On his return to Europe, Bajazet conquered what remained of Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly, and stationed a fleet of gallies at Gallipoli to secure his communication between the two continents, and to intercept the Latin succours to Constantinople, which city he was now resolved to reduce. But the capital was saved by the intelligence that an army of 100,000 Christians, led by Sigismund, king of Hungary, and the bravest knights of France and Germany, had taken Widin and besieged Nicopo lis. Bajazet opposed them with 60,000 Turks, when the confederates were almost annihilated, few escaping the Turkish scymitar, and the waters of the Danube. All the prisoners were put to the sword, except the Count of Nevers and four and twenty Lords, who, after a harsh captivity, were released for an exorbitant ransom.
Bajazet returned to the siege of Constantinople, but the fate of this city was once more delayed by the appearance of another conqueror upon the scene the mighty Timour. The oppressed princes, who had been driven from Anatolia, repaired to the court of Samarcand, and solicited the countenance and assistance of its sovereign in recovering their patrimonial dominions. Timour at first hesitated to interrupt Bajazet in his pious occupation of bumbling the Christians, and extending the reli gion of the prophet; but he at length despatched an ambassador to the court of Brusa, who was instruct ed to demand the restoration of the exiled emirs, and to offer the robe of vassalage to its monarch, who was exhorted to testify his submission by sub stituting the name of Timour for his own upon the coinage, and in the public prayers. The haughty Ottoman, who acknowledged no superior, rejected with scorn the degrading compromise, and threw back hh defiance in the most insulting terms that his pride and indignation could dictate. Equally confident in their own resources, each prepared for the decisive struggle; but while Bajazet flew with the speed of lightning to satiate his revenge, Ti mour proceeded with a cautious alacrity, which his opponent compared to the crawling of a snail. The defeat and captivity of Bajazet was achieved on the plains of Angora; but the Ottoman sur vived his disgrace only nine months. (See BAJA LET, Vol. III.) Of the five sons of Bajazet, Mustapha was said to have fallen at Angora; Soliman escaped from the field of battle to Adrianople, and preserved the Ottoman sceptre in Europe; Musa was invested by the conqueror in the circumscribed kingdom of Anatolia, with the ruins of Brusa for his capital; Isa held a small territory in the neighbourhood of Angora, Sinope, and the Euxine; and Mahomet kept the government of Amasia, which had been entrusted to him by his father. Eleven years of civil discord, which period in the Turkish annals is considered an interregnum, were consumed by the sons of Bajazet in mutual endeavours to supplant his brothers. Soliman, having driven Musa from
his throne, united for a time the governments of Adrianople and Brusa; but he, in his turn, was sur prised by Musa in his capital, and, as he fled to wards Constantinople, was overtaken and slain. Musa and Isa both fell before the valour and policy of their younger brother, so that the dominions of Bajazat were reunited under the Ottoman sceptre in the hands of Sultan Mahomet.
The labours of this prince were directed chiefly to consolidate his power, and to preserve the tran quillity of his dominions. He maintained inviolate his friendly engagements with the Greek emperor during the whole of his reign; and his treatment of the Christian ambassadors from Servia, Walla chia, Bulgaria and Greece, showed his anxious de sire to cultivate a good understanding with his neighbours. They were admitted to eat at his own table; and after being entertained with great kind ness • and hospitality, he dismissed them, saying, "Tell your masters that I offer them peace, that I accept of that which they offer me, and I hope that the God of peace will punish those who violate it." His last care was to provide two able counsellors, Bajazet and Ibrahim, to guide the youth of his son Amurath; and he assigned his two younger sons to the guardianship of the emperor Manuel.
Amurath II. was only eighteen years of age when he began to reign; and immediately the peace of the kingdom was disturbed by the pretensions of INIustapha, the eldest son of Bajazet, who was sup posed to have been slain in the battle of Angora. This impostor, for so he is termed by the Turks, had appeared in the former reign supported by the prince of Wallachia; but Mahomet having routed the Wallachians, and compelled them to submit to an annual tribute, Mustapha sought refuge in Con stantinople. Upon the accession of Amurath, his claim was renewed under the sanction and with the support of the Greek emperor, in revenge for the refusal of the sultan to deliver up his two brothers according to their father's will. The Turks under the vizier Bajazet were routed and their leader slain; and Mustapha enjoyed for a time the throne of Adrianople. There, in possession of the inesti mable treasures and harem of Amurath, he aban doned himself to voluptuousness. He was soon, however, roused from his dream of pleasure by the intelligence that Amurath was in the field; and, after a short campaign, Mustapha, deserted by his friends, exchanged a splendid throne for an igno minious gibbet. The Greek emperor raised up another competitor for the Ottomon sceptre in the person of the remaining son of Mahomet, a child only six years old, who had escaped from the hands of Amurath while his brother was murdered, but the gates of Nice, whither he had been conveyed, yielded to the golden key of Amurath, who order ed him to be strangled and his guards slain.