Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne, then the capital city of the Ottoman state. His father was Sultan Murad II (1404–1451) and his mother was Hüma Hatun, a slave of uncertain origin.
According to the tradition of Ottoman rulers before his own, Mehmed II was sent to Amasya at the age of eleven with his two lalas (advisors) to govern and therefore gain experience. Several professors were also sent by Sultan Murad II to instruct him. This Islamic instruction greatly influenced Mehmed's mentality and strengthened his Muslim convictions. Science professionals, especially his tutor Molla Gürâni, had an impact on his application of Islamic epistemology, and he adopted their methodology. Mehmed's life was heavily influenced by Akshamsaddin from an early age, particularly when it came to the necessity of carrying out his Islamic obligation to destroy the Byzantine Empire by subduing Constantinople.
After Murad II made peace with Hungary on 12 June 1444 , he abdicated the throne in favor of his 12-year-old son, Mehmed II in July/August 1444.
During Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged in September 1444. Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the representative of the Pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal. At this time, Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. According to the 17th-century chronicles, Mehmed II wrote, "If you are the sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the sultan, I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." Then, Murad II led the Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444. Halil Inalcik states that Mehmed II did not ask for his father. Instead, it was Çandarlı Halil Pasha's effort to bring Murad II back to the throne.
While Murad II reclaimed the throne in 1446, Mehmed continued to hold the title of sultan but only served as Manisa's governor. Mehmed II became sultan for the second time after Murad II's death in 1451. Ibrahim II of Karaman launched several uprisings against Ottoman control after invading the disputed region. The Byzantines threatened to free Ottoman claimant Orhan during Mehmed II's first expedition against İbrahim of Karaman.
Conquests
Conquest of Contantinople:
When Mehmed II took the throne once more in 1451, he prepared for an invasion of Constantinople and focused on bolstering the Ottoman navy. His great-grandfather, Bayezid I, had constructed the fortification Anadoluhisarı on the Asian side of the narrow Bosphorus Straits. Mehmed took full control of the channel by building an even more powerful castle, Rumelihisarı, on the European side. After building his fortifications, Mehmed levied a fee on ships that came within range of his cannon. All the remaining sailors were killed, with the exception of the captain, who was impaled and mounted like a human scarecrow to warn other sailors on the strait. A Venetian ship that disregarded signals to stop was sunk with a single shot.
The Islamic prophet Muhammad's friend and standard bearer, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, had perished in the first Siege of Constantinople (674–678). Mehmed's sheikh Akshamsaddin found Abu Ayyub al-Ansari's grave as his army drew closer to Constantinople. In order to underline his role as ghazi and the significance of the victory to the Islamic world, Mehmed constructed the Eyüp Sultan Mosque on the site after the conquest.
With an army of between 80,000 and 200,000 soldiers, an artillery train of more than 70 heavy field pieces, and a fleet of 320 ships, the majority of which were transports and storeships, Mehmed began the siege of Constantinople in 1453. The city was encircled by both land and water, and the navy at the Bosphorus' entrance extended in a crescent shape from coast to shore in order to block or repel any maritime aid to Constantinople. The Siege of Constantinople started in early April. At first, the city's walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmed's army used the new bombard designed by Orban, a giant cannon similar to the Dardanelles Gun. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain and defended by twenty-eight warships.
Mehmed moved his lighter warships inland on April 22, circumnavigating the Genoese town of Galata and entering the northern bank of the Golden Horn. He did this by building a path of just over a mile with wood, which allowed him to move eighty galleys from the Bosphorus. As a result, the Byzantine army covered a larger area of the walls. After a fifty-seven-day siege, Constantinople surrendered on May 29, about one month later. Mehmed relocated the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople following this conquest.
When Sultan Mehmed II entered the ruins of the Boukoleon, which the Ottomans and Persians called the Palace of the Caesars and which Theodosius II had most likely constructed more than a millennium before, he spoke the well-known words of Saadi:
The owl makes the relief sound in the castle of Afrasiyab, while the spider holds the curtains in the palace of Chosroes.
According to some Muslim scholars, a hadith in Musnad Ahmad particularly mentioned Mehmed's capture of Constantinople, which they interpreted as a prophesy coming true and an indication of the imminence of the end of the world.
Based on the assumption that Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the Roman Empire since 330 AD and that the ruler of the empire was whoever held the Imperial capital, Mehmed claimed the title of caesar of the Roman Empire (Qayser-i Rûm) upon the capture of Constantinople. His assertion was corroborated by the modern scholar George of Trebizond. While the Eastern Orthodox Church acknowledged the allegation, the Catholic Church and the majority of Western Europe did not. With all the rituals, ethnarch (or milletbashi) status, and property rights that made him the second-largest landlord in the empire behind the sultan, Mehmed had made Gennadius Scholarius, a fervent opponent of the West, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.
Had Constantinople not fallen to the Ottomans, Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos would have probably been followed by his elder brother's sons. However, he died without leaving an heir. After Constantinople fell, those kids were brought into Mehmed's palace service. Mehmed's personal favorite and beylerbey of the Balkans was the eldest boy, who was renamed Hass Murad. The younger son, who was dubbed Mesih Pasha, was appointed sanjak-bey of the Gallipoli and admiral of the Ottoman fleet. Later, under Bayezid II, Mehmed's son, he held the position of Grand Vizier twice.
Mehmed would also go on to capture the Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia in 1461 and the Despotate of Morea in the Peloponnese in two operations in 1458 and 1460 following the fall of Constantinople. Thus, the Ottoman Empire absorbed the final two relics of Byzantine power. The nation gained great glory and status as a result of the conquest of Constantinople. Historical evidence suggests that Mehmed II visited the Troy site ten years after the conquest of Constantinople and boasted that he had defeated the Greeks (Byzantines) to exact revenge on the Trojans.
Conquest of Serbia (1454–1459)
Following Constantinople, Mehmed II's initial expeditions were directed towards Serbia, which had been sporadically an Ottoman vassal state since the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Because Mara Branković was one of Murad II's wives, the Ottoman king had ties to the Serbian Despotate and exploited that to assert his claim to Serbian territory. Additional excuses for the invasion included Đurađ Branković's erratic tribute payments and his recent collaboration with the Hungarians. In order to obtain the keys to various Serbian strongholds that were formerly theirs, the Ottomans issued an ultimatum. Mehmed's Ottoman army left Edirne for Serbia in 1454, presumably after April 18, after Serbia rejected these demands. Mehmed's soldiers swiftly defeated a Serbian cavalry force of 9,000 cavalry sent against them by the tyrant and took Sivricehisar (also known as the Ostrvica Fortress) and Omolhisar. The Ottoman armies then besieged Smederevo, the capital of Serbia, as a result of their efforts. Before the city could be captured, Mehmed lifted the siege and began to march back to his territories after learning of an incoming Hunyadi-led Hungarian relief force. In anticipation of a potential Hunyadi onslaught on Ottoman territory, Mehmed left a portion of his force in Serbia under the command of Firuz Bey by August, effectively ending the campaign. Hunyadi and Nikola Skobaljić commanded a united Hungarian-Serbian army that destroyed this force on October 2nd near Kruševac. Hunyadi then proceeded to raid Ottoman-controlled Nish and Pirot before returning to Belgrade. After defeating Skobaljić's army near Tripolje approximately a month later, on November 16, the Ottomans exacted revenge for their earlier loss at Kruševac. The Serbian voivode was taken prisoner and executed by impalement. A short-term agreement was then made with the Serbian ruler, according to which Đurađ would give troops for Ottoman battles, send thirty thousand florins to the Porte as an annual tribute, and formally acknowledge the recently taken Serbian forts as Ottoman territory. Fifty thousand Serbian prisoners were taken during the battle of 1454, and 4,000 of them were placed in different villages close to Constantinople. In addition to the disappointing outcomes of the 1454 war, Mehmed was persuaded to launch another expedition against Serbia the next year after receiving reports from one of his border commanders regarding Serbia's vulnerability to a potential invasion. Mehmed besieged Novo Brdo, a significant mining town, as the Ottoman army advanced on it. The Serbians had to garrison their several communities and force their people to flee to different strongholds or woodlands because they were unable to fight the Ottoman army in the open. Novo Brdo gave up after a siege that lasted forty days and was accompanied by heavy cannon fire. Mehmed began his march back towards Edirne after conquering the city and taking control of several other Serbian communities in the vicinity . Along the journey, he paid a visit to the grave of his ancestor Murad I in Kosovo.
In 1456, Mehmed made the decision to keep moving northwest and seize Belgrade, which the Serbian tyrant Đurađ Branković had given to the Kingdom of Hungary in 1427. The Sultan made important preparations for the conquering of the city, such as building a navy that would sail up the Danube to support the army during the siege and casting 22 massive cannons in addition to numerous smaller ones. Although there are differing accounts of the precise number of soldiers under Mehmed's command, the size of the rumours was substantial enough to inspire fear in Italy. On June 13, Ottoman troops started to arrive in Belgrade. Ottoman troops began filling the ditches in front of the city walls with soil so they could advance after the essential preparations were completed, and Ottoman cannons began firing at the city walls. News of a relief force led by John Hunyadi gathering across the Danube began to circulate as the defenders began to feel hopeless. Mehmed convened a war council with his commanders to decide the army's course of action after learning of this development. In order to oppose the incoming relief force, Karaca Pasha suggested that a portion of the army cross the Danube. The council rejected this initiative, especially because the Rumelian Begs opposed it. Instead, it was decided to focus on taking the stronghold, which contemporary historians consider to be a tactical error. This made it possible for Hunyadi to camp his army across the Danube without any opposition. The newly arrived Christian Danubian fleet soon defeated the Ottoman navy in a five-hour battle. The morale of the defending army then rose as Hunyadi's troops began to enter the city to support the besieged. After constant cannon fire accumulated until the day of the attack, Mehmed, enraged by the events that were transpiring, ordered a final assault to take the city on July 21. Ottoman forces were subsequently driven back by the defenders after first successfully breaking through the defenses and entering the city. The Christians took the initiative and launched a counterattack, which began to drive the Ottoman forces back and eventually advanced as far as the Ottoman camp. Mehmed was persuaded by one of the viziers to leave the camp for his own protection at this pivotal moment in the battle, but he refused, claiming it would be a "sign of cowardice." Then Mehmed himself, along with two of his beggars, entered the fray. The Sultan had to leave the battlefield after being wounded, but he was able to personally kill three enemy warriors. The Ottoman troops' morale was raised by the news that their Sultan was fighting with them and by the reinforcements that were coming, enabling them to launch another onslaught and drive the Christian forces from the Ottoman camp. The Sultan's initiatives had kept the Ottoman army from being completely routed, but the force was too weak to try to retake the city, thus the Ottoman war council decided to lift the siege. In order to avoid being pursued by the Christian armies, the Sultan and his army started to withdraw to Edirne throughout the night. Soon after the siege ended, Hunyadi passed away, and Đurađ Branković took back control of some areas of Serbia.
Shortly before the end of the year 1456, roughly 5 months after the Siege of Belgrade, the 79-year-old Branković died. Serbian independence survived after him for only around three years, when the Ottoman Empire formally annexed Serbian lands following dissension among his widow and three remaining sons. Lazar, the youngest, poisoned his mother and exiled his brothers, but he died soon afterwards. In the continuing turmoil the oldest brother Stefan Branković gained the throne. Observing the chaotic situation in Serbia, the Ottoman government decided to definitively conclude the Serbian issue. The Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha was dispatched with an army to the region in 1458, where he initially conquered Resava and a number of other settlements before moving towards Smederevo. After a battle outside the city walls, the defenders were forced to retreat inside the fortress. In the ensuing siege, the outer walls were breached by Ottoman forces, however the Serbians continued to resist inside the inner walls of the fortress. Not wanting to waste time capturing the inner citadel, Mahmud lifted the siege diverted his army elsewhere, conquering Rudnik and its environs before attacking and capturing the fortress of Golubac. Subsequently, Mehmed who had returned from his campaign in Morea met up with Mahmud Pasha in Skopje. During this meeting, reports were received that a Hungarian army was assembling near the Danube to launch an offensive against the Ottoman positions in the region. The Hungarians crossed the Danube near Belgrade, after which they marched south towards Užice. While the Hungarian troops were engaged in plunder near Užice, they got ambushed by the Ottoman forces in the region, forcing them to retreat. Despite this victory, for Serbia to be fully annexed into the empire, Smederevo still had to be taken. The opportunity for its capture presented itself the following year. Stefan Branković was ousted from power in March 1459. After that the Serbian throne was offered to Stephen Tomašević, the future king of Bosnia, which infuriated Sultan Mehmed. After Mahmud Pasha suppressed an uprising near Pizren, Mehmed personally led an army against the Serbian capital, capturing Smederevo on the 20th of June 1459. After the surrender of the capital, other Serbian castles which continued to resist were captured in the following months, ending the existence of the Serbian Despotate.
Conquest of the Morea (1458–1460)
Adjacent to the southern Ottoman Balkans was the Despotate of the Morea. In 1446, the Byzantine defenses, known as the Hexamilion wall, at the Isthmus of Corinth were destroyed by the Ottomans, who had already occupied the area under Murad II. Mehmed gave the order to attack the Morea by Ottoman troops prior to the ultimate siege of Constantinople. The brothers of the previous emperor, Demetrios and Thomas Palaiologos, were despots who did not provide any assistance. The brothers summoned Ottoman forces to assist in quelling the Albanian-Greek uprising against the Turks, which was caused by the ongoing instability and tribute payments made to them following the peace pact with Mehmed II in 1446. During this period, Mehmed established private peace with certain powerful Moreote Albanians and Greeks. In May 1460, Mehmed entered the Morea following further years of the despots' inept leadership, their own uprising against Ottoman rule, and their refusal to pay the Sultan's yearly tribute. On May 29, 1460, precisely seven years after the fall of Constantinople, the capital city of Mistra fell. Thomas, his younger brother, escaped, and Demetrios became a prisoner of the Ottomans. The Ottomans had gained the submission of almost every Greek city by the end of the summer.
For a while, a few people stayed. When the island of Monemvasia refused to give up, a Catalan corsair briefly ruled it. Before the end of 1460, the populace expelled him, and they got Thomas's permission to submit to the protection of the Pope.[53]. The region was subsequently ruled by Venice after the Mani Peninsula, on the southern tip of Morea, rebelled under a loose alliance of regional clans. Salmeniko, in the northwest of the Morea, was the final surviving. The military leader there, Graitzas Palaiologos, was based in Salmeniko Castle, also called Castle Orgia. Graitzas, his garrison, and a few town citizens remained in the castle until July 1461, when they managed to flee and into Venetian territory, despite the town's eventual surrender.
Conquest of Trebizond (1460–1461)
Trebizond's rulers forged alliances with a variety of Muslim rulers through royal marriages; for example, Emperor John IV of Trebizond married his daughter to the son of his brother-in-law, Uzun Hasan, sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu (a.k.a. White Sheep Turkomans), in exchange for his vow to defend Trebizond; he also obtained pledges of support from the Turkish beys of Sinope and Karamania, as well as from the king and princes of Georgia. The Ottomans were motivated to seize Trebizond or receive an annual tribute; during the reign of Murad II, they made their first attempt to take the capital by sea in 1442, but the attempt was thwarted due to poor weather. In 1456, the Ottoman governor of Amasya raided Trebizond while Mehmed II was away besieging Belgrade. Despite losing, he captured many people and demanded a hefty payment.
David, John's brother, rose to prominence after his death in 1459 and courted several European nations for assistance in the fight against the Ottomans, mentioning ambitious plans that included the conquest of Jerusalem. Eventually, Mehmed II learned of these intrigues and was further agitated by David's insistence that Mehmed pay the tribute that had been imposed on his brother.
In the summer of 1461, Mehmed the Conqueror responded. He joined forces with Ismail's brother Ahmed (the Red) and led a large army from Bursa by land and the Ottoman navy by sea, initially to Sinope. Although he named Ahmed the governor of Kastamonu and Sinope, he later revoked the appointment the same year, bringing an end to the Jandarid dynasty's official rule. Throughout the Ottoman Empire's history, numerous more Jandarid dynasty members were given significant roles. When Uzun Hasan dispatched his mother Sara Khatun as an ambassador on the march to Trebizond, she questioned Sultan Mehmed about why he was going through such a difficult time for the benefit of Trebizond as they ascended the steep slopes of Zigana on foot. Mehmed answered:
Mother, the sword of Islam is in my hand; without this adversity, I should not be worthy of the title of ghazi, and I should have to cover my face in shame before Allah both today and tomorrow.
Before the locals realized he was approaching, Mehmed swiftly swept down upon Trebizond, isolated it, and laid siege to it. The emperor David gave up on August 15, 1461, after the city resisted for a month.
Submission of Wallachia (1459–1462)
Since the early 15th century, the Ottomans have attempted to subjugate Wallachia (Ottoman Turkish: افلاق) by installing their own candidate on the throne, but all of their attempts have failed. For an annual tribute, the Ottomans did not interfere in the internal affairs of Wallachia since they saw it as a buffer between themselves and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Ottomans and Hungary, the two main Balkan powers, continued their long-running campaign to establish Wallachia as their own vassal. The Ottomans released young Vlad III (Dracula), who had been a prisoner of Murad for four years, together with his brother Radu, so that Vlad might claim the throne of Wallachia and save the region from becoming part of Hungary. But his reign was brief because Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and put Vladislav II, a member of the Dănești dynasty, back on the throne.
Vlad III Dracula escaped to Moldavia, where his uncle Bogdan II protected him. Vlad escaped to Hungary after Bogdan was killed in October of 1451. Hunyadi made amends with his erstwhile adversary and attempted to appoint Vlad III as his personal advisor, but Vlad declined, impressed by Vlad's extensive understanding of the Ottoman Empire's mentality and inner workings, as well as his animosity toward the Turks and the new Sultan Mehmed II.
The Ottomans besieged Belgrade in 1456, three years after they had taken Constantinople, posing a threat to Hungary. Hunyadi launched a coordinated counteroffensive in Serbia. Vlad III Dracula led his own force into Wallachia, retook his homeland, and assassinated Vladislav II, while he himself moved into Serbia and broke the siege (before succumbing to the plague).
To persuade Vlad to make a late tribute payment of 10,000 ducats and provide 500 recruits for the Ottoman army, Mehmed II dispatched envoys to Vlad in 1459. Because the Ottoman envoys only took off their headgear in front of Allah, Vlad III Dracula refused and had them executed by fastening their turbans to their heads under the guise that they had refused to raise their "hats" to him.
Hamza Pasha, the Bey of Nicopolis, was dispatched by the Sultan to mediate the conflict and, if required, to assassinate Vlad III. As befitted his position, Hamza Pasha was impaled on the highest stake after Vlad III set up an ambush that surrounded the Ottomans and nearly all of them were captured and killed.
Vlad III burned the whole Bulgarian territory between Serbia and the Black Sea in the winter of 1462 after crossing the Danube. Vlad III is said to have entered Ottoman camps, disguised himself as a Turkish Sipahi, and used his fluency in Turkish and its traditions to ambush, slaughter, or capture a number of Ottoman soldiers. He wrote to Corvinus on February 2nd, saying:
From the lower Danube up to locations like Samovit and Ghighen, I have murdered peasants, both young and elderly, who resided in Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube empties into the sea, and up to Rahova, which is close to Chilia. Without including the Turks whose heads our forces chopped off or those we set ablaze in their homes, we slaughtered 23,884 Turks. I have thus shattered the peace with him [Mehmed II], and you must be aware of it, your highness.
In order to undertake a retaliatory attack on Vlad III in Wallachia, Mehmed II abandoned his siege of Corinth. However, Vlad III Dracula, who was reportedly determined to kill the Sultan himself, launched a surprise night attack that claimed many lives. However, Vlad's attitude of uncompromising resistance to the Ottomans was unpopular, and the boyars (local aristocracy), the majority of whom were also pro-Dăneşti (a rival princely branch), betrayed him. After promising to assist him, his closest friend and ally Stephen III of Moldavia took the opportunity and assaulted him in an attempt to retake the Fortress of Chilia. The third Vlad had to flee to the mountains. The Ottomans then took control of Târgovişte, the capital of Wallachia, and Mehmed II left Radu in power after retreating. As a reward, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, who distinguished himself by defeating a troop of 6,000 Wallachians and placing 2,000 of their heads at Mehmed II's feet, was also restored to his previous position as governor of Thessaly. After making his way to Hungary, Vlad was imprisoned on a bogus charge of treason against Matthias Corvinus, his master.
Conquest of Bosnia (1463)
Following the death of Lazar Branković in 1458, a civil war among his descendants led to the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459/1460. The Bosnian king's son, Stephen Tomašević, attempted to subjugate Serbia, but Ottoman raids forced him to abandon his scheme. Stephen then returned to Bosnia and sought safety at his father's court. Following a few conflicts, the Ottomans made Bosnia a subordinate kingdom.
Stephen Thomas passed away on July 10, 1461, and Stephen Tomašević became the next King of Bosnia. Ahead of the Ottoman invasion in 1461, Stephen Tomašević formed an alliance with the Hungarians and appealed to Pope Pius II for assistance. He requested assistance from the Venetians in 1463 due to a disagreement over the yearly tribute that the Bosnian Kingdom paid to the Ottomans. But none ever made it to Bosnia. Sultan Mehmed II led an army into the nation in 1463. Stephen Tomašević was forced to flee to Jajce and then to Ključ as the royal city of Bobovac fell quickly. Mehmed swiftly attacked and overran Bosnia, putting Stephen Tomašević and his uncle Radivoj to death. Bosnia became the westernmost province of the Ottoman Empire after it was formally overthrown in 1463.
Ottoman-Venetian War (1463–1479)
Byzantine historian Michael Critobulus claims that an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens fled with 100,000 silver aspers from his master's treasury to the Venetian citadel of Coron (Koroni), which sparked the start of hostilities. Venetian officials rejected Ottoman demands for the fugitive's rendition when he became a Christian. In November 1462, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, the Ottoman commander in central Greece, used this as a pretext to attack and almost capture the strategically significant Venetian citadel of Lepanto (Nafpaktos). But Isa Beg, the ruler of the Morea, captured the Venetian-held town of Argos on April 3, 1463, for treachery.
A Venetian army led by Captain General of the Sea Alvise Loredan landed in the Morea as part of the new alliance's two-pronged onslaught against the Ottomans, while Matthias Corvinus invaded Bosnia.[64] Pius II started putting together an army at Ancona at the same time with the hopes of personally leading it.[65] Additionally, talks were initiated with the Crimean Khanate, Uzun Hassan, and Karamanids, among other Ottoman adversaries.
The Venetians restored the Hexamilion wall and armed it with numerous cannons when they retook Argos and reinforced the Isthmus of Corinth in early August. They then went on to siege the Acrocorinth's stronghold, which ruled over the northwest Peloponnese. After a series of battles with the defenders and Ömer Bey's soldiers, the Venetians were compelled to withdraw the siege and escape to the Hexamilion and Nauplia (Nafplion) after suffering a significant setback on October 20.[66] After a three-month siege, Matthias Corvinus took control of more than sixty fortified locations in Bosnia and, on December 16, succeeded in capturing the capital, Jajce.
The Ottoman response was prompt and forceful: Mehmed II sent an army against the Venetians together with his Grand Vizier, Mahmud Pasha Angelović. The Sultan also ordered the construction of two forts, Kilidulbahr and Sultaniye, to guard the Straits and the new shipyard Kadirga Limani in the Golden Horn, which was named after the "kadirga" type of galley, in order to counter the Venetian fleet that had set up shop outside the entrance of the Dardanelles Straits.[68] The Ottomans quickly won the Morean campaign; they destroyed the Hexamilion and moved into the Morea. Several forts and communities that had acknowledged Venetian control returned to their Ottoman allegiance, and Argos fell.
Sultan Mehmed II arrived in Zeitounion (Lamia) before learning of his Vizier's victory, since he was pursuing Mahmud Pasha with an additional army to support him. His forces immediately went north, toward Bosnia. However, the Ottomans quickly withdrew when Corvinus' army approached, and the Sultan's attempts to recover Jajce in July and August of 1464 were unsuccessful. Jajce was not retaken for many years after Corvinus was forced to leave by a new Ottoman army led by Mahmud Pasha. But on August 15, Pope Pius II passed away in Ancona, which marked the end of the Crusade.
Meanwhile, Sigismondo Malatesta had been nominated by the Venetian Republic for the forthcoming 1464 campaign. In August to October, he attacked Ottoman forts and participated in an unsuccessful siege of Mistra. Although there were still raids and counter-raids on both sides, the Venetians were mostly restricted to their fortified bases due to a lack of funds and men, while Ömer Bey's army roamed the countryside.
In the spring of 1464, the Venetians attempted to capture Lesbos in the Aegean, and they besieged the capital, Mytilene, for six weeks until they were forced to retreat on May 18th by the arrival of an Ottoman fleet led by Mahmud Pasha. Soon after, there was another unsuccessful attempt to seize the island. The rest of the year was devoted to the Venetian navy's eventually unsuccessful force displays in front of the Dardanelles. Mehmed II sent peace feelers to the Venetian Senate at the beginning of 1465, but they were turned down because of mistrust for the Sultan's intentions.
Under Vettore Cappello, the Venetian war effort was revitalized in April 1466. The navy captured the northern Aegean islands of Samothrace, Thasos, and Imbros before sailing into the Saronic Gulf. After landing in Piraeus on July 12, Cappello marched against Athens, the main regional Ottoman base. The Ottoman bey's seat, Patras, the capital of Peloponnese, was under siege from a combined Venetian and Greek force, forcing him to flee after failing to capture the Acropolis. As the city appeared to be about to collapse, Ömer Bey arrived with 12,000 cavalry and drove the outnumbered besiegers away before Cappello could get there. Barbarigo himself was killed, and out of a force of 2,000, 600 Venetians and 100 Greeks were captured. A few days after arriving, Cappello launched an attack on the Ottomans but was soundly defeated. He brought the remnants of his troops back to Negroponte, dejected. Cappello became ill there and passed away on March 13, 1467. Mehmed himself commanded an Ottoman army that besieged Negroponte in 1470. Negroponte was taken prisoner and the Venetian relief navy was routed.
Sultan Mehmed led a sizable force in a march against the Albanians in the spring of 1466. They had fought the Ottomans for a long time under Skanderbeg as their leader, and they had frequently turned to Italy for support. In response, Mehmed II made another fruitless march to Albania. The plague outbreak that occurred in the winter would reoccur every year, weakening the local resilience. In the Venetian stronghold of Lissus (Lezhë), Skanderbeg himself perished from malaria, putting an end to Venice's capacity to take advantage of the Albanian lords. Following Skanderbeg's death, several Venetian-controlled garrisons in northern Albania held onto areas that the Ottomans had desired, including the most important of these: Žabljak Crnojevića, Drisht, Lezhë, and Shkodra. In 1474, Mehmed II attempted to capture Shkodra with his army but was unsuccessful. Then, in 1478–1479, he personally led the siege of Shkodra. Until Venice gave Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Constantinople as a condition of ending the war, the Venetians and Shkodrans repelled the attacks and held the castle.
The Ottomans' arrival on the fringes of Venice led to the establishment of the accord. The Venetians were permitted to retain Ulcinj, Antivan, and Durrës in accordance with the stipulations of the pact. They did, however, give up possession of the Greek islands of Negroponte (Euboea) and Lemnos, as well as other areas along the Dalmatian coastline, including Shkodra, which had been under Ottoman siege for several months. Additionally, in order to get trading rights in the Black Sea, the Venetians had to pay an indemnity of 100,000 ducats and consent to an annual tribute of about 10,000 ducats. This contract gave Venice a more vulnerable position in the Levant.
Anatolian conquests (1464–1473)
In the second part of the Middle Ages, during the post-Seljuk period, a number of Turkmen principalities known as Anatolian beyliks arose in Anatolia. At first, the Karamanids were centered on the present-day provinces of Karaman and Konya, Anatolia's most significant force. However, as the Ottomans took control of most of Anatolia at the end of the 14th century, the Karamans' status and power declined.
Karaman was ruled by İbrahim II, and in his final years, his sons started vying for the throne. İshak of Karaman, the governor of Silifke, was his successor apparent. However, at Konya, a younger son named Pir Ahmet proclaimed himself the bey of Karaman. After fleeing to a tiny city in the western borders, İbrahim passed away there in 1464. There was an interregnum in the beylik as a result of the conflicting claims to the throne. However, İshak was able to take the throne with Uzun Hasan's assistance. But his reign was brief because Pir Ahmet begged Sultan Mehmed II for assistance, offering Mehmed some land that İshak would not give up. In the battle of Dağpazarı, Pir Ahmet defeated İshak with Ottoman assistance. İshak was forced to live with Silifke till an unspecified time. [80] Pir Ahmet was uncomfortable with the loss, but he fulfilled his pledge and gave the Ottomans a portion of the beylik. He therefore reclaimed his old lands during the Ottoman campaign in the West. But in 1466, Mehmed came back and took Konya and Karaman (Larende). Pir Ahmet just managed to go to the East. Gedik Ahmet Pasha, the Ottoman vizier (later grand vizier), took control of the beylik's coastline area a few years later.
Both Pir Ahmet and his brother Kasım fled to the land of Uzun Hasan. Uzun Hasan had an opportunity to step in at this point. The Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473 was sparked by the Akkoyunlu army's invasion and pillage of most of Anatolia in 1472. However, in 1473, Mehmed led a victorious campaign against Uzun Hasan, which led to the Ottoman Empire's resounding victory in the Battle of Otlukbeli. Prior to that, Karaman had been taken by Pir Ahmet with assistance from Akkoyunlu. But Pir Ahmet was unable to relish another term. Because Pir Ahmet had to flee again after the Ottomans routed the Akkoyunlu army near Beyşehir shortly after Karaman was taken. He made an effort to keep fighting, but eventually gave up after learning that Gedik Ahmet Pasha had moved his family to Istanbul. He fled to Akkoyunlu land, where he was given a tımar (fief) in Bayburt, after becoming demoralized. In 1474, he passed away.
Sultan Bayezid I was the first to unite the Anatolian beyliks, over fifty years before Mehmed II. However, the newly formed union was destroyed in the devastating Battle of Ankara in 1402. With the help of these conquests, Mehmed II was able to regain Ottoman authority over the other Turkish states and advance into Europe.
The Aq Qoyunlu was another significant political group that influenced Mehmed II's Eastern policies. This kingdom rose to prominence in the East under Uzun Hasan's leadership, but Mehmed viewed them as a danger to his own authority due to their close ties to Christian nations such as the Republic of Venice and the Empire of Trebizond, as well as the alliance between the Turcomans and the Karamanid clan.
War with Moldavia (1475–1476)
In 1456, Peter III Aaron became the first king of Moldavia to comply with Turkish requests by agreeing to pay the Ottomans 2,000 gold ducats a year in tribute to secure his southern frontiers. After Stephen the Great, his successor, refused Ottoman suzerainty, a string of bloody conflicts broke out. In an attempt to influence Wallachia, Stephen backed his own candidate for the Wallachian crown. Stephen, the Ottomans, and Hungarians supported various Wallachian monarchs in an ongoing conflict as a result. To punish Stephen for his interference in Wallachia, an Ottoman army led by Hadim Pasha, the governor of Rumelia, was dispatched in 1475. However, the Ottomans were soundly defeated at the Battle of Vaslui. According to Venetian and Polish chronicles, Stephen's crushing defeat of the Ottomans was "the greatest ever secured by the Cross against Islam," with over 40,000 Ottoman losses. Murad II's previous younger wife, Mara Brankovic (Mara Hatun), told a Venetian envoy that the invasion had been the Ottomans' worst defeat ever. Later, Pope Sixtus IV nicknamed Stephen "verus christianae fidei athleta" ("the true defender of the Christian faith") and bestowed upon him the title "Athleta Christi" (Champion of Christ]. In June 1476, Mehmed II gathered a sizable force and marched into Moldavia. In the meantime, Moldavia was attacked by forces of Tartars from the Crimean Khanate, a new ally of the Ottomans. According to Romanian accounts, they were repulsed. Joint Ottoman and Crimean Tartar soldiers "took Akkerman and occupied Bessarabia, gaining control of the southern mouth of the Danube," according to some accounts. Stephan adopted a scorched-earth strategy in an attempt to steer clear of direct conflict with the Ottomans.
At last, Stephen engaged in combat with the Ottomans. There were some casualties when the Moldavians enticed the main Ottoman army into a burning woodland. Another account of the conflict states that the defending Moldavian forces used consistent pistol fire to withstand multiple Ottoman advances. Instead of charging straight into the positions of the defenders, the attacking Turkish Janissaries were obliged to crouch on their bellies. Mehmed rallied the Janissaries and changed the course of the battle when he charged against the Moldavians with his personal guard after realizing that his forces were about to be defeated. The Turkish Janissaries broke into the woodland and fought the defenders one-on-one.
According to the chronicles, the entire battlefield was covered in the bones of the dead, which is likely where the toponym (Valea Albă is Romanian and Akdere is Turkish for "The White Valley") came from. The Moldavian army was completely routed (casualties were extremely high on both sides).
Stephen the Great started assembling a new army after retreating into the northwest region of Moldavia or maybe the Polish Kingdom [88]. Small-scale Moldavian raids plagued the Ottomans continuously, and they failed to capture any of the main Moldavian strongholds (Suceava, Neamț, and Hotin). They soon faced famine as well, which was exacerbated by a disease outbreak, and the Ottoman force withdrew back to Ottoman territory. The threat of Stephen to Wallachia continued for decades. That very same year Stephen helped his cousin Vlad the Impaler return to the throne of Wallachia for the third and final time. Even after Vlad's untimely death several months later, Stephen continued to support, with force of arms, a variety of contenders to the Wallachian throne, succeeding after Mehmet's death to instate Vlad Călugărul, half-brother to Vlad the Impaler, for a period of 13 years from 1482 to 1495.
Conquest of Albania (1466–1478)
A former Ottoman governing elite member and member of the Albanian aristocracy, Skanderbeg led an uprising against the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe. The Albanian principalities were brought together in 1444 by Skanderbeg, son of Gjon Kastrioti (who had participated in the failed Albanian uprising of 1432–1436), in a military and diplomatic union known as the League of Lezhë. Mehmed II led the Ottoman army himself against Krujë twice (in 1466 and 1467), but his attempts to conquer Albania during Skanderbeg's lifetime were never successful. The Albanians were unable to select a successor to Skanderbeg after his death in 1468, and in 1478 Mehmed II overran Krujë and Albania.
Sultan Mehmed marched against Skanderbeg and the Albanians in the spring of 1466 with a sizable force. The ongoing Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479) was seen by Skanderbeg as a perfect opportunity to reclaim Albanian independence, and he had repeatedly turned to Italy for help [64]. The Albanians also gave the Venetians a useful cover for their coastal holdings of Durrës (Italian: Durazzo) and Shkodër (Italian: Scutari). The main outcome of this campaign was the supposedly 25-day construction of the Elbasan stronghold. By cutting Albania in two, this well-located stronghold at the lowlands close to the terminus of the ancient Via Egnatia separated Skanderbeg's base in the northern highlands from the Venetian possessions in the south. Nevertheless, Skanderbeg himself spent the winter in Italy in search of assistance after the Sultan withdrew. When he returned in early 1467, his army swarmed from the highlands, overcame Ballaban Pasha, and broke the siege of Croia (Krujë); they also attempted to take Elbasan but were unsuccessful. In response, Mehmed II marched on Albania once more. In order to keep the Venetian possessions isolated, he sent detachments to invade them while he vigorously pursued the operations against the Albanian strongholds. The Ottomans were unable to conquer Croia and conquer the nation. The plague outbreak that occurred over the winter, however, would reoccur every year and weaken the local resilience. In the Venetian stronghold of Lissus (Lezhë), Skanderbeg himself perished from malaria, putting an end to Venice's capacity to take advantage of the Albanian lords. Over the following ten years, the Albanians were progressively subjugated after being left to their own devices.
The early Ottoman chronicler Aşıkpaşazade (1400–81) said, "All the conquests of Sultan Mehmed were fulfilled with the seizure of Shkodra." Mehmed II personally conducted the siege of Shkodra in 1478–79 following Skanderbeg's death. Until Venice gave Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Constantinople as a condition of ending the war, the Venetians and Shkodrans repelled the attacks and held the castle.