In
February 1451, the 18-year old Mehmet II became Sultan for the second
time following the death of his father. Immediately, he had to deal with
Karamanid attacks on Ottoman lands in Eastern Anatolia. Emperor
Konstantinos XI of Byzantium, attempting to use this situation to the
Empire’s advantage, decided to attempt a risky strategy of disruption as
he thought that he had an ace in the hole...
A
great-grandson of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, Orhan Çelebi, lived as a
hostage in Constantinople. Other than Mehmet II, Orhan was the only
other claimant to the throne. Murad II had previously agreed to pay
annually 300,000 aspres for Orhan being kept at Constantinople, but this
time, Konstantinos XI asked for a doubling of Orhan’s allowance or
otherwise to release him, potentially sparking an Ottoman civil war.
Mehmet's
Grand Vizier, Çandarlı Halil Pasha received the ambassadors at Bursa.
The Grand Vizier was the main force in the Ottoman Government counseling
the new Sultan against war and an attack on Constantinople. Because of
the blatant provocation, he lost his temper with the Byzantine
messengers, supposedly exploding in anger:
"You
stupid Greeks, I have had enough of your devious ways. The late sultan
was a lenient and conscientious friend to you. The present sultan is not
of the same mind. If Constantine eludes his bold and impetuous grasp,
it will only be because God continues to overlook your cunning and
wicked schemes. You are fools to think you can frighten us with your
fantasies, and that when the ink on our recent treaty [1449] is
barely dry. We are not children without strength or reason. If you
think you can start something, then do so. If you want to proclaim Orhan
as Sultan in Thrace, go ahead. If you want to bring the Hungarians
across the Danube, let them come. If you want to recover the places
which you lost long since, try it. But know this: you will make no
headway in any of these things. All that you will achieve is to lose
what little you still have".
The
threat of releasing Orhan gave Mehmet a pretext for concentrating all
of his energy and resources on seizing Constantinople, his true goal
since he had become Sultan. He began large-scale preparations
immediately. He sent a message to Konstantinos: “Either surrender the city or stand ready to do battle.”
 |
| Photograph from the Panorama 1453 Museum, Istanbul |
The
Byzantines had greatly underestimated the young Sultan. On 2 April
1453, Mehmet's advance guard arrived outside Constantinople and began
pitching up a camp. On 5 April, the Sultan himself arrived at the head
of his 60,000-men army and encamped within firing range of the city's
Gate of St. Romanus. The most important siege in History had begun…
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