The Turkish Empire, Its Growth and DecayEversley, G. Shaw-Lefevre (George Shaw-Lefevre), Baron
History
The Turkish Empire, Its Growth and Decay
Eversley, G. Shaw-Lefevre (George Shaw-Lefevre), Baron
Turkey -- History
As a result of this successful invasion the Greek Emperor found himself
compelled to enter into a treaty with Murad, by which he bound himself
to refrain from any attempt to recover what he had lost in Thrace, to
abstain from giving aid to the Serbians and Bulgarians in resisting
a further advance of the Ottomans in Europe, and to support Murad
against his Anatolian enemies, the Turkish Emirs. Murad thereupon
returned to Brusa to cogitate over new enterprises and to organize his
forces. He was soon recalled to Europe by most serious events. The
Christian Powers had shown no disposition to help the Greeks against
the Ottoman invasion, while their possessions in Asia and Europe were
being invaded, but the advance into Bulgaria seems to have caused
alarm to them. Pope Urban V stirred up Louis, the King of Hungary, and
the Princes of Serbia, Bosnia, and Wallachia to resist. They combined
together and sent an army of twenty thousand men into Thrace, with the
avowed object of driving the Turks out of Europe. Murad hastened to
confront them, but before he could arrive on the scene of action his
general, Lalashahin, led an army against the allies. The two armies
met on the River Maritza, not far from Adrianople, in 1363. Ilbeki, in
command of the Ottomans, made a sudden night attack, when the Christian
troops were heavy with sleep after a festive revel. A stampede took
place. The Turkish historian says of the allied army: “They were caught
even as wild beasts in their lair. They were driven as flames are
driven before the wind, till, plunging into the Maritza, they perished
in its waters.”
The Christian army was practically exterminated. The King of Hungary
escaped by a miracle. It was the first conflict of the Ottomans with
the Hungarians, who were destined to bar the way into Europe for a
hundred and fifty years. As a result of this battle all the country
south of the Balkan Mountains was incorporated in the Ottoman Empire.
Ilbeki, who devised the night attack, and so successfully carried it
out, was made away with by poison, at the instance of Lalashahin, who
was madly jealous of his great victory.
The battle of the Maritza was a crushing blow to the Christians. One
result of it was that Murad decided in favour of a scheme of conquest
in Europe rather than in Asia. In this view he transferred the seat of
his government from Brusa to Thrace, and made Demotika the capital of
his Empire. Three years later he transferred it to Adrianople, which
for ninety years, till after the capture of Constantinople, held this
position, and from thence he organized his great invasion of the Balkan
States. Another result was that the Greek Emperor, John Palæologus V,
was forced into a further step towards subjection to the Ottomans. He
agreed to become a tributary to the Sultan and to send a contingent to
the Ottoman army in future wars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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