The Ottoman threat and crusading on the eastern border of Christendom during the 15th century

347 Pages·2018·2.343 MB·English

by  Liviu Pilat, Ovidiu Cristea

The Ottoman Threat and Crusading on the Eastern Border of Christendom
during the 15th Century
East Central and Eastern Europe
in the Middle Ages, 450–1450
General Editors
Florin Curta and Dušan Zupka
Volume 48
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ecee
The Ottoman Threat and
Crusading on the
Eastern Border of Christendom
during the 15th Century
By
Liviu Pilat
Ovidiu Cristea
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: The Christian realms marching toward the Holy Cross (detail). Fresco from the Saint
Pierre le Jeune Church, Strasbourg. ©photo: Ralph Hammann.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017032923
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1872-8103
isbn 978-90-04-27885-1 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-35380-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Maps and Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
The Sources 2
Ottoman Threat and Crusading 7
Frontier Societies and the Eastern Border of Christendom 14
Crusading, Information and Propaganda 22
1 Crusade and Commercial Hegemony in the Black Sea
from the Fourth Crusade to the Ottoman Conquest 27
The Fourth Crusade and its Consequences in the Black Sea Area 28
The Genoese Hegemony in the Black Sea, the Venetian Reaction
and the Crusade 32
The Hungarian—Venetian Rivalry and the Ottoman Threat 43
From the “War of Tenedos” to the Crusade of Nicopolis 49
Kilia as an Outpost in Hungary’s Crusading Projects 58
2 The Eastern Border and the Struggle for Supremacy in the Northern
Black Sea 64
Ottoman Threat, Christian Solidarity and Political Rivalry 71
The Eastern Border in Sigismund of Luxembourg’s Plans 79
Ottoman Threat and Crusading in Jagiello’s Policy 85
Witold’s Ambition to Control North-Western Black Sea 92
A Failed Anti-Ottoman Campaign 95
The Eastern Border and the Teutonic Knights 97
Schismatics, Heretics and Crusaders 102
3 The Union of Florence, Crusade and Ottoman Hegemony in the
Black Sea 108
The Fail of the Union in Eastern Europe 112
Crusade Plans and Political Contradictions 115
John Hunyadi, Kilia and the Fall of Constantinople 117
The Eastern Border of Christendom, Mehmed II and the Byzantine
Legacy 123
Crusading versus Economic Interests 127
vi CONTENTS
4 Crusade and Political Propaganda in the Last Years of Mehmed II 135
The Crusade of Pope Sixtus IV 135
A Schismatic Crusader 143
Diplomatic Actions of Venice 147
A Great Christian Victory 149
Matthias Corvinus Propaganda 152
A Plan of the Annihilation of Mehmed II and the Fall of Caffa 157
Moldavia the “Gateway of Christendom” 161
The Campaign of Mehmed II in Moldavia 167
One Battle, More Victories 174
A New Crusade Plan: Reconquest of Caffa 179
The Crusade of Otranto and its Eastern Implications 186
5 The Eastern Border of Christendom and the Ottoman Conquest of
Black Sea 191
The Ottoman Campaign of 1484 and Venetian Intelligence 192
Ottoman Threat Ascending 218
Ottoman Pressure and Crusading in Poland 223
A Failed Crusade Expedition 231
The Eastern Border and the Congress of Rome 237
Coalition against Jagiellons 238
6 The Crusade against Ottomans and the Political Backdrop in
East-Central Europe at the End of the Fifteenth Century 242
The “Crusade” of Jan Olbracht 243
Crusade Rhetoric and Political Propaganda 251
Crusade Rumours in Venice and Ottoman Propaganda 256
New Plans of Crusade 265
Between Crusade and the Defence of the Greek-Orthodox Faith 271
Discussions on Crusade in Muscovy 277
The Peace 281
Conclusion 286
Bibliography 297
Index 328
Acknowledgements
This book is the result of a joint project within the framework of the research
grant The Romanian Principalities as “Frontier Societies” and the Later Crusades
(2011–2016) funded by the Romanian Ministry of Higher Education. The grant
offered us the opportunity to continue our previous research concerning the
later crusades, the history of the Black Sea, the Venetian presence in Eastern
Mediterranean, and the Eastern border of Christianity in the fifteenth century.
The aim was to publish several articles on these topics but, as our work pro-
gressed, it became evident that their conclusions should be developed and
integrated into a wider perspective, hence the publication of this book. Our
purpose was to analyse the crusade and the Ottoman threat surpassing the
general histories of the crusade in the fifteenth century and the traditional
approach of the national historiographic schools. We were confronted with
various difficult tasks such as the impressive bibliography written in various
languages and the large amount of documents concerning the later crusades.
Moreover, scholarship has addressed and interpreted issues of late crusad-
ing history in a contradictory manner, leaving many questions unanswered.
Nonetheless, this study benefited enormously from the exceptional work of
Hungarian, Polish and Romanian scholars (the order is an alphabetic one).
We are also indebted to various institutions, professors, colleagues, and
friends who offered us valuable support and suggestions during our work.
Drafts of almost all chapters were previously presented over the last five years
in various symposia, most of them organized by the “Stephen the Great” cen-
tre of research of Putna Monastery, created and developed by Professor Ștefan
S. Gorovei. Research in the archives and libraries was made possible by the
generous support of the Jagiellonian University (Krakow), the “New Europe
College” (Bucharest) and of the Istituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica
in Venice. We are enormously grateful to Professor Șerban Papacostea who en-
couraged us to continue the research and generously offered helpful sugges-
tions on various topics.
Last but not least, we mention all those who were directly involved in the
elaboration of the book. We have to pay a pious homage to Samuel Willcocks
who started the translation of the Romanian text. We are grateful to Mária
Pakucs-Willcocks who revised the book and to Gregory Leighton who made
the final revision. We also send our gratitude to the blind reviewer for his ex-
pertise, thoughtful comments and helpful suggestions. Special thanks are due
to Ioan-Augustin Guriță who read a first draft of the book and offered friendly
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
support in the elaboration of the maps included in this volume. Our special
gratitude goes to Professor Florin Curta (the editor of the series), who sup-
ported from the very beginning our project, and to Marcella Mulder (assistant
editor at Brill).
Iași & Bucharest
May 2017
List of Maps and Illustrations
Maps
1 Europe during the 15th century 25
2 The Black Sea area in the 15th century 25
3 The Ottoman Campaign in Moldavia of 1476 and Stephen the Great’s
plan 26
Illustrations
1 Kilia 20
2 Akkerman 21
3 Akkerman overview 22
4 The Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God (detail). Fresco from Moldovița
Monastery 61