of Mitylene being himselfe then present and there taken prisoner Such is the lamentable Historie of the Rhodes taken for most part out of Ia. Fontanus his three bookes de Bello Rhodio a learned man then present and in great credit with Villerius the Great Master at such time as that famous island after it had by him and the other worthie knights of the Order beene most wonderfully of long defended was to the great ruth of Christendome taken by the great Sultan Solyman Such is the most tragicall Historie of Baiazet Solyman his youngest sonne collected out of the notable Epistles of Augerius Busbequius Legationis Turcicae he himselfe then lying embassador for the Emperour Ferdinand at Constantinople and present in Solymans campe at such time as he himselfe in person went ouer with his armie into Asia to countenance his eldest sonne Selymus who succeeded him in his Empire against his valiant yonger brother Baiazet and beside well acquainted with the great Bassaes Achmet Rustan Haly and others oftentimes mentioned in the Historie following Such is also the Historie of the taking of the auntient citie of Tripolis in Barbarie from the knights of Malta by Sinan the proud Bassa written by Nicholas Nicholay lord of Arfeuile present at the same time with the lord of Aramont then embassadour for the French king vnto Solyman So might I say also of the miserable spoile of the fruitfull and pleasant islands of the Mediterranean made by Lutzis Bassa Solyman his brother in law and great Admirall with the submitting of the island of Naxos to the Turkes obeâ—sance written by Iohn Crispe at that time duke of the same island And so likewise of diuers other parts of the Historie too long to rehearse But for as much as euery great and famous action had not the fortune to haue in it a Caesar such as both could and would commend vnto posteritie by writing that whereof they might truly say They were themselues a great part many right excellent Generals contenting themselues with the honour of the field and their glorie there woon leauing the honourable fame thereof to be by others reported For lacke of such most certaine authors or rather as I before said eye-witnesses I gathered so much as I could of that remained out of the works of such as being themselues men of great place and well acquainted with the great and worthie personages of their time might from their mouths as from certain Oracles report the vndoubted truth of many most famous exploits done both by themselues and others as might Pau. Iouius from the mouth of Muleasses king of Tunes from Vastius the great Generall from Auria the prince of Melphis Charles the Emperour his Admirall and such others or els out of the writings of such as were themselues great trauellers into the Turkes dominions and withall diligent obseruers of their affaires and state as were the phisitions Pantaleon Minadoie and Leunclauius of all others a most curious searcher of their antiquities and Histories vnto which great Clarkes and some others of that learned profession we may worthily attribute the greatest light and certainetie of that is reported of a great part of the Turkish affairs But these in the course of so long an Historie failing also as by conferring that which is hereafter written together with their Histories is easily to be perceiued to perfect that I had taken in hand I tooke my refuge vnto the writings of such other learned and credible authours as of whose integritie and faithfulnesse the world hath not to my knowledge at any time yet doubted yea for these few late yeares I was glad out of the Germane and Italian writers in their owne language to borrow the knowledge of these late affaires as not yet written in Latin wherein if the reader find not himselfe so fully satisfied as he could desire I would be glad by him to be better enformed as being no lesse desirous of others to learn the truth of that I know not than willing to impart vnto others that little which I know Thus much I thought good to set downe to persuade the Christian Reader of the truth of the Historie following wherein he shall find matter enough to wonder at and no lesse strange than that whatsoeuer it is that is written of the greatest monarchies of auntient time vnto whom for power and maiestie it yeeldeth litle But so much the more worthy our consideration than they for that their periods alreadie run and so their furie ouerpast this in our time so flourisheth and at this present so mightily swelleth as if it would ouerflow all were it not by the mercie of God first and then by the forces of some few of the Christian princes neerest vnto so great a danger with their great charge to their immortall glorie and benefit of the Christian commonweale mightily checked and kept within some bounds and compasse This Historie for the most part thus as is aforesaid passed through and brought to some good perfection was yet by me againe laid aside and like ynough euen as an abortiue fruit to haue perished in the birth before it was growne to perfection had I not many times fainting in the long and painefull trauell therewith by my especiall good friend Sir Peter Manwood of S. Stephens in the countie of Kent knight of the honourable order of the Bath a louer and great fauourer of learning in whose keeping it so for the most part many yeares in safetie rested beene still comforted and as it were againe reuiued and now finally encouraged to take it in hand and so at length as I might to perfect it vnto whom being the onely furtherer stay and helpe of these my labours thou art for such pleasure as thou findest therein if it be any in courtesie beholden Now what I for my part haue in this my long trauell performed I leaue it to thy good discretion to consider contenting my selfe in so great a matter to haue bin willing to haue done somthing wishing no longer to liue than in some measure to be profitable to the Christian commonweale which long since in my nursing mother house Lincolne Colledge in Oxford where I was sometime Fellow I did purpose to persorme as it should please God in time to giue me meanes and occasion in which mind I hope by the goodnesse mercie of Christ so long as I liue to continue Only this fauor to conclude with I request of thee That if in this so long and perplexed an Historie by peecemeale of so many diuersly handled written by me in a world of troubles and cares in a place that affoorded no meanes or comfort to proceed in so great a worke thou chance to light vpon some things otherwise reported than thou hast elsewhere read them as I doubt not but thou maiest not therfore forthwith to condemne what thou here findest being happily taken from a more certaine reporter than was that whereunto thou giuest more credit or at leastwise not
lamented but hardly or neuer remedied vntill that afterwards led with a more earnest desire to know the strange and fatall mutations by this barbarous nation in former time brought vpon a great part of the world as also so much as I might to see so great a terrour of the present time and in what tearmes it standeth with the rest I had with long search and much labour mixt with some pleasure and mine owne reasonable contentment passed through the whole melancholie course of their tragicall Historie yet without purpose euer to haue commended the same or any part thereof vnto the remembrance of posteritie as deeming it an argument of too high a reach and fitter for some more happie wit better furnished with such helpes both of nature and art as are of necessitie requisit for the vndertaking of so great a charge than was my selfe of many thousands the meanest Not vnmindâ—ull also of that which the Poet keeping decorum saith in like case though farre lesse matter of himselfe Cum canerem reges praelia Cynthius aurem Vellit admonuit Pastorem Tittere pingues Pascere oportet oues deductum ducere carmen When I did sing of mightie kings or els of bloudie warre Apollo pluckt me by the eare and said I went too farre Beseemes a shepheard Titterus his fatlings for to feed And for to fit his rurall song vnto his slender reed Besides that so many difficulties euen at the first presented themselues vnto my view as that to ouercome the same if I should take the labour in hand seemed to me almost impossible for beside the sea and world of matter I was to passe through requiring both great labour and time full of the most rare example â—oth of the letter and worse fortune in men of all sort and condition yeelding more pleasure vnto the reader than facilitie to the writer I saw not any among so many as had taken this argument in hand whom I might as a sure guide or loadstarre long follow in the course of this so great an Historie many right worthie and learned men whose memorie my soule honoureth contenting themselues to haue with their learned pennes enrolled in the records of neuer-dying fame some one great expedition or action some another as in their times they â—ell out yea the Turkish Histories and Chronicles themselues from whom the greatest light for the continuation of the Historie was in reason to haue beene expected being in the declaration of their owne aâ—â—aires according to their barbarous manner so sparing and short as that they may of right be accounted rather short rude notes than iust Histories rather pointing things out than declaring the same and that with such obscurâ—tie by changing the auntient and vsuall names as well of whole kingdomes countries and prouinces as of cities townes riuers mountaines and other places yea and oftentimes of men themselues into other strange and barbarous names of their owne deuising in such sort as might well stay an intentiue reader and depriue him of the pleasure together with the profit he might otherwise expect by the reading thereof whereunto to giue order perspicuitie and light would require no small trauell and paine Not to speake in the meane time of the diuersitie of the reports in the course of the whole Historie such as is oftentimes most hard if not altogether impossible to reconcile Notwithstanding all which difficulties with many others more proper vnto my selfe hauing with long labour and diligent search passed through the course of the whole Historie and so in some reasonable sort satisfied my selfe therein I thought it not amisse as well for the worthinesse of the matter as for the zeale I beare vnto the Christian common-weale and for the satisfying also of some others my good friends much desirous of the same to make proofe if out of the dispersed workes of many right worthie men I could set downe one orderly and continuat Historie of this so mightie an Empire with the great and fatall mutation or rather subuersion of many right strong and flourishing kingdomes and states the proper worke of all mightie rising Empires still encreasing by the fall of others wherewith this proud monarchie hath alreadie daunted a great part of the world being so many and so strange as that moe or more wonderfull were not euer to be seene in any of the greatest monarchies of auntient time or memorie and so together and as it were vnder one view and at one shew to lay open vnto the Christian Reader what I was glad to seeke for out of the defused labours of many a worke so long and laborious as might well haue deterred a right resolute and constant mind from the vndertaking thereof being as yet to my knowledge not vndergone or performed by any wherein among such varietie or more truly to say contrarietie of writers I contented not my selfe as a blind man led by his guide happily of no better sight than himselfe to tread the steps of this or that one man going for a while before me and by and by leauing me againe stumbling in the darke but out of the learned and faithfull workes of many according to my simple iudgement to make choice of that was most probable still supplying with the perfections of the better what I found wanting or defectiue in the weaker propounding vnto my selfe no other marke to aime at than the very truth of the Historie as that which is it selfe of power to giue life vnto the dead letter and to couer the faults escaped in the homely penning or compiling thereof Which the better to performe I collected so much of the Historie as possibly I could out of the writings of such as were themselues present and as it were eye-witnesses of the greatest part of that they writ and so as of all others best able most like also to haue left vnto vs the very truth Such is the greatest part of so much of the Historie of the Greeke Empire as I haue for the better vnderstanding of the rising of the Turkes in this Historie set downe gathered out of the doings of Nicetas Choniates Nicephorus Gregoras and Laonicus Chalcocondiles all writing such things as they themselues saw or were for most part in their time and neere vnto them done Such are the wonderfull and almost incredible warres betwixt old Amurath the second and his foster child the fortunat prince of Epirus of the Turks commanly called Scanderbeg and by that wayward tirant at his death together with his kingdome deliuered as it were by inheritance vnto his sonne the great and cruell Sultan Mahomet all written by Marinus Baâ—letius himselfe an Epirot and in all those troublesome times then liuing in Scodra a citie of the Venetians ioyning vpon Epirus Such is the wofull captiuitie of the imperiall citie of Constantinople with the miserable death of the Greeke Emperour Constantinus Palaeologus and the fatall ruine of the Greeke Empire written by Leonardus Chiensis Archbishop
written by me as meaning in any thing to preiudice thy better iudgement but to leaue it to thy good choice in such diuersitie of reports to follow that which may seeme vnto thee most true By which courtesie thou maiest hereafter encourage me to performe some other worke to thy no lesse contentment So wishing thee all happinesse I bid thee farwell From Sandwich the last of September 1603. Thine in all dutifull kindnesse R. KNOLLES The names of the Authors whom we especially vsed in the collecting and writing of the Historie of the Turks following ABrahamus Ortelius Achillis Traducci Aeneas Syluius Pont. Alcoranum Turcicum Antonius Sabellicus Antonius Bonfinius Antonius Pigafetta Antonius Guarnerius Augerius Busbequius Bernard de Girard Blondus Foroliuiensis Caelius Secundus Curio Dauid Chytreus Franciscus Sansouinus Henricus Pantaleon Iacobus Fontanus Ioannes Leunclauius Laonicus Chalcocondilas Lazarus Soranzi Leonardus Chiensis Leonardus Goretius Marinus Barletius Martinus Chromerus Nicephorus Gregoras Nicetas Choniates Nicholaus Honigerus Nicholaus Reusnerus Paulus Iouius Philippus Lonicerus Petrus Bizara Sebastianus Monsterus Thomas Minadoi Theodorus Spanduginus Germanicae Continuationes Relationum Historicarum Andreae Strigelij Theodori Meureri Iacobi Franci THE GENERAL HISTORIE OF THE TVRKES BEFORE THE RISING OF THE OTHOMAN FAMILIE WITH ALL THE NOTABLE EXPEDITIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN PRINCES AGAINST THEM THE glorious Empire of the Turkes the present terrour of the world hath amongst other things nothing in it more wonderfull or strange than the poore beginning of it selfe so small and obscure as that it is not well knowne vnto themselues or agreed vpon euen among the best writers of their histories from whence this barbarous nation that now so triumpheth ouer the best part of the world first crept out or tooke their beginning Some after the manner of most nations deriue them from the Trojans led thereunto by the affinity of the words Turci Teucri supposing but with what probabilitie I know not the word Turci or Turks to haue beene made of the corruption of the word Teucri the common name of the Trojans as also for that the Turks haue of long most inhabited the lesser ASIA wherein the antient and most famous citie of TROY sometime stood No great reason in my deeming yet giue the authors thereof leaue therewith to please themselues as well as some others which dwelling much farther off borrow or rather force their beginning from thence without any probabilitie at al and that with such earnestnesse as if they could not elsewhere haue found any so honourable ancestours Othersome report them to haue first come out of PERSIA and of I wot not what citie there to haue taken their name neither want there some which affirme them to haue taken their beginning out of ARABIA yea and some out of SYRIA with many other far fet deuises concerning the beginning and name of this people all seruing to no better purpose than to shew the vncertaintie thereof Amongst others Philip of MORNAY the noble and learned Frenchman in his woorthy worke concerning the truenesse of the Christian religion seemeth and that not without good reason to deriue the Turks together with the Tartars from the Iewes namely from the ten Tribes which were by Salmanazar king of ASIRIA in the time of Oseas king of ISRAEL caried away into captiuitie and by him confined into MEDIA and the other vnpeopled countries of the North whose going thither is not vnaptly described by Esdras where among the great Hords of the Tartars in the farthest part of the world Northward euen at this day are found some that still retaine the names of Dan Zabulon and Nepthaly a certaine argument of their discent whereunto also the word Tartar or Tatar signifying in the Syrian tongue remnants or leauings and the word Turke a word of disgrace signifying in Hebrew banished men seemeth right well to agreee Besides that in the Northern countries of RVSSIA SARMATIA and LYTHVANIA are found greater store of the Iewish nation than elsewhere and so neerer vnto the Tartarians still the mo whereunto Io. Leunclauius the most curious searcher out of the Turks antiquities and monuments addeth as a farther conjecture of the discent of those barbarous northern people from the Iewes That in his trauell through LIVONIA into LYTHVANIA in the countrie neere vnto the metropoliticall citie of RIâ—A he found there the barbarous people of the Lettoes quite differing in language from the other countrey people of the Curons and Estons no lesse barbarous than themselues who had alwaies in their mouths as a perpetuall lamentation which they with doleful moanes daily repeated abroad in the fields Ieru Ieru Masco Lon whereby they were thought to lament ouer IERVSALEM and DAMASCO as forgetfull of all other things in their antient countrey after so many worlds of yeeres and in a desolat place so far distant thence And Munster in his description of LIVONIA repeating the like words reporteth That this rude people being demaunded what they meant by these words so often and so lamentably by them without cause vttered answered That they knew no more than that they had beene so of long taught by their ancestors But to leaue these opinions concerning their beginning so diuers and vncertaine and to follow greater probabilities as concerning the place from whence they came it is vpon better ground thought by diuers others and those of the best historiographers That this barbarous nation which hath of late brought such fatall mutations vpon so great a part not of Christendom onely but euen of the whole world tooke their first beginning out of the cold and bare countrey of SCYTHIA induced thereunto both by the authoritie of the greatest Cosmographers as by most apparant reasons Pomponius Mela the describer of the world reckning vp the people neere vnto the great riuer TANAIS the bounder of EVROPE from ASIA Eastward amongst others maketh expresse mention of the Turks in these words Geloni vrbem ligneam habitant Iuxta Thyrsagete Turceque vastas syluas occupant alunturque venando Tum continuis rupibus late aspera deserta regio ad Arympheos vsque permittitur The Geloni inhabit a citie of wood And fast by the Thyrsagets and Turks possesse the vast forrests and liue by hunting Then a rough and desart countrey with continuall rocks is spaciously extended euen as far as vnto the Arympheians Plinie also in like manner reckning vp the nations about the fennes of MaeOTIS agreeing with that Mela reporteth saith Deinde Euazae Cottae Cicimeni Messeniani Costobocci Choatrae Zigae Dandari Thussagetae Turcae vsque ad solitudines saltuosis conuallibus asperas vltra quos Arymphet qui ad Riphaeos pertinent montes Next vnto them are the Euazae Cottae Cicimeni Messeniani Costobocci Choatrae Zigae Dandari the Thussagets and Turks vnto the desarts rough with wooddie vallies beyond whom are the Arympheians which border vnto the Riphean mountaines And Ptolomie in the description of SARMATIA ASIATICA maketh mention of the Tusci whom many
Eiuases The other Bassa Ibrahim counsailed Amurath to put to sword all those rebels that had followed Mustapha but by the mediation of Eiuases to whome they had yeelded themselues they were generally pardoned Amurath departing from VLIBAD or LOPADIUM came to BOGA and there hanged vp the captaine that had giuen Mustapha passage From thence he held on his way to LAMPSACUM intending to pursue Mustapha into EUROPE but being come to the sea side hee could find no passage for that Mustapha had caused all the shipping on that side to bee brought ouer into EUROE Yet at last Amurath by good fortune chaunced vpon a great Genoway ship which hee hired for foure thousand duckats to transport his armie and so with much adoe at length landed in EUROPE Mustapha seeing that Amurath was now come ouer fled to HADRIANOPLE where he found such cold welcome that fearing to bee betraied hee was glad to speed himselfe thence thinking all the world to little to hide himselfe in and so came to an obscure place in the countrey of the Turks called KISUL-AGATZ-GENITZE where the souldiours sent to pursue him ouertook him and brought him bound to Amurath then being at HADRIANOPLE by whose commaundement he was shamefully hanged from the battlements of one of the highest towers of the citie and there left to the worlds wonder This Mustapha is of some writers reported to haue been indeed the sonne of the great Sultan Baiazet and that he was kept in prison all that long time and thus at length set vp by the Greeks to trouble the state of the Turkish kingdome but the Turkish histories report as before calling him Dusme or counterfait Mustapha And it is verie likely that if he had been one of the sonnes of Baiazet he would haue found some meanes to haue made some great stirre long before that as all the rest of the vnquiet brood of Baiazet did which neuer rested vntil they had like the earth borne brethren one destroied the other besides that their bloodie natures considered it is verie like that Mahomet his younger brother who raigned in HADRIANOPLE almost eight yeares and was in league all that time with the emperour of CONSTANTINOPLE would for his more safetie haue got him into his owne power if hee had been in prison with the emperour or else haue dispatched him if he had been in prison with himselfe All which I am the rather persuaded to thinke for that Orchanes a child the son of Solyman could find no safe place of abode at CONSTANTINOPLE in the raigne of Mahomet but flying was apprehended and his eies put out as is before declared in the life of Mahomet much lesse is it like that Mustapha being a warlike prince and his elder brother could haue been so long preserued and kept in prison from his furie It fortuned in these late broiles as oftentimes it doth with others in like case diuers of the rebels Asapi or common souldiors whom he for his greater countenance had apparrelled and armed like the Ianizaries to fall into the hands of the true Ianizaries Amurath his faithfull guard whose liues indeed they spared but vsing them with all the despight and indignities possible Amongst the rest one of the Ianizaries being an hungred brought two of these Asapi his prisoners vnto a cookes shop offering to sell them vnto him for a little victuall which the cooke refused to giue him as hauing no vse for such vnnecessarie seruants Wherewith the proud Ianizarie enraged swore many a great oath presently to cut off their heads to giue them him for nought if he would not for a thing of nought redeeme them And like ynough he was to haue so done had not the cooke moued with pitie offered him for them both a sheepes head which the Ianizarie tooke for them swearing That the cooke had giuen for theÌ„ more than indeed they were worth Which disgrace so long since done vnto these Asapi is yet oftentimes by way of reproch in great contempt by the masterfull and insolent Ianizaries objected vnto the whole bodie of the Asapi the greatest part of the Turks huge armies of whom for all that the proud Ianizaries make small reckoning accounting them scarcely for men in their rage oftentimes telling them That two of them are not worth a sodden sheepes head Amurath hauing at length with much adoe thus pacified the dangerous rebellion raised by the counterfeit Mustapha both in EUROPE and ASIA was yet not a little grieued to thinke how the same had to the great hazard of his estate beene first plotted by the Greekes and afterwards countenanced by the Greeke emperour of whom he thought now to be reuenged And therefore sending before him Michael Ogli his lieutenant generall in EUROPE with his Europeian souldiors to inuade the countrey about CONSTANTINOPLE followed himselfe after with the Ianizaries and his Asian forces and encamping before the cittie filled all that necke of land which lieth before it from sea to sea And so encamped began right furiously to batter the wals in hope so to haue made a breach and by the same to haue entered the cittie but finding the wals of greater strength than hee had before supposed and the defendants still repairing whatsoeuer the furie of his artillerie had beaten downe or shaken hee ceased his batterie and comming on with all his forces desperately attempted by assault to haue gained the citie wherein his 〈◊〉 was not answerable to his desire For approching the cittie with arrowes as showers falling 〈◊〉 the defendants and scaling ladders in the mean time clapt vp to the wals and the Ianizaries with others of his best souldiors courageously mounting the same they were by the defendants notably repulsed and beaten downe loosing some their hands some their armes some their heads but most their liues no shot falling in vaine from the wals Which Amurath beholding and grieued to see though vnwilling commaunded a retreat to be sounded and the assault â—â—uen ouer and shortly after seeing no hope to preuaile in great rage raised his siege and departed Vnto whom for all that the Greeke emperour not long after sent his embassadours to entreat with him for peace whereof he would by no meanes heare but proudly threatened to be ere long of all his wrongs reuenged Which caused the Greeke emperour to deuise what he might for the troubling of his estate so to keepe him otherwise busied as he did shortly after with the Caramanian king by countenancing another Mustapha surnamed Cutzug or the little Amurath his younger brother against him to the raising of new stirres and Amurath his no small trouble Mahomet the late king had fiue sonnes and seuen daughters whereof Amurath was the eldest and succeeded in his fathers kingdome Mustapha the second surnamed the little Achmetes the third who died before his father the other two Iosephus Machmutes both died of the plague being but children after the death of their father Three of their sisters were married