The Spanish Inquisition

While the Roman Catholic Church established the Inquisition in the 12th century to root out heresy, etc., some countries felt the need to create their own versions. In 1478, Isabella I of Castile and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, created their own that would not be controlled by the popes: the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. We know it as the Spanish Inquisition.

Spain had a slightly different situation than much of Western Europe, because historically it had a large Muslim and Jewish population. Ferdinand and Isabella would eventually release the Alhambra Decree in 1492 (yes, the same year Isabella financed Columbus' travels), requiring all non-Christians to convert or leave the country on pain of death. There were two terms for these converts. Conversos were Jews who converted to Christianity. Moriscos, from the word for "Moorish," were converted Muslims.

Prior to 1492, however, there was still a desire to ensure that converts from Judaism and Islam to Christianity were sincere, but after 1492 the job of the Spanish Inquisition became more widespread and intense, since so many who could not afford to leave the country converted under duress.

Besides heresy and apostasy ("backsliding" to your previous beliefs), the Spanish Inquisition went after witchcraft, blasphemy, bigamy, sodomy, Protestantism (when it came along later), and even Christian mystics (called alumbrados, "illuminati").

It was a Dominican, Fray Alonso de Ojeda, who convinced Isabella that there were "Crypto-Jews" in Andalusia: Jews who had converted but practiced Judaism in secret. This was confirmed by Isabella and Ferdinand's confessor, Tomás de Torquemada (a name that became synonymous with torture). The Spanish Inquisition held its first investigations in late 1480, and had a result by 6 February 1481, when six people were burned alive in public, a practice known as auto da fé, a Portuguese phrase meaning "act of faith." (The illustration shows an auto da fé in the public marketplace.)

Not all subjects were executed. Public flogging, imprisonment, and exile were also used, as well as being force to serve as a galley-slave, forced to row on the royal ships. There were also monetary fines. "Surviving" the investigation did not mean resuming life as you knew it: you and your descendants were prohibited from certain high-level professions like doctor and tax-collector.

If you were a good and faithful converso or a morisco, however, you were probably safe, right? Hmm, tomorrow let's see how converts were actually treated by society.

(By the way, everybody expected the Spanish Inquisition! The Inquisition protocol was to send you a message saying to be available for interrogation.)

What Started the Inquisition?

As Christianity expanded to different regions and with different authorities, philosophical discussions and policies and practices developed in isolation from each other. Councils and Synods were held to bring the various regional groups together to form consistent understanding of their message.

Once you have an approved message, however, you have to guard it, and therefore you have to find ways to stamp out dissent, disagreement, and maybe even simple debate. This need to drag dissenters back into the community of the faithful—or else—led to inquisitions, when the subject was questioned at length to determine whether they were truly UN"faith"ful or were simply misunderstood, and perhaps needed re-education.

This process, too, needed to be made consistent across the Christian world, and therefore the (upper-case) Inquisition was formed, with rules and regulations. The Catholic Encyclopedia website describes the Inquisition thusly:

Its characteristic mark seems to be the bestowal on special judges of judicial powers in matters of faith, and this by supreme ecclesiastical authority, not temporal or for individual cases, but as a universal and permanent office. Moderns experience difficulty in understanding this institution, because they have, to no small extent, lost sight of two facts.

On the one hand they have ceased to grasp religious belief as something objective, as the gift of God, and therefore outside the realm of free private judgment; on the other they no longer see in the Church a society perfect and sovereign, based substantially on a pure and authentic Revelation, whose first most important duty must naturally be to retain unsullied this original deposit of faith.

The period known as the Medieval Inquisition ranged from the 12th to 15th centuries, and started in France to deal with Cathars and Waldensians. It quickly expanded to other countries, looking into the Hussites, the Spiritual Franciscans ("Spirituals"), and the Beguines.

In 1250, Pope Alexander IV appointed Dominicans as the official Inquisitors. (The illustration is by 15th-century artist Pedro Berrugete of St. Dominic presiding over the burning of a heretic, called an auto-da-fé.)

When "moderns" think of the Inquisition, what often comes to mind is the Spanish Inquisition. Let's see what made them special next time.

Heinrich and the Hammer of Witches

I've touched on the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") briefly before. It was written by a Dominican who was frustrated because he wasn't allowed to do everything he wanted as part of the Inquisition.

It was first printed in 1486 in Germany and also known as Hexenhammer. It offers proof that witches exist, explains their powers, and explains how to properly conduct a trial of a witch. It recommends torture to gain confessions.

The Inquisition of the Catholic Church also used torture to extract confessions out of suspected heretics, but officially condemned the Malleus Maleficarum as unethical in 1489. That did not prevent its massive popularity, however. Here is how the book came about.

In 1485, after urging Pope Innocent VIII to make a statement against witches, which led to a papal bull, Heinrich Kramer (c.1430 - 1505) went to Innsbruck to root out witchcraft. Its bishop, Georg Golser, gave him permission to operate in the diocese. He and his personal crusade were well-known, and a woman by the name of Helena Scheuberin, the wife of a prominent burgher, seeing him in the street, spat and said "Fie on you, you bad monk, may the falling evil take you."

Kramer found out that she never attended any of his sermons, and moreover that she was telling others to avoid him, so he accused her of laying a curse and had her arrested. Bishop Golser urged Kraner to drop the investigation, since his accusations of witchcraft had no evidence to support them, but Kramer persisted until Golser demanded that Kramer leave the diocese.

That is when he decided to turn his focus on educating others of the dangers of witches among us, and so wrote his book. He included a forward with Innocent's bull, lending an air of legitimacy to his stance. It was reprinted 13 times up until 1520, and then had a revival between the 1570s and 1660s when it was reprinted 16 times. Its popularity finally started to fade during the Age of Enlightenment, although it is still published as a curiosity today, and paperback copies can be found from several booksellers.

Next time, let's go back to the beginning of the Inquisition, and see how it all started.

Innocent, Kramer, and Witchcraft

On 5 December 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull concerning witchcraft. Bulls are known by their opening lines, and so this one is referred to as Summis desiderantes affectibus, "Desiring with supreme ardor," although that opening hardly tells you what the bull addresses.

The rest of the first sentence (or at least most of the very long introduction) makes more sense:

Desiring with supreme ardor, as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that all heretical depravity be put far from the territories of the faithful,...[source]

The bull was a response to the urging of Heinrich Kramer (c.1430 - 1505), a German Dominican and inquisitor for the county of Tyrol, and for Salzburg, Bohemia, and Moravia. Kramer saw witchcraft as a severe problem, and wanted permission to root it out and punish it everywhere. The local authorities did not support his campaign, so he appealed to Innocent and convinced the pope that this was a crisis that needed addressing. 

The bull continues with a list of the results of witchcraft:

...by their incantations, charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish, both internal and external, these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds, and animals, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and prevent all consummation of marriage;

Despite the bull, the German authorities limited Kramer's inquisitorial activities. During one trial he brought against the wife of a prominent burgher in Innsbruck, his bishop accused him of not being able to prove any of his accusations, finally demanding that Kramer leave his diocese.

Kramer retired from the Inquisition and turned his attention to warning everyone about witchcraft and related topics. The result was a book that is still in print, the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of Witches." Let's talk about that next time.

Pope Innocent VIII and Prince Cem

When Cem, brother of Sultan Bayezid II, came to be incarcerated in Rome as the "guest" of Pope Innocent VIII, he had a very comfortable life. Bayezid wanted to keep his rival claimant far away from Constantinople and Ottoman lands, and was willing to pay to do so.

Innocent wanted a Crusade against the Ottomans, but he needed military support from Christian rulers. The death of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary—who had seized Ottoman-held territories in Bosnia—in 1490 created a delay in the plans.

To hold off Innocent, Beyazid promised not to attack Rome or Venice or Rhodes and to pay 40,000 ducats to the pope annually to keep Cem under guard. 10,000 of the ducats were to go to the Knights of St. John in Rhodes, who initially took Cem into custody when he asked for their help against Bayezid. Bayezid also gave Innocent 120,000 crowns—a sum greater than all papal revenues combined—and the Holy Lance. 

Innocent's attempt to convert Cem to Christianity was unsuccessful, and despite the comfort of his lifestyle in Rome, Cem wished fervently to die in Muslim lands. When Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in 1494 to conquer Naples (at Innocent's urging, although Innocent had died two years before), he stopped in Rome and made Pope Alexander VI surrender Cem. Perhaps Charles wanted to start receiving payments from the Sultan. He took Cem with him on campaign, but Cem died on 24 February 1495.

Sultan Bayezid (no doubt relieved that there was no longer a rival claimant and that he no longer had to pay a fee to keep Cem imprisoned) declared a three-day period of national mourning. He requested Cem's body for a proper Islamic funeral, but Charles kept it, hoping to ransom it for more gold. It took four years for Cem's body to reach Ottoman lands and be buried in Bursa. (The illustration shows his tomb alongside siblings.)

We are not done with Pope Innocent, however, and tomorrow we'll see the statement he made about a different campaign...against witchcraft.

Cem's Offer

When Bayezid II became sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1481, he had a rival: his half-brother Cem (22 December 1459 - 25 February 1495). Cem was the third son of Sultan Mehmed II, who conquered Constantinople and then died without choosing a successor. Cem and Bayezid each ruled provinces, and each believed himself ready and able to become the next sultan.

The Grand Vizier tried to arrange things so that Cem could arrive at his father's funeral before Bayezid and claim the throne at Constantinople. Bayezid, however, already had several important pashas and the Janissaries in his corner. The Janissaries entered the palace, lynched the Grand Vizier, and Bayezid was urged to reach Constantinople as soon as possible.

Cem fled west with an army loyal to him, declaring himself Sultan of Anatolia and proposing that the empire be split; Bayezid could have the western half. Bayezid disagreed, and sent his army after Cem. A battle ensued in which Cem's side lost, and Cem fled to Cairo.

While in Cairo, he received a letter from Bayezid, offering him 1,000,000 akçes (a silver coin that was the standard unit of Ottoman currency) to give up his claim. Instead, Cem tried to conquer the city of Konya in Turkey, but failed. He then fled to Rhodes and asked for the protection of the Knights of St. John, also known as the Hospitallers.

Cem's offer to them was to create a perpetual peace between the Ottoman Empire and Christianity if they would help him overthrow Bayezid. The grand master of the Knights, Pierre d'Aubusson, knew a war with Bayezid could be disastrous, so when he had a message from Bayezid making a counter-offer, he accepted it. 

The counter-offer was simple: Bayezid would make an annual payment in gold to the Knights if they would take and keep Cem captive. He was sent to France under the saintly King Louis IX (who did not like having a Muslim in his lands), and kept for a year in the Duchy of Savoy, and then five years at Pierre d'Aubusson's birthplace, Limousin. (The illustration shows the tower built specially to hold him in comfort.) After Charles VIII came to the throne, Bayezid asks that Cem be transferred back to Rhodes. His value as a hostage meant several leaders wanted to "host" him, but ultimately Pope Innocent VIII won out.

In March 1489, Cem was transported to Rome and the custody of Pope Innocent VIII. Whenever word came that Bayezid was about to launch an offensive against Christians, Innocent would send a message to Bayezid, threatening to release Cem from captivity and giving the Ottomans an alternative sultan around whom they could form an insurrection.

Bayezid ultimately sent Innocent 120,000 crowns, a relic of the Holy Lance (stored in Constantinople), and an annual fee of 45,000 ducats for Cem's "room and board." Bayezid sent spies to ensure that Cem was kept under lock and key, and even tried to assassinate him.

...and then Innocent wanted a Crusade against the Ottomans. I'll continue that story—and Cem's end—tomorrow.

Pope Innocent VIII

Giovanni Battista Cibo was born in Genoa on 5 November 1432. His father was a prominent politician in Naples and then Rome, and Giovanni grew up exposed to Naples politics. He became a Canon of the Cathedral in Capua, and was given the Priory of Santa Maria d'Arba in Genoa. He resigned these positions at the urging of the Archbishop of Genoa after antagonizing King Alfonso. He went to Padua and then Rome to study.

There he came under the influence of several popes. Pope Paul II made him Bishop of Savona, but in 1473 he became a cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV, after being supported by the man who became Pope Julius II. When Sixtus IV died (1484), the conclave to elect his successor was chaotic because of two opposing factions. One faction disliked the other so much that they gave their votes to Giovanni Cibo to prevent Cardinal Marco Barbo (a cousin of Paul II) from the papacy. Giovanni Cibo won the next vote and became Pope Innocent VIII.

One of the new pope's first acts was to call a Crusade against the Turks—the Ottoman Empire was expanding rapidly, and had conquered Constantinople a generation earlier. This did not get off the ground due to King Ferdinand I of Naples, mostly due to his own orneriness that led to the 1485 Conspiracy of the Barons, a revolt against Ferdinand's attempt to strengthen his own power at the expense of the feudal hierarchy. Innocent excommunicated Ferdinand in 1489 and asked King of France Charles VIII to come to Italy and take over Naples.

Charles was intrigued, because his paternal grandmother was Marie of Anjou, the eldest daughter of Louis II of Anjou who had been a claimant to the throne of Naples (and ruled part of it from 1390 to 1399). In September 1494 (Innocent had died two years earlier!) Charles invaded with 25,000 men, using gunpowder artillery to march practically unopposed through Pavia, Pisa, Florence, and then Naples. (That, however, is an entirely different story that we might never get to; back to Innocent now.)

Innocent could not get his Crusade against the Turks off the ground, but another opportunity to do something about them came because of Bayezid II, who had become sultan of the Ottomans in 1481. Bayezid was opposed by his brother, Cem, who first tried to get help from the Mamluks of Egypt, and then from the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. Cem made an offer to the Christian world that was very tempting; I'll explain tomorrow.

Guillaume Caoursin

Yesterday's post on Mesih Pasha mentions the Siege of Rhodes in 1480, when a small garrison of Knights Hospitallers at Rhodes withstood an attack by the Ottomans. The garrison was led by Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson. The vice-chancellor of the order was Guillaume Caoursin, who wrote (among other things) an account of the event.

Caoursin was born in 1430 in Douai in northern France, and joined the Order of Saint John (also know as the Hospitallers) as a young man. By 1462 he was vice-chancellor of the Order in Rhodes, and in 1462 he accompanied the Grand Master Piero Raimondo Zacosta to Rome for the holding of a general chapter under the guidance of Pope Paul II.

While in Rome, Zacosta died (he was in his 60s), and Giovanni Battista Orsini succeeded him. Caoursin went back to Rhodes with the new Grand Master, but was sent back to Rome in 1470 to request help from the pope for dealing with the Turks. Orsini died in 1476, and Caoursin now worked under Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson.

In 1480, Mesih Pasha led an Ottoman force of 160 ships and 70,000 men against Rhodes. While the Turks bombarded the walls, the citizens dug a new moat and new fortification within the city walls near the Jewish quarter in case the bombardment breached the walls.

On 27 July the Janissaries managed to enter the city. d'Aubusson led the fighting, though wounded in five places. A three-hour battle forced the Turks back, and the Knights pursued all the way back to the Ottoman tents, taking booty and the holy standard of Islam. Caoursin reported that between three and four thousand Turks were slain that day. The Ottomans gave up on 17 August.

Caoursin married shortly after 1480. He was rewarded by d'Aubusson with 1000 gold florins for his services to the Order. His "next act" came in 1484, when he became ambassador to Pope Innocent VIII. Innocent was so impressed by Caoursin that he made him his apostolic secretary. Caoursin remained there, writing about his Order and about Rhodes.

Innocent VIII might also have kept Caoursin close because of his knowledge of the Ottomans and the Siege of Rhodes, of which I will have more to say tomorrow.

The Mesih End

Mesih Pasha was chosen from obscurity—we don't even know his original name before Mehmed II forced him to convert to Islam and made him a member of the Ottoman administration after the Conquest of Constantinople—and rose to great heights, but sultans can be fickle.

Mesih was Grand Admiral of the Ottoman navy and had great successes. He negotiated (successfully) with the rebelling Janissaries when they occupied the palace, angry at the sultan's imprisoning of one of their favorites. He negotiated a compromise with Sultan Bayezid II's rival half-brother, Cem, who had teamed up with the Knights Hospitallers in Rhodes against Bayezid. (The illustration shows Mesih at Rhodes.)

For some reason, however, he fell out of favor with Bayezid in 1485 and was dismissed from his position as vizier at court, being made simply governor of Filibe (once called Philippopolis, now Plovdiv, the second-largest city in Bulgaria). He was shortly exiled (essentially) to Kaffa, on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

His exile did not last forever. In 1497 he was made sanjak bey, military and administrative leader of the port city Akkerman (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in southern Ukraine). While there he halted a Poolish invasion of Moldavia, sending several Polish nobles to Bayezid as tribute.

In 1499 he went on pilgrimage to Mecca, an excuse for leaving his position which gave him a reason to visit Constantinople and try to get back to a position at court. Fortunately, the Venetians were fighting the Ottomans again, and his previous naval experience against the Venetians led to being re-named vizier, and then in 1501 Grand Vizier.

Things were looking up again, but that same year the Venetians attacked Lesbos to get it back from the Ottomans. Bayezid, unhappy that the Venetians felt able to make such a bold move against him, in a fit of pique struck Mesih. We don't know how serious the injury may have been, but soon after, after supervising putting out a fire in a Constantinople suburb, Mesih was supposedly injured. He died in November 1501. He was buried in the Murat Pasha Mosque in Constantinople, begun by his brother Hass Murad Pasha and completed by Mesih himself.

Now for something completely different. The illustration above, a painting of Mesih addressing Rhodes, was painted by an eyewitness of that negotiation! His name was Guillaume Caoursin, and we're going to talk about him next.

The Brothers Murad and Mesih

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II, he took two young male potential Byzantine heirs, converted them to Islam, and made them important figures in the new administration.

We don't know their original names, or their exact parentage (they were reported by some Ottoman historians to be nephews of the deposed Byzantine Emperor Constantine), but they were converted to Islam and renamed Hass Murad Pasha and Mesih Pasha. Both had powerful career positions.

Hass—a title meaning "private" or "personal"—was also very wealthy. He had accrued a significant amount of wealth by 1465/66 when he began the construction of a new mosque, called the Murat Pasha Mosque in Istanbul (still in use; see illustration).

In 1468, the current Grand Vizier and beylerbey ("lord of lords") was dismissed, and Hass replaced him as beylerbey, the commander-in-chief of the Balkans. Life in the Balkans was not peaceful. In 1473, he led a troop of 20,000 against an uprising. When the enemy retreated, Hass Murad intended to follow.

One of the men under his command, Mahmud Pasha, warned him that this particular enemy employed the tactic of "feigned retreats": pretending to flee in disarray and yet prepared to turn and fight when pursued. Murad did not listen. He crossed the Euphrates, his army was ambushed and many captured, and Hass Murad Pasha was killed.

The other brother, Mesih Pasha, was first mentioned in the records as military and administrative commander of Gelibolu (Gallipoli). Gallipoli was a chief Ottoman naval base, and so Mesih had control of a large part of the navy. There was an Ottoman-Venetian War in 1463 - 1479 in which Mesih conquered Euboea, the second-largest Greek island. 

Venetian records of the time claim that Mesih was willing to surrender Gallipoli to Venice for 40,000 gold ducats, but this arrangement never came to fruition, so may have been a Venetian plan to stir up unrest among the Ottomans, and discredit a successful enemy leader.

A new sultan came to the throne, Bayezid II (1481 - 1512). There were some problems with a rival claim, and when Bayezid imprisoned the Grand Vizier who was sympathetic to Bayezid's rival, the Janissaries revolted and invaded the palace (the Grand Vizier, like the Janissaries, was a devşirme). Mesih was sent to negotiate, which he did successfully.

In January 1485 he fell out of favor with Beyazid. This was not the end of his story, however. I'll continue it next time.

After the Conquest

Once Mehmed II had taken Constantinople in 1453, absorbing it into the Ottoman Empire, he declared himself Roman Caesar. His thinking was that Constantinople had been the seat of the emperors of Rome since 330CE, and therefore whomever sat on that throne was in charge. Western Europe and the Popes did not support this claim, but thinking was different in the East. 

Contemporary Byzantine scholar George of Trebizond (1395 - 1486) supported this view. Another who aligned with the new Caesar was Gennadius Scholarius, whom Mehmed chose as the new Patriarch of Constantinople.

Note that Mehmed did not declare Eastern Orthodoxy heretical. He was actually quite magnanimous to his potential opposition. For example, when he then turned his attention to the royal family, he did not simply execute anyone who might have provided the nucleus of an insurrection and coup.

The defeated Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, who had died during the siege, had no heirs. He had nephews of a deceased brother who would have been next in line. As was mentioned in the post on the Janissaries, a Muslim practice called devşirme (the "ş" is pronounced like "sh") took children of conquered peoples and converted them, training them to be loyal Muslims.

Mehmed took at least two boys who were purportedly related to Constantine, converted them to Islam and renamed them Hass Murad Pasha and Mesih Pasha. Hass—a title meaning "private" or "personal"—became beylerbey ("lord of lords"), the commander-in-chief of the Balkans in 1468. (The illustration shows his signature.) Mesih (1443 - 1501) became Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy.

We do not know the parentage of the two young men who rose so high in the sultan's favor. Contemporary Ottoman chronicles claim they were nephews of Constantine, but offer different names for their father. Still, Murad and Mesih were lucky that Constantine was succeeded by Mehmed and not another prominent Greek noble, who might have followed the Byzantine tradition of eliminating all possible opposition through incarceration, execution, or blinding.

It would be nice to think that the two boys had not only good lives but peaceful ends. That was not to be the case, however. I'll give you the rundown on their careers tomorrow.

The Conquest of Constantinople

In 1451, Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, chose as his first self-imposed task that he would conquer Constantinople. To prepare, he built up his naval force, then built a huge castle on the western side of the Bosphorus Straits, north of his target and on the shore of the Black Sea. The fortress was called Rumelihisarı. It can still be viewed today (see illustration).

Paired with a castle built on the eastern side of the strait by a previous sultan, the two were able to prevent any possible aid reaching Constantinople from the Black Sea. Mehmed used his position there to extort tolls from ships passing through. A Venetian ship that ignored the command to stop was turned into an example for others: a single shot from a cannon sank the ship, the captain was impaled, and the surviving sailors were all beheaded.

Mehmed was ready in 1453 with an army of over 80,000 soldiers, 320 ships, and dozens of artillery pieces. The siege began in April, surrounding the city by sea as well as land. The harbor into the city, the Golden Horn, was blocked by raising a chain that prevented ships from sailing in. The walls were very thick, reinforced after the attack in 1204 during the 4th Crusade.

Mehmed was undaunted. He had a mile-long road of wood built that would portage some of the ships and equipment over land and into the northern shore of the Golden Horn. It took less than two months from the start of the siege to its conclusion, on 29 May.

Mehmed made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital and declared himself caesar of the Roman Empire. The Catholic Church, Western Europe, and the rest of Christendom never accepted the Ottoman sultan as the head of the Roman Empire. He appointed an anti-Rome philosopher and theologian, Gennadius Scholarius, as Patriarch of Constantinople with all the rights of previous patriarchs, and so Gennadius accepted Mehmed publicly as the rightful successor to the throne.

Mehmed also co-opted the remains of the royal family, rather than eliminate alternate claimants. I'll tell you about the aftermath of the conquest tomorrow.

Mehmed II

Mehmed II, also called Mehmed the Conqueror, accomplished one of the most damaging counters to Christianity and Europe and conquered an enormous number of kingdoms. He also succeeded his father as sultan, for all practical purposes returned it to him, and succeeded his father a second time. All this happened before the age of 50!

Born in 1432 to Murad II, he was sent at 11 years old to Amasya in northern Turkey with his mother (supposedly a low-born woman), teachers, and advisors to learn how to govern. He also had a particular mentor, Molla Gürâni, who was a scholar, philosopher, and jurist who had a high position in Murad's and Mehmed's administrations. Another influence was Akshamsaddin, a Sunni Muslim scholar, poet, and mystic.

When Mehmed was 12, his father abdicated, leaving Mehmed in charge. Why would he do this? It was June 1444, and Murad had just made peace with Hungary after defeating the Crusade of Varna, an attempt by several European Christian countries to check the growing power of the Ottomans. He had several other victories under his belt, and perhaps wanted a life of leisure.

Hungary under John Hunyadi broke the treaty a few months later—the papal legate, Julian Cesarini, had convinced Hunyadi that breaking a truce with Muslims was not a sin–and Mehmed prepared to fight.

There was a problem: the Janissaries. Although loyal to the sultan, they were uncertain of this pre-teen who was now their commander. Their unrest caused Mehmed to ask his 40-year-old father to return and lead the armies. Murad's response was "You are the sultan; you lead the army." Mehmed's reply: "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."

Mehmed retained the title of sultan and continued to govern, but Murad returned as commander of the military, defeating Hunyadi (again) and retaining authority until his death in 1451, when Mehmed became sole ruler for the second time. He was almost 20 years old, however, had much more experience, and was ready to take on the world.

His first goal? Constantinople. See you tomorrow.

The Later Ottomans

The Ottoman Empire, begun by Osman Ghazi, lasted until the 19th century, but we will confine ourselves to an earlier century or two. The initial motivation of Osman—to expand his realm to an empire—never stopped, and this naturally brought the Ottomans into contact with several other subjects of this blog.

Władysław III of Poland broke a ten-year truce with the Ottomans to make himself look good by starting a holy Crusade against the Turks, destroying his 20,000-man army when they faced 60,000 Turks at the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444. Władysław was killed in that encounter. Had he lived another 20 years, he might have taken satisfaction by the news coming out of Wallachia.

Vlad "Dracula" Tsepes of Wallachia had help from the Ottomans in the 1400s, but when the sultan demanded homage in exchange (after Vlad had been elevated to Voivode of Wallachia), Vlad had the Ottoman envoys impaled, then invaded Ottoman territory and impaled many thousands. This was supported by Pope Pius II.

Medieval Chechnya converted to Sunni Islam in order to gain the help of the Ottomans against Russian invasions.

Histories of the Ottoman Empire were written by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim and Ibn Khaldun.

The biggest event in Ottoman history that is significant for Western Europe, I would say, is the conquest of Constantinople. That was under the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, a reformer of both the military and his government. I'll tell you about him tomorrow.

The Janissaries

Although Alaeddin's idea to create a group ready to be called up to military service at a moment's notice failed due to their lack of training, the Ottoman Empire a generation later tried again, but this time with trained men. They were called the Janissaries—a Turkish term meaning "new soldier"—elite infantry who were part of the sultan's personal guard. They were also the first infantry in history to be equipped with firearms (but that did not take place until the 15th century).

They were established in 1363, a mere 30 years after Alaeddin's death and owing nothing to his original plans. As a standing army, they obviously could not be involved in their own careers, nor were they allowed to marry before they were 40 years old. Consequently, they were salaried. They were to have no attachments to anything other than protection and support of the sultan.

Rather than entice citizens away from their chosen professions, members of the Janissaries were drawn from other sources, and that is where the story becomes extremely uncomfortable. The Muslim world happily employed slavery, and the first Janissaries were prisoners, and prisoners of war. A sultan would take a customary one-fifth of the spoils of any conquest, and would often take it "in kind," so he would take a section of the captured population as slaves.

In fact, the Ottomans had a practice called devşirme, defined literally as "collecting"; historically, it is referred to as "blood tax" or "child levy." This was the Ottoman policy of taking children as young as seven years old—usually from the Balkan Christians they subjugated—converting them to Islam (which meant forced circumcision), and turning them into soldiers. This gave the sultan an army loyal to him and not connected to any other Turkish noble family that might have designs on the throne. (The illustration is a 16th-century painting that shows a tribute of Christian boys being presented to the sultan.)

In later centuries, free-born Muslims were allowed to join the Janissaries. This had two advantages: for the army, it allowed faster recruitment and training, and no need for religious conversion and education; for the citizens, the salary and the prestige that came with being part of an elite force was a desirable career path.

The Ottoman Empire lasted for centuries, but we will go back and see their actions in the Late Middle Ages and a few links to other posts in this blog. See you tomorrow.

The Real Aladdin

Well, not the "real" Aladdin in the sense that he was a man with a magic lamp, but a man who did perform "wonders" in this context.

When Osman Ghazi died in 1323, he left two sons, one of whom would take on the role of continuing Osman's work in creating the Ottoman Empire. There are plenty of examples of princes fighting with each other over the succession, but that did not happen in this case. Prince Orhan became the natural leader, but his brother provided valuable aid.

Alaeddin Erden Ali Pasha (c 1281 - 1331) not only did not clash with Orhan (some scholars think Alaeddin may even have been the elder of the two), but he supported his brother with ideas and projects that advanced the cause of the Ottomans in ways that mere military conquest would not.

There are three innovations for which Alaeddin gets credit during this period, while Orhan led the military and held the title of sultan. It was after a particular conquest in 1328 that Alaeddin visited his brother to congratulate him and to make three suggestions.

The first was to establish their own monetary system to enhance trade and add an air of legitimacy and independence to the Ottomans. Silver coins dating to that year have Orhan's name on one side and "May Allah make his reign eternal" on the other (see illustration).

His next suggestion was to distinguish Orhan's Ottomans from other Turks and Muslims by developing distinctive style of dress. Inspired by the Byzantines, Ottoman government and military officials took on specific clothing styles. Also, based on an Arabic saying that 'the best garment is a white one,' everyday wear was suggested to include a simple white cap to distinguish followers from non-Ottomans.

Alaeddin's most significant contribution may have been in Orhan's wheelhouse: the military. Rather than the previous method of a leader trying to maneuver a vast array of men to do his bidding, the army was divided into separate contingents, each with its own leader who would report to and gain orders from higher up. This hierarchical style of military affairs is so efficient and common that it is difficult to believe that it was not always the case, but charismatic and successful (and unsuccessful) leaders did not always delegate.

Part of the military re-organization involved designating citizens as foot soldiers who could be called up when necessary. Since they had no formal training, however, they were ineffective. Decades after Alaeddin's failed idea, however, something vaguely similar was proposed. Tomorrow I'll tell you the horrifying story of the Janissaries.

The Ottoman Empire

Begun by (and named for) Osman Ghazi (c.1254 - 1323/4), and inspired (perhaps) by a dream, the Ottoman Empire grew to encompass an enormous territory that continued to expand well after the Middle Ages. The illustration shows in dark green what they controlled up to the 17th century, and the lighter green shows territory that considered the Ottomans their overlords.

Osman was succeeded by capable men. His son, Orhan Ghazi (fl.1324 - 1362), was a competent leader of the clan and continued his father's goal of expansion. The conquest of the important Byzantine fortified city of Bursa in Anatolia was completed by Orhan—Osman was suffering from gout by this time, and left battle to others; he died shortly after—who made Bursa the new Ottoman capital.

The defeat of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire was an important step to increasing the Ottoman territory and power. A period known as the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars began in 1299 and culminated in the taking of Constantinople in 1453, a year and event that I have written about before.

Orhan captured several areas, including Gallipoli in 13543 (at the time called Kallipolis), getting closer to the European mainland. A three-year siege brought Nicaea under Orhan's control in 1331, and Nicomedia in 1337.

Then Orhan made a bold move: he turned his attention to Karesi (now Balıkesir, in the Marmara region of Turkey). Its ruler had died and the deceased's two sons were fighting over the succession. Orhan claimed he was coming in as a bringer of peace. This sounded good, but Karesi was Muslim, and attacking fellow Muslims was not acceptable.

There was, however, no one strong enough to oppose him. One brother was killed in the fighting, the other was captured, and Orhan took over a large Turkish area. This was the start of expansion to the East.

Fighting between brothers over succession was quite common in the Turkish world (and elsewhere, to be fair). In fact, Orhan had a brother whom some scholars think might even have been older. Rather than being a rival, however, he provided valuable help to Orhan. Tomorrow I want to tell you about Alaeddin Erden Ali Pasha, who (we are told) probably contributed as much to the success of the growing Ottoman Empire as Orhan's military choices.

Osman's Dream

Osman I (c.1254 - 1323), emir of his Turkish clan, married Rabia Bala Hatun (died 1324), daughter of Sheikh Edebali, a religious leader. According to a 15th-century chronicle, Osman had a dream while staying in the house of his father-in-law.

He saw that a moon arose from the holy man's breast and came to sink in his own breast. A tree then sprouted from his navel and its shade compassed the world. Beneath this shade there were mountains, and streams flowed forth from the foot of each mountain. Some people drank from these running waters, others watered gardens, while yet others caused fountains to flow. When Osman awoke he told the story to the holy man, who said 'Osman, my son, congratulations, for God has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter shall be your wife.

This story was probably created to establish a divine origin for the Ottoman Empire, named after Osman. In order to establish this empire, Osman did not always have to fight—though he was not opposed to doing so. He made alliances with his neighbors regardless of religious or political differences. The group with which he was not about to ally himself was the Mongols. 

After the Battle of Bapheus in c.1301—in which Osman defeated a force of 2000 soldiers—Byzantines started to move out of Anatolia, making Ottoman expansion easier. He expanded north and southwest. taking the city of Bursa in northwestern Turkey after a prolonged siege. Bursa turned into a staging ground for the eventual attack on Constantinople.

The illustration shows the imperial expansion, but in Osman's lifetime only the darkest red area was under his control. Osman died shortly after the conquest of Bursa, but the idea of empire lived on. We'll continue the expansion tomorrow.

Osman I

Osman Ghazi is one of those many figures in history whose impact was large but whose life's details are not well known. We are not even certain of his name, though it gave rise to the name of the empire he founded: Ottoman. Scholars think his name was originally Turkish, something like Atman or Ataman, and was Arabicized to 'Osmān later. A contemporary Byzantine historian refers to him as Atouman.

His birthdate is unknown, but a date of 1254/55 was offered by a 16th-century Ottoman historian. He was said to be born in a town called Söğüt, the capital city of his father's emirate. He would have been raised as any Turkish noble's son was raised: learning archery and falconry, horsemanship and sword fighting. He would have been taught about Islam. His father died in 1280, and Osman's uncle succeeded him as head of the clan.

With Söğüt as his base, he started at some point attacking his Byzantine neighbors, but not challenging any of the other Turkish clans. He defeated a Byzantine force of 2000 soldiers c.1301 at the Battle of Bapheus. Following Bapheus, Osman was able to conquer several towns and fortresses, taking control from the Byzantine Empire.

A Byzantine governor sent a message to the Seljuk sultan, complaining about this young Turk who was upsetting the peaceful balance in the region. The sultan had Osman's uncle arrest Osman and have him brought before the sultan, but he liked what he saw in the dynamic and courageous young man. He sent Osman to a Sufi mystic to wait while the sultan thought about what to do about him. The mystic saw a great future for Osman, put a turban on him, and sent him back to the sultan with the request to make Osman emir and the head of his clan.

As he expanded his borders, not all contact with Byzantines was hostile. As the Turks's major occupation was still shepherding, they needed grazing land. Osman arranged with Byzantine governors that the herds would be allowed to move safely through Byzantine lands. Turks could leave some of their permanent possessions safely stored at a Byzantine fortress, and when the herds came back through later, the Byzantine guardians would receive gifts of dairy products.

Osman showed promise as as a leader, designing administrative systems that transformed the clan from a nomadic to an urban lifestyle. Söğüt was not only an easily defended capital (being on a hill), it was a main route to Constantinople and was along the Silk Road. It was also far enough westward from the Mongol threat that Osman could concentrate on his Turkish neighbors, in many cases absorbing them through treaties or political marriages.

Then came the dream, the dream of empire. According to legend (written in a chronicle long after Osman's death) Osman had a dream that would lead to the forging of the empire named for him. I'll share that story next time.

The Fall of Trebizond

The Trebizond Empire (the orange slice on the southern shore of the Black Sea illustration), founded in 1204 on the shores of the Black Sea by the brothers Alexios and David Comnenos, existed until 1461. When news came of the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade, the brothers considered themselves the likeliest successors to rule the Byzantine Empire. Styling themselves "Megas Comnenos" ("Great Comnenos"), they hoped to restore the Comnenos dynasty to the throne.

This put them into conflict with two other "Byzantine offshoots" that had been formed: the Empire of Nicaea in western Anatolia, ruled by Theodore I Laskaris, and the Despotate of Epirus in Greece, ruled by Michael Comnenos Doukas.

Trebizond also had continual concerns about the Turks, first the Seljuks and then the Ottomans, as well as Constantinople—wanting to bring Trebizond back under its wing—and the Republic of Genoa, who wanted more control of trade on the Black Sea. One of the ways to deal with potential (and actual) hostility was for the emperors of Trebizond to make marital alliances by matching their daughters with foreign nobles. Emperor Alexios IV (1417 - 1429) married two daughters off to two khans of neighboring Muslim empires, and an another daughter to Byzantine Emperor John VIII Paleologos. John II of Trebizond married Eudokia Paleologina, daughter of Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Paleologos to keep friendly with Constantinople.

The Turkish threat never ended, however, and increased when Osman I of Anatolia and his successors consolidated their people into what became known as the Ottoman Empire. This empire rapidly encompassed the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea countries, and more. When they conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453, Byzantine culture was overwhelmed. Trebizond realized it would not long last if the Byzantine Empire had been conquered. The penultimate Trebizond emperor, John IV (1429 - 1459), saw the writing on the wall. He sent a message to Florence, offering a union of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches to forge an alliance that would provide him aid, but it did not help. He gave his daughter to another khan to try to gain military aid. He asked Georgia for help. None of this would be sufficient.

John's brother David Megas Comnenos came to power in 1459. Trebizond fell completely to the Ottomans in 1461. He and his family were taken to Constantinople, the new Ottoman capital. He and all male members of the family were executed in 1463.

So who were the Ottomans who conquered so much of the world and threatened Western Europe? Let's find out tomorrow.

The Trebizond Empire

Some Byzantine rulers invaded lands far enough from Constantinople that it made sense to establish the territories as separate empires. One such was Trebizond, established in 1204 (a few weeks before Constantinople was sacked by the Fourth Crusade).

Alexios of the Comnenos dynasty (1182 - 1222) and his brother David led an expedition into the area with the help of Queen Tamar of Georgia (mother of George IV and Rusudan). Alexios set himself up as Alexios I Megas Comnenos ("Great Comnenos"). The connection between Alexios and Tamar has puzzled scholars. Alexios and David were supposedly being raised at Tamar's court. A 14th-century Trebizond chronicler referred to Tamar as Alexios' "paternal relative," but that made nothing clear; how she may have been related to Alexios' father is a complete mystery.

Although the two brothers were part of the royal family, they knew they would never be close to the throne. Creating their own kingdom was one way to improve their situation. Why Queen Tamar was willing to help them with troops is unknown. Perhaps she felt having allies in Trebizond would be a helpful buffer state on one side of Georgia.

Situated around the coastline of the Black Sea (the green areas in the illustration), Trebizond started as a prominent Greek colony that mined silver and copper. It was sufficiently distant from Rome and Constantinople that it was not affected by their politics, and developed its own government.

The rulers of Trebizond claimed to be the proper Roman emperors after Constantinople was taken by the Crusaders. That lasted until 1261, when Michael VIII Paleologos recaptured the area and asserted his authority. Michael also brought Trebizond "closer" to its "parent" empire by marrying one of his daughters, Eudokia Paleologina, to John II of Trebizond, a grandson of Alexios I. John II was the ruler when David Narin of Western Georgia tried unsuccessfully to join Trebizond to his part of Georgia.

Despite constant assaults from all around, Trebizond existed as largely independent until 1461, as well as civil strife. I'll relate some of those conflicts tomorrow.

Western Georgia

After King David VI Narin of Georgia took the western half of the kingdom and seceded from Georgia, he became King David I of Imereti (Western Georgia). This was a rejection of the Mongol expansion that controlled the eastern half, with David's cousin King David VII Ulu remaining firmly under the control of the Khans.

Imereti contained important seaports on the Black Sea, with trade routes and easy access to the Byzantine Empire. David I also developed friendly relations with a Mongol "offshoot" called the Golden Horde. He also was friendly to the Bahri Dynasty of Egypt, Mamluk rulers who succeeded the Ayyubids.

Relationships could be fickle, however. He offered sanctuary to Teguder, a commander under Hulagu Khan who had rebelled against Abaqa Khan, but when Teguder's men started harassing the people of Imereti, David allied with Abaqa's general who had pursued Teguder. Then Abaqa decided to bring Imereti back under Mongol control, and David's brief alliance resulted in fighting (successfully) two Mongol expeditions in the 1270s.

David had his own ideas of expansion. Around the Black Sea was the empire of Trebizond, established by a Byzantine Emperor. David decided he should take it off Constantinople's hands, and took an army there in April 1282 while its current ruler, Emperor John II Comnenos, was away in Constantinople. He managed to control a few areas, but not the empire. David did later help John's half-sister Theodora seize the crown from John. John restored himself to the throne a few months later and Theodora disappeared from the historical record in 1285. It is suggested she might have found sanctuary in Western Georgia.

At the age of 67, David died of natural causes and was interred at the Gelati Monastery (see illustration) on a hill overlooking his capital of Kutaisi. He had married twice. With his first wife he had three sons, who succeeded as kings of Georgia and Western Georgia. He had a son by his second wife, the daughter of Emperor Michael VIII Paleologos.

David's interest in expanding to Trebizond reminds me that, although it has been mentioned, readers might need more detail to understand its significance. Tomorrow we'll look at the Empire of Trebizond.

The Two Kings David

When Queen Rusudan of Georgia died in 1245, Georgia looked for a new ruler. Her son, David, had been sent to Karakoram to be recognized as heir by the Great Khan of the Mongols, Batu Khan, but no one knew how long he would be gone. Her nephew, David, by her predecessor brother King George IV, she had sent to be incarcerated at the court of her son-in-law, Kaykhusraw II, who was married to Rusudan's daughter, Tamar. (She feared her nephew would try to usurp the throne.)

The nephew David was considered illegitimate by the Georgian nobles. His father had seduced a married woman of non-noble status, brought her to court, and had a son by her in 1215. George was forced to return her to her husband (sending David to Rusudan to be raised), but refused any other suggestion of marriage by his councilors. 

So far as the Georgian nobles could tell, the only available heir was the illegitimate David, since they knew where he was. He was also at that time 30 years old and able to understand his duties. He was crowned in 1245 as David VII, and known as David Ulu, "David the Senior."

A year later, Rusudan's son David returned from Karakoram with the blessing of Batu Khan. The 21-year-old became co-King with his cousin, given an earlier regnal number because of his precedence (son of the immediate previous ruler and born within wedlock) as King David VI Narin ("David the Junior").

The two managed to work together well until 1259. David VI rebelled independently against their Mongol overlords. It did not take many battles before he saw the error of his choices. Fleeing to western Georgia, where the Mongols did not have so much influence, he seceded from the rest of Georgia, being crowned in the western city of Kutaisi. (Kutaisi had been the capital of Georgia from c.1008 - 1122, when Tbilisi became the capital.)

Now, as King David I of Imereti (Western Georgia), he had control over several important ports on the Black Sea, as well as passes through the Caucasus Mountains, giving Western Georgia important trade routes.

Two years after David Narin's rebellion, David Ulu tried as well to become independent, joining his brother in Western Georgia. The two could not manage to agree on various policies, however, and David Ulu returned to Tbilisi in 1262, where he was forced to surrender to Hulagu Khan. Eastern Georgia was now a vassal, rather than an ally, of the Mongols.

Western Georgia was a different story, which will continue tomorrow.

Queen Rusudan

Yesterday's post on the hoped-for Mongol alliance with the West mentioned a Georgian queen who saved her people from the Mongols. That was Rusudan (1194 - 1245), who took the only option available to avoid total destruction.

On 18 January 1223, George IV of the Kingdom of Georgia died from complications from a wound he received fighting Mongols. His only son, David, was only eight years old and being raised by George's sister, Rusudan. David was too young to rule (and also of questionable legitimacy), and the throne passed to Rusudan.

Georgia was surrounded by Muslim and Mongol threats, and Rusudan was considered a beautiful woman whose hand in marriage was much sought after by nearby Muslim nobles. Against invasion by a group known as the Khwarezmians, she made an alliance with the neighboring Seljuk Turkish rulers, but the Khwarezmians defeated the Georgians before help could arrive. Rusudan married Ghias ad-Din, the son of a Seljuk emir, who was ordered by his father to convert to Christianity in order to marry Rusudan. They had two children, Tamar and David.

The Khwarezmian invasion and occupation was followed by the Mongols, who entered Georgia in 1235 and controlled all of Georgia within four years. The Mongol army had a simple policy: submit and pay tribute, or the Mongols would kill every living being in the occupied territory to ensure no chance of insurrection. They did not ask twice.

Queen Rusudan ordered any of her army remaining to stand down and submit to the Mongols. An annual tribute of 50,000 gold pieces was required. Georgia also had to agree to provide 80,000 soldiers to join the Mongol army on its quest to subjugate the world.

Tamar was married to a Seljuk sultan, Kaykhusraw II, and later converted from Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Islam, taking the name Gurju Khatun. Queen Rusudan, since she had her own children who might succeed her, feared that her nephew David might try to take the throne. She sent him to Kaykhusraw to be imprisoned. Meanwhile, she sent her own son to the Mongol court in Karakoram to be recognized as her heir by the Great Khan, but she died in 1245 before he returned.

In her son's absence, and since the Georgians knew where Rusudan's nephew was, George's son David was recalled and named King David VII. Then Rusudan's son returned, and a decision had to be made. Tomorrow we'll see what happened next.

The Great Mongol Hope

Pope Honorius III (fl.1216 - 1227), in a letter dated 20 June 1221, referred to "forces coming from the Far East to rescue the Holy Land." This was solely speculation, based on old legends of Prester John, a reported Christian king in the Far East who would come to the aid of the Crusades. Stories of the expansion of the Mongol Empire caused some Europeans to believe that the Mongols were Prester John's people, and an important alliance would be forthcoming.

An alliance between Western Europe and the Mongols was not a ridiculous idea. Mongols were already familiar with Christianity: there were Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court (a few decades later, William Rubruck would meet several while traveling). Nestorianism was condemned as heresy at the 431 Council of Ephesus, but at least they weren't Muslims.

Muslims were a problem for Western Christians; they were also enemies of the Mongols. While the Fifth Crusade was besieging Damietta in Egypt in June 2018, stories of Genghis Khan's successful conquests sparked the belief that this was Prester John or a descendant heading westward to aid the Crusade. The hoped-for arrival of a powerful army to help the Crusade did not appear, but attempts were made afterward to form an alliance with Genghis and his descendants.

Pope Innocent IV (fl.1243 - 1254) was the first to write to the Khans, sending letters with envoys that would take years to find their recipients and return with replies. Alliances were hampered by the deaths of Genghis and his successor Ögedei (Innocent's letter never got to Ögedei). The next Great Khan, Güyük Khan, sent a less-than-satisfying reply.

Despite their common enemy in the Muslim world, the difficulty was that the popes wanted obedience to themselves as pope, expecting Mongols to convert to Christianity, and the Mongol Khans expected obedience to them as secular rulers, demanding homage.

Military cooperation was still a possibility—assuming the pope's demands for conversion stayed out of the negotiations. Öljaitü (fl.1282 - 1316) wrote in 1305 to Philip IV of France, Pope Clement V, and Edward I of England (see illustration for the letter in the French archives, the only copy extant), suggesting military collaboration, assuring him that Europeans could travel safely through their lands:

"Now all of us, Timur Khagan, Tchapar, Toctoga, Togba and ourselves, main descendants of Gengis Khan, all of us, descendants and brothers, are reconciled through the inspiration and the help of God. So that, from Nangkiyan [China] in the Orient, to Lake Dala our people are united and the roads are open." [link]

Mongols by this time had converted to Islam, but still were open to allowing Christians free access to the Holy Land. That did not mean, however, that the Mongols were not bent on expanding their empire as much as possible. One of their conquests was the large Kingdom of Georgia, whose queen submitted in order to save the lives of her people. I'll tell you that story next time.

Charlemagne and the Arabic World

At the end of yesterday's post on the Auld Alliance I mentioned that France (or the Franks) had formed earlier alliances, some of them seemingly more unusual than that with Scotland. If the cultures of the French and the Scots were different, imagine the cultural divide between the Franks of the 8th and 9th centuries and the Abbasid Caliphate.

In the Life of Charlemagne written by Einhard, and a few other Latin/Frankish sources, we find references to the Carolingians reaching out to the Abbasids. The Franks had clashed with the predecessors of the Abbasids, the Umayyad Caliphate, most notably at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Umayyads were finally expelled from Gaul by Pepin the Short.

After the collapse of the Umayyads and the rise of the Abbasids, Pepin reached out to Caliph al-Mansur. The Carolingians were powerful enough in Western Europe at that time that the Abbasids were open to the possibilities of an alliance; Umayyads still existed on the Iberian Peninsula, posing a potential threat to the southern border of the Carolingians and the western border of the Abbasids.

A Carolingian embassy visited Baghdad in 765 and returned with gifts after three years, followed by an Abbasid embassy to France in 768. Arabic coins from that era are found throughout the Carolingian world, and Arabic gold was exchanged for materials like timber and iron; also, slaves went eastward.

The alliance included a request from the Abbasids in 777 for military aid against the Umayyads in Cordoba. Charlemagne crossed the Pyrenees into Iberia in 778 with a large force, joining in Zaragoza with the Abbasid forces of Sulaymaniyah al-Arabi in an attempt to reconquer the peninsula. This was unsuccessful, and on Charlemagne's return to the north he was ambushed disastrously by Basques at Roncevaux.

Charlemagne did not give up on an alliance, however, and had a strong relationship with Harun al-Rashid, who gifted Charlemagne an elephant, recorded in the Royal Frankish Annals as Abul-Abbas. A few embassies went back and forth between the courts of Charlemagne and al-Rashid. (The illustration is of al-Rashid receiving a Frankish embassy.)

A few centuries later, France saw value in another alliance to the east, with the Mongol Empire. The reason and the result will be tomorrow's topic.

France & Scotland Alliance

France and Scotland were two very different countries: different climates, languages, cuisines, cultures. They had one important thing in common: both had problems with England wanting trying to rule over them. The term "Auld Alliance" (Scots for "Old Alliance") refers to the two countries' agreement to work together, and it began in 1295.

The motivation for the Auld Alliance came in 1290 upon the death of Margaret, the Maid of Norway. King Edward I of England decided it was time to extend his authority over Scotland. To combat this, Scotland's nobles looked for alliances, and France was an obvious choice.

France and England were at odds. By 1294 they were on the brink of war because France had seized Gascony from English possession. A Scottish delegation to Paris signed a treaty on 23 October 1295. This worked in France's favor, since France now could have England harried in its own island without France needing to cross the English Channel. Scotland's desire to wage war would draw English forces far away from France and divide England's attention.

Unfortunately, a year later, Edward invaded Scotland, beginning the Wars of Scottish Independence. Edward was too powerful for Scotland, and Scotland had many defeats, with Margaret's successor, John Balliol, captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Fighting between England and France ended—although "paused" is a more accurate term—in 1299, and Edward could focus on crushing Scottish Independence. Fortunately for Scotland, the efforts of Robert the Bruce and the ineptitude of Edward II gave Scotland its best chance at freeing itself from English subjugation.

The Auld Alliance became useful in 1332, however, when Edward III decided to assert authority over both Scotland and France. Philip VI of France sent 10 ships with aid to Scotland, but they never arrived due to a storm. Philip sent £1000 to Scotland to aid the Scottish defenders, and he offered sanctuary to David II of Scotland, who was only 10 years old. David and his extended family accepted the offer and were given Chateau Gaillard as a residence.

The Auld Alliance has never formally been revoked. In 1942, Charles de Gaulle described it as the "oldest alliance in the world." (The illustration is of a plaque at the Scottish Free French House in Edinburgh.)

Although they had many differences, France's alliance with Scotland was not the oddest "mismatch" they made with another culture. Tomorrow I'll tell you about one or two others they made earlier than the Auld Alliance.

The Clan Buchanan

The Clan Buchanan, one of the oldest Highland clans, can date their start to 1016 on the banks of Loch Lomond. Their origin story says that they began with Anselan O Kyan of the Irish clan Ó Catháin, one of the sons of the King of Ulster, who was given lands to the east of Loch Lomond by Malcolm II as thanks for help with the Danes.

This Irish origin was challenged by the modern Council of the Clan Buchanan Society. DNA testing and other historical records disprove the Irish connection. DNA matches show the family tracing back to the Loch Lomond area to 1000CE and even earlier. There is no evidence for the existence of a prince Anselan O Kyan of Ulster. The DNA project showed a strong link to the Clan Gregor, with a possible common ancestor of the two clans c.400CE.

The Buchanans have another part of history to live down. Maurice Buchanan married the grand-daughter of Sir John of Menteith, a Scottish nobleman and sheriff of Dunbarton Castle who betrayed Sir William Wallace to King Edward I of England in 1305. King Robert I of Scotland imprisoned Sir John, but Maurice Buchanan was one of the people who convinced the king to release the traitor.

Clan Buchanan supported Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence, helping Robert escape in 1306. They also fought the English alongside the French at the Battle of Baugé in 1421, and again at the Battle of Verneuil in 1424.

What was the link between France and Scotland? I'll talk about that next time.

Loch Lomond

There is more to Loch Lomond than just being jealous of the notoriety of Loch Ness. In an 11th-century version of the Historia Brittonum, it is listed as the first of several marvels of Britain:

The first wonder is the lake Lumonoy. In there are sixty islands, and men dwell there, and sixty rocks encircle it, with an eagle's nest on each rock. There are also sixty rivers flowing into that place, and nothing goes out of there to the sea except one river, which is called Lenin.

Loch Lomond, which drains south via the River Leven, has more than 30 islands of various sizes, and they are not surrounded by 60 rocks.

Some of those islands were artificial. People arrived in the area 5000 years ago, during the Neolithic Era, and built up "islands" over the water for safer living. These are called crannogs, and could be a structure on stone pillars or built on wooden stakes (see illustration). A crannog in Lomon called "The Kitchen" was a meeting place for Clan Buchanan from 1225 onwards.

Defense was also the reason why the Romans in the 1st century CE built forts near and around Loch Lomond against the Highland tribes. The need for defense never faded: early Medieval Viking raids dragged their boats overland to put them in the Loch and attack and sack several of its islands.

The loch and its neighboring mountain, Ben Lomond, are part of an area called the Trossachs. The Trossachs were home to Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. The signet ring of Rob Roy Macgregor was a bloodstone from Loch Lomond.

A later legend of the area was that of Reverend Robert Kirk, who researched myths and legends and then wrote a book called The Secret Commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies. He died before it was published, and sparked his very own legend that the fairies, angry that he revealed their secrets, whisked him away.

The Clan Buchanan, mentioned above, was one of the oldest Highland clans, and we're going to look at their origin tomorrow.