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172-800: Following the Fourth Crusade (1203–1204), the lands of the Byzantine Empire were divided among several western Catholic (" Latin ") Crusader states , ushering in the period known in Greek as Latinokratia . Despite the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty in the later 13th century, many of these "Latin" states survived until the rise of a new power, the Ottoman Empire . Chief among these

344-573: A "tiny proportion" and Joshua Prawer only some "pitiful remnants" of the original army arrived in the Holy Land. Recent studies suggest that the number was substantial but shy of a majority. Of the 92 named individuals who took the crusader vow in Villehardouin's account, between 23 and 26 of them went to the Holy Land. The rate of "desertion" seems highest among the French faction. Only about

516-702: A 3-month siege , on 16 December. Ottoman reaction was swift and decisive: Sultan Mehmed II dispatched his Grand Vizier , Mahmud Pasha Angelović , with an army against the Venetians. To confront the Venetian fleet, which had taken station outside the entrance of the Dardanelles Straits, the Sultan further ordered the creation of the new shipyard of Kadirga Limani in the Golden Horn (named after

688-485: A bey was called a beylik . Beys in the khanate were as important as the Polish Magnats . Directly to the khan belonged Cufut-Qale , Bakhchisaray , and Staryi Krym (Eski Qirim). The khan also possessed all the salt lakes and the villages around them, as well as the woods around the rivers Alma , Kacha, and Salgir . Part of his own estate included the wastelands with their newly created settlements. Part of

860-699: A claim to be the successor to the Golden Horde, which entailed asserting the right of rule over the Tatar khanates of the Caspian-Volga region, particularly the Kazan Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate . This claim pitted it against Muscovy for dominance in the region. A successful campaign by Devlet I Giray upon the Russian capital in 1571 culminated in the burning of Moscow , and he thereby gained

1032-591: A complex relationship with Zaporozhian Cossacks who lived to the north of the khanate in modern Ukraine. The Cossacks provided a measure of protection against Tatar raids for Poland–Lithuania and received subsidies for their service. They also raided Crimean and Ottoman possessions in the region. At times Crimean Khanate made alliances with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Zaporizhian Sich . The assistance of İslâm III Giray during

1204-440: A contract for transport to Egypt, the stated objective of their crusade; one of the envoys was the future historian Geoffrey of Villehardouin . Earlier crusades focused on Palestine had involved the slow movement of large and disorganised land hosts across a generally hostile Anatolia . Egypt was now the dominant Muslim power in the eastern Mediterranean but also a major trading partner of Venice. An attack on Egypt would clearly be

1376-479: A great length of time to prepare this expedition. In addition, about 14,000 men or as many as 20–30,000 men (out of Venice's population of 60–100,000 people) were needed to man the entire fleet, placing further strain on the Venetian economy. Dandolo and the Venetians considered what to do with the crusade. It was too small to pay its fee, but disbanding the force gathered would harm Venetian prestige and cause significant financial and trading loss. Dandolo, who joined

1548-599: A maritime enterprise, requiring the creation of a fleet. Genoa was uninterested, but in March 1201 negotiations were opened with the doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo who agreed to transport 33,500 crusaders, a very ambitious number. This was the moment, according to him, for the Venetian Republic to gain wealth, prestige, land, and trading routes in the Holy Land . This agreement required a full year of preparation on

1720-469: A matter of debate; he may have realized the Venetians' plans and left to avoid excommunication, or he may have wanted to meet with the Roman prince Alexios IV Angelos , Philip's brother-in-law and the son of the recently deposed Roman emperor Isaac II Angelos . Alexios IV had recently fled to Philip in 1201 but it is unknown whether or not Boniface knew he was at Philip's court. There, Alexios IV offered to pay

1892-843: A restored Byzantine Empire under the surviving members of the Palaiologos family. Negotiations were also begun with other rivals of the Ottomans, such as Karamanids , Uzun Hassan , and the Crimean Khanate . The new alliance launched a two-pronged offensive against the Ottomans: a Venetian army, under the Captain General of the Sea Alvise Loredan , landed in the Morea, while Matthias Corvinus invaded Bosnia. At

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2064-545: A result, his domains almost completely surrounded the diminished Crusader states. Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom. Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, and aqueducts of classical Rome in working form. At its height,

2236-718: A reward, according to local folklore, for historic services rendered to an uluhane (first wife of a Khan). The capitation tax on Jews in Crimea was levied by the office of the uluhane in Bahçeseray. Much like the Christian population of Crimea, the Jews were actively involved in the slave trade. Both Christians and Jews also often redeemed Christian and Jewish captives of Tatar raids in Eastern Europe. The nomadic part of

2408-435: A serious hindrance to the crusaders. A fierce wind blew from the shore and prevented most of the ships from drawing close enough to the walls to launch an assault. Only five of the wall's towers were actually engaged and none of these could be secured; by mid-afternoon it was evident that the attack had failed. The Latin clergy discussed the situation amongst themselves and settled upon the message they wished to spread through

2580-602: A significant escalation in longstanding tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire. During the crusade, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa , had almost besieged Constantinople because of the failure of the Byzantine government and Emperor, Isaac II Angelos to provide him with safe passage across the Dardanelles because Isaac was busy fighting a pretender named Theodore Mangaphas . The Byzantines for their part suspected him of conspiring with

2752-609: A tempting target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice . In 1195, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was deposed in favour of his brother by a palace coup. Ascending as Alexios III Angelos , the new emperor had his brother blinded (a traditional punishment for treason, considered more humane than execution) and exiled. Ineffectual on the battlefield, Isaac had also proven to be an incompetent ruler who had let

2924-463: A tenth of the knights who had taken the cross in Flanders arrived to reinforce the remaining Christian states in the Holy Land, but over half of those from the Île-de-France did. All told, about 300 knights with their retinues from northern France made it to the Holy Land. Of the contingents from Burgundy, Occitania, Italy and Germany there is less information, but there were certainly defections among

3096-504: A truce with al-Adil of five years and eight months on 1 July 1198. The truce preserved the status quo: Jaffa remained in Ayyubid hands, but its destroyed fortifications could not be rebuilt; Beirut was left to the crusaders; and Sidon was placed under a revenue-sharing condominium. Before the expiration of the new truce on 1 March 1204, al-Adil succeeded in uniting the former empire of Saladin, acquiring Egypt in 1200 and Aleppo in 1202. As

3268-538: A useful cover to the Venetian coastal holdings of Durazzo and Scutari . Notable Montenegrin feudal lord Ivan Crnojević was of high significance for the defence of Scutari, for which he gained fame in Venice. The major result of this campaign was the construction of the fortress of Elbasan , allegedly within just 25 days. This strategically-sited fortress, at the lowlands near the end of the old Via Egnatia , cut Albania effectively in half, isolating Skenderbeg's base in

3440-410: A young noble Nicolas Canabus as emperor, in what was to be one of the last known acts of this ancient institution. However he declined the appointment and sought church sanctuary. A nobleman Alexios Doukas (nicknamed Mourtzouphlos) became the leader of the anti-crusader faction within the Byzantine leadership. While holding the court rank of protovestilarios , Doukas had led Byzantine forces during

3612-637: Is the oldest memorial in the Crimean Tatar language and of great importance for the history of Kypchak and Oghuz dialects – as directly related to the Kipchaks of the Black Sea steppes and Crimea . There are legends that, in the 14th century, the Crimea was repeatedly ravaged by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas broke the Tatar army in 1363 near

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3784-734: The Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. They were divided into the following groups: Budjak (from the Danube to the Dniester), Yedisan (from the Dniester to the Bug), Cemboylıq  [ crh ] (Bug to Crimea), Yedickul (north of Crimea) and Kuban . Internally, the khanate territory was divided among the beys, and beneath the beys were mirzas from noble families. The relationship of peasants or herdsmen to their mirzas

3956-711: The Byzantine successor states and with the Bulgarian Empire . The Nicaean Empire eventually recovered Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire in July 1261. The Fourth Crusade is considered to have solidified the East–West Schism . The crusade dealt an irrevocable blow to the Byzantine Empire, contributing to its decline and fall as all the unstable governments in the region, the Sack of Constantinople, and

4128-751: The Desht-i Kipchak (Kypchak Steppes of today's Ukraine and southern Russia) and decided to make Crimea their yurt (homeland). At that time, the Golden Horde of the Mongol empire had governed the Crimean peninsula as an ulus since 1239, with its capital at Qirim ( Staryi Krym ). The local separatists invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne, Hacı Giray , to become their khan . Hacı Giray accepted their invitation and travelled from exile in Lithuania . He warred for independence against

4300-518: The Giray clan, which traced its right to rule to its descent from Genghis Khan . According to the tradition of the steppes, the ruler was legitimate only if he was of Genghisid royal descent (i.e. "ak süyek"). Although the Giray dynasty was the symbol of government, the khan actually governed with the participation of Qaraçı Beys , the leaders of the noble clans such as Şirin, Barın, Arğın, Qıpçaq, and in

4472-791: The Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648 contributed greatly to the initial momentum of military successes for the Cossacks. The relationship with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was also exclusive, as it was the home dynasty of the Girays, who sought sanctuary in Lithuania in the 15th century before establishing themselves on the Crimean peninsula. In the middle of the 16th century, the Crimean Khanate asserted

4644-645: The Maniot Kladas brothers, Krokodelos and Epifani, were leading bands of stratioti on behalf of Venice against the Ottomans in Southern Peloponnese. They put Vardounia and their lands into Venetian possession, for which Epifani then acted as governor. In April 1466, Vettore Cappello , the most vociferous proponent of the war, replaced Loredan as Captain General of the Sea. Under his leadership,

4816-686: The Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae or the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders and their Venetian allies leading to a period known as Frankokratia , or "Rule of the Franks" in Greek. The Republic of Venice contracted with the Crusader leaders to build a dedicated fleet to transport their invasion force. However, the leaders greatly overestimated the number of soldiers who would embark from Venice, since many sailed from other ports, and

4988-485: The Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) took place during the reign of Peter I (1682–1725). The Selim II Giray fountain, built in 1747, is considered one of the masterpieces of Crimean Khanate's hydraulic engineering designs and is still marveled in modern times. It consists of small ceramic pipes, boxed in an underground stone tunnel, stretching back to the spring source more than 20 metres (66 feet) away. It

5160-415: The provveditore of the Morea, Jacopo Barbarigo. Before Cappello could arrive there, and as the city seemed on the verge of falling, Omar Beg suddenly appeared with 12,000 cavalry, and drove the outnumbered Venetians off. Six hundred Venetians fell and a hundred were taken prisoner out of a force of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself was killed, and his body impaled. Cappello, who arrived some days later, attacked

5332-628: The siege of Shkodra of 1478-79. The Venetians and Shkodrans resisted the assaults and continued to hold the fortress until Venice ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Constantinople on 25 January 1479 as a condition of ending the war. After the Venetian War the Ottomans attacked Hungary , but their army was defeated in the Battle of Breadfield . The Despotate of Epirus,

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5504-460: The vakif lands and their enormous revenues. Another Muslim official, appointed not by the clergy but the Ottoman sultan, was the kadıasker , the overseer of the khanate's judicial districts, each under jurisdiction of a kadi . In theory, kadis answered to the kadiaskers, but in practice they answered to the clan leaders and the khan. The kadis determined the day to day legal behavior of Muslims in

5676-470: The Île-de-France , and Burgundy . Several other regions of Europe sent substantial contingents as well, such as Flanders and Montferrat . Other notable groups came from the Holy Roman Empire , including the men under Martin , abbot of Pairis Abbey and Bishop Conrad of Halberstadt , together in alliance with the Venetian soldiers and sailors led by the doge , Enrico Dandolo . The crusade

5848-410: The "Great Fire", which burnt from 19 to 21 August, destroying a large part of Constantinople and leaving an estimated 100,000 homeless. In January 1204, the blinded and incapacitated Isaac II died, probably of natural causes. Opposition to his son and co-emperor Alexios IV had grown during the preceding months of tension and spasmodic violence in and around Constantinople. The Byzantine Senate elected

6020-590: The "kadirga" type of galley ), and of two forts to guard the Straits, Kilidulbahr and Sultaniye . The Morean campaign was swiftly victorious for the Ottomans: although messages received from Ömer Bey had warned of the strength and firepower of the Venetian position at the Hexamilion, Mahmud Pasha decided to march on, hoping to catch them unawares. In the event, the Ottomans reached the Isthmus just in time to see

6192-673: The Byzantine capital, Constantinople , and continued to expand their territories in the Balkans , Asia Minor , and the Aegean. Serbia was conquered in 1459, and the last Byzantine remnants, the Despotate of Morea and the Empire of Trebizond were subdued in 1460–1461. The Venetian-controlled Duchy of Naxos and the Genoese colonies of Lesbos and Chios became tributary in 1458, only for

6364-903: The Byzantines ultimately succumbed in 1453 . In 1187, the Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin conquered most of the Crusader states in the Levant. Jerusalem was lost to the Ayyubids as a result of the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 leading to the calling of the Third Crusade . The Crusader states were then reduced by Saladin to little more than three cities along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea: Tyre , Tripoli and Antioch . The Third Crusade (1189–1193)

6536-427: The Crimea and probably saw him as her heir to the Crimean throne. In the sources of the 16th–18th centuries, the opinion according to which the separation of the Crimean Tatar state was raised to Tokhtamysh, and Canike was the most important figure in this process, completely prevailed. The Crimean Khanate originated in the early 15th century when certain clans of the Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in

6708-433: The Crimea is considered Aran-Timur , the nephew of Batu Khan of the Golden Horde, who received this area from Mengu-Timur , and the first center of the Crimea was the ancient city Qırım (Solhat). This name then gradually spread to the entire Peninsula. The second center of Crimea was the valley adjacent to Qırq Yer and Bağçasaray . The multi-ethnic population of Crimea then consisted mainly of those who lived in

6880-447: The Crimea when the local population refused to pay tribute. An example is the well-known campaign of the Nogai Khan in 1299, which resulted in a number of Crimean cities suffering. As in other regions of the Horde, separatist tendencies soon began to manifest themselves in Crimea. In 1303, in Crimea, the most famous written monument of the Kypchak or Cuman language was created (named in Kypchak "tatar tili") – " Codex Cumanicus ", which

7052-463: The Crimea, inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples ( Cumans ), became the possession of Ulus Juchi , known as the Golden Horde or Ulu Ulus. In this era, the role of Turkic peoples increased. Around this time, the local Kipchaks took the name of Tatars ( tatarlar ). In the Horde period, the khans of the Golden Horde were the Supreme rulers of the Crimea, but their governors – Emirs – exercised direct control. The first formally recognized ruler in

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7224-409: The Crimean Khanate did not decrease. These politico-economic losses led in turn to erosion of the khan's support among noble clans, and internal conflicts for power ensued. The Nogays, who provided a significant portion of the Crimean military forces, also took back their support from the khans towards the end of the empire. In the first half of the 17th century, Kalmyks formed the Kalmyk Khanate in

7396-428: The Crimean Khanate during the Chigirin Campaigns and the Crimean Campaigns . It was during the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739) that the Russians, under the command of Field-Marshal Münnich , penetrated the Crimean Peninsula itself, burning and destroying everything in it. More warfare ensued during the reign of Catherine II . The Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) resulted in the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji , which made

7568-428: The Crimean Khanate independent from the Ottoman Empire and aligned it with the Russian Empire . The rule of the last Crimean khan Şahin Giray was marked with increasing Russian influence and outbursts of violence from the khan administration towards internal opposition. On 8 April 1783, in violation of the treaty (after some parts of treaty had been already violated by Crimeans and Ottomans), Catherine II intervened in

7740-407: The Crimean Khanate shifted throughout its existence due to the constant incursions by the Cossacks , who had lived along the Don since the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century. The London-based cartographer Herman Moll in a map of c. 1729 shows "Little Tartary" as including the Crimean peninsula and the steppe between Dnieper and Mius River as far north as the Dnieper bend and

7912-412: The Crimean Khanate were destroyed or left in ruins after the Russian invasion. Mosques, in particular were demolished or remade into Orthodox churches. The settled Crimean Tatars were engaged in trade, agriculture, and artisanry. Crimea was a center of wine, tobacco, and fruit cultivation. Bahçeseray kilims ( oriental rugs ) were exported to Poland , and knives made by Crimean Tatar artisans were deemed

8084-465: The Crimean Tatars and all the Nogays were cattle breeders. Crimea had important trading ports where the goods arrived via the Silk Road were exported to the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Crimean Khanate had many large cities such as the capital Bahçeseray, Kezlev (Yevpatoria), Qarasu Bazar (Market on black water) and Aqmescit (White-mosque) having numerous hans ( caravansarais and merchant quarters), tanners, and mills. Many monuments constructed under

8256-409: The Crimean Tatars and the Ottomans was comparable to the Polish–Lithuanian union in its importance and durability. The Crimean cavalry became indispensable for the Ottomans' campaigns against Poland , Hungary , and Persia . In 1502, Meñli I Giray defeated the last khan of the Great Horde , which put an end to the Horde's claims on Crimea. The Khanate initially chose as its capital Salaçıq near

8428-599: The Crimean Tatars in the course of their raids: It seems that the position and everyday conditions of a slave depended largely on his/her owner. Some slaves indeed could spend the rest of their days doing exhausting labor: as the Crimean vizir (minister) Sefer Gazi Aga mentions in one of his letters, the slaves were often "a plough and a scythe" of their owners. Most terrible, perhaps, was the fate of those who became galley -slaves, whose sufferings were poeticized in many Ukrainian dumas (songs). ... Both female and male slaves were often used for sexual purposes. The Crimeans had

8600-414: The Crusader forces viciously counterattacked, with most of the defenders being cut down or drowning in the Bosporus in their attempts to escape. The tower was swiftly taken as a result. The Golden Horn now lay open to the Crusaders, and the Venetian fleet entered. The Crusaders sailed alongside Constantinople with 10 galleys to display the would-be Alexios IV, but from the walls of the city citizens taunted

8772-501: The Crusaders not to attack fellow Christians. The city was then brought under Venetian control. When the Pope heard of this, he temporarily excommunicated the Crusader army. In January 1203, en route to Jerusalem, the Crusader leadership entered into an agreement with the Byzantine prince Alexios Angelos to divert their main force to Constantinople and restore his deposed father Isaac II Angelos as emperor, who would then add his support to their invasion of Jerusalem. On 23 June 1203,

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8944-457: The Fourth Crusade went to the Holy Land, while only a minority participated in the attack on Constantinople. Villehardouin, however, regarded those who went to the Holy Land as deserters of the main army and its leadership and he may have exaggerated their number in order to magnify the accomplishments of the minority that besieged Constantinople. Modern historians have tended to disregard Villehardouin's claims. Steven Runciman thought that only

9116-453: The Genoese colonies at Cembalo , Soldaia , and Caffa (modern Feodosiya). Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans. The Empire annexed the Crimean coast but recognized the legitimacy of the khanate rule of the steppes, as the khans were descendants of Genghis Khan . In 1475, the Ottomans imprisoned Meñli I Giray for three years for resisting

9288-416: The Horde from 1420 to 1441, in the end achieving success. But Hacı Giray then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449, after which he moved its capital to Qırq Yer (today part of Bahçeseray ). The khanate included the Crimean Peninsula (except the south and southwest coast and ports, controlled by the Republic of Genoa & Trebizond Empire ) as well as

9460-438: The Lower Volga and under Ayuka Khan conducted many military expeditions against the Crimean Khanate and Nogays . By becoming an important ally and later part of the Russian Empire and taking an oath to protect its southeastern borders, the Kalmyk Khanate took an active part in all Russian war campaigns in the 17th and 18th centuries, providing up to 40,000 fully equipped horsemen. The united Russian and Ukrainian forces attacked

9632-402: The Mamluks, who imprisoned all Venetian subjects living in the Levant , and threatened to enter the war on the Ottoman side. The Venetian fleet, under Loredan, sailed to Rhodes under orders to release the Moors, even by force. In the event, a potentially catastrophic war between the two major Christian powers of the Aegean was avoided, and the merchants were released to Venetian custody. By 1465

9804-427: The Morea was becoming desolate, as villages were abandoned and fields left untended. The bad supply situation in the Morea forced Ömer Bey to withdraw to Athens in fall 1465. Malatesta himself, disenchanted by the conditions he encountered in the Morea and increasingly anxious to return to Italy and attend to his family 's affairs and the ongoing feud with the Papacy, remained largely inactive throughout 1465, in spite of

9976-512: The Occitan and German contingents. A large sum of money raised by the preacher Fulk of Neuilly did reach the Holy Land. Before his death in May 1202, Fulk gave the money to the Abbey of Cîteaux . Abbot Arnaud Amalric sent it to Acre in two installments. It was used to repair walls, towers and other defences that had been damaged by the earthquake of May 1202 . A second wall was even added at Acre sometime before 1212. Several crusaders, instead of going on to Venice, turned south at Piacenza in

10148-421: The Ottoman Empire; instead the Ottomans paid them in return for their services of providing skilled outriders and frontline cavalry in their campaigns. Later on, Crimea lost power in this relationship as the result of a crisis in 1523, during the reign of Meñli's successor, Mehmed I Giray . He died that year and beginning with his successor, from 1524 on, Crimean khans were appointed by the Sultan. The alliance of

10320-421: The Ottoman troops. The whole island came under Ottoman control. In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed marched with a large army against the Albanians. Under their leader, Skenderbeg , they had long resisted the Ottomans, and had repeatedly sought assistance from Italy. For the Albanians, the outbreak of the Ottoman–Venetian War offered a golden opportunity to reassert their independence; for the Venetians, they provided

10492-422: The Ottomans retreating hastily in the face of Corvinus' approaching army. A new Ottoman army under Mahmud Pasha then forced Corvinus to withdraw, but Jajce was not retaken for many years after. However, the death of Pope Pius II on 15 August in Ancona spelled the end of the Crusade. In the meantime, for the upcoming campaign of 1464, the Republic had appointed Sigismondo Malatesta , the ruler of Rimini and one of

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10664-402: The Ottomans trying to avenge this disaster, but was heavily defeated. Demoralized, he returned to Negroponte with the remains of his army. There, the Captain General fell ill, and died on 13 March 1467. In 1470, Sultan Mehmed II campaigned against Negroponte (Chalcis) on the island of Euboea . After a protracted and bloody siege (10 July – 5 August 1470), the well-fortified city was taken by

10836-445: The Ottomans were therefore refused by the Venetian authorities. Using this as a pretext, in November 1462, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey , the Ottoman commander in central Greece, attacked and very nearly succeeded in taking the strategically important Venetian fortress of Lepanto ( Nafpaktos ). On 3 April 1463 however, the governor of the Morea, Isa-Beg Ishaković , took the Venetian-held town of Argos by treason. Although Venice, dependent on

11008-442: The Pope and Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy . According to its terms, upon victory, the Balkans would be divided among the allies. The Morea and the western Greek coast ( Epirus ) would fall to Venice, Hungary would acquire Bulgaria , Serbia, Bosnia, and Wallachia , the Albanian principality under Skanderbeg would expand into Macedonia , and the remaining European territories of the Ottomans, including Constantinople, would form

11180-460: The Qırq Yer fortress. Later, the capital was moved a short distance to Bahçeseray , founded in 1532 by Sahib I Giray . Both Salaçıq and the Qırq Yer fortress today are part of the expanded city of Bahçeseray. The slave trade was the backbone of the economy of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimeans frequently mounted raids into the Danubian principalities , Poland–Lithuania , and Muscovy to enslave people whom they could capture; for each captive,

11352-418: The Republic's holdings in the southern Peloponnese, centered around the two forts of Coron and Modon ( Methoni ). Sultan Mehmed II, who was following Mahmud Pasha with another army to reinforce him, had reached Zeitounion ( Lamia ) before being apprised of his Vizier's success. Immediately, he turned his men north, towards Bosnia. However, the Sultan's attempt to retake Jajce in July and August 1464 failed, with

11524-523: The St. Romanus Gate, vastly outnumbering the crusaders. Alexios III's army of about 8,500 men faced the Crusaders' seven divisions (about 3,500 men), but his courage failed, and the Byzantine army returned to the city without a fight. The unforced retreat and the effects of the fire greatly damaged morale, and the disgraced Alexios III abandoned his subjects, slipping out of the city and fleeing to Mosynopolis in Thrace . The Imperial officials quickly deposed their runaway emperor and restored Isaac II, robbing

11696-403: The Tatar cavalry suffered a significant loss against European and Russian armies with modern equipment. By the late 17th century, Russia became too strong for Crimean Khan to pillage and the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) outlawed further raids. The era of great slave raids in Russia and Ukraine was over, although brigands and Nogay raiders continued their attacks, and consequently Russian hatred of

11868-422: The Tatars seldom cultivated the soil themselves, with most of their land tilled by the Polish, Ruthenian, Russian, and Walachian (Moldavian) slaves." The Jewish population was concentrated in Çufut Kale ('Jewish Fortress'), a separate town near Bahçeseray that was the Khan's original capital. As with other minorities, they spoke a Turkic language. Crimean law granted them special financial and political rights as

12040-482: The Turkish pattern: the nobles' landholdings were proclaimed the domain of the khan and reorganized into qadılıqs (provinces governed by representatives of the khan). Crimean law was based on Tatar law, Islamic law, and, in limited matters, Ottoman law . The leader of the Muslim establishment was the mufti , who was selected from among the local Muslim clergy. His major duty was neither judicial nor theological, but financial. The mufti's administration controlled all of

12212-413: The Venetian army, demoralized and riddled with dysentery , leave its positions and sail to Nauplia. The Ottoman army razed the Hexamilion, and advanced into the Morea. Argos fell, and several forts and localities that had recognized Venetian authority reverted to their Ottoman allegiance. Zagan Pasha was re-appointed governor of the Morea, while Ömer Bey was given Mahmud Pasha's army and tasked with taking

12384-585: The Venetian stronghold of Lissus ( Lezhë ), ending the ability of Venice to use the Albanian lords for its own advantage. The Albanians were left to their own devices, and were gradually subdued over the next decade. After Skanderbeg died, some Venetian-controlled northern Albanian garrisons continued to hold territories coveted by the Ottomans, such as Žabljak Crnojevića , Drisht , Lezha , and Shkodra —the most significant. Mehmed II sent his armies to take Shkodra in 1474 but failed. Then he went personally to lead

12556-520: The Venetian war effort was reinvigorated: the fleet took the northern Aegean islands of Imbros , Thasos and Samothrace , and then sailed into the Saronic Gulf . On 12 July, Cappello landed at Piraeus , and marched against Athens , the Ottomans' major regional base. He failed to take the Acropolis , however, and was forced to retreat to Patras , which was being besieged by the Venetians under

12728-462: The Venetians had an appreciation for the art which they discovered (they were themselves semi-Byzantines) and saved much of it, the French and others destroyed indiscriminately, halting to refresh themselves with wine, violation of nuns, and murder of Orthodox clerics. The Crusaders vented their hatred for the Greeks most spectacularly in the desecration of the greatest Church in Christendom. They smashed

12900-458: The Venetians took a section of the wall of about 25 towers, while the Varangian guard held off the Crusaders on the land wall. The Varangians shifted to meet the new threat, and the Venetians retreated under the screen of fire. The fire destroyed about 120 acres (0.49 km ) of the city and left some 20,000 people homeless. Alexios III finally took offensive action, leading 17 divisions from

13072-463: The Venetians were also successful at scaling the walls from the sea, though there was fighting with the Byzantine infantry. The remaining Anglo-Saxon "axe bearers" had been amongst the most effective of the city's defenders, but they now attempted to negotiate higher wages from their Byzantine employers, before dispersing or surrendering. The crusaders captured the Blachernae section of the city in

13244-472: The ablest Italian generals, as land commander in the Morea. The forces available to him along with mercenaries and stratioti , however, were limited, and in his tenure in the Morea he was unable to achieve much. Upon his arrival in the Morea in mid-summer, he launched attacks against Ottoman forts, and engaged in a siege of Mistra in August–October. He failed to take the castle, however, and had to abandon

13416-474: The adjacent steppe. The sons of Hacı I Giray contended against each other to succeed him. The Ottomans intervened and installed one of the sons, Meñli I Giray , on the throne. Menli I Giray, took the imperial title "Sovereign of Two Continents and Khan of Khans of Two Seas." In 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha , conquered the Greek Principality of Theodoro and

13588-741: The aid of the Horde Khan Tokhtamysh , was defeated on the banks of the Vorskla River by Tokhtamysh's rival Timur-Kutluk , on whose behalf the Horde was ruled by the Emir Edigei , and made peace. During the reign of Canike Hanım, Tokhtamysh's daughter, in Qırq-Or, she supported Hacı I Giray in the struggle against the descendants of Tokhtamysh , Kichi-Muhammada and Sayid Ahmad , who as well as Hacı Giray claimed full power in

13760-662: The area from (Great) Tartary – those areas of central and northern Asia inhabited by Turkic peoples or Tatars . The Khanate included the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppes, mostly corresponding to parts of South Ukraine between the Dnieper and the Donets rivers (i.e. including most of present-day Zaporizhzhia Oblast , left-Dnipro parts of Kherson Oblast , besides minor parts of southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and western Donetsk Oblast ). The territory controlled by

13932-428: The army in time. The bulk of the army arrived at Zara on 10–11 November 1202 and the attack proceeded. The citizens of Zara made reference to the fact that they were fellow Catholics by hanging banners marked with crosses from their windows and the walls of the city, but nevertheless the city fell on 24 November 1202 after a brief siege. There was extensive pillaging, and the Venetians and other crusaders came to blows over

14104-540: The army that appeared could not pay the contracted price. In lieu of payment, the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo proposed that the Crusaders back him in attacking the rebellious city of Zadar (Zara) on the eastern Adriatic coast. This led in November 1202 to the siege and sack of Zara , the first attack against a Catholic city by a Catholic Crusader army, despite Pope Innocent III 's calls for

14276-623: The army, the leaders of the crusade decided not to inform their followers of this. Regarding the Crusaders as having been coerced by the Venetians, in February 1203 he rescinded the excommunications against all non-Venetians in the expedition. The commercial rivalry between the Republic of Venice and the Byzantine Empire and the living memory of the Massacre of the Latins did much to exacerbate

14448-445: The art of warfare. Several conflicts occurred between Circassians and Crimean Tatars in the 18th century, with the former defeating an army of Khan Kaplan Giray and Ottoman auxiliaries in the battle of Kanzhal . The Turkish traveler writer Evliya Çelebi mentions the impact of Cossack raids from Azak upon the territories of the Crimean Khanate. These raids ruined trade routes and severely depopulated many important regions. By

14620-407: The attacks against the Albanian strongholds, while sending detachments to raid the Venetian possessions to keep them isolated. The Ottomans failing again to take Croia, and they failed to subjugate the country but they overthrow Tomornitsa . However, the winter brought an outbreak of plague, which would recur annually and sap the strength of the local resistance. Skanderbeg himself died of malaria in

14792-483: The best by the Caucasian tribes. Crimea was also renowned for manufacture of silk and honey. The slave trade (15th–17th century) of captured Ukrainians and Russians was one of the major sources of income for Crimean Tartar and Nogai nobility. In this process, known as harvesting the steppe , raiding parties would go out and capture, and then enslave the local Christian peasants living in the countryside. In spite of

14964-478: The breakaway Byzantine provinces of Serbia and Bulgaria as Frederick Barbarossa was on friendly terms with Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja of Serbia and also got a letter getting support and fealty from Tsar Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria. King Richard I Lionheart of England also seized the breakaway Eastern Roman province of Cyprus . Rather than return it to the Empire (and realizing his inability to govern it), he gave

15136-432: The capture of 20,000 Russian and Ruthenian slaves. Author and historian Brian Glyn Williams writes: Fisher estimates that in the sixteenth century the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost around 20,000 individuals a year and that from 1474 to 1694, as many as a million Commonwealth citizens were carried off into Crimean slavery. Early modern sources are full of descriptions of sufferings of Christian slaves captured by

15308-592: The city had a population of approximately 500,000 people, a garrison of 15,000 men (including 5,000 Varangians ), and a fleet of 20 galleys. For both political and financial reasons, the permanent garrison of Constantinople had been limited to a relatively small force, made up of elite guards and other specialist units. At previous times in East Roman and Byzantine history when the capital had come under direct threat, it had been possible to assemble reinforcements from frontier and provincial forces. On this occasion,

15480-593: The city was economically independent, under the protection of the King. King Emeric was Catholic and had himself taken the cross in 1195 or 1196. Many of the crusaders were opposed to attacking Zara, and some, including a force led by the elder Simon de Montfort , refused to participate altogether and returned home or went to the Holy Land on their own. While the Papal legate to the Crusade, Cardinal Peter of Capua , endorsed

15652-591: The city was home to an estimated population of about half a million people protected by 20 km (around 13 miles) of triple walls. Its planned location made Constantinople not only the capital of the surviving eastern part of the Roman Empire but also a commercial centre that dominated trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, China, India and Persia. As a result, it was both a rival and

15824-550: The city, would not have been as cruel as the Latin Christians. The defeat of Byzantium, already in a state of decline, accelerated political degeneration so that the Byzantines eventually became easy prey to the Turks. The Fourth Crusade and the crusading movement generally thus resulted, ultimately, in the victory of Islam, a result which was of course the exact opposite of its original intention. When Innocent III heard of

15996-463: The city. The crusaders and Venetians, incensed at the murder of their supposed patron, demanded that Mourtzouphlos honour the contract that Alexios IV had promised. When the emperor refused, the Crusaders assaulted the city once again. On 8 April Alexios V's army put up a strong resistance, which did much to discourage the crusaders. The Byzantines hurled large projectiles onto the enemy siege engines, shattering many of them. Bad weather conditions were

16168-634: The civil war, de facto annexing the whole peninsula as the Taurida Oblast . In 1787, Şahin Giray took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and was eventually executed, on Rhodes , by the Ottoman authorities for betrayal. The royal Giray family survives to this day. Through the 1792 Treaty of Jassy (Iaşi), the Russian frontier was extended to the Dniester River and the takeover of Yedisan was complete. The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest transferred Bessarabia to Russian control. All Khans were from

16340-466: The civilian population of the city were killed and their property looted. Despite the threat of excommunication, the crusaders destroyed, defiled and looted the city's churches and monasteries. It was said that the total amount looted from Constantinople was about 900,000 silver marks. The Venetians received 150,000 silver marks that were their due, while the crusaders received 50,000 silver marks. A further 100,000 silver marks were divided evenly up between

16512-578: The co-emperor's absence in August, rioting broke out in the city and a number of Latin residents were killed. In retaliation armed Venetians and other crusaders entered the city from the Golden Horn and attacked a mosque (Constantinople at this time had a sizable Muslim population), which was defended by Muslim and Byzantine Greek residents . In order to cover their retreat the Westerners instigated

16684-454: The conduct of his pilgrims he was filled with shame and rage, and he strongly rebuked them. The main army that sailed from Venice to Constantinople experienced several waves of defections as men sought to fulfill their vows independently of the leadership. Most of them sailed directly from ports in Apulia (southern Italy) to Acre. According to Villehardouin, the majority of those who set out on

16856-622: The crusade during a public ceremony in the church of San Marco di Venezia , proposed that the crusaders pay their debts by intimidating many of the local ports and towns down the Adriatic, culminating in an attack on the port of Zara in Dalmatia . The city had been dominated economically by Venice throughout the 12th century but had rebelled in 1181 and allied itself with King Emeric of Hungary and Croatia . Subsequent Venetian attempts to recover control of Zara had been repulsed, and by 1202

17028-592: The crusade. The conquest of Constantinople was followed by the fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire into three states centered in Nicaea , Trebizond and Epirus . The Crusaders then founded several new Crusader states, known as Frankokratia , in former Roman territory, largely hinged upon the Latin Empire of Constantinople . The presence of the Latin Crusader states almost immediately led to war with

17200-402: The crusader army was collected at Venice, although with far smaller numbers than expected: about 12,000 (4–5,000 knights and 8,000 foot soldiers) instead of 33,500. The Venetians had performed their part of the agreement: there awaited 50 war galleys and 450 transports – enough for three times the assembled army. The Venetians, under their aged and blind Doge Dandolo, would not let

17372-542: The crusaders and Venetians. The remaining 500,000 silver marks were secretly kept back by many crusader knights. The eyewitness accounts of Niketas Choniates , Geoffrey of Villehardouin , Robert of Clari , and the anonymous Latin author of the Devastatio Constantinopolitana all accuse the crusaders of egregious rapacity. Speros Vryonis in Byzantium and Europe gives a vivid account of

17544-403: The crusaders leave without paying the full amount agreed to, originally 85,000 silver marks . The crusaders could only initially pay 35,000 silver marks. The Doge threatened to keep them interned unless full payment was made so a further 14,000 marks were collected, and that only by reducing the crusaders to extreme poverty. This was disastrous to the Venetians, who had halted their commerce for

17716-656: The crusaders of the pretext for attack. The crusaders were now in the quandary of having achieved their stated aim while being debarred from the actual objective, namely the reward that the younger Alexios had (unbeknownst to the Romans) promised them. The crusaders insisted that they would only recognize the authority of Isaac II if his son was raised to co-emperor, and on 1 August the latter was crowned as Alexios Angelos IV, co-emperor. Alexios IV realised that his promises were hard to keep. Alexios III had managed to flee with 1,000 pounds of gold and some priceless jewels, leaving

17888-515: The crusaders' fleet, the Aquila (Eagle), broke the chain. A section of it was then sent to Acre to boost the defences in the Holy Land. As the crusaders laid siege to the Tower of Galata, the defenders routinely attempted to sally out with some limited success, but often suffered bloody losses. On one occasion the defenders sallied out but were unable to retreat back to the safety of the tower in time,

18060-536: The dangers, Polish and Russian serfs were attracted to the freedom offered by the empty steppes of Ukraine . The slave raids entered Russian and Cossack folklore and many dumy were written elegising the victims' fates. This contributed to a hatred for the Khanate that transcended political or military concerns. But in fact, there were always small raids committed by both Tatars and Cossacks , in both directions. The last recorded major Crimean raid , before those in

18232-479: The decline of the Roman state". Forcing the populace to destroy their icons at the behest of an army of foreign schismatics did not endear Alexios IV to the citizens of Constantinople. In fear of his life, the co-emperor asked the crusaders to renew their contract for another six months, to end by April 1204. Alexios IV then led 6,000 men from the Crusader army against his rival Alexios III in Adrianople. During

18404-515: The defenders and with Ömer Bey's forces, until they suffered a major defeat on 20 October, which resulted in the wounding and subsequent death of the Marquis Bertoldo d'Este  [ it ] (son of Taddeo d'Este ). The Venetians were then forced to lift the siege and retreat to the Hexamilion and to Nauplia ( Nafplion ). In Bosnia, Matthias Corvinus seized over sixty fortified places and succeeded in taking its capital, Jajce after

18576-402: The demoralised army. They had to convince the men that the events of 9 April were not God's judgment on a sinful enterprise: the campaign, they argued, was righteous and with proper belief it would succeed. The concept of God testing the determination of the crusaders through temporary setbacks was a familiar means for the clergy to explain failure in the course of a campaign. The clergy's message

18748-457: The division of the spoils. Order was achieved, and the leaders of the expedition agreed to winter in Zara, while considering their next move. The fortifications of Zara were demolished by the Venetians. When Innocent III heard of the sack, he sent a letter to the crusaders excommunicating them and ordering them to return to their holy vows and head for Jerusalem. Out of fear that this would dissolve

18920-711: The empire of the Golden Horde . Established by Hacı I Giray in 1441, it was regarded as the direct heir to the Golden Horde and to Desht-i-Kipchak . In 1783, violating the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (which had guaranteed non-interference of both Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate), the Russian Empire annexed the khanate . Among the European powers, only France came out with an open protest against this act, due to

19092-690: The entire debt owed to the Venetians, give 200,000 silver marks to the crusaders, 10,000 Byzantine professional troops for the Crusade, the maintenance of 500 knights in the Holy Land, the service of the Byzantine navy to transport the Crusader Army to Egypt, and the placement of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the authority of the Pope, if they would sail to Constantinople and topple the reigning emperor Alexios III Angelos , brother of Isaac II. This offer, tempting for an enterprise that

19264-762: The feeling of animosity among the Venetians towards the Byzantine Greeks . According to the Chronicle of Novgorod Doge Enrico Dandolo had been blinded by the Emperor Manuel I Komnenos the Great while part of an embassy to Constantinople in 1171, and accordingly held personal enmity towards the Byzantines. Boniface of Montferrat , meanwhile, had left the fleet before it sailed from Venice, to visit his cousin Philip of Swabia . The reasons for his visit are

19436-558: The fleet's equipment down to the very nails to enrich himself. Pope Innocent III succeeded to the papacy in January 1198, and the preaching of a new crusade became the prime goal of his pontificate, expounded in his bull Post miserabile . His call was largely ignored by the European monarchs: the Germans were struggling against Papal power, and England and France were still engaged in warfare against each other . However, due to

19608-470: The great city. They won a cavalry skirmish in which they were outnumbered, defeating 500 Byzantines with just 80 Frankish knights. To take the city by force, the crusaders first needed to cross the Bosphorus . About 200 ships, horse transports, and galleys delivered the crusading army across the narrow strait, where Alexios III had lined up the Byzantine army in battle formation along the shore, north of

19780-469: The imperial treasury short on funds. At that point the young emperor ordered the destruction and melting of valuable Roman icons in order to extract their gold and silver, but even then he could only raise 100,000 silver marks. In the eyes of all Greeks who knew of this decision, it was a shocking sign of desperation and weak leadership, which deserved to be punished by God. The Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates characterized it as "the turning point towards

19952-647: The inhabitants of the Crimean Khanate in Crimean Tatar usually referred to their state as "Qırım yurtu, Crimean Yurt", which can be translated into English as "the country of Crimea" or "Crimean country". English-speaking writers during the 18th and early 19th centuries often called the territory of the Crimean Khanate and of the Lesser Nogai Horde Little Tartary (or subdivided it as Crim Tartary (also Krim Tartary ) and Kuban Tartary ). The name "Little Tartary" distinguished

20124-408: The initial clashes with the crusaders, winning respect from both military and populace. He was accordingly well-placed to move against the increasingly isolated Alexios IV, whom he overthrew, imprisoned, and had strangled in early February. Doukas then was crowned as Emperor Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos. He immediately moved to have the city fortifications strengthened and summoned additional forces to

20296-560: The invasion. After returning from captivity in Constantinople , he accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Ottoman sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects. The khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary . The khans continued to mint coins and use their names in Friday prayers, two important signs of sovereignty. They did not pay tribute to

20468-503: The island to Guy of Lusignan , the former king of Jerusalem, who lost the crown to a former Eastern Roman ally, Conrad of Montferrat . Saladin died on 4 March 1193, before the expiration of the truces, and his empire was contested and divided between three of his sons and two of his brothers. The new ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Henry II of Champagne , signed an extension of the truce with Egyptian Sultan al-Aziz Uthman . In 1197,

20640-415: The khan received a fixed share (savğa) of 10% or 20%. These campaigns by Crimean forces were either sefers ("sojourns"), officially declared military operations led by the khans themselves, or çapuls ("despoiling"), raids undertaken by groups of noblemen, sometimes illegally because they contravened treaties concluded by the khans with neighbouring rulers. For a long time, until the early 18th century,

20812-532: The khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, exporting about 2 million slaves from Russia and Poland–Lithuania over the period 1500–1700, mainly into Ottoman Empire, Caffa , an Ottoman city on Crimean peninsula (and thus not part of the Khanate), was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets. In 1769, a last major Tatar raid resulted in

20984-614: The khanate. Substantial non-Muslim minorities – Greeks , Armenians , Crimean Goths , Adyghe (Circassians), Venetians , Genoese , Crimean Karaites and Qırımçaq Jews – lived principally in the cities, mostly in separate districts or suburbs. Under the millet system, they had their own religious and judicial institutions. They were subject to extra taxes in exchange for exemption from military service, living like Crimean Tatars and speaking dialects of Crimean Tatar. Mikhail Kizilov writes: "According to Marcin Broniewski (1578),

21156-422: The last surviving rump state of the Byzantine Empire , helped the Venetians. However, Leonardo III Tocco , the ruler of Epirus at the time, wasn't a party in the peace treaty negotiations, or included in its terms. Although he had supported Venice during the war and provided accommodation to its refugees, he caused offence to Venice by seeking friendship and support with its rival, the royal house of Naples , since

21328-535: The later period, Mansuroğlu and Sicavut. After the collapse of the Astrakhan Khanate in 1556, an important element of the Crimean Khanate were the Nogays , most of whom transferred their allegiance from Astrakhan to Crimea. Circassians (Atteghei) and Cossacks also occasionally played roles in Crimean politics, alternating their allegiance between the khan and the beys. The Nogay pastoral nomads north of

21500-611: The latter claimed sovereignty in the Ionian islands . As such, the Despotate of Epirus was left undefended against the Ottomans, who conquered it in the summer of 1479, in order to create a base for the planned Ottoman invasion of Italy . Fourth Crusade Holy Land: In the Holy Land (1095–1291) Later Crusades (1291–1717) Northern (1147–1410) Against Christians (1209–1588) Popular (1096–1320) The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204)

21672-622: The latter to be directly annexed four years later. The Ottoman advance thus inevitably posed a threat to Venice's holdings in southern Greece, and, following the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia in 1463, in the Adriatic coast as well. According to the Greek historian Michael Critobulus , hostilities broke out because of the flight of an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens to the Venetian fortress of Coron ( Koroni ) with 100,000 silver aspers from his master's treasure. The fugitive then converted to Christianity, and demands for his rendition by

21844-585: The longstanding Franco-Ottoman alliance . The Crimean Khans, considering their state as the heir and legal successor of the Golden Horde and Desht-i Kipchak , called themselves khans of "the Great Horde, the Great State and the Throne of the Crimea". The full title of the Crimean khans, used in official documents and correspondence with foreign rulers, varying slightly from document to document during

22016-414: The main Crusader army reached Constantinople, while other contingents (perhaps a majority of all crusaders) continued to Acre . In August 1203, following the siege of Constantinople , Alexios was crowned co-emperor. However, in January 1204 he was deposed by a popular uprising, depriving the Crusaders of their promised bounty payments. Following the murder of Alexios on 8 February, the Crusaders decided on

22188-580: The main khan's estates were the lands of the Kalga who was next in the line of succession of the khan's family. He usually administered the eastern portion of the peninsula. The Kalga was also Chief Commander of the Crimean Army in the absence of the Khan. The next administrative position, called Nureddin, was also assigned to the khan's family. He administered the western region of the peninsula. There also

22360-604: The mouth of the Dnieper, and then invaded the Crimea, devastated Chersonesos and seized valuable church objects there. There is a similar legend about his successor Vytautas , who in 1397 went on a Crimean campaign to Caffa and again destroyed Chersonesos. Vytautas is also known in Crimean history for giving refuge in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to a significant number of Tatars and Karaites, whose descendants now live in Lithuania and Belarus . In 1399 Vytautas, who came to

22532-556: The move as necessary to prevent the crusade's complete failure, the Pope was alarmed at this development and wrote a letter to the crusading leadership threatening excommunication . In 1202, Pope Innocent III, despite wanting to secure papal authority over the Roman Orthodox Church , forbade the crusaders of Western Christendom from committing any atrocious acts against their Christian neighbours. However, this letter, delivered by Peter of Lucedio , may not have reached

22704-493: The northern highlands from the Venetian holdings in the south. However, following the Sultan's withdrawal Skanderbeg himself spent the winter in Italy, seeking aid. On his return in early 1467, his forces sallied from the highlands, defeated Ballaban Pasha and lifted the siege of the fortress of Croia ( Krujë ), attacked Elbasan but failed to capture it. Mehmed II responded by marching again against Albania. He energetically pursued

22876-418: The northwest and used it as a base to attack the rest of the city. While attempting to defend themselves with a wall of fire, however, they burned even more of the city. This second fire left 15,000 people homeless. The crusaders completely took the city on 13 April. The crusaders sacked Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient and medieval Greco-Roman works of art were stolen or ruined. Many of

23048-427: The outright conquest of the city. In April 1204, they captured and plundered the city's enormous wealth. Only a handful of the Crusaders continued to the Holy Land thereafter. Several prominent Crusaders, including Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy , Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and Guy of Vaux-de-Cernay , among others, disagreed with the attacks on Zara and Constantinople, refused to take part in them and left

23220-496: The papal letter was suppressed by the clergy, and the crusaders prepared for their own attack, while the Venetians attacked from the sea. Alexios V's army stayed in the city to fight, but when the unpaid Varangians left the city, Alexios V himself fled during the night. An attempt was made to find a further replacement emperor from amongst the Byzantine Greek nobility, but the situation had now become too chaotic for either of

23392-521: The part of the Venetians to build numerous ships and train the sailors who would man them, all the while curtailing the city's commercial activities. The crusading army was expected to consist of 4,500 knights (as well as 4,500 horses), 9,000 squires, and 20,000 foot-soldiers. The majority of the crusading army that set out from Venice in early October 1202 originated from areas within France. It included men from Blois , Champagne , Amiens , Saint-Pol ,

23564-485: The peace was interrupted by the arrival of the German Crusade of 1197. Without the permission of Henry, the Germans attacked the territory of al-Adil I of Damascus , who responded by attacking Jaffa. The sudden death of Henry prevented the relief of the port and the city was taken by force. The Germans did, however, succeed in capturing Beirut in the north. Henry was succeeded by Aimery of Cyprus , who signed

23736-489: The preaching of Fulk of Neuilly , a crusading army was finally organised at a tournament held at Écry-sur-Aisne by Count Thibaut of Champagne in 1199. Thibaut was elected leader, but he died in 1201 and was replaced by Boniface of Montferrat . Boniface was the brother of Conrad of Montferrat and succeeded Conrad as marquis of Montferrat after he had died at Tyre. Boniface and the other leaders sent envoys to Venice , Genoa , and other city-states in 1200 to negotiate

23908-464: The puzzled crusaders, who had been led to believe that they would rise up to welcome the young pretender Alexios as a liberator. On 11 July, the Crusaders took positions opposite the Palace of Blachernae on the northwest corner of the city. Their first attacks were repulsed, but on 17 July, with four divisions attacking the land walls while the Venetian fleet attacked the sea walls from the Golden Horn,

24080-498: The relative weakness of the Ottoman garrisons following the withdrawal of Ömer Bey from the peninsula. In the Aegean, the new Venetian admiral, Orsato Giustinian , tried to take Lesbos in the spring of 1464, and besieged the capital Mytilene for six weeks, until the arrival of an Ottoman fleet under Mahmud Pasha on 18 May forced him to withdraw. Another attempt to capture the island shortly after also failed, and Giustinian died at Modon on 11 July. His successor, Jacopo Loredan , spent

24252-690: The remainder of the year in ultimately fruitless demonstrations of force before the Dardanelles. In early 1465, Mehmed II sent peace feelers to the Venetian Senate. Distrusting the Sultan's motives, these were rejected. Soon after, the Venetians were embroiled in a conflict with the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes , who had attacked a Venetian convoy carrying Moorish merchants from the Mamluk Sultanate . This event enraged

24424-505: The road and all but Renard were killed or captured. Renard remained in captivity for thirty years. Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate , self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak , and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary , was a Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441–1783, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded

24596-412: The sack: The Latin soldiery subjected the greatest city in Europe to an indescribable sack. For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable. Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, an emporium of such incredible wealth that the Latins were astounded at the riches they found. Though

24768-407: The same time, Pius II began assembling an army at Ancona , hoping to lead it in person. In early August, the Venetians retook Argos and refortified the Isthmus of Corinth , restoring the Hexamilion wall and equipping it with many cannons. They then proceeded to besiege the fortress of the Acrocorinth , which controlled the northwestern Peloponnese. The Venetians engaged in repeated clashes with

24940-409: The siege at the approach of a relief force under Ömer Bey. Small-scale warfare continued on both sides, with raids and counter-raids, but a shortage of manpower and money meant that the Venetians remained largely confined to their fortified bases, while Ömer Bey's army roamed the countryside. The mercenaries and stratioti in Venice's employ were becoming disgruntled at the lack of pay, while increasingly,

25112-413: The silver iconostasis, the icons and the holy books of Hagia Sophia , and seated upon the patriarchal throne a whore who sang coarse songs as they drank wine from the Church's holy vessels. The estrangement of East and West, which had proceeded over the centuries, culminated in the horrible massacre that accompanied the conquest of Constantinople. The Greeks were convinced that even the Turks, had they taken

25284-477: The sobriquet, That Alğan (seizer of the throne). The following year, however, the Crimean Khanate lost access to the Volga once and for all due to its catastrophic defeat in the Battle of Molodi . Don Cossacks reached lower Don, Donets and Azov by the 1580s and thus became the north-eastern neighbours of the khanate. They attracted peasants, serfs and gentry fleeing internal conflicts, over-population and intensifying exploitation. Just as Zaporozhians protected

25456-467: The southern borders of the Commonwealth, Don Cossacks protected Muscovy and themselves attacked the khanate and Ottoman fortresses. Under the influence of the Crimean Tatars and of the Ottoman Empire , large numbers of Circassians converted to Islam . Circassian mercenaries and recruits played an important role in the khan's armies, khans often married Circassian women and it was a custom for young Crimean princes to spend time in Circassia training in

25628-408: The steppe and foothills of the Peninsula: Kipchaks (Cumans), Crimean Greeks , Crimean Goths , Alans , and Armenians , who lived mainly in cities and mountain villages. The Crimean nobility was mostly of both Kipchak and Horden origin. Horde rule for the peoples who inhabited the Crimean Peninsula was, in general, painful. The rulers of the Golden Horde repeatedly organized punitive campaigns in

25800-400: The suburb of Galata. The Crusader knights charged straight out of the horse transports, and the Byzantine army fled south. The Crusaders followed and attacked the Tower of Galata , which held the northern end of the massive chain that blocked access to the Golden Horn . The Tower of Galata held a garrison of mercenary troops of English, Danish, and Italian origin. On 6 July the largest ship in

25972-406: The suddenness of the danger posed by the Fourth Crusade put the defenders at a serious disadvantage. The main objective of the crusaders was to place Alexios IV on the Byzantine throne so that they could receive the rich payments he had promised them. Conon of Bethune delivered this ultimatum to the Lombard envoy sent by the Emperor Alexios III Angelos , who was the pretender's uncle and had seized

26144-432: The summer of 1202 intending to go directly to the Holy Land from ports in southern Italy. Among them were Vilain of Nully , Henry of Arzillières , Renard II of Dampierre , Henry of Longchamp and Giles of Trasignies with their retinues. They do not seem to have been acting in concert or travelling together. Ultimately, several hundred knights and accompanying infantry reached the Holy Land via south Italian ports. The force

26316-428: The thousands of deaths had left the region depleted of soldiers, resources, people, and money which left the region vulnerable to attack. Additionally, the empire had badly shrunk as it lost control of most of the Balkans, Anatolia, and Aegean islands. This made the empire, once eventually restored, both territorially diminished and vulnerable to invasions from the expanding Ottomans in the following centuries, to which

26488-786: The three centuries of the Khanate's existence, was as follows: "By the Grace and help of the blessed and highest Lord, the great padishah of the Great Horde, and the Great State, and the Throne of the Crimea, and all the Nogai, and the mountain Circassians, and the tats and tavgachs, and The Kipchak steppe and all the Tatars" ( Crimean Tatar : Tañrı Tebareke ve Ta'alânıñ rahimi ve inayeti milen Uluğ Orda ve Uluğ Yurtnıñ ve taht-ı Qırım ve barça Noğaynıñ ve tağ ara Çerkaçnıñ ve Tat imilen Tavğaçnıñ ve Deşt-i Qıpçaqnıñ ve barça Tatarnıñ uluğ padişahı , تنكرى تبرك و تعالينيڭ رحمى و عنايتى ميلان اولوغ اوردا و اولوغ يورتنيڭ و تخت قريم و بارچا نوغاينيڭ و طاغ ارا چركاچنيڭ و تاد يميلان طوگاچنيڭ و دشت قپچاقنيڭ و بارچا تاتارنيڭ يولوغ پادشاهى ). According to Oleksa Hayvoronsky,

26660-442: The throne from the pretender's father Isaac II. The citizens of Constantinople were not concerned with the cause of the deposed emperor and his exiled son; hereditary right of succession had never been adopted by the empire and a palace coup between brothers was not considered illegitimate in the way it would have been in the West. First the crusaders attacked and were repulsed from the cities of Chalcedon and Chrysopolis , suburbs of

26832-544: The time Evliya Çelebi had arrived almost all the towns he visited were affected by the Cossack raids. In fact, the only place Evliya Çelebi considered safe from the Cossacks was the Ottoman fortress at Arabat . The decline of the Crimean Khanate was a consequence of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire and a change in Eastern Europe's balance of power favouring its neighbours. Crimean Tatars often returned from Ottoman campaigns without loot, and Ottoman subsidies were less likely for unsuccessful campaigns. Without sufficient guns,

27004-537: The trade with the Ottomans, had in the past been reluctant to confront them in war, the urgings of the papal legate, Cardinal Bessarion , and an impassioned speech by the distinguished Council member Vettore Cappello , tipped the balance, and on 28 July, the Senate narrowly voted for declaring war on the Porte . Pope Pius II used this opportunity to form yet another Crusade against the Ottomans: on 12 September 1463, Venice and Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus signed an alliance, followed on 19 October by an alliance with

27176-569: The treasury dwindle and outsourced the navy to the Venetians. His actions in wastefully distributing military weapons and supplies as gifts to his supporters had undermined the empire's defenses. The new emperor was to prove no better. Anxious to shore up his position, Alexios bankrupted the treasury. His attempts to secure the support of semi-autonomous border commanders undermined central authority. He neglected his crucial responsibilities for defence and diplomacy. The emperor's chief admiral (his wife's brother-in-law), Michael Stryphnos , reportedly sold

27348-555: The troops and giving the church to the Holy See. Count Boniface agreed and Alexios IV returned with the Marquess to rejoin the fleet at Corfu after it had sailed from Zara. Most of the rest of the crusade's leaders, encouraged by bribes from Dandolo, eventually accepted the plan as well. However, there were dissenters. Led by Renaud of Montmirail , those who refused to take part in the scheme to attack Constantinople sailed on to Syria. The remaining fleet of 60 war galleys , 100 horse transports , and 50 large transports (the entire fleet

27520-409: The two candidates who came forward to find sufficient support. On 12 April 1204, the weather conditions finally favoured the crusaders. A strong northern wind aided the Venetian ships in coming close to the walls, and after a short battle approximately seventy crusaders managed to enter the city. Some were able to knock holes in the walls, large enough for only a few knights at a time to crawl through;

27692-414: The upper Tor River (a tributary of the Donets ). The first known Turkic peoples appeared in Crimea in the 6th century, during the conquest of the Crimea by The Turkic Kaganate . In the 11th century, Cumans (Kipchaks) appeared in Crimea; they later became the ruling and state-forming people of the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate. In the middle of the 13th century, the northern steppe lands of

27864-447: Was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III . The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim -controlled city of Jerusalem , by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate . However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople , rather than the conquest of Egypt as originally planned. This led to

28036-476: Was designed to reassure and encourage the Crusaders. Their argument that the attack on Constantinople was spiritual revolved around two themes. First, the Greeks were traitors and murderers since they had killed their rightful lord, Alexios IV. The churchmen used inflammatory language and claimed that "the Greeks were worse than the Jews", and they invoked the authority of God and the pope to take action. Although Innocent III had again demanded that they not attack,

28208-488: Was launched in response to the fall of Jerusalem, with the goal of recovering the city. It successfully reclaimed an extensive territory, effectively reestablishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Although Jerusalem itself was not recovered, the important coastal towns of Acre and Jaffa were. On 2 September 1192, the Treaty of Jaffa was signed with Saladin, bringing the crusade to an end. The truce would last for three years and eight months. The crusade had also been marked by

28380-421: Was manned by 10,000 Venetian oarsmen and marines) sailed in late April 1203. In addition, 300 siege engines were brought along on board the fleet. Hearing of their decision, the Pope hedged and issued an order against any more attacks on Christians unless they were actively hindering the Crusader cause, but he did not condemn the scheme outright. When the Fourth Crusade arrived at Constantinople on 23 June 1203,

28552-412: Was not feudal . They were free and the Islamic law protected them from losing their rights. Apportioned by village, the land was worked in common and taxes were assigned to the whole village. The tax was one tenth of an agricultural product, one twentieth of a herd animal, and a variable amount of unpaid labor. During the reforms by the last khan Şahin Giray , the internal structure was changed following

28724-496: Was one of the finest sources of water in Bakhchisaray . One of the notable constructors of Crimean art and architecture was Qırım Giray , who in 1764 commissioned the fountain master Omer the Persian to construct the Bakhchisaray Fountain. The Bakhchisaray Fountain or Fountain of Tears is a real case of life imitating art. The fountain is known as the embodiment of love of one of the last Crimean Khans, Khan Qırım Giray for his young wife, and his grief after her early death. The Khan

28896-443: Was said to have fallen in love with a Polish girl in his harem . Despite his battle-hardened harshness, he was grievous and wept when she died, astonishing all those who knew him. He commissioned a marble fountain to be made, so that the rock would weep, like him, forever. The nine regions outside of Qirim yurt (the peninsula) were: The peninsula itself was divided by the khan's family and several beys . An estate controlled by

29068-436: Was short on funds, reached the leaders of the Crusade on 1 January 1203 as they wintered at Zara. Doge Dandolo was a fierce supporter of the plan; however, in his earlier capacity as an ambassador to the Byzantine Empire and someone who knew the finer details of how the empire's politics worked, it is likely he knew the promises were false and there was no hope of any Byzantine emperor raising the money promised, let alone raising

29240-425: Was so small that King Aimery of Jerusalem refused to break his truce with the Ayyubids to allow them to go to war, despite the pleas of Renard, who was fulfilling the crusading vow of the late Count Theobald III of Champagne and possessed ample funds. As a result, eighty crusaders under Renard decided to go to the Principality of Antioch , which had no such truce. Advised against such a move, they were ambushed on

29412-412: Was the Republic of Venice, which had founded an extensive maritime empire, controlling numerous coastal possessions and islands in the Adriatic , Ionian , and Aegean Seas . In its first conflict with the Ottomans, Venice had already lost the city of Thessalonica in 1430, following a long siege , but the resulting peace treaty left the other Venetian possessions intact. In 1453, the Ottomans captured

29584-401: Was to be ready to sail on 24 June 1203 and make directly for the Ayyubid capital, Cairo . This agreement was ratified by Pope Innocent, with a solemn ban on attacks on Christian states. There was no binding agreement among the crusaders that all should sail from Venice. Accordingly, many chose to sail from other ports, particularly Flanders , Marseille , and Genoa . By May 1202, the bulk of

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