was a prominent feature of that principle of total disorganization, which seemed inherent in the political and moral state of this people.
Achmet III. was called to succeed his brother, and his first act was to avenge himself on the conspirators, who had placed him on the throne in a truly Turkish manner. He disarmed their suspicions by rewards and promises, and, having separated them into various situations of trust and profit, caused every man of them to be strangled in detail.
Notwithstanding the state of insecurity of every thing in Turkey, it nevertheless became in his reign the asylum of the Christian monarchs of Europe. Charles XII. of Sweden, and Stanislaus the king of Poland, whom he had set up, both fled thither for protection: yet, violent and outrageous as was the conduct of “Macedonia’s madman,” whom the Turks for folly and obstinacy called “Ironhead,” both kings were treated with kindness and hospitality. They were followed by their great enemy, the czar Peter, whose usual sagacity seemed to have deserted him. He was shut up behind the Pruth by the Turks, and they had now the opportunity of holding three Christian monarchs in their hands, and dictating what terms they pleased: but avarice, that ruling passion of the Osmanli, saved Peter and his army−Catherine, his wife, who had accompanied him, brought in the night all her personal jewels, and as much money as she could collect, to the czar, who immediately sent them to the grand vizir: he was not able to resist the offer, and the Russian monarch and his army were allowed to depart in peace.
Another circumstance distinguished the reign of Achmet III., even still more important than his being the arbiter of the fate of three Christian kings. The art of printing had now been invented for more than two hundred and fifty years, and every other state in Europe had adopted the important discovery. The Turks alone rejected it, and assigned, as a reason, that it was an impious innovation. They allowed no book but the Koran; they affirmed that it contained every thing necessary for man to know, and any other knowledge was worse than useless. Such was their veneration for this book, that it was strictly forbidden to sit, or lay any weight, upon a copy of it; and if a Frank was detected in the act of doing so, even unwittingly and by accident, he was immediately put to death. This veneration they extend to paper of any kind, because it is the material of which the sacred book is composed, and that on which the name of Allah is written; and hence they strictly prohibit its being desecrated by any common use, and carefully lay up any fragment of it which they accidentally find. The process of printing they consider as compressing and defiling a sacred book, and the mufti denounced it. It was not, then, till the year 1727, that this innovation was tolerated, and a press established at Constantinople. Even then it was done in such a way as was attended with no advantage to an ignorant people. It was still prohibited to print the Koran, and, as that was almost the only book read in the empire, little was added to Turkish knowledge. Achmet was soon after deposed, and the patron of printing deemed unfit to reign.
He was succeeded in 1730 by his nephew Mahomet, the fifth of the name who had ascended the throne of Turkey, but usually called Mahmoud I. It was in his reign the celebrated usurper, Thamas Kouli Khan, seized on the crown of Persia, and war was kindled with the Turks. These nations comprise the two great sects into which the followers of the Prophet are divided. The Persians hold in abhorrence Abubekir and Omar, whom the Turks revere; and they adhere to the doctrines of Ali, whom the Turks abhor. The latter call themselves Sunni, or “the orthodox,” and have no fellowship or communion with the Rafazir or Shiites, “infidels” or “heretics.” They affirm, that Allah may have mercy on Jews and Christians, but he will have none on the Persians, whom he hates sixty and ten times as much as the most inveterate infidels. The enmity, therefore, between the discordant sects of the faithful is even greater than between the faithful and the infidel. It was the enlightened policy of Thamas Kouli Khan to put an end to this bloody dissention, and reconcile the different shades of opinion among the professors of the same religion. It was stipulated as an article in the peace which followed, that their respective priests should labour assiduously to this end; but, like all such attempts, it was unavailing, and the enmity is at this day more inveterate than ever. Mahmoud died in 1754, and was regretted as the least sanguinary of the Ottoman race.
But the time was now approaching when the dynasty of the Mohammedans in Europe seemed hastening to its close. The Russians, ever since the capture of Asoph, on the Mœotis, by Peter the Great, had never ceased advancing on Constantinople. The Turkish territories on the north of the Euxine were intersected by vast rivers which fell into that sea; and the policy of the Russians was, to advance from river to river, and, at the end of every war, to make the last the boundary of their territory, and secure for themselves all that lay behind it. In this way Catherine pushed her frontier to the Dnieper, and built a naval arsenal at Cherson, thereby establishing a naval supremacy on the Black Sea; and, that her object might not be ambiguous, she caused to be inscribed on the western gate, “This is the road to Constantinople.” Meantime, the Turkish government seemed to contain within itself the elements of rapid decay. While all Europe was advancing in the arts and sciences which improve life and strengthen kingdoms, the Turks alone stood still and refused to move−their ignorance inveterate, their obstinacy intractable, their cities falling to ruins, their population daily decreasing, their internal dissensions growing more sanguinary, and, above all, the insolence of the Janissaries without control−interdicting every improvement, paralyzing every effort, utterly inefficient as soldiers, and formidable only to their own government. The first step, therefore, was to establish some force to restrain these men, that the people might be at liberty to follow other states in the march of amelioration: and this was now undertaken by the reigning sovereign.
Selim III. was the most amiable and enlightened man that had yet filled the throne of the Osmanli. He succeeded his uncle, Abdal Hamed Khan, whose sons were infants at the time of their father’s death in 1789. His anxious wish was to correct the prejudices, and enlighten the ignorance of his subjects, by gradually introducing European usages among them. His first improvements were military: a corps was formed, adopting the European discipline, and called the nizam dgeddit, or “new regulation.” Against this innovation the Janissaries revolted: they spurned with indignation all customs but their own; they thought their institutions the perfection of human nature, and that any change must be a degradation. They therefore deposed Selim in 1807, and called to the throne his cousin, Mustapha IV., the son of Abdul Hamed Khan, who had now arrived at adult years. Selim, however, by his many good and amiable qualities, had secured the affections of a large body of his subjects, who, though they did not accede to his military plans, were strongly attached to his person: and among these was Mustapha Bairactar.
This man was a rough soldier, of large stature, and immense bodily strength, fierce in disposition, and coarse in manners, but susceptible of the most affectionate attachment. He was called Bairactar because he had been originally a standard-bearer, and, though now raised to the command of a large army, with the usual pride of a Turk, still retained the original name of the humble rank from which he had raised himself. When he heard that the master he loved was deposed and a prisoner, he hastened with his army to the seraglio, and demanded admission at the great gate of the Babu Humayun.
Mustapha, who was of a light and frivolous, though cruel character, was in the habit of amusing himself daily on the Bosphorus; and when he heard of this insurrection in favour of his deposed cousin, he hastened to land at the sea-gate of the seraglio. He here motioned to his attendant eunuch, who ran to obey his orders. Selim was found in his private apartment, engaged in the performance of the namaz, at the hour of prayer, which he never omitted. In this position he was seized by the eunuch, who attempted to strangle him. He started up, however, and made a vigorous resistance; but his murderer, twining round his legs, seized him in such a way as gave him exquisite pain: he fainted, and in this senseless state was strangled. Meantime, the Bairactar thundered at the great gate, and threatened to batter it down, if the deposed sultan was not produced. He was answered, that his wish should be immediately complied with. The gate was thrown open, and the lifeless Selim cast before him: the rough soldier threw himself upon the body of his gentle master, and wept bitterly.
Another revolution immediately ensued−the cruel and frivolous Mustapha was deposed, and the soldiers searched for his brother Mahmoud, who was known to be in the seraglio, but was no where to be found. It was at length discovered, that a slave attached to his person had immediately seized him when the disturbance began, and hurried him to an oven, where she shut him in, and kept him concealed. From thence he was taken, and placed on the throne. His first act of Turkish policy, immutable in ferocity and disregard of human life, was to cause his brother Mustapha to be strangled; and his next, to cast into the sea all the females of his brother’s harem, lest any of their children, even then unborn, should cause a disputed succession.
The present sultan, Mahmoud II., was born in the year 1788; he was the second son of Abdul Hamed Khan, and is now the only survivor of fifteen male children. He was placed on the throne on the 28th of July, 1808, and from the moment of his elevation showed symptoms of that energetic and resolute character which has since distinguished him. The Russians had advanced from the Pruth to the Danube, and, in the disorganized state of the Turkish army, there was no force to oppose them. The young sultan erected the standard of the Prophet at Daud Pasha, just within the walls of Constantinople; he raised a large army, and the Russians were compelled to retire without crossing the Balkan mountains, as all Europe expected; but they left behind them, in the bosom of the Turkish empire, a more formidable force than their own arms−and this was, the discontented Greeks.
The Greeks, retaining that excitability and impatience of control which ever distinguished that nation, and which centuries of slavery and oppression could not subdue, were ever ready instruments in the hands of the Russians, to embarrass and annoy their enemies. The identity of their religion, the Russians having early become members of the Greek church, gave them a powerful influence, and in 1790 a deputation of Greeks waited upon the Empress Catherine, to request her interference. One of her sons was baptized Constantine, the favourite name of the Greek emperors, brought up by a Greek nurse, and intended for the throne of Constantinople. Several attempts at revolt were unsuccessful. Their allies always sacrificed the unfortunate Greeks to their own plans of ambition: every insurrection was followed by confiscation and massacre, and at length it was proposed, in the divan, to cut off the whole race, and extirpate the name of Greek. From this they were preserved by the avarice of the Turks, for, were this measure executed, there would be no one to pay the capitation tax; and this appeal to their cupidity alone saved a whole nation.
The Greeks, however, were now become an opulent and intelligent people; availing themselves of all the lights and advantages which the Turks neglected, they had accompanied the rest of Europe in the march of improvement, and determined to rely no longer on Russian faith−but to attempt their own emancipation. A mysterious society, called Hetairia, was ramified wherever a Greek community was established, who prepared for another insurrection. In the year 1815 a secret meeting was held at Constantinople, and it was resolved on. Six years after, the standard of revolution was raised by Ypselantes, in Moldavia. It was responded to by a general rising in other places, and, after a sanguinary conflict against the whole power of the vast Turkish empire, their independence was finally established, a new nation was recognized in Europe, and modern Greece for ever severed from their barbarian masters.
The utter impotence of the Turkish power was so clearly established by this event, that it was obvious nothing but a change of its institutions could save it from total dissolution. Mahmoud therefore was determined to effect this change, or perish in the attempt. His preliminary step was the extirpation of the Janissaries. This desperate militia now turned up their kettles in the Atmeidan and 40,000 men rushed round them. The sultan caused the standard of the Prophet to be displayed in the Mosque of Achmet, and all the well-affected flocked to it. He required a fetva from the Sheik Islam, to authorise him to kill the Janissaries if they resisted: it was granted by the chief of the Faith, and he sent his adherent, Kara Gehenna, or “the black infernal,” to execute it. The Janissaries were surrounded with artillery, and he at once opened a discharge with grape-shot on the dense crowd. He battered down their kislas, or barracks, over their heads, and never ceased till this fierce and formidable body of men were left a monument in the midst of Constantinople, a mound of mangled flesh and smoking ashes slaked in blood. To perpetuate the utter destruction of this corps, and ensure its extinction, a firman was issued, obliterating its very name, and declaring it penal for any man ever to pronounce it.
Just before the destruction of the Janissaries at Constantinople, that of the Mamelukes had been effected in Egypt. These descendants of Christian slaves, equally formidable to the Porte, had been doomed to like destruction by the predecessor of Mahmoud. They were invited to a feast on board the Capitan Pasha’s ship, when the most formidable of their chiefs were seized and strangled. The remnant were induced, by solemn promises of protection to enter the fortress of Cairo, when every man of them was sacrificed in cold blood, without pity or remorse. Thus these two corps, originally formed and recruited from a Christian population, became, in the hands of the Osmanli, for many centuries, the most powerful and unrelenting opponents of the people professing the faith of their ancestors, and at length became so formidable to their employers as to render their own destruction necessary. Not a remnant of these extraordinary renegades, now exists in the world, and the very names of Mameluke and Janissary are condemned to everlasting oblivion.
The energetic and terrible sultan, having thus silenced opposition, and created unanimity to his plans, by putting to death every man that presumed to differ from him in opinion, proceeded rapidly with his reforms. A new order of things was every where established. The soldiers, who were a mere uncontrollable rabble, every one dressed according to his own fancy, and doing whatever seemed good in his eyes, were now clad in regular uniform, subject to discipline, and exercised in European tactics. Civil usages which stamped the Turks with barbarism, were abolished. Ambassadors, who represented infidel kings, were no longer dragged by the neck into the presence of the sovereign of the faithful like criminals, or sent to his prison like malefactors; but, above all, knowledge was no longer proscribed as an impious acquisition, and ignorance cherished as a venerable quality. Lancasterian schools were opened; literary works on various subjects were written by Turks, and published at the press at Constantinople, now revived for that purpose; and, finally, an innovation was introduced, supposed to be altogether hopeless and extraordinary, among a people so stubborn and prejudiced: to spread the lights of European knowledge with more rapidity, and present them daily to the eyes of every man, four newspapers were established in the capital, in Turkish, Greek, Armenian, and French, for the different people that compose the population; and thus 700,000 persons, the calculated number of inhabitants on both peninsulas, instead of being kept in utter darkness of every thing around them, are now constantly apprised of all that passes, not only in their own, but in every other country. The arts, the sciences, the improvements in social life, the incidents and events which happen in the world, are subjects to which the attention of the Turk is now turned, and the fictions of his “story-tellers” are superseded by the realities of life. Every day the distinctions which marked this great capital, as an Asiatic city on an European soil, are beginning to disappear, and it is probable that, in a few years, such an amalgamation of its inhabitants with those of other European cities will take place, that the strong characteristics which lately distinguished it will only be found in our pictorial representations.
Those individuals only of each dynasty are noticed who reigned at Constantinople.
Family of Constantine.
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus I. was born in Britain, A.D. 272; crowned at Rome, 306; transferred the seat of empire to Constantinople, and dedicated the city to Christ, 330; died 337, after a reign of thirty years and nine months. The place of his birth is doubtful; by some said to be Dacia; by others, Britain, of which his father was governor, where he married Helena, a British lady. Among other evidence is the panegyric of Eumenes, “Oh, Britain! blessed of all lands, who first beheld Cæsar Constantinus,” &c. Constantine was esteemed an eloquent preacher, and one of his sermons has come down to us. He left behind him three sons, who succeeded him.
Flavius Julius Constantinus II. Junior, succeeded his father: he was born at Arles, 312; crowned, 337; and was killed in 340 in battle, and his body cast into the river Alsa.
Flavius Julius Constantinus was born in Pannonia, 318; crowned, 326; and died of apoplexy, 361.
Flavius Julius Constans I. was born 330; crowned, 333; and died, 350. The manner of his death is disputed: he either was killed in battle, or put an end to his own life, to escape his enemies.
Flavius Claudius Julianus, nephew of Constantine the Great, was born at Constantinople in 332; crowned, 361; and died, 363. He was killed in battle in Persia, by an arrow from a Persian horseman. He endeavoured to extinguish Christianity, and obtained the name of the Apostate. In him the family of Constantine terminated.
Family of Jovian.
Flavius Jovianus was born in Pannonia in 324; crowned, 363; and died, 364. He was suffocated by the fumes of charcoal. He revived Christianity, but lived only seven months and twenty-one days after he came to the throne.
Family of Valentinianus.
Flavius Valerius Valentinianus I. was born in Pannonia in 321; crowned, 364; and died, 375, of apoplexy.
Flavius Gratianus was born in Belgium in 359; crowned, 367; and killed in battle, 385. The empire was now divided into Eastern and Western; Valentinianus II. was nominated to the latter, and Valens to the former.
Flavius Valens was born in Pannonia in 328; crowned, 376; and burnt to death in a cottage in Thrace by the Goths, 378.
Family of Theodosius.
Flavius Theodosius I. was born at Seville in Spain in 335; crowned, 379; and died, 395, of a dropsy. He obtained the name of the Great for his achievements. Among others, he restored peace in Britain, when disturbed by the Picts. To encourage the arts, he erected a splendid column at Constantinople, to rival that of Trajan at Rome. It was cast down by an earthquake, and no longer exists.
Flavius Arcadius was born in 379; crowned, 395; and died, 408. He followed his father’s example in erecting a splendid column: both have been prostrated by earthquakes. His brother Honorius succeeded to the Western empire.
Flavius Theodosius II. junior, was born in 401; and died, 450. He was nominated to the empire the year after his birth. He reestablished public schools at Constantinople, with a view to revive literature, and published the Theodosian code of laws. In his reign the Romans abandoned Britain, never to return.
Marcianus was born in Thrace, of obscure parents, in 387; crowned, 450; and died, 456. He erected a pillar at Constantinople, which still stands. In early life, he found the body of a man, and buried it; but he was accused of the murder, and would have been executed, had not the real murderer appeared, and saved him.
Family of Leo.
Flavius Leo I., (Macela,) was a native of Thrace, called to the empire in 457, and died in 474, after a reign of seventeen years and six months. He was the first Christian potentate of the East crowned by an ecclesiastic. After him, the ceremony was generally performed by the patriarch. He obtained the name of the Great.
Flavius Leo II. minor, was born 457; and died 474, aged 17, having reigned but ten months. He was the grandson of Leo I.
Flavius Zeno, (Tarasicodista,) was born in Isauria, in 426, succeeded Leo II. as sole emperor, and died in 491, having reigned seventeen years. Some affirm he was buried alive by his wife. The term Tarasicodista was an Isaurian name, which he changed for Zeno. Under him, the Western Empire was entirely destroyed, and Odoacer, king of the Heruli, was proclaimed king of Italy. For fifty years after, till the time of Justinian, the reigns of the emperors are obscure and indistinct.
Family of Anastatius.
Flavius Anastatius, I. (Dicorus,) was born at Dyrrachium, in 430, and was killed by lightning in his palace in 518, having reigned twenty-seven years and eleven months. He was distinguished for running a wall from the Euxine to the Propontis, and including a triangular space, called the “Delta of Thrace.”
Family of Justinus Thrax.
Flavius Anicius Justinus I. was born in 450, in Illyria, called to the throne on the death of Anastatius, and died in 527, after a reign of eight years and seven months.
Flavius Anicius Justinianus I. was born in Dacia, in 482, and died in 565, after a long reign of thirty-seven years and seven months, which was devoted to useful objects. Besides the erection of the church of St. Sophia, he introduced the culture of silk into Europe, and caused to be drawn up the codes, pandects, institutes, and, a few years after, the digest of laws, forming a system of civil jurisprudence, which is an everlasting monument of his reign. Under him, Proclus, a second Archimedes, set fire to the Gothic fleet by means of a concave mirror of brass.
Flavius Anicius Justinus II. junior, (Curopalata,) was born in Thrace, crowned on the death of his uncle Justinian, and died in 578, after a reign of twelve years and ten months. He had been superintendent of the palace, and hence the title Curopalata.
Family of Tiberius.
Flavius Anicius Tiberius, I. called the New Constantine, was born in Thrace, and died in 582, after a reign of three years and ten months.
Flavius Mauricius Tiberius II. was born in Cappadocia, in 539, and was killed in 602, having reigned twenty years and three months. In his reign Augustine and his monks proceeded to preach Christianity in Britain, and the Saxon heptarchy commenced.
Family of Phocas.
Flavius Phocas was crowned in 602; he died in 610, after a reign of eight years. He murdered his predecessor Mauricius, and decapitated him and his five children: he was himself assassinated by his successor Heraclius. He is represented as a monster among the emperors: his person small and deformed; his hair and eyebrows red and shaggy; and his cheeks disfigured with scars; his temper was savage; his pleasures brutal; and he was grossly ignorant, not only of letters, but his own profession−war. From the time of Justinian, the pleadings of the courts had been in Latin, but from the reign of Phocas, they were held in Greek, and the writings formed a barbarous mixture of Greek and Latin characters.
Family of Heraclius.
Flavius Heraclius, son of the præfect of Africa, sailed to Constantinople, and having put Phocas to death, was crowned in 610. He died in 641, of dropsy, after a reign of thirty years and five months. He was distinguished for his conquests over the Persians, and for his pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true cross; the ceremony resulting from it is still called “the Elevation of the Cross.” In his reign Mohammed fled from Mecca to Medina, and the era of the Hegira commenced.
Flavius Heraclius II. or Constantinus III. was born in 612; and died by poison in 641; having reigned but one hundred and three days. He was associated in the empire with his brother Heracleonas.
Flavius Heraclius Constans II. was born in 630; and was smothered in a bath in 668; after a reign of twenty-seven years.
Flavius Constantinus IV., (Pogonatus,) died in 685; after a reign of seventeen years. He was called Pogonatus, or “the Bearded,” because when he went against the tyrant of Sicily to avenge his brother’s death, he would not suffer his beard to be cut till he had effected his purpose. In his reign the city was besieged by the Saracens, and their fleet destroyed by the Greek fire.
Flavius Justinianus II., (Rhinometus,) was born about the year 670, and was killed in 711; he reigned first ten years. He was called Rhinometus because he was seized by his enemy Leontius, who cut off his nose. After a reign of seven years he was deposed, and then restored, and reigned six more. With him and his young son was extinguished the race of Heraclius, after enjoying the sovereignty for one hundred years.
Filepicus Bardanes, was blinded, and deposed one year and six months after his coronation.
Anastatius II., (Artemius,) was crowned in 713; resigned; and was put to death by Leo Isaurus, when he attempted again to recover the crown.
Theodosius III. was crowned in 715; resigned. His sanctity in retirement was such, that he was reputed to work miracles.
Family of Leo Isaurus.
Flavius Leo III., called Conon, died of a dropsy in 741; after a reign of twenty-four years and eleven months. He was called the Isaurian, from the country whence his family came to Constantinople. He began the first reformation in the Greek church, by causing all images to be pulled down, and excluded from places of worship as idolatrous.
Flavius Constantinus V., (Copronimus,) was born, 719; and died, 775; after a reign of thirty-five years and eleven months. He was in derision called Copronimus, because he defiled the font at his baptism. During his long reign he followed up the reformation of his father, and was seconded by the people, who formed themselves into associations, called Iconoclasts or “image breakers,” and destroyed every such idolatrous representation. He also suppressed monasteries. The writers of the Latin church represented Copronimus as “chained with demons in the infernal abyss;” while the Greeks venerated his tomb, and prayed before it as that of a heaven-directed saint. In his reign, historians first dated from, the birth of Christ.
Flavius Leo IV., (Chazarus,) was born at Constantinople in 750; and died of a fever in 780, after a reign of five years. He followed up the reformation, and the Latin writers affirm that he sacrilegiously took a crown with precious stones, from the church of Santa Sophia, and when he placed it on his head, his face burst out into carbuncles, similar to those in the crown, as a punishment for his impiety, and this caused the fever of which he died.
Flavius Leo Constantinus VI. was born at Constantinople in 771; and died in 797; after his eyes had been put out, he reigned seven years. In concert with his mother, Irené, he restored the worship of images, for which he is highly praised by Latin writers.
Flavius Nicephorus I. was born in Seleucia; he was drawn into an ambush by the Bulgarians, and killed in battle in 811; having reigned nine years and nine months.
Flavius Stauricius was presented with the diadem by his father Nicephorus in 803. He was grievously wounded in battle, and, after lingering in hopeless pain, he became a monk, and retired to a monastery, where he died in 812.
Michael I., (Rhangabe Curopalata,) married the daughter of Nicephorus; was proclaimed emperor in 811, on the death of his father-in-law; but was deposed, and died in a monastery, after a reign of one year and ten months.
Family of Leo the Armenian.
Flavius Leo V., (Armenus,) was born in Armenia, and crowned in 813; and was assassinated while celebrating divine service in his palace in 820; after a reign of seven years and five months.
Family of Michael Balbus.
Flavius Michael II. (the Stammerer,) was born in Phrygia, crowned in 820; and died in 829, of a dysentery, having reigned eight years and nine months. He was named Balbus from a hesitation in his voice. He revived the reformation by expelling images from churches.
Flavius Theophilus, called Augustus by his father, was born in 820, crowned in 829, and died in 842; having reigned twelve years and three months. He vigorously continued the reformation of the church, and is thus described, Is impietatis paternæ æmulus cultores imaginum persecutus est.
Flavius Michael III., (Ebriosus,) was born in 836; crowned in 842; and was assassinated in 867. He acquired the name of Ebriosus, or the Drunken, from his constant intemperance. He suffered his mother, Theodora, to introduce images into churches. The sister of the king of Bulgaria having embraced Christianity, he and all his subjects, by her persuasion, became converts in this reign. Clocks were then first brought from Venice to Constantinople.
Family of Basilius Macedo.
Flavius Basilius I., (Cephalos,) was born in Macedonia, crowned in 866, and died in 886. He was called Cephalos from the size of his head. He was a zealous promoter of image worship. In his reign, Alfred king of England died.
Flavius Leo VI., the Philosopher, was crowned by his father at the age of five years in 870; and died in 911. He devoted a long reign of twenty-five years, after his father’s death, to literary pursuits, and composed works which have come down to us: amongst others, a “Treatise on Tactics.”
Flavius Constantinus VII., (Porphyrogenitus,) the son of Leo VI. by his fourth wife, was born in 905; crowned in 913; and died in the year 959, of poison, administered by his own son. He was called Porphyrogenitus, or born in the purple, because an apartment in the palace was lined with that colour, in which his birth took place. It was a title generally given to those whose fathers were on the throne when they were born, a rare distinction in the Lower Empire. He was the first to whom the distinction was applied. His birth was accompanied by the appearance of a comet. He was distinguished for his devotion to literature, and left behind him “the Geography of the Empire,” and other works. In his reign Arabic numerals were first used for the clumsy prolixity of alphabetic letters.
Romanus I., (Lecapenus,) was born in Armenia, crowned in 919; and died in 946. His reign was remarkable by the siege of Constantinople by the Bulgarians.
Romanus II. junior, was born in 937; and crowned in 959. He died of poison in 963; after a reign of four years.
Basilius II., (Bulgarotoctonos,) was born in 955; crowned in 960; and died in 1025. He obtained the name “Bulgarian-killer,” from the cruelty he exercised over them. He took 15,000 prisoners, and ordered the eyes to be scooped out from the heads of every ninety-nine out of one hundred.
Nicephorus II. (Phocas,) was born at Constantinople, and crowned, 963, on the death of Romanus. He was assassinated by Zemisces, and other conspirators, in 969.
Flavius Constantinus VIII. son of Lecapenus, was associated with his brother, and in 1026, became sole emperor at the age of sixty-nine, and died in 1028. It was in his reign the practice of duelling was introduced: one, fought in 1026, is the first on record in the annals of the empire.
Johannes Zemisces was a domestic in the palace while Nicephorus Phocas enjoyed the crown. After his assassination, he assumed himself the purple, but was poisoned in 975, after a reign of six years.
Constantinus IX., brother of Basilius II., was born in 961, and reigned singly, after the death of Basilius, three years. He died in 1028, having enjoyed the title of Augustus sixty-six years. The reign of the two brothers, with the intervening usurpations, is the longest and most obscure in Byzantine history.
Romanus III., (Argyrus,) succeeded to the empire in 1028, and was put to death by his wife Zoe in 1034. She had administered slow poison, but, impatient of its operation, caused him to be suffocated in a bath by an eunuch, who held his head under water.
Michael IV., (Paphlagonicus,) was born in Paphlagonia, crowned in 1034, and afterwards retired to a monastery in 1041. He married Zoe after the assassination of her former husband, and his death was hastened by never-ceasing remorse. The first schism commenced in this reign between the Greek and Latin churches.
Michael V., (Calaphates,) was crowned in 1041, and was put to death the same year, after a reign of four months. He was called Calaphates because his trade had been careening boats.
Zoe & Theodora, (the Matrons,) were crowned in 1042. They were taken at an advanced age, one from a prison, and the other from a monastery. Zoe, at the age of sixty, took a third husband, and died in 1050.
Flavius Constantinus X., (Monomachus,) was crowned in 1042. He was called Monomachus from his bravery in single combat. He died in 1055, having survived his atrocious wife Zoe two years. In his reign the Turks first entered the territories of the Greek empire in Asia.
Theodora was crowned sole empress in 1055, at the age of seventy-six, and reigned one year and ten months. She took an associate, and thus for twenty years two feeble sisters, and one an abandoned profligate, nominated whom they pleased to the empire.
Michael VI., (Stratioticus,) was crowned in 1056, and resigned the year after. He obtained the name of Stratioticus from his supposed skill in war. His aged and feeble associate died just before, the last of the Basilian dynasty.
Family of the Comneni.
Isaak I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1057, and resigned in 1059. The name of Comnenus is one of the most distinguished of the Lower Empire.
Family of Ducas.
Flavius Constantinus XI., (by some IX.) (Ducas,) was crowned in 1060, and died a natural death in 1066. During his reign Jerusalem was taken by the Turks and Saracens, William the Conqueror entered England, and the Norman dynasty began.
Eudocia was crowned in 1067, on the death of her husband, and reigned alone but one year. She was expelled from the palace, and lingered in obscurity till the time of Anna Comnena, who saw her alive in 1096.
Romanus IV., (Diogenes,) was crowned in 1068, and was killed in 1071. He had married Eudocia, and was nominated to the crown in prejudice of her sons. He was taken prisoner by the Turks, who scooped out his eyes; of which he died, covered with worms, and in extreme misery.
Michael VII.,(Parapinace,) crowned in 1071, and resigned in 1078, and retired to a monastery. He was called Parapinace because he had suffered the bushel of corn to be reduced to the size of a quart. He associated his two brothers with him in the empire, under the names of Andronicus I. and Constantine XII.
Nicephorus III., (Botoniates,) was crowned 1078: he resigned in 1081, and entered a monastery. In his reign, Doomsday Book began to be compiled in England, to ascertain the tenure of estates.
Restoration of the Family of Comnenus.
Alexius I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1081, and died in 1118. He lived to the age of seventy-one, and reigned thirty-seven. His daughter, Anna Comnena, illustrated this era by her writings. The history of her father’s eventful reign is yet extant. In England, William Rufus and Henry I. were his contemporaries, and the first crusade commenced. Johannes II., (Comnenus,) Kalojohannes, began his reign in 1118, and died in 1143, of the wound of a poisoned arrow, accidentally inflicted by himself. He obtained the name of Kalojohannes for his personal beauty. His contemporary in England was Stephen.
Manuel I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1143, and died in 1180. In his reign the canon law was drawn up, and the second crusade commenced.
Alexius II., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1180, and died in 1183. He was murdered by his successor Andronicus.
Andronicus I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1183, and died in 1185. He was cruelly put to death, also, by his successor, who caused his eyes to be put out, and his hands cut off, and then led him through the city, seated on a camel, when he was torn in pieces by the multitude.
Isaak II., (Angelus,) was crowned in 1185, and in 1195 his eyes were put out. In his reign the third crusade commenced. His contemporary in England was Richard I.
Alexius III., (Angelus) was crowned in 1195, and died in 1204. The deposition of his brother Isaak was the pretext to the Crusaders for the sack of Constantinople.
Isaak III., Alexius IV., Alexius V., (Ducas Mourzoufle,) 1203. In six months, five emperors were crowned at Constantinople; three were murdered, and two fled. Mourzoufle (so called from his dark eyebrows) was cast from the monument of Theodosius. The Crusaders took and sacked the city, and the empire was partitioned: Lascaris obtained Nicæa and Bythinia; Alexius, Trebisond; and Michael, Epirus.
Frank Family.
Baldwin I., (Robert,) crowned in 1204. He was drawn into an ambush by the Greeks and Bulgarians, by whom some say he was cut to pieces. He never afterwards appeared. Aristotle’s works were now first brought from Constantinople, Ghengis Khan reigned in Tartary, and Magna Charta was extorted from king John in England.
Henry was called to the throne on the supposed death of his brother in 1206, and reigned 10 years.
Baldwin II. was crowned in 1228; deposed in 1261. He fled to Italy. The Latin dynasty was extinguished, and the Greek restored. The Inquisition was established in the Latin church. Henry III. reigned in England.
Family of the Palæologi.
Michael VIII., (Palæologus) crowned in 1262; died in 1283. He was regent during the minority of John Lascaris, whom he put to death. He endeavoured to effect an union between the Greek and Latin churches without success. The Mamelukes now seized on Egypt. Edward I. reigned in England.
Andronicus II., (Palæologus,) was crowned in 1283, and abdicated in 1328. He retired to a monastery, where he lived to the age of seventy-four. The Turks seized on Bythinia, and Othman established his capital at Brusa. From him they are since called Ottomans, or Osmanli. Edward II. reigned in England.
Andronicus III., (Palæologus,) crowned in 1328, having deposed his grandfather, with whom he had been associated. He died of an irregular life in 1341. Edward III. reigned in England.
Johannes III., (Cantacuzene,) was crowned in 1342, and abdicated in 1355. He retired, with his wife, to a monastery, where he lived till 1411. He there composed the “History of his own Time,” which is still extant. In his reign the Turks first entered Europe.
Johannes IV., (Palæologus,) was crowned on his father Andronicus’s death, in 1341, and died in 1391. In his reign Amurath took Adrianople, and established a capital in Europe. Richard II. reigned in England.
Manuel II., (Palæologus,) was crowned sole emperor in 1391, and died in 1425. In his reign, Bajazet laid siege to Constantinople, which was raised by Tamerlane. Henry IV. and Henry V. reigned in England.
Johannes V., (Palæologus,) crowned sole emperor in 1425, and died of the gout in 1448. In his reign the art of printing was first discovered in Europe. Henry VI. was his contemporary of England.
Constantinus XIII., by some XI., (Palæologus,) was crowned in 1448, and killed in 1453. Mohammed took the city of Constantinople, and put an end to the Greek empire. Constantine had two brothers−Demetrius, who basely submitted to slavery, and permitted his daughter to be received into the conqueror’s harem; and Thonas, who made vigorous efforts to rescue Greece from the Ottoman power. He finally retired to Italy. His children proceeded to England, where he died: and the ashes of the last of the family of the Greek dynasty repose among the free in Britain, where their monument is still to be seen in Llanulph Church in Cornwall. It is remarkable, that the first Christian emperor of the East was born, and the descendants of the last, repose in England.
TURKISH DYNASTY
Mahomet II., (Fatih,) He was proclaimed sultan in 1451, and took possession of Constantinople on the memorable 29th of May, 1453. He died of a colic in 1481. The title of Fatih, or “the Conqueror” was given to him on the occasion, as opening a way into the Christian capital. He prepared an epitaph to be placed on his tomb, containing the names of all the kings, countries, and cities he had conquered. His contemporary in England was Edward IV.
Bajazet II. He was proclaimed in 1481, and ceased to reign in 1512. His son Selim had appointed for him a place of retreat such as he wished, but in the meantime had corrupted his physician, who poisoned him at Tzurallo. His contemporaries in England were Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry VIII.
Selim I. (Yavuz) began his reign in 1512, and died of a fever in 1520. His contemporary in England was Henry VIII.
Soliman I. (by some II.) (Kanuni) began his reign in 1520; and terminated it in 1566. He is generally called in Europe the “Magnificent,” but by Turks, Kanuni, or the “Institutor,” as he drew up a list of institutes by which the kingdom was afterwards to be governed, instead of those traditions which had before been their unwritten law. His contemporaries in England were, Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth.
Selim II. succeeded his father Soliman in 1566; he died in 1574. Contrary to the usual temperament of a Turkish sovereign, he was fond of peace, and sighed for repose, particularly after the loss of the terrible battle of Lepanto, in which Cervantes lost an arm. His contemporary in England was Elizabeth.
Amurath III. succeeded his father Selim in 1574; and died in 1595; a victim to melancholy and a morbid imagination. The discharge of a cannon broke the windows of his kiosk, as he reclined on his divan. Supposing that this portended his death, he died in a fever under that impression. His contemporary in England was Elizabeth, who wrote him a Latin letter.
Mohammed III. succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Mohammed in 1595; he died in 1603. He drowned all the odalisks, or female slaves, of the seraglio, suspected of pregnancy, and put to death nineteen of his brothers on the first day of his elevation. He, from policy, was advised by his mother to affect a dissipated life, and contracted a habit which he could not afterwards get rid of. He died prematurely of excess. His only contemporary in England was Elizabeth.
Achmet I. came to the throne in 1603; and died in 1607. He escaped the fate usually attendant on a younger brother in Turkey, by the premature death of his elder. His life was attempted by a Dervish, who hurled a large stone on him from the roof of a house, which bruised his shoulder. He supposed that dogs communicated the plague, and he ordered them all to be killed; but the mufti saved them, by affirming that every dog had a soul. His contemporary in England was James I.
Osman, or Othman II. succeeded his father Achmet in 1617; he was strangled by the janissaries in 1621, at the early age of nineteen years. A meteoric phenomenon, which assumed the appearance of a huge cymeter, was seen in the sky in his reign for a month, which the Turks were persuaded portended to them the conquest of the world. Charles I. was his contemporary in England.
Mustapha I. was dragged from prison, and set on the throne by the janissaries in 1621, on the death of his nephew Osman. In 1623 he was compelled to resign by the turbulent janissaries, and re-entered the prison from which they had taken him. James I. reigned in England.
Amurath IV. began his reign in 1624; and ended it in 1640; having hastened his death by an intemperate use of wine and ardent spirits, so as to break down a strong constitution at the age of thirty-one. He had conceived the extraordinary projects of extinguishing the Ottoman race, by putting his brother Ibrahim to death; but his own death anticipated his intention. He annexed Bagdad to the empire. In his reign, Cyril Lascaris, the Greek patriarch, published, at the patriarchal press, a confession of eighteen articles, declaring the faith of the Greeks on these points, similar to that of the reformed church in Europe. The contemporary reign in England was that of Charles I.
Ibrahim, succeeded his brother in 1640, and was strangled by the janissaries in 1668. He was a miserable-looking man, had a pale visage, scanty beard, seamed with the small-pox, mean appearance, spare person, hypochondriac, and subject to the falling sickness. His contemporary in England was Charles I.
Mohammed IV. the son of Ibrahim, ascended the throne in 1648, at the age of seven years. He was deposed in 1687, and shut up in the seraglio, where he lingered in solitude four years. In the year 1666, in this reign, Sabathi Levi, or Sevi, appeared in Palestine as the expected Messiah, and was invited to Constantinople by the sultan, who promised to restore Jerusalem. Multitudes of people, both Turks and Jews, believed on him. Among other miracles, he professed to be invulnerable; but when he was set up as a mark to be shot at, his courage failed, and he confessed the imposture. Contemporary governments in England, “the Commonwealth,” Charles II.
Soliman II. (III.) brother to the former, succeeded in 1687; and died in 1691, of a dropsy. He was austere and indisposed to accept the throne. He passed his whole time in studying the koran. In his reign Lewin Warner, the Dutch ambassador at the Port, caused the Bible to be translated at Constantinople into the Turkish language. The MS. remained from that time shut up in the University of Leyden, till it was discovered, and lately published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Some copies were circulated among the Turks of Constantinople in the year 1824, which caused a firman to be issued for their suppression. English sovereigns, Charles II., James II.
Achmet II. the younger brother of Mohammed, succeeded to the throne in 1691; he died in 1695. His mind was mean and powerless, and his person bloated: he had large staring eyes, and a very long nose. Contemporaries in England, William and Mary.
Mustapha II. brother to Achmet, succeeded him in 1695; he abdicated the throne in 1703. His contemporaries in England were William III. and Anne.
Achmet III. the brother of Mustapha, succeeded in 1703; after a reign of twenty-seven years of prosperity, he too was compelled by the turbulent janissaries, to abdicate the throne in 1730; the third whom the caprice of the people had dethroned in fifty years. His contemporaries in England were Anne, George I., and George II.
Mahmoud I., or Mohammed V., the nephew of Achmet, succeeded in 1730; he died in 1754, after a mild reign of twenty-four years. He was condescending and humble, and much regretted. It is a precept of Islamism, that every man should be prepared for his destiny, and able to support it by some useful employment. Many sultans were mechanics, and so was Mahmoud; he was a cunning worker in ivory, which he wrought with a dexterity far exceeding that of a Turk. His contemporary in England was George II.
Othman III. the brother of Mahmoud, succeeded him in 1754; he died in 1757. His reign was distinguished by the persevering and sanguinary efforts of the Russians to effect their great object of advancing to Constantinople, by urging the Greeks to insurrection. His contemporary in England was George II.
Mustapha III. (Gazi,) nephew of Othman, and son of Achmet III., began his reign in 1757; and died in 1776. His uncle had administered poison to himself and two brothers; they perished, but he survived, and ever after retained the traces of it. The approximation of Turks to European habits and improvements, began with him. He ordered Boerhaave and Machiavel to be translated into Turkish, and commanded his son to be inoculated; and he founded a library and an academy. He made vigorous efforts against the Russians, and was thus called Gazi, “The Victorious.” George III. reigned in England.
Abdul Hamed, the last of the sons of Achmet III. succeeded in 1776; he died in 1789. His reign, like his predecessors, was marked by the advance of the Russians to their great object. Sovereign in England, George III.
Selim III. the only son of Mustapha, succeeded in 1789, to the exclusion of the children of Abdul Hamed. He was deposed by the janissaries in 1807, and afterwards strangled for attempting to alter their discipline, and establish a nizam dgeddite, or new corps. He was an amiable and enlightened prince. Contemporary in England George III.
Mustapha IV. was the eldest son of Abdul Hamed, and succeeded in 1807; after a brief reign of one year, he too was deposed in 1808, and afterwards strangled. Sovereign in England George III.
Mahmoud II. or Mohammed VI. succeeded his brother in 1808. He extirpated the turbulent janissaries, remodelled the empire, and, amid more perils, perhaps, than ever sovereign encountered, he still reigns. He is the thirtieth monarch of the Ottoman dynasty, and the twenty-fourth on the throne of Constantinople, and has seen four fill the throne of England−George III., George IV., William IV., Victoria.