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CHAP. V. these allies engaged to make preparations for a vigorous attack on the Othoman dominions, and high expectations were entertained that the young Mohammed would be expelled from Asia Minor; but, as often happens among allies, each member of the alliance trusted that his neighbour would prove more active and energetic than himself.

At this critical conjuncture Joannes IV. died before witnessing the effects of the storm he had laboured to raise. He left a son named Alexios, only four years old, who was set aside to allow his uncle David to mount the imperial throne. No respect for the rights of their nearest relations seems ever to have influenced the minds of Greek princes or nobles, to whom any chance of ascending a throne presented itself. The ambition of wearing a crown annihilated every private virtue. From the days of the tyrants of Hellenic history, to those of the emperors of Constantinople and Trebizond, the feelings of family affection and the ties of duty were habitually neglected or contemned. The depravity of the house of Grand-Komnenos may have led David to violate his duty; but the peculiar difficulties of the times would have served him as an apology for departing from the ordinary rules of succession, had it been possible by such a change to place an able administrator or an experienced warrior at the head of the government. In an ill-organised state a regency is often a greater evil than a usurpation. David, the new emperor, was a weak and cowardly man, and his conduct in usurping his nephew's place was the result of mere pride and vanity, not of noble or patriotic ambition. He had secured the support of the powerful family of the Kabasites, who were now independent lords of the province of Mesochaldion; and this alliance, joined to the indifference of the people, fortified him against all opposition.1 He could likewise pretend that the rule of succession to the empire was not so

1 Chalcocondylas, 262.

REIGN OF DAVID.

clearly laid down as to exclude an uncle of full preference to his nephew when a minor.

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SECT. III.-REIGN OF DAVID. CONQUEST OF TREBIZOND BY SULTAN
MOHAMMED II.-1458-1461.

David was a fit agent for consummating the ruin of an empire. Proud, effeminate, and incapable, he blindly rushed forward in the course of policy his more energetic brother had traced out. All his attention was required to prepare for the coming war with the Othoman sultan ; and he was fortunate enough to gain a respite of two years before the commencement of hostilities, in consequence of Mohammed considering that the affairs of the Greek despots in the Morea required to be finally adjusted before transferring the bulk of the Othoman armies into Asia. The haughty stupidity of David appears to have rendered him unable to appreciate the value of the strict discipline of the Janissaries, and the admirable organisation of the sultan's armies, though he had seen them in full activity as he stood a suppliant before the Sublime Porte when soliciting the treaty for his brother. He was too little either of a soldier or a statesman to be sensible of the dangers of the contest into which he was hurrying. Yet he must have contemplated the possibility of his capital being besieged by Mohammed II., as it had often been by far weaker enemies. But even for this contingency he made no reasonable preparation. Nothing but the most complete ignorance of the changes which had recently taken place in the military art could induce any officer in Trebizond to fancy that the antiquated defences of the capital could offer any prolonged resistance to the system of attack with heavy artillery, of which the fall of Constantinople was a recent and terrific example. The romantic tower, crowning the highest point of the citadel,

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CHAP. V. recently added to the fortifications by Joannes IV., could hardly, even in the opinion of David, have been considered a work capable of serving as a palladium against the Othoman power, any more than the bones of St Eugenios and other martyrs. Yet the emperor acted as if such

was his firm conviction.

The first step of David, as emperor, was to complete the matrimonial alliance of his family with Ouzoun Hassan; for Joannes IV. had died before the marriage of the beautiful Katherine had been celebrated. The fair princess was now sent to her bridegroom with suitable pomp. She soon acquired great influence over his mind, and in her conduct generally displayed more sense and talent than any other member of her house. New treaties of alliance were signed with Ismael of Sinope, and with the Christian princes of Georgia, Imerethi, Mingrelia, and Cilician Armenia.

David even made an attempt to revive the expiring spirit of crusading zeal among the nations of western Europe; but in his propositions for rendering the passions of the warlike Franks subservient to the transparent selfishness of Greek policy, he miscalculated the political sagacity of the Latins, and the diplomatic astuteness of the papal court. In the letters addressed by David to Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius,) and to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, to invite them to make a diversion in his favour on the side of Hungary, he indulged in such exaggeration and bombast, while enumerating the forces of his allies in Asia, that Pius II., though really disposed to do everything in his power against the Turks, could not trust the writer. After the capture of Trebizond, this Pope wrote a letter to Mohammed II., begging him to treat the Christians who had fallen under his sway with less severity; but this request was probably of little service to the poor captives, for his Holiness availed himself of the opportunity to recommend the sultan to

COMMUNICATIONS WITH POPE PIUS II.

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embrace the Christian faith. Philip of Burgundy was CHAP. v. as little pleased with the letter of the emperor as the Pope. David, in offering to reward his services by the futile promise that he would acknowledge the duke as king of Jerusalem, seemed to treat Philip as a child; for if the duke of Burgundy could conquer this distant kingdom, he certainly stood in no need of the acknowledgment of a suppliant ally, who was begging aid to defend his own capital. To attack the Othoman sultan on the banks of the Danube, at the recommendation of the Greek sovereign of Trebizond, was, moreover, not the nearest way to conquer the kingdom of Jerusalem, which was then in the hands of the Mamlouk kings of Egypt.

The assistance the empire of Trebizond received from the Catholics was limited to the mission of a Minorite monk, who was sent by the Pope to preach war against the Othoman sultan among the Christians in Asia, and to promise support to their Mussulman allies. This emissary passed through Trebizond, on his way to Iberia, Georgia, Diarbekr, Cilicia, and Karamania. On his return, he brought back letters from the emperor of Trebizond, and the princes of Iberia and Georgia, and he was accompanied by their envoys, as well as by ambassadors from Ouzoun Hassan to the duke of Burgundy.2 But Trebizond was taken by the Turks before Pope Pius II. could concert any steps for its defence. His zeal for a holy war was sincere; and he died at Ancona in 1464, hastening forward preparations for an expedition against the Turks.

The only result of the coalition against the Othoman

1 The letter of Pius II. is printed in the collection of Sansovino, Historia Universale dell' Origine ed Imperio di' Turchi.

2 Wadding, Annal. Minor, tom. xiii. The letters of David and Pius II. to the duke of Burgundy are given by Fallmerayer, Geschichte, 266, from the work of the Pope himself, (Æneas Sylvius.)—See Opera Geographica et Historica, Helmstadii, 1699, 4to.

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CHAP. V. power was to point out to Mohammed II. the enemies against whom it was necessary to turn his arms and make use of his diplomatic arts. It was evident that the only member of the alliance whose power and talents rendered him dangerous to the Othoman power was Ouzoun Hassan, and, at first, the Turkoman chief showed no eagerness to involve himself in the contest. His whole attention was directed to establishing his supremacy over the rival horde of the Black Turkomans. But the persuasion of his beautiful wife determined him to embark in the war with Turkey. In 1459 he sent an embassy to the Porte, to ask Mohammed to release David from the annual tribute of three thousand pieces of gold imposed on the empire, and at the same time he reminded the sultan that the Othoman Porte was indebted to the White Horde. Sultan Mohammed I. had agreed to purchase the friendship of Kara Youlouk, the grandfather of Ouzoun Hassan, by the payment of an annual tribute of one thousand prayer carpets, and an equal number of cavalry equipments; but this tribute had now remained unpaid for nearly sixty years. The demand was justly considered by the sultan as an insulting bravado. His reply was worthy of the haughty race of Othman. After hearing the Turkoman envoy patiently to the end, he replied calmly, "Depart in peace: I will soon come to Mesopotamia, and discharge all my debts."1

As soon as Mohammed II. had completed the subjugation of the Greeks in the Morea, he resolved to conquer those in Asia. In order to secure his European dominions from all inquietude during his Asiatic campaigns, he concluded peace with his brave enemy, the Albanian prince Scanderbeg, in the month of June 1461.2 A large naval

1 Ducas, 192. Chalcocondylas, 261.

2 The chronology of Mohammed's operations in Asia Minor is rather doubtful. Little reliance can be placed on the Turkish historians, according to Hammer. Chalcocondylas, 258, says that the campaign against Sinope commenced in the year after the conquest of the Morea, as soon as it was spring.

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