Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

The fall of Byzantium

Constantine XI (1449-1453) and the capture of Constantinople

Page 12

Some writers named the Turks Teucrians (Teucri), considering them the descendants of the old Trojans, and warned Europe of the sultan's plans to attack Italy, which allured him by its wealth and by the tombs of his Trojan ancestors. On one hand, various epistles of the fifth decade of the fifteenth century said that the Sultan, like Julian the Apostate, will be finally forced to recognize the victory of Christ; that Christianity, doubtless, is strong enough to have no fear of the Turks; that a strong expedition (valida expeditio) will be ready and the Christians will be able to defeat the Turks and drive them out of Europe (fugare extra Europam). But, on the other hand, some epistles anticipated the great difficulties in the coming struggle with the Turks and the chief cause of these difficulties the discord among the Christians themselves, a spectacle which inspires the Sultan with courage. Enea Silvio Piccolomini gave in one of his letters an excellent and true picture of the Christian interrelations in the West at that time. He wrote: I do not hope for what I want. Christianity has no longer a head:

neither Pope nor Emperor is adequately esteemed or obeyed; they are treated as fictitious names and painted figures. Each city has a king of its own; there are as many princes as houses. How might one persuade the numberless Christian rulers to take up arms? Look upon Christianity! Italy, you say, is pacified. I do not know to what extent. The remains of war still exist between the King of Aragon and the Genoese. The Genoese will not fight the Turks: they are said to pay tribute to them! The Venetians have made a treaty with the Turks. If the Italians do not take part, we cannot hope for maritime war. In Spain, as you know, there are many kings of different power, different policy, different will, and different ideas; but these sovereigns who live in the far West can not be attracted to the East, especially when they are fighting with the Moors of Granada. The King of France has expelled his enemy from his kingdom; but he is still in trouble, and will not dare to send his knights beyond the borders of his kingdom for fear of a sudden landing of the English. As far as the English are concerned, they think only of taking revenge for their expulsion from France. Scotch, Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, who live at the end of the world, seek nothing beyond their countries. The Germans are greatly divided and have nothing to unify them.

Neither the appeals of popes and sovereigns, nor the lofty impulse of individuals and groups, nor the consciousness of common danger before the Ottoman menace could weld disunited western Europe for the struggle with Islam. The Turks continued to advance, and at the end of the seventeenth century they threatened Vienna. That was the climax of the might of the Ottoman Empire. They were turned back from Europe, but Constantinople, it is well known, even today is in the hands of the Turks  

Cf. The capture of Constantinople by Turks, by D. Nicol ||| The Blight of Asia, by G. Horton / Monuments of barbarity ||| Christianity and Islam, by Ph. Kontoglou ||| The Islamic View of Late Byzantium, by N. M. El-Cheikh

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