Conquest of Constantinople , built by Sultan Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, before the
Fall of Constantinople When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy and made preparations for an attack on Constantinople. In the narrow
Bosphorus Straits, the fortress
Anadoluhisarı had been built by his great-grandfather
Bayezid I on the Asian side; Mehmed erected an even stronger fortress called
Rumelihisarı on the European side, and thus gained complete control of the strait. Having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. A
Venetian vessel ignoring signals to stop was sunk with a single shot and all the surviving sailors beheaded, except for the captain, who was impaled and mounted like a human scarecrow as a warning to other sailors on the strait.
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, had died during the first
Siege of Constantinople (674–678). As Mehmed II's army approached Constantinople, Mehmed's sheikh
Akshamsaddin discovered the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built
Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world and highlight his role as
ghazi. In 1453, Mehmed commenced the siege of Constantinople with an army between 80,000 and 200,000 troops, an artillery train of over seventy large field pieces, and a navy of 320 vessels, the bulk of them transports and storeships. The city was surrounded by sea and land; the fleet at the entrance of the
Bosphorus stretched from shore to shore in the form of a crescent, to intercept or repel any assistance for Constantinople from the sea. Some Muslim scholars claimed that a
hadith in
Musnad Ahmad referred specifically to Mehmed's conquest of Constantinople, seeing it as the fulfillment of a prophecy and a sign of the approaching apocalypse. , painting by
Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929) After the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of
caesar of the
Roman Empire (
Qayser-i Rûm), based on the assertion that Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the
Roman Empire since 330 AD and whoever possessed the Imperial capital was the ruler of the empire. The contemporary scholar
George of Trebizond supported his claim. The claim was not recognized by the
Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe, but was recognized by the
Eastern Orthodox Church. Mehmed had installed
Gennadius Scholarius, a staunch antagonist of the West, as the
ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople with all the ceremonial elements, ethnarch (or
milletbashi) status, and rights of property that made him the second largest landlord in the empire after the sultan himself in 1454, and in turn, Gennadius II recognized Mehmed the Conqueror as the successor to the throne. Emperor
Constantine XI Palaiologos died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen to the Ottomans, he likely would have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother. Those children were taken into the palace service of Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople. The oldest boy, renamed
Hass Murad, became a personal favorite of Mehmed and served as
beylerbey of the
Balkans. The younger son, renamed
Mesih Pasha, became admiral of the Ottoman fleet and
sanjak-bey of the
Gallipoli. He eventually served twice as
Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son,
Bayezid II. After the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed would also go on to conquer the
Despotate of Morea in the
Peloponnese in
two campaigns in 1458 and 1460 and the
Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia in 1461. The last two vestiges of Byzantine rule were thus absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Constantinople bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country. There is some historical evidence that, 10 years after the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed II visited the site of
Troy and boasted that he had avenged the Trojans by conquering the Greeks (Byzantines).
Conquest of Serbia (1454–1459) of the
Siege of Belgrade, 1456 Mehmed II's first campaigns after Constantinople were in the direction of Serbia, which had been an Ottoman
vassal state intermittently since the
Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The Ottoman ruler had a connection with the
Serbian Despotate – one of
Murad II's wives was
Mara Branković – and he used that fact to claim Serbian lands.
Đurađ Branković's recently made alliance with the Hungarians, and his irregular payments of tribute, further served as justifications for the invasion. The Ottomans sent an ultimatum demanding the keys to some Serbian castles which formerly belonged to the Ottomans. When Serbia refused these demands, the Ottoman army led by Mehmed set out from
Edirne towards Serbia in 1454, sometime after the 18th of April. Mehmed's forces quickly succeeded in capturing Sivricehisar (sometimes identified with the
Ostrvica Fortress) and Omolhisar, and
repulsed a Serbian cavalry force of 9,000 cavalry sent against them by the despot. Following these actions, the Serbian capital of
Smederevo was put under siege by the Ottoman forces. Before the city could be taken, intelligence was received about an approaching Hungarian relief force led by Hunyadi, which caused Mehmed to lift the siege and start marching back to his domains. By August the campaign was effectively over, Roughly a month later, on the 16th of November, the Ottomans avenged their earlier defeat at Kruševac by defeating Skobaljić's army near Tripolje, where the Serbian voivode was captured and executed via impalement. The exact number of troops Mehmed commanded varies between sources, but the rumours of its size were significant enough to cause panic in Italy. Ottoman troops began arriving at Belgrade on the 13th of June. This plan was rejected by the council, particularly due to the opposition by the Rumelian Begs. Hunyadi died shortly after the siege, meanwhile
Đurađ Branković regained possession of some parts 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 and 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. 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) The
Despotate of the Morea bordered the southern Ottoman Balkans. The Ottomans had already invaded the region under
Murad II, destroying the Byzantine defenses – the
Hexamilion wall – at the
Isthmus of Corinth in 1446. Before the final siege of
Constantinople, Mehmed ordered Ottoman troops to attack the Morea. The despots,
Demetrios Palaiologos and
Thomas Palaiologos, brothers of the last emperor, failed to send any aid. The chronic instability and the tribute payment to the Turks, after the peace treaty of 1446 with Mehmed II, resulted in an
Albanian-Greek revolt against them, during which the brothers invited Ottoman troops to help put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed. After more years of incompetent rule by the despots, their failure to pay their annual tribute to the Sultan, and finally their own revolt against Ottoman rule, Mehmed entered the Morea in May 1460. The capital
Mistra fell exactly seven years after Constantinople, on 29 May 1460. Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer, the Ottomans had achieved the submission of virtually all cities possessed by the Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time. The island of
Monemvasia refused to surrender, and it was ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Pope's protection before the end of 1460. The
Mani Peninsula, on the Morea's south end, resisted under a loose coalition of local clans, and the area then came under the rule of
Venice. The last holdout was
Salmeniko, in the Morea's northwest.
Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at
Salmeniko Castle (also known as Castle Orgia). While the town eventually surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461, when they escaped and reached Venetian territory.
Conquest of Trebizond (1460–1461) Emperors of
Trebizond formed alliances through royal marriages with various Muslim rulers. Emperor
John IV of Trebizond married his daughter to the son of his brother-in-law,
Uzun Hasan, sultan of the
Aq Qoyunlu (also known as White Sheep Turkomans), in return for his promise to defend Trebizond. He also secured promises of support from the Turkish
beys of
Sinope and
Karamania, and from the king and princes of
Georgia. The Ottomans were motivated to capture Trebizond or to get an annual tribute. In the time of Murad II, they first attempted to take the capital by sea in 1442, but bad weather made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While Mehmed II was away laying siege to
Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of
Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although he was defeated, he took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute. After John's death in 1459, his brother
David came to power and intrigued with various European powers for help against the Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of
Jerusalem. Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother. Mehmed the Conqueror's response came in the summer of 1461. He led a sizable army from
Bursa by land and the Ottoman navy by sea, first to
Sinope, joining forces with Ismail's brother Ahmed (the Red). He captured Sinope and ended the official reign of the Jandarid dynasty, although he appointed Ahmed as the governor of Kastamonu and Sinope, only to revoke the appointment the same year. Various other members of the Jandarid dynasty were offered important functions throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire. During the march to Trebizond, Uzun Hasan sent his mother Sara Khatun as an ambassador; while they were climbing the steep heights of
Zigana on foot, she asked Sultan Mehmed why he was undergoing such hardship for the sake of Trebizond. Mehmed replied: Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and he placed it
under siege. The city held out for a month before the emperor David surrendered on 15 August 1461.
Submission of Wallachia (1459–1462) , Prince of
Wallachia, 1460 , which resulted in a failed assassination attempt of Mehmed The Ottomans, since the early 15th century, had tried to bring Wallachia () under their control by putting their own candidate on the throne, but each attempt ended in failure. The Ottomans regarded Wallachia as a buffer zone between them and the
Kingdom of Hungary and, in return for a yearly tribute, did not meddle in their internal affairs. The two primary Balkan powers, Hungary and the Ottomans, persisted in an enduring struggle to gain overlordship over Wallachia. To prevent Wallachia from falling into the Hungarian fold, the Ottomans freed young
Vlad III (Dracula), who had spent four years as a prisoner of Murad, together with his brother
Radu, so that Vlad could claim the throne of Wallachia. His rule was short-lived, however, as Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and restored his ally
Vladislav II, of the
Dănești clan, to the throne. Vlad III Dracula fled to Moldavia, where he lived under the protection of his uncle,
Bogdan II. In October 1451, Bogdan was assassinated and Vlad fled to Hungary. Impressed by Vlad's vast knowledge of the mindset and inner workings of the Ottoman Empire, as well as his hatred towards the Turks and the new Sultan, Mehmed II, Hunyadi reconciled with his former enemy and tried to make Vlad III his own advisor, but Vlad refused. In 1456, three years after the Ottomans had conquered Constantinople, they threatened Hungary by besieging
Belgrade. Hunyadi began a concerted counterattack in
Serbia: While he himself moved into Serbia and relieved the
siege (before dying of the plague), Vlad III Dracula led his own contingent into Wallachia, reconquered his native land, and killed Vladislav II. In 1459, Mehmed II sent envoys to Vlad to urge him to pay a delayed
tribute of 10,000 ducats and 500 recruits into the Ottoman forces. Vlad III Dracula refused and had the Ottoman envoys killed by nailing their
turbans to their heads, on the pretext that they had refused to raise their "hats" to him, as they only removed their headgear before Allah. Meanwhile, the Sultan sent the Bey of Nicopolis,
Hamza Pasha, to make peace and, if necessary, eliminate Vlad III. Vlad III set an ambush; the Ottomans were surrounded and almost all of them caught and impaled, with Hamza Pasha impaled on the highest stake, as befit his rank. However, Vlad's policy of staunch resistance against the Ottomans was not a popular one, and he was betrayed by the boyars's (local aristocracy) appeasing faction, most of them also pro-Dăneşti (a rival princely branch). His ally,
Stephen III of Moldavia, who had promised to help him, seized the chance and instead attacked him trying to take back the
Fortress of Chilia. Vlad III had to retreat to the mountains. After this, the Ottomans captured the Wallachian capital
Târgoviște and Mehmed II withdrew, leaving Radu as ruler of Wallachia.
Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, who served with distinction and wiped out a force of 6,000 Wallachians and deposited 2,000 of their heads at the feet of Mehmed II, was also reinstated, as a reward, in his old gubernatorial post in Thessaly. Vlad eventually escaped to Hungary, where he was imprisoned on a false accusation of treason against his overlord,
Matthias Corvinus.
Conquest of Bosnia (1463) to the Catholic monks of the recently conquered Bosnia issued in 1463, granting them full religious freedom and protection The despot of Serbia,
Lazar Branković, died in 1458, and a civil war broke out among his heirs that resulted in the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459/1460.
Stephen Tomašević, son of the king of Bosnia, tried to bring Serbia under his control, but Ottoman expeditions forced him to give up his plan and Stephen fled to Bosnia, seeking refuge at the court of his father. After some battles, Bosnia became tributary kingdom to the Ottomans. On 10 July 1461,
Stephen Thomas died, and Stephen Tomašević succeeded him as King of Bosnia. In 1461, Stephen Tomašević made an alliance with the Hungarians and asked
Pope Pius II for help in the face of an impending Ottoman invasion. In 1463, after a dispute over the tribute paid annually by the
Bosnian Kingdom to the Ottomans, he sent for help from the
Venetians. However, none ever reached Bosnia. In 1463, Sultan Mehmed II led an army into the country. The royal city of
Bobovac soon fell, leaving Stephen Tomašević to retreat to
Jajce and later to
Ključ. Mehmed invaded Bosnia and conquered it very quickly, executing Stephen Tomašević and his uncle
Radivoj. Bosnia officially fell in 1463 and became the westernmost province of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman-Venetian War (1463–1479) , 1478–79 According to the Byzantine historian
Michael Critobulus, hostilities broke out after an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens fled to the Venetian fortress of Coron (
Koroni) with 100,000 silver
aspers from his master's treasure. The fugitive then converted to Christianity, so Ottoman demands for his rendition were refused by the Venetian authorities. Using this as a pretext in November 1462, the Ottoman commander in central Greece,
Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, attacked and nearly succeeded in taking the strategically important Venetian fortress of Lepanto (
Nafpaktos). On 3 April 1463, however, the governor of the Morea, Isa Beg, took the Venetian-held town of
Argos by treason. At the same time,
Pius II began assembling an army at
Ancona, hoping to lead it in person. Negotiations were also begun with other rivals of the Ottomans, such as
Karamanids,
Uzun Hassan and the
Crimean Khanate. They then proceeded to besiege the fortress of the
Acrocorinth, which controlled the northwestern Peloponnese. The Venetians engaged in repeated clashes with the defenders and with Ömer Bey's forces, until they suffered a major defeat on 20 October and were then forced to lift the siege and retreat to the Hexamilion and to Nauplia (
Nafplion). Ottoman reaction was swift and decisive: Mehmed II dispatched his
Grand Vizier,
Mahmud Pasha Angelović, with an army against the Venetians. To confront the Venetian fleet, which had taken station outside the entrance of the
Dardanelles Straits, the Sultan further ordered the creation of the new shipyard of Kadirga Limani in the
Golden Horn (named after the "kadirga" type of
galley), and of two forts to guard the Straits,
Kilidulbahr and
Sultaniye. The Morean campaign was swiftly victorious for the Ottomans; they razed the Hexamilion, and advanced into the Morea. Argos fell, and several forts and localities that had recognized Venetian authority reverted to their Ottoman allegiance. Sultan Mehmed II, who was following Mahmud Pasha with another army to reinforce him, had reached Zeitounion (
Lamia) before being apprised of his Vizier's success. Immediately, he turned his men north, towards Bosnia. In the meantime, the Venetian Republic had appointed
Sigismondo Malatesta for the upcoming campaign of 1464. He launched attacks against Ottoman forts and engaged in a failed siege of
Mistra in August through October. Small-scale warfare continued on both sides, with raids and counter-raids, but a shortage of manpower and money meant that the Venetians remained largely confined to their fortified bases, while Ömer Bey's army roamed the countryside. In the
Aegean, the Venetians tried to take Lesbos in the spring of 1464, and besieged the capital
Mytilene for six weeks, until the arrival of an Ottoman fleet under Mahmud Pasha on 18 May forced them to withdraw. Another attempt to capture the island shortly after also failed. The Venetian navy spent the remainder of the year in ultimately fruitless demonstrations of force before the Dardanelles. In April 1466, the Venetian war effort was reinvigorated under
Vettore Cappello: the fleet took the northern Aegean islands of
Imbros,
Thasos, and
Samothrace, and then sailed into the
Saronic Gulf. Before Cappello could arrive, and as the city seemed on the verge of falling, Ömer Bey suddenly appeared with 12,000 cavalry and drove the outnumbered besiegers off. Six hundred Venetians and a hundred Greeks were taken prisoner out of a force of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself was killed. Cappello, who arrived some days later, attacked the Ottomans but was heavily defeated. Demoralized, he returned to Negroponte with the remains of his army. There Cappello fell ill and died on 13 March 1467. In 1470 Mehmed personally led an Ottoman army to
besiege Negroponte. The Venetian relief navy was defeated, and Negroponte was captured. In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed marched with a large army against the Albanians. Under their leader,
Skanderbeg, they had long resisted the Ottomans, and had repeatedly sought assistance from Italy. Skanderbeg himself died of malaria in the Venetian stronghold of Lissus (
Lezhë), ending the ability of Venice to use the Albanian lords for its own advantage. but failed. Then he went personally to lead the
siege of Shkodra of 1478–79. The Venetians and Shkodrans resisted the assaults and continued to hold the fortress until Venice ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the
Treaty of Constantinople as a condition of ending the war. The agreement was established as a result of the Ottomans having reached the outskirts of
Venice. Based on the terms of the treaty, the Venetians were allowed to keep
Ulcinj, Antivan, and
Durrës. However, they ceded
Shkodra, which had been
under Ottoman siege for many months, as well as other territories on the
Dalmatian coastline, and they relinquished control of the Greek islands of
Negroponte (
Euboea) and
Lemnos. Moreover, the Venetians were forced to pay 100,000 ducat
indemnity and agreed to a tribute of around 10,000
ducats per year in order to acquire trading privileges in the
Black Sea. As a result of this treaty, Venice acquired a weakened position in the
Levant.
Anatolian conquests (1464–1473) |thumb|right|150px During the post-
Seljuks era in the second half of the
Middle Ages, numerous
Turkmen principalities collectively known as
Anatolian beyliks emerged in Anatolia.
Karamanids initially centred around the modern provinces of
Karaman and
Konya, the most important power in Anatolia. But towards the end of the 14th century, Ottomans began to dominate on most of Anatolia, reducing the Karaman influence and prestige.
İbrahim II of Karaman was the ruler of Karaman, and during his last years, his sons began struggling for the throne. His heir apparent was
İshak of Karaman, the governor of
Silifke. But
Pir Ahmet, a younger son, declared himself as the bey of Karaman in
Konya. İbrahim escaped to a small city in western territories where he died in 1464. The competing claims to the throne resulted in an interregnum in the
beylik. Nevertheless, with the help of Uzun Hasan, İshak was able to ascend to the throne. His reign was short, however, as Pir Ahmet appealed to Sultan Mehmed II for help, offering Mehmed some territory that İshak refused to cede. With Ottoman help, Pir Ahmet defeated İshak in the battle of
Dağpazarı. İshak had to be content with Silifke up to an unknown date. Pir Ahmet kept his promise and ceded a part of the
beylik to the Ottomans, but he was uneasy about the loss. So, during the Ottoman campaign in the West, he recaptured his former territory. Mehmed returned, however, and captured both Karaman (Larende) and Konya in 1466. Pir Ahmet barely escaped to the East. A few years later, Ottoman
vizier (later
grand vizier)
Gedik Ahmet Pasha captured the coastal region of the
beylik. Pir Ahmet as well as his brother
Kasım escaped to Uzun Hasan's territory. This gave Uzun Hasan a chance to interfere. In 1472, the Akkoyunlu army invaded and raided most of Anatolia (this was the reason behind the
Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473). But then Mehmed led a successful campaign against Uzun Hasan in 1473 that resulted in the decisive victory of the Ottoman Empire in the
Battle of Otlukbeli. Before that, Pir Ahmet with Akkoyunlu help had captured Karaman. However, Pir Ahmet could not enjoy another term. Because immediately after the capture of Karaman, the Akkoyunlu army was defeated by the Ottomans near
Beyşehir and Pir Ahmet had to escape once more. Although he tried to continue his struggle, he learned that his family members had been transferred to
Istanbul by Gedik Ahmet Pasha, so he finally gave up. Demoralized, he escaped to Akkoyunlu territory where he was given a
tımar (fief) in
Bayburt. He died in 1474. Uniting the Anatolian
beyliks was first accomplished by Sultan
Bayezid I, more than fifty years before Mehmed II but after the destructive
Battle of Ankara in 1402, the newly formed unification was gone. Mehmed II recovered Ottoman power over the other Turkish states, and these conquests allowed him to push further into Europe. Another important political entity that shaped the Eastern policy of Mehmed II were the Aq Qoyunlu. Under the leadership of Uzun Hasan, this kingdom gained power in the East, but because of its strong relations with Christian powers like the Empire of Trebizond and the
Republic of Venice and the alliance between the Turcomans and the Karamanid tribe, Mehmed saw them as a threat to his own power.
War with Moldavia (1475–1476) In 1456,
Peter III Aaron agreed to pay the Ottomans an annual tribute of 2,000 gold ducats to ensure his southern borders, thus becoming the first Moldavian ruler to accept the Turkish demands. His successor
Stephen the Great rejected Ottoman suzerainty and a series of fierce wars ensued. Stephen tried to bring Wallachia under his sphere of influence and so supported his own choice for the Wallachian throne. This resulted in an enduring struggle between different Wallachian rulers backed by Hungarians, Ottomans, and Stephen. An Ottoman army under Hadim Pasha (governor of Rumelia) was sent in 1475 to punish Stephen for his meddling in Wallachia; however, the Ottomans suffered a great defeat at the
Battle of Vaslui. Stephen inflicted a decisive defeat on the Ottomans, described as "the greatest ever secured by the Cross against Islam," with casualties, according to Venetian and Polish records, reaching beyond 40,000 on the Ottoman side. Mara Brankovic (Mara Hatun), the former younger wife of Murad II, told a Venetian envoy that the invasion had been worst ever defeat for the Ottomans. Stephen was later awarded the title "Athleta Christi" (Champion of Christ) by Pope Sixtus IV, who referred to him as "verus christianae fidei athleta" ("the true defender of the Christian faith"). Mehmed II assembled a large army and entered Moldavia in June 1476. Meanwhile, groups of
Tartars from the
Crimean Khanate (the Ottomans' recent ally) were sent to attack Moldavia. Romanian sources may state that they were repelled. Other sources state that joint Ottoman and Crimean Tartar forces "occupied Bessarabia and took Akkerman, gaining control of the southern mouth of the Danube. Stephan tried to avoid open battle with the Ottomans by following a scorched-earth policy". Finally, Stephen faced the Ottomans in battle. The Moldavians luring the main Ottoman forces into a forest that was set on fire, causing some casualties. According to another battle description, the defending Moldavian forces repelled several Ottoman attacks with steady fire from hand-guns. The attacking Turkish
Janissaries were forced to crouch on their stomachs instead of charging headlong into the defenders positions. Seeing the imminent defeat of his forces, Mehmed charged with his personal guard against the Moldavians, managing to rally the Janissaries, and turning the tide of the battle. Turkish Janissaries penetrated inside the forest and engaged the defenders in man-to-man fighting. The Moldavian army was utterly defeated (casualties were very high on both sides), and the
chronicles say that the entire battlefield was covered with the bones of the dead, a probable source for the
toponym (
Valea Albă is
Romanian and
Akdere Turkish for "The White Valley"). Stephen the Great retreated into the north-western part of Moldavia or even into the
Polish Kingdom and began forming another army. The Ottomans were unable to conquer any of the major Moldavian strongholds (
Suceava,
Neamț, and
Hotin) However, following the Sultan's withdrawal Skanderbeg himself spent the winter in Italy, seeking aid. On his return in early 1467, his forces sallied from the highlands, defeated
Ballaban Pasha, and lifted the
siege of the fortress of Croia (
Krujë); they also attacked Elbasan but failed to capture it. Mehmed II responded by marching again against Albania. He energetically pursued the attacks against the Albanian strongholds, while sending detachments to raid the Venetian possessions to keep them isolated. The Venetians and Shkodrans resisted the assaults and continued to hold the fortress until Venice ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the
Treaty of Constantinople as a condition of ending the war.
Crimean policy (1475) A number of
Turkic peoples, collectively known as the
Crimean Tatars, had been inhabiting the peninsula since the early
Middle Ages. After the destruction of the
Golden Horde by
Timur earlier in the 15th century, the Crimean Tatars founded an independent
Crimean Khanate under
Hacı I Giray, a descendant of
Genghis Khan. The Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that stretched from the
Kuban to the
Dniester River, but they were unable to take control over the commercial
Genoese towns called
Gazaria (Genoese colonies), which had been under Genoese control since 1357. After the conquest of Constantinople, Genoese communications were disrupted, and when the Crimean Tatars asked for help from the Ottomans, they responded with an invasion of the Genoese towns, led by
Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475, bringing
Kaffa and the other trading towns under their control. After the capture of the Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held
Meñli I Giray captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman suzerainty over the Crimean Khans and allowing them to rule as
tributary princes of the Ottoman Empire.|alt=A bronze medal of Mehmed II the Conqueror An Ottoman army under
Gedik Ahmed Pasha invaded Italy in 1480, capturing
Otranto. Because of lack of food, Gedik Ahmed Pasha returned with most of his troops to
Albania, leaving a garrison of 800 infantry and 500 cavalry behind to defend Otranto in Italy. It was assumed he would return after the winter. Since it was only 28 years after the fall of Constantinople, there was some fear that
Rome would suffer the same fate. Plans were made for the Pope and citizens of Rome to evacuate the city.
Pope Sixtus IV repeated his 1481 call for a
crusade. Several Italian city-states, Hungary, and France responded positively to the appeal. The
Republic of Venice did not, however, as it had signed an expensive peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1479. In 1481 king
Ferdinand I of Naples raised an army to be led by his son
Alphonso II of Naples. A contingent of troops was provided by king
Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The city was besieged starting 1 May 1481. After the death of Mehmed on 3 May, ensuing quarrels about his succession possibly prevented the Ottomans from sending reinforcements to Otranto. So, the Turkish occupation of Otranto ended by negotiation with the Christian forces, permitting the Turks to withdraw to Albania, and Otranto was retaken by Papal forces in 1481. == Administration and culture ==