this martial race seized province after province of the Asiatic possessions of the Byzantine emperors. Through the quarrels that were constantly distracting Constantinople, they at last gained a foothold in Europe (1353). During the reign of Amurath I. (1360–1389), a large part of the country known as Turkey in Europe fell into their hands.
Conquests of Bajazet (1389–1403).—Amurath was followed by his son Bajazet who, by the rapid advance of his arms, spread the greatest alarm throughout Western Europe. The warriors of Hungary, Germany, and France united their armies to arrest his progress; but their combined forces, numbering 100,000 men, were cut to pieces by the sabres of the Turks on the fatal field of Nicopolis, in Bulgaria (1396). Bajazet now vowed that he would stable his horse in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, and there seemed no power in Christendom to prevent the sacrilege.
Before proceeding to fulfil his threat, however, Bajazet turned back to capture Constantinople, which he believed in the present despondent state of its inhabitants would make little or no resistance. Now it happened that just at this time Tamerlane was leading the Mongols on their career of conquest. He directed them against the Turks in Asia Minor, and Bajazet was forced to raise the siege of Constantinople, and hasten across the Bosporus, to check the advance in his dominions of these new enemies. The Turks and Mongols met upon the plains of Angora, where the former suffered a disastrous defeat (1402). The battle of Angora checked for a time the conquests of the Ottomans, and saved Constantinople to the Christian world for another period of fifty years.
The Capture of Constantinople (1453).—The Ottomans gradually recovered from the blow they had received at Angora. In the year 1421 they made another attempt upon Constantinople, but were unsuccessful. Finally, in the year 1453, Mohammed II., the Great, sultan of the Ottomans, laid siege to the capital, with an army of over 200,000 men. After a short investment, the place was taken by storm. The Cross, which since the time of
