[1339-1403.] Bayazid I., the eldest eon of Murad I., was the first chief of the Osmaulis who assumed the title of Sultan. Hie first act was an order by which his youngest brother Yakub was put to death.
Already known as a general, and surnamed from the rapidity of his manoeuvres and the impetuosity of his charges Ilderim (lightning), Bayazid successfully pursued the career of conquests opened by his ancestors. He laid siege to Constantinople, the first siege of this city by the Turks, in 1391; but n fleet with a body of French kuights, commanded by Boucicault, reached Constantinople, and saved the capital. The siege however was changed into a blockade, which lasted for seven years. In Asia Minor, Bayazid conquered Karamanin and several of the Seljukian principalities. Meanwhile Sigiamund, king of Hungary, levied a strong army, with the view of driving tho Turks back to Asia, and he was reinforced by a body of French troops, com manded by John of Burgundy, count of Nevers, aud the flower of the French chivalry. But this powerful host was annihilated by Bayazid in the battle of Nikipoli in 1396, in which however 60,000 Turks were slain. King Sigismund was pursued by the victorious Turks, and Bayazid, leaving the prosecution of the Ilungarian war to his generals, turned his arms against °recce, which he overran in one campaign in 1397. Ho was preparing an invasion of Hungary, when he was compelled to defend Asia against Timur, or Tamerlane, by whom he was defeated and taken prisoner iu the battle of Angora iu 1402. Bayazid died the following year in the Tartar camp at Ak Shehr, in Pisidia.
[1403-1413.) After the battle of Angora, Timur reinstated the Seljukian princes of Karamania, AIdin, Menteshe, Tekke, and Kermian, who eoon after Timur'a death, in 1405, begau to quarrel with one another. The succession to the throne of Osman also was disputed among three of his eons, Soliman, Isa, and Mohammed.
from tho moment of the death of his father, was independent iu Europo; and In and Mohammed found adherents enough to defeat the Seljukian princes, and to recover each a part of the vast dominions of their father. Thus Isa became independeut at Brusa, and Moham med at AL110.4ia. Thrice defeated by his brother Mohammed, Isa fled to Karamania, and was heard of no more. Another son of Bayszid, Musa, who until then had not aimed at independence, was appointed by Mohammed to attack Soliman, who was acknowledged by the Byzantine court ns the only legitimate sultan. Musa crossed the Dardanelles in 1406, and surprised Solimau in 1410. Soliman, for saken by his officers, fled to Constantinople, but was killed on his way in the village of Dugunji, and Musa became master of the Turks in Europe. War now broke out between Musa and Mohammed, who, having allied himself with Stephen, the vassal king of Servia, crossed the Dardanelles. On the plain of Chtimurli, near the sources of the KIM-Su, towards the southern frontiers of Sorvia, Musa, forsaken by his best troops and generals, was entirely defeated in 1413. In conse
quence of this victory, Mohammed became sole sultan.
[1413-1421.] Mohammed I., gifted by nature with beauty, strength, courage, and talents, commenced his reign by ordering the murder of his nephew, the sou of his late brother Soliman. From the field of Clutinurli he hastened to Asia, and in two years expelled the Seljukian princes from their possessions. The Venetian admiral Loredauo destroyed a Turkish fleet off Gallipoli in 1416; but peace was aeon concluded, and a Turkish ambassador appeared at Venice. Iu 1418 a Turkish army, which had made an expedition into Germany, was destroyed at Itadkersburg, in Syria, by the Austrians under the arch duke Ernest. In 1421 the Sultan paid a visit to the emperor Manuel in Constantinople, where ho was received with extraordinary splen dour. He died in the same year, and left the empire to his sou, Murad IL [1421-1451.] Miirad IL, the third son of Mohammed I., was a youth of eighteen when he ascended the throne. Immediately after the death of Mohammed ho was called upon to defend his throne against Mustapha, supposed to be a non of Bayazid, who had disappeared after the battle of Angora. Illtimd defeated and killed his rival with the assistance of Adorno, doge of Venice, and commander of the Venetian fleet then assembled in the Sea of Marmara. In 1442 Murad was involved in a war with Ladislaus, king of Hungary, whose general, John Hunyad, defeated the Turks at Nissa in the following year, and penetrated as far as Philippopoli, whence, laden with booty, he led hie army back to Hungary. A peace with Hungary having been sworn with solemn oaths, the Sultan wan persuaded that there was no danger on the side of Ilungsry; and the state of Asia being satisfactory, Mitred, who was a lover of peace and of philosophical studies, retired into Asia, renouncing the throne in favour of his eon Mohammed, then a child. Ten weeks after the treaty had been sworn, the Huugarian army re-entered Turkey. Upon this news Mitred left his solitude, and with 40,000 men crossed the Bosporus in 1444. At Varna he met the enemy. The llnug,ariana were entirely defeated; Hunyad saved himself by a hasty flight, but King Ladislaus, Cardinal Julian Cesarini, and several other Christians of high rank, were killed. After this victory 31iirad renounced the throne a second time, but was again obliged to take the reins of government by a mutiny of the Janissaries, which however he soon quelled. The latter years of his reign were as glorious as the beginning. Corinth and Patras were conquered, and Hunyad, having again invaded Turkey, was routed at Kossova in 1443. Miirad was leas fortunate against the famous Seanderbeg, the prince of Epirus, who maintained himself in his principality in spite of all the efforta of the Sultan.