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131-422: The office, jurisdiction or territory of a count palatine was a county palatine or palatinate . In England the forms earl palatine and palatine earldom are rare alternative terms. This Latin title is the original, but is also pre-feudal: it originated as Roman comes , which was a non-hereditary court title of high rank meaning "companion" and connoting the status of peer, the specific part palatinus being

262-460: A Roman governor . They included: Exceptionally, a gubernatorial position was styled " comes ". For example, the comes Orientis , actually one of the vicarii , was an official who controlled the large and strategically important Imperial Diocese of the East by supervising the governors of this collection of provinces, but he was in turn supervised by the praefectus praetorio Orientis . Further,

393-481: A " cohors amicorum ". The word comes is the origin of the much later terms for counts within the medieval nobility, and counties as their territorial jurisdictions. Comes was a common epithet or title that was added to the name of a hero or god in order to denote relation with another god. The coinage of Roman Emperor Constantine I declared him " comes " to Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") qua god. Historically more significant, " comes " became

524-472: A " Grossgau ". The essential competences of the comes were comprehensive in his pagus : martial, judicial, and executive; and in documents he is often described as the " agens publicus " ("public agent") of the King or " judex publicus/fiscalis " ("royal judge"). He was at once public prosecutor and judge, and was responsible for the execution of the sentences as well. As the delegate of the executive power, he had

655-550: A British county palatine . King Lothar of France (954–986) gave Herbert III of Omois , one of his most loyal supporters in the struggle against the Robertians, the title of Count palatine. The title was later inherited by his nephews, precursors of the Counts of Champagne . The title of Count of the palace is therefore linked to the title of Count of Champagne until its extiction in 1305. Pfalzgraf (Old High German phalanzgrāvo )

786-587: A delayed tribute of 10,000 ducats and 500 recruits into the Ottoman forces. Vlad III Dracula refused and had the Ottoman envoys killed by nailing their turbans to their heads, on the pretext that they had refused to raise their "hats" to him, as they only removed their headgear before Allah. Meanwhile, the Sultan sent the Bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha , to make peace and, if necessary, eliminate Vlad III. Vlad III set an ambush;

917-451: A great impact in molding Mehmed's mindset and reinforcing his Muslim beliefs. He was influenced in his practice of Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science, particularly by his mentor, Molla Gürâni , and he followed their approach. The influence of Akshamsaddin in Mehmed's life became predominant from a young age, especially in the imperative of fulfilling his Islamic duty to overthrow

1048-562: A letter to Corvinus dated 2 February, he wrote: I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova , which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers.... Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken

1179-514: A month before the emperor David surrendered on 15 August 1461. The Ottomans since the early 15th century tried to bring Wallachia ( Ottoman Turkish : والاچیا ) under their control by putting their own candidate on the throne, but each attempt ended in failure. The Ottomans regarded Wallachia as a buffer zone between them and the Kingdom of Hungary and for a yearly tribute did not meddle in their internal affairs. The two primary Balkan powers, Hungary and

1310-502: A month later, on the 16th of November, the Ottomans avenged their earlier defeat at Kruševac by defeating Skobaljić's army near Tripolje, where the Serbian voivode was captured and executed via impalement. Following this a temporary treaty was signed with the Serbian despot, where Đurađ would formally recognize the recently captured Serbian forts as Ottoman land, send thirty thousand florins to

1441-453: A morale boost amongst the Ottoman troops, which allowed them to go on the offensive again and push the Christian forces out of the Ottoman camp. The actions of the Sultan had prevented a complete rout of the Ottoman army, however, the army had been far too weakened to attempt to take the city again, causing the Ottoman war council to decide on ending the siege. The Sultan and his army began

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1572-621: A pretext in November 1462, the Ottoman commander in central Greece, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey , attacked and nearly succeeded in taking the strategically important Venetian fortress of Lepanto ( Nafpaktos ). On 3 April 1463, however, the governor of the Morea, Isa Beg, took the Venetian-held town of Argos by treason. The new alliance launched a two-pronged offensive against the Ottomans: a Venetian army, under

1703-449: A retreat to Edirne during the night, without the Christian forces being able to pursue them. Hunyadi died shortly after the siege, meanwhile Đurađ Branković regained possession of some parts of Serbia. Shortly before the end of the year 1456, roughly 5 months after the Siege of Belgrade , the 79-year-old Branković died. Serbian independence survived after him for only around three years, when

1834-629: A secular title granted to trusted officials of the Imperial Curia ("Court"), present or former, and others as sign of Imperial confidence. It developed into a formal, dignitary title, derived from the " Companions " of Alexander the Great and rather equivalent to the Hellenistic title of " philos basilikos " or the paladin title of a knight of the Holy Roman Empire and a Papal Palatinus . Thus

1965-503: 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. In the Aegean , the Venetians 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 them to withdraw. Another attempt to capture

2096-563: A staunch antagonist of the West, as the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople with all the ceremonial elements, ethnarch (or milletbashi ) status, and rights of property that made him the second largest landlord in the empire after the sultan himself in 1454, and in turn, Gennadius II recognized Mehmed the Conqueror as the successor to the throne. Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen to

2227-525: A war council with his commanders to determine the army's next actions. Karaca Pasha recommended that a part of the army should cross the Danube to counter the approaching relief army. This plan was rejected by the council, particularly due to the opposition by the Rumelian Begs. Instead, the decision was made to prioritize capturing the fortress, a move seen as a tactical blunder by modern historians. This allowed Hunyadi to set up camp with his army across

2358-547: Is curtain-bearer in the palace of Chosroes, The owl sounds the relief in the castle of Afrasiyab. Some Muslim scholars claimed that a hadith in Musnad Ahmad referred specifically to Mehmed's conquest of Constantinople, seeing it as the fulfillment of a prophecy and a sign of the approaching apocalypse. After the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of caesar of the Roman Empire ( Qayser-i Rûm ), based on

2489-447: Is part of the rendering, not always exclusive, of derived inferior titles containing such words, notably " vicecomes " for "viscount" and " burgicomes " and " burgravio " for "burgrave". Mehmet II Mehmed II ( Ottoman Turkish : محمد ثانى , romanized :  Meḥmed-i s̱ānī ; Turkish : II. Mehmed , pronounced [icinˈdʒi ˈmehmet] ; 30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed

2620-697: Is the German equivalent of the title, Graf being the German term for "count" or " earl ", and Pfalz being the German reflex of Latin palatium . The German title has also been rendered as palsgrave in English (recorded 1548). Counts Palatine were the permanent representatives of the Frankish king, later of the Holy Roman Emperor , in a palatial domain of the crown. There were dozens of these royal Pfalzen throughout

2751-544: The Western Empire : comes Italiae , comes Africae , comes Tingitaniae , comes Tractus Argentoratensis , comes Britanniarum and comes Litoris Saxonici ; as well as two in the Eastern Empire: comes (limitis) Aegypti and comes Isauriae . As the number of comites increased, that dignity became devalued. This resulted in the introduction of classes of comites , denominated and ranked

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2882-597: The Dănești clan, to the throne. Vlad III Dracula fled to Moldavia, where he lived under the protection of his uncle, Bogdan II . In October 1451, Bogdan was assassinated and Vlad fled to Hungary. Impressed by Vlad's vast knowledge of the mindset and inner workings of the Ottoman Empire, as well as his hatred towards the Turks and new Sultan Mehmed II, Hunyadi reconciled with his former enemy and tried to make Vlad III his own advisor, but Vlad refused. In 1456, three years after

3013-560: The Ezzonian dynasty were important commanders of the imperial army and were often employed during internal and external conflicts (e.g. to suppress rebelling counts or dukes, to settle frontier disputes with the Hungarian and the French kingdom and to lead imperial campaigns). Although a palatinate could belong for decades to one dynasty, the office of the palatine counts became hereditary only during

3144-675: The Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain and defended by twenty-eight warships . On 22 April, Mehmed transported his lighter warships overland, around the Genoese colony of Galata , and into the Golden Horn's northern shore; eighty galleys were transported from the Bosphorus after paving a route, little over one mile, with wood. Thus, the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of

3275-553: 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 the defenders and with Ömer Bey's forces, until they suffered a major defeat on 20 October and were then forced to lift the siege and retreat to

3406-454: The Ottoman state . His father was Sultan Murad II (1404–1451) and his mother Hüma Hatun , a slave of uncertain origin. When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya with his two lalas (advisors) to govern and thus gain experience, per the custom of Ottoman rulers before his time. Sultan Murad II also sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had

3537-462: The Ottoman sultan also claimed the right to bestow the office. Thus Giovanni Bellini was named Comes palatinus by Emperor Frederick III in 1469 and later again in 1481 by Sultan Mehmet II . Grand Čelnik (велики челник). The Grand Čelnik was the highest court title of the Serbian Despotate , and the title-holders held great provinces, property, and honours, and Radič (fl. 1413–1441)

3668-449: The Porte as yearly tribute and provide troops for Ottoman campaigns. The 1454 campaign had resulted in the capture of fifty thousand prisoners from Serbia, four thousand of whom were settled in various villages near Constantinople . The following year, Mehmed received reports from one of his frontier commanders about Serbian weakness against a possible invasion, the reports in combination with

3799-674: The Roman Emperors instituted a casual practice of appointing faithful servants to offices. This had been done elsewhere, e. g. regarding the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard and the amici principis . As Imperial administration expanded, however, new offices became necessary and decentralization demanded modifications. The result was the institution of the rank of " comes ". The " comites ", often translated as "counts", though they were neither feudal nor hereditary, became principal officials of

3930-571: 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 and was forced to retreat to Patras , the capital of Peloponnese and the seat of the Ottoman bey , which was being besieged by a joint force of Venetians and Greeks . Before Cappello could arrive, and as the city seemed on the verge of falling, Ömer Bey suddenly appeared with 12,000 cavalry and drove

4061-560: The University of Perugia , a count palatinate in 1469, entitled in turn to confer university degrees . Pope Leo X designated all of the secretaries of the papal curia Comites aulae Lateranensis ("Counts of the Lateran court") in 1514 and bestowed upon them the rights similar to an imperial count palatine . In some cases the title was conferred by specially empowered papal legates . If an imperial count palatine possessed both an imperial and

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4192-685: The Visigothic Kingdom , the Officium Palatinum consisted of a number of men with the title of count who managed the various departments of the royal household. The Comes Cubiculariorum oversaw the chamberlains , the Comes Scanciorum directed the cup-bearers, the Comes Stabulorum directed the equerries in charge of the stables, etc. The Ostrogothic Kingdom also maintained palatine counts with titles such as Comes Patrimonium , who

4323-469: The " graf " became a noble count. In the feudal tradition, Latin was, especially in law, the official language, and therefore the rendering in Latin was equal in importance to the vernacular title. Thus, " comes " has been used as the Latin equivalent, or part of it, of all titles of comital office, whether containing " count " or some other word etymologically derived from " comes " or " graf ". Similarly, it

4454-472: The 11th century, some imperial palatine counts became a valuable political counterweight against the mighty duchies. Surviving old palatine counties were turned into new institutional pillars through which the imperial authority could be exercised. By the reigns of Henry the Fowler and especially of Otto the Great , comites palatini were sent into all parts of the country to support the royal authority by checking

4585-592: The 12th century. During the 11th century the palatinates were still regarded as beneficia , non-hereditary fiefs. The count palatine in Bavaria, an office held by the family of Wittelsbach, became duke of this land, the lower comital title being then merged into the higher ducal one. The Count Palatine of Lotharingia changed his name to Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1085, alone remaining independent until 1777. The office having become hereditary, Pfalzgrafen were in existence until

4716-421: The 13th of June. After the necessary preparations were finished, Ottoman cannons started bombarding the city walls and Ottoman troops started filling the ditches in front of the walls with earth to advance forward. As despair started to set in amongst the defenders, news started arriving of a relief force assembling across the Danube under the command of John Hunyadi. Upon learning of this development, Mehmed held

4847-545: The 18th of April. Mehmed's forces quickly succeeded in capturing Sivricehisar (sometimes identified with the Ostrvica Fortress ) and Omolhisar, and repulsed a Serbian cavalry force of 9,000 cavalry sent against them by the despot. Following these actions, the Serbian capital of Smederevo was put under siege by the Ottoman forces. Before the city could be taken, intelligence was received about an approaching Hungarian relief force led by Hunyadi, which caused Mehmed to lift

4978-662: The Byzantine Empire by conquering Constantinople. After Murad II made peace with Hungary on 12 June 1444, he abdicated the throne in favour of his 12-year-old son Mehmed II in July /August 1444. During Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged in September 1444. Cardinal Julian Cesarini ,

5109-576: The Captain General of the Sea Alvise Loredan , landed in the Morea, while Matthias Corvinus invaded Bosnia. At the same time, Pius II began assembling an army at Ancona , hoping to lead it in person. Negotiations were also begun with other rivals of the Ottomans, such as Karamanids , Uzun Hassan and the Crimean Khanate . In early August, the Venetians retook Argos and refortified

5240-475: The Conqueror (Ottoman Turkish: ابو الفتح , romanized:  Ebū'l-fetḥ , lit.   'the Father of Conquest'; Turkish: Fâtih Sultan Mehmed ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke

5371-763: The Count Palatine was reduced to his territories along the Rhine. Consequently, he is called the Count Palatine of the Rhine after 1085. The Golden Bull of 1356 made the Count Palatine of the Rhine one of the seven electors . He was therefore known as the Elector Palatine . In the 10th century the Emperor Otto I created the County Palatine of Saxony in the Saale-Unstrut area of southern Saxony. The honour

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5502-756: The County Palatine of Saxony to the House of Welf : After 1146, the title went to the Counts Palatine of Tübingen . In 1169, Emperor Frederick I created the Free County of Burgundy (not to be confused with its western neighbour, the Duchy of Burgundy ). The Counts of Burgundy had the title of Free Count (German: Freigraf ), but are sometimes called Counts Palatine. A papal count palatine ( Comes palatinus lateranus , properly Comes sacri Lateranensis palatii "Count of

5633-433: The Danube uncontested. Shortly after, the Ottoman navy was defeated in a five hour long battle by the newly arrived Christian Danubian navy. Following this, Hunyadi's troops started entering the city to reinforce the besieged, which increased the morale of the defending forces. Infuriated by the unfolding events, Mehmed ordered a final attack to capture the city on the 21st of July, after continuous cannon fire building up to

5764-492: The Golden Spur was being so indiscriminately bestowed that Casanova remarked "The Order they call the Golden Spur was so disparaged that people irritated me greatly when they asked me the details of my cross;" The Order was granted to "those in the pontifical government, artists, and others, whom the pope should think deserving of reward. It is likewise given to strangers, no other condition being required, but that of professing

5895-506: The Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time. The island of Monemvasia refused to surrender, and it was ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Pope's protection before the end of 1460. The Mani Peninsula , on the Morea's south end, resisted under a loose coalition of local clans, and the area then came under

6026-510: The Hexamilion and to Nauplia ( Nafplion ). In Bosnia, Matthias Corvinus seized over sixty fortified places and succeeded in taking its capital, Jajce , after a 3-month siege , on 16 December. Ottoman reaction was swift and decisive: 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

6157-740: The Hungarians and asked Pope Pius II for help in the face of an impending Ottoman invasion. In 1463, after a dispute over the tribute paid annually by the Bosnian Kingdom to the Ottomans, he sent for help from the Venetians . However, none ever reached Bosnia. In 1463, Sultan Mehmed II led an army into the country. The royal city of Bobovac soon fell, leaving Stephen Tomašević to retreat to Jajce and later to Ključ . Mehmed invaded Bosnia and conquered it very quickly, executing Stephen Tomašević and his uncle Radivoj . Bosnia officially fell in 1463 and became

6288-642: The King to whom all these princely titles returned. The Principalities are thus made Voivodships (sometimes translated as Palatinates). In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth the Voivodes sit in the Senate. Throughout its history, the dignity remained non-hereditary, or semi-hereditary. Today voivodes are government officials. As successor to the Byzantine emperor after the fall of Constantinople in 1453,

6419-404: The Latin form (Comes) palatinus and the French (comte) palatin have been used as part of the full title of the Dukes of Burgundy (a branch of the French royal dynasty) to render their rare German title Freigraf , which was the style of a (later lost) bordering principality, the allodial County of Burgundy ( Freigrafschaft Burgund in German), which came to be known as Franche-Comté . During

6550-440: The Ottoman Empire formally annexed Serbian lands following dissension among his widow and three remaining sons. Lazar, the youngest, poisoned his mother and exiled his brothers, but he died soon afterwards. In the continuing turmoil the oldest brother Stefan Branković gained the throne. Observing the chaotic situation in Serbia, the Ottoman government decided to definitively conclude the Serbian issue. The Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha

6681-417: The Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444. Halil Inalcik states that Mehmed II did not ask for his father. Instead, it was Çandarlı Halil Pasha 's effort to bring Murad II back to the throne. In 1446, while Murad II returned to the throne, Mehmed retained the title of sultan but only acted as a governor of Manisa. Following the death of Murad II in 1451, Mehmed II became sultan for

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6812-402: The Ottomans had conquered Constantinople, they threatened Hungary by besieging Belgrade . Hunyadi began a concerted counterattack in Serbia : While he himself moved into Serbia and relieved the siege (before dying of the plague), Vlad III Dracula led his own contingent into Wallachia, reconquered his native land, and killed Vladislav II. In 1459, Mehmed II sent envoys to Vlad to urge him to pay

6943-402: The Ottomans having reached the outskirts of Venice . Based on the terms of the treaty, the Venetians were allowed to keep Ulcinj , Antivan, and Durrës . However, they ceded Shkodra , which had been under Ottoman siege for many months, as well as other territories on the Dalmatian coastline, and they relinquished control of the Greek islands of Negroponte ( Euboea ) and Lemnos . Moreover,

7074-491: The Ottomans were surrounded and almost all of them caught and impaled, with Hamza Pasha impaled on the highest stake, as befit his rank. In the winter of 1462, Vlad III crossed the Danube and scorched the entire Bulgarian land in the area between Serbia and the Black Sea . Allegedly disguising himself as a Turkish Sipahi and utilizing his command of the Turkish language and customs, Vlad III infiltrated Ottoman camps, ambushed, massacred or captured several Ottoman forces. In

7205-503: The Ottomans, he likely would have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother. Those children were taken into the palace service of Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople. The oldest boy, renamed Has Murad, became a personal favorite of Mehmed and served as beylerbey of the Balkans . The younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha , became admiral of the Ottoman fleet and sanjak-bey of the Gallipoli . He eventually served twice as Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son, Bayezid II . After

7336-425: The Ottomans, maintained an enduring struggle to make Wallachia their own vassal. To prevent Wallachia from falling into the Hungarian fold, the Ottomans freed young Vlad III (Dracula), who had spent four years as a prisoner of Murad, together with his brother Radu , so that Vlad could claim the throne of Wallachia. His rule was short-lived, however, as Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and restored his ally Vladislav II , of

7467-470: The Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of Jerusalem . Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother. Mehmed the Conqueror's response came in the summer of 1461. He led a sizable army from Bursa by land and the Ottoman navy by sea, first to Sinope , joining forces with Ismail's brother Ahmed (the Red). He captured Sinope and ended

7598-412: The Port"). The title " comes consistorianus " or " comes consistorialis " indicated specially appointed members to the consistorium , the council of the Roman emperor's closest advisors. The comes rei militaris held martial appointments, and commanded comitatenses . He ranked superior to a dux but inferior to the magister peditum or magister equitum ; he functioned as

7729-446: The Sacred Palace of Lateran") began to be conferred by the pope in the 16th century. This title was merely honorary and by the 18th century had come to be conferred so widely as to be nearly without consequence. The Order of the Golden Spur began to be associated with the inheritable patent of nobility in the form of count palatinate during the Renaissance ; Emperor Frederick III named Baldo Bartolini , professor of civil law at

7860-402: The Sultan for the conquest of the city, including the casting of 22 large cannons alongside many smaller ones and the establishment of a navy which would sail up the Danube to aid the army during the siege. The exact number of troops Mehmed commanded varies between sources, but the rumours of its size were significant enough to cause panic in Italy. Ottoman troops began arriving at Belgrade on

7991-467: The Venetians were forced to pay 100,000 ducat indemnity and agreed to a tribute of around 10,000 ducats per year in order to acquire trading privileges in the Black Sea . As a result of this treaty, Venice acquired a weakened position in the Levant . During the post- Seljuks era in the second half of the Middle Ages , numerous Turkmen principalities collectively known as Anatolian beyliks emerged in Anatolia. Karamanids initially centred around

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8122-460: The adjective derived from palatium ('palace'). After the fall of Rome, a new feudal type of title, also known simply as palatinus , started developing. The Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty (reigned 480–750) employed a high official, the comes palatinus , who at first assisted the king in his judicial duties and at a later date discharged many of these himself. Other counts palatine were employed on military and administrative work. In

8253-416: The arts and sciences, and by the end of his reign, his rebuilding program had changed Constantinople into a thriving imperial capital. He is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world . Among other things, Istanbul's Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him. Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne , then the capital city of

8384-434: The assertion that Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the Roman Empire since 330 AD and whoever possessed the Imperial capital was the ruler of the empire. The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim. The claim was not recognized by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe, but was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church . Mehmed had installed Gennadius Scholarius ,

8515-407: The beginning of the AD 5th century in the Notitia Dignitatum , but as offices were later added, it is not historically exhaustive. The following sections describe examples of the kinds of comites . Several of the major departments of the Imperial Curia ("Court") and household had a principal official who was styled " comes " and assisted by an " officium " ("staff") very similar to that of

8646-405: The camp for his safety, which he refused to do so on the grounds that it would be a “sign of cowardice”. After this, Mehmed personally joined the fighting, accompanied by two of his begs . The Sultan managed to personally kill three enemy soldiers before being injured, forcing him to abandon the battlefield. The news of their Sultan fighting alongside them and the arrival of reinforcements caused

8777-423: The capital by sea in 1442, but bad weather made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While Mehmed II was away laying siege to Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although he was defeated, he took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute. After John's death in 1459, his brother David came to power and intrigued with various European powers for help against

8908-552: The catholic religion." Comes Comes (plural comites ), translated as count , was a Roman title, generally linked to a comitatus or comital office. The word comes originally meant "companion" or "follower", deriving from " com- " ("with") and " ire " ("go"). The special lasting meaning derives from the position of a follower within a comitatus , which was a retinue, or group of followers, such as those of magnates . In some instances these were sufficiently large and/or formal to justify specific denomination, such as

9039-413: The chance and instead attacked him trying to take back the Fortress of Chilia . Vlad III had to retreat to the mountains. After this, the Ottomans captured the Wallachian capital Târgoviște and Mehmed II withdrew, having left Radu as ruler of Wallachia. Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey , who served with distinction and wiped out a force of 6,000 Wallachians and deposited 2,000 of their heads at the feet of Mehmed II,

9170-439: The conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged . When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he strengthened the Ottoman Navy and made preparations to attack Constantinople. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire . After the conquest, Mehmed claimed the title caesar of Rome (Ottoman Turkish: قیصر‎ روم , romanized:  qayṣar-i Rūm ), based on

9301-424: The conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed II visited the site of Troy and boasted that he had avenged the Trojans by conquering the Greeks (Byzantines). Mehmed II's first campaigns after Constantinople were in the direction of Serbia, which had been an Ottoman vassal state intermittently since the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The Ottoman ruler had a connection with the Serbian Despotate – one of Murad II 's wives

9432-514: The conquest of the city, Mehmed captured various other Serbian settlements in the surrounding area, after which he started his march back towards Edirne, visiting his ancestor Murad I 's grave in Kosovo on the way. In 1456, Mehmed decided to continue his momentum towards the northwest and capture the city of Belgrade , which had been ceded to the Kingdom of Hungary by the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković in 1427. Significant preparations were made by

9563-414: The day of the attack. Ottoman troops were initially successful in breaching the defences and entering the city, however were eventually repulsed by the defenders. The Christians pressed their advantage by launching a counter attack, which started pushing back the Ottoman forces, managing to advance as far as the Ottoman camp. At this crucial point of the battle, one of the viziers advised Mehmed to abandon

9694-486: The departments of their royal households, including but not limited to the: The Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty retained much of Roman administration, including the office and title of " comes ", the original meaning of which they preserved, i. e., a companion of the king and a royal servant of high dignity. Under the early Frankish kings some comites did not have definite functions: they were merely attached to

9825-475: The despots, their failure to pay their annual tribute to the Sultan, and finally their own revolt against Ottoman rule, Mehmed entered the Morea in May 1460. The capital Mistra fell exactly seven years after Constantinople, on 29 May 1460. Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer, the Ottomans had achieved the submission of virtually all cities possessed by

9956-488: The dissatisfactory results of the 1454 campaign convinced Mehmed to initiate another campaign against Serbia. The Ottoman army marched on the important mining town of Novo Brdo , which Mehmed put under siege . The Serbians couldn't resist the Ottoman army out in the open, thus resorted to fortifying their various settlements and having their peasants flee to either various fortresses or forests. After forty days of siege and intense cannon fire, Novo Brdo surrendered. Following

10087-630: The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The palatinate of Saxony merged with the Electoral Duchy of Saxony. The Palatinate of the Rhine became an electorate, and both were Imperial Vicars . Originally, the Counts Palatine held the County Palatine (around Regensburg ), and were subordinate to the Dukes of Bavaria , rather than to the king. The position gave its holder a leading position in

10218-444: The early Empire, and the emperor would travel between them, as there was no imperial capital. In the empire, the word count palatine was also used to designate the officials who assisted the emperor in exercising the rights which were reserved for his personal consideration, like granting arms . They were called Imperial counts palatine (in Latin comites palatini caesarii , or comites sacri palatii ; in German, Hofpfalzgrafen ). Both

10349-632: 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 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; they 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. Sultan Mehmed II, who

10480-617: The fact that Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the surviving Eastern Roman Empire since its consecration in 330 AD by Emperor Constantine I . The claim was soon recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople , albeit not by most European monarchs. Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia . At home, he made many political and social reforms. He encouraged

10611-580: The fall of Constantinople, Mehmed would also go on to conquer the Despotate of Morea in the Peloponnese in two campaigns in 1458 and 1460 and the Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia in 1461. The last two vestiges of Byzantine rule were thus absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Constantinople bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country. There is some historical evidence that, 10 years after

10742-465: The first, second, and third " ordines ". The comites dominorum nostrorum (plural of comes dominorum nostrorum ; lit.   ' Companions of Our Lords [Emperors] ' ) were a mounted Imperial bodyguard during the tetrarchy of Emperor Diocletian in circa 300 AD. The Goths that ruled Spain and Italy followed the Roman tradition of granting the title of " comes " to the various principals of

10873-533: The following months, ending the existence of the Serbian Despotate . The Despotate of the Morea bordered the southern Ottoman Balkans. The Ottomans had already invaded the region under Murad II , destroying the Byzantine defenses – the Hexamilion wall  – at the Isthmus of Corinth in 1446. Before the final siege of Constantinople , Mehmed ordered Ottoman troops to attack the Morea. The despots, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos , brothers of

11004-516: The following year. Stefan Branković was ousted from power in March 1459. After that the Serbian throne was offered to Stephen Tomašević , the future king of Bosnia, which infuriated Sultan Mehmed. After Mahmud Pasha suppressed an uprising near Pizren , Mehmed personally led an army against the Serbian capital, capturing Smederevo on the 20th of June 1459. After the surrender of the capital, other Serbian castles which continued to resist were captured in

11135-464: The germs of discord, on account of the confusion of his public and private obligations. According to philologists, the Anglo-Saxon word " gerefa ", denoting "illustrious chief", however, is not connected to the German " Graf ", which originally meant "servant"; compare the etymologies of the words "knight" and "valet". It is the more curious that the " gerefa " should end as a subservient reeve while

11266-427: The hands of counts palatine. Instead of remaining near the person of the king, some of the counts palatine were sent to various parts of his empire to act as judges and governors, the districts ruled by them being called palatinates. Being in a special sense the representatives of the sovereign, they were entrusted with more extended power than the ordinary counts. In this way came about the later and more general use of

11397-732: The independent tendencies of the great tribal dukes. Apparent thereafter was the existence of a count palatine in Saxony, and of others in Lorraine, in Bavaria and in Swabia, their duties being to administer the royal estates in these duchies. Next to the Dukes of Lotharingia , Bavaria , Swabia and Saxony , who had become dangerously powerful feudal princes, loyal supporters of the German Emperor were installed as counts palatine. The Lotharingian palatines out of

11528-470: The inner citadel, Mahmud lifted the siege diverted his army elsewhere, conquering Rudnik and its environs before attacking and capturing the fortress of Golubac. Subsequently, Mehmed who had returned from his campaign in Morea met up with Mahmud Pasha in Skopje . During this meeting, reports were received that a Hungarian army was assembling near the Danube to launch an offensive against the Ottoman positions in

11659-586: The island shortly after also failed. The Venetian navy spent 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. In April 1466, the Venetian war effort was reinvigorated under Vettore Cappello : the fleet took the northern Aegean islands of Imbros , Thasos , and Samothrace , and then sailed into

11790-402: The king of Bosnia, tried to bring Serbia under his control, but Ottoman expeditions forced him to give up his plan and Stephen fled to Bosnia, seeking refuge at the court of his father. After some battles, Bosnia became tributary kingdom to the Ottomans. On 10 July 1461, Stephen Thomas died, and Stephen Tomašević succeeded him as King of Bosnia. In 1461, Stephen Tomašević made an alliance with

11921-422: The last emperor, failed to send any aid. The chronic instability and the tribute payment to the Turks, after the peace treaty of 1446 with Mehmed II, resulted in an Albanian-Greek revolt against them, during which the brothers invited Ottoman troops to help put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed. After more years of incompetent rule by

12052-547: The later Roman Empire . They held offices of all kinds from the army to the civil service, while retaining their direct access to the Emperor. Emperor Constantine I finalized them as the governmental echelon of " comites provinciarum " ("counts of the provinces"); the comites of the new echelon were assigned alongside the vicarii in the civil dioceses of the latter so that the comites became permanent fixtures of Imperial government. The comites were fully enumerated as early as

12183-555: The legal system of the Duchy. From 985, the Ezzonids held the title: The County Palatine of Lotharingia was suspended by the Emperor. Adelaide of Weimar-Orlamünde, Herman II's widow, remarried to Henry of Laach . About 1087 he was assigned in the newly created office of Count Palatine of the Rhine . In 1085, after the death of Herman II, the County Palatine of Lotharingia lost its military importance in Lorraine. The territorial authority of

12314-448: The most significant. Mehmed II sent his armies to take Shkodra in 1474 but failed. Then he went personally to lead 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 as a condition of ending the war. The agreement was established as a result of

12445-520: The narrow Bosphorus Straits , the fortress Anadoluhisarı had been built by his great-grandfather Bayezid I on the Asian side; Mehmed erected an even stronger fortress called Rumelihisarı on the European side, and thus gained complete control of the strait. Having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel ignoring signals to stop

12576-461: The need to assert the difference between themselves and these minor "counts". Therefore, several of these great magnates began styling themselves "Count palatine", signifying great counts ruling regions equivalent to duchies, such as the Counts Palatine of Champagne in the 13th century. See also Royal Administration of Merovingian and Carolingian Dynasties . In early medieval Poland , the Palatinus

12707-517: The official reign of the Jandarid dynasty, although he appointed Ahmed as the governor of Kastamonu and Sinope, only to revoke the appointment the same year. Various other members of the Jandarid dynasty were offered important functions throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire. During the march to Trebizond, Uzun Hasan sent his mother Sara Khatun as an ambassador; while they were climbing the steep heights of Zigana on foot, she asked Sultan Mehmed why he

12838-472: The old Roman civitates ("cities", or polities) which became the basis of the new medieval bishoprics. In Carolingian times, the governor of a pagus was a Comes , corresponding to the German Graf . The King appointed the comites to serve at his pleasure. The modern German-derived term sometimes for a count who governed a whole gau is " Gaugraf ", and a gau containing several counties is sometimes called

12969-459: The outnumbered besiegers off. Six hundred Venetians and a hundred Greeks were taken prisoner out of a force of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself was killed. Cappello, who arrived some days later, attacked the Ottomans but was heavily defeated. Demoralized, he returned to Negroponte with the remains of his army. There Cappello fell ill and died on 13 March 1467. In 1470 Mehmed personally led an Ottoman army to besiege Negroponte . The Venetian relief navy

13100-454: The papal appointment, he bore the title of "Comes palatine imperiali Papali et auctoritate" (Count palatine by Imperial and Papal authority). The Order of the Golden Spur, linked with the title of count palatinate, was widely conferred after the Sack of Rome , 1527, by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ; the text of surviving diplomas conferred hereditary nobility to the recipients. Among the recipients

13231-638: The peace with him [Mehmed II]. Mehmed II abandoned his siege of Corinth to launch a punitive attack against Vlad III in Wallachia but suffered many casualties in a surprise night attack led by Vlad III Dracula, who was apparently bent on personally killing the Sultan. However, Vlad's policy of staunch resistance against the Ottomans was not a popular one, and he was betrayed by the boyars's (local aristocracy) appeasing faction, most of them also pro-Dăneşti (a rival princely branch). His best friend and ally Stephen III of Moldavia , who had promised to help him, seized

13362-571: The person of the King and executed his orders. Others filled the highest offices, e. g. the Comes Palatii and Comes Stabuli (from which the contemporary title of " constable " derives). Yet other comites served as regional officials. For administrative purposes, the Merovingian kingdoms were still divided into small Roman districts denominated " pagi " (hence the French " pays "), or similarly sized new creations " Gaue ". These were smaller than

13493-569: The principal officials of some less important governmental departments who were under the authority of otherwise styled, high ranking, territorial officials could be titled " comes ", e. g. under the praefectus urbi of Rome , himself a vir illustris , was a comes formarum , comes riparum et alvei Tiberis et Cloacarum ("Count of the Coast of the Tiber and the Canalisation"), and comes Portus ("Count of

13624-411: The region. The Hungarians crossed the Danube near Belgrade, after which they marched south towards Užice . While the Hungarian troops were engaged in plunder near Užice, they got ambushed by the Ottoman forces in the region, forcing them to retreat. Despite this victory, for Serbia to be fully annexed into the empire, Smederevo still had to be taken. The opportunity for its capture presented itself

13755-414: The representative of the Pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal. At this time Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. According to the 17th-century chronicles, Mehmed II wrote, "If you are the sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." Then, Murad II led

13886-453: The right to exercise the " bannis regis " ("royal ban "), which gave him the right to command his military in the name of the King and to act as necessary to preserve the peace. As the King's representative, he exercised the royal right of protection (" mundium regis ") of churches, widows, orphans, and the like. He enjoyed a triple " wergeld ", but had no definite salary, being remunerated by receipt of specific revenues, which system contained

14017-530: The rule of Venice . The last holdout was Salmeniko , in the Morea's northwest. Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle (also known as Castle Orgia). While the town eventually surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461, when they escaped and reached Venetian territory. Emperors of Trebizond formed alliances through royal marriages with various Muslim rulers. Emperor John IV of Trebizond married his daughter to

14148-409: The second time. Ibrahim II of Karaman invaded the disputed area and instigated various revolts against Ottoman rule. Mehmed II conducted his first campaign against İbrahim of Karaman; Byzantines threatened to release Ottoman claimant Orhan . When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy and made preparations for an attack on Constantinople. In

14279-546: The siege and start marching back to his domains. By August the campaign was effectively over, Mehmed left a part of his force under the command of Firuz Bey in Serbia in anticipation of a possible offensive on Ottoman territories by Hunyadi. This force was defeated by a combined Hungarian-Serbian army led by Hunyadi and Nikola Skobaljić on the 2nd of October near Kruševac , after which Hunyadi went on to raid Ottoman controlled Nish and Pirot before returning back to Belgrade. Roughly

14410-524: The son of his brother-in-law, Uzun Hasan , sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu (also known as White Sheep Turkomans), in return for his promise to defend Trebizond. He also secured promises of support from the Turkish beys of Sinope and Karamania , and from the king and princes of Georgia . The Ottomans were motivated to capture Trebizond or to get an annual tribute. In the time of Murad II, they first attempted to take

14541-450: The strength of the local resistance. Skanderbeg himself died of malaria in the Venetian stronghold of Lissus ( Lezhë ), ending the ability of Venice to use the Albanian lords for its own advantage. After Skanderbeg died, some Venetian-controlled northern Albanian garrisons continued to hold territories coveted by the Ottomans, such as Žabljak Crnojevića , Drisht , Lezhë, and Shkodra  –

14672-469: The superior of a series of military stations, each commanded by a praepositus limitis ("border commander") and/or as a unit commander, e. g., of tribunes of cohorts, of alae (auxiliary equivalents), of numeri , and in the Eastern Empire even of legions . The Notitia Dignitatum of the early-5th century AD enumerates six such offices, being of the dignity of vir spectabilis , in

14803-494: The title was retained when the titulary was appointed, often promoted, to an office away from court, frequently in the field or a provincial administration. Subsequently, it was thought logical to connect the title to specific offices that demanded an incumbent official of high dignity, and even to include it as part of the official title. As the Imperial Roman Curia increased in number and assimilated all political power,

14934-489: The tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world and highlight his role as ghazi . In 1453, Mehmed commenced the siege of Constantinople with an army between 80,000 and 200,000 troops, an artillery train of over seventy large field pieces, and a navy of 320 vessels, the bulk of them transports and storeships. The city

15065-593: The walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, following a fifty-seven-day siege. After this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. When Sultan Mehmed II stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon , known to the Ottomans and Persians as the Palace of the Caesars, probably built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II , he uttered the famous lines of Saadi : The spider

15196-435: The westernmost province of the Ottoman Empire. According to the Byzantine historian Michael Critobulus , hostilities broke out after an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens fled to the Venetian fortress of Coron ( Koroni ) with 100,000 silver aspers from his master's treasure. The fugitive then converted to Christianity, so Ottoman demands for his rendition were refused by the Venetian authorities. Using this as

15327-534: The word "palatine", its application as an adjective to persons entrusted with special powers—but also to the districts over which these powers were exercised. By the High Middle Ages, the title "count" had become increasingly common, to the point that both great magnates who ruled regions that were the size of duchies, and local castle-lords, might style themselves "count." As the great magnates began to centralize their power over their local castle-lords, they felt

15458-465: Was Mara Branković – and he used that fact to claim Serbian lands. Đurađ Branković 's recently made alliance with the Hungarians, and his irregular payments of tribute, further served as justifications for the invasion. The Ottomans sent an ultimatum demanding the keys to some Serbian castles which formerly belonged to the Ottomans. When Serbia refused these demands, the Ottoman army led by Mehmed set out from Edirne towards Serbia in 1454, sometime after

15589-663: Was Titian (1533), who had painted an equestrian portrait of Charles. Close on the heels of the Emperor's death in 1558, its refounding in Papal hands is attributed to Pope Pius IV in 1559. Benedict XIV ( In Supremo Militantis Ecclesiæ , 1746) granted to the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre the right to use the title of Count of the Sacred Palace of Lateran. By the mid-18th century the Order of

15720-453: Was also reinstated, as a reward, in his old gubernatorial post in Thessaly. Vlad eventually escaped to Hungary, where he was imprisoned on a false accusation of treason against his overlord, Matthias Corvinus . The despot of Serbia, Lazar Branković , died in 1458, and a civil war broke out among his heirs that resulted in the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459/1460. Stephen Tomašević , son of

15851-451: Was defeated, and Negroponte was captured. In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed marched with a large army against the Albanians. Under their leader, Skanderbeg , they had long resisted the Ottomans, and had repeatedly sought assistance from Italy. Mehmed II responded by marching again against Albania but was unsuccessful . The winter brought an outbreak of plague, which would recur annually and sap

15982-494: Was dispatched with an army to the region in 1458, where he initially conquered Resava and a number of other settlements before moving towards Smederevo. After a battle outside the city walls, the defenders were forced to retreat inside the fortress. In the ensuing siege, the outer walls were breached by Ottoman forces, however the Serbians continued to resist inside the inner walls of the fortress. Not wanting to waste time capturing

16113-437: 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 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

16244-537: Was in charge of the patrimonial or private real estate of the king, and others. The system was maintained by the Carolingian sovereigns (reigned 751–987), who increased the power of counts palatine through successive grants of authority. A Frankish capitulary of 882 and Hincmar, archbishop of Reims , writing about the same time, attest to the extent to which the judicial work of the Frankish Empire had passed into

16375-517: Was initially held by a Count of Hessengau , then from the early 11th century by the Counts of Goseck , later by the Counts of Sommerschenburg, and still later by the Landgraves of Thuringia : After Henry Raspe's death, the County Palatine of Saxony and the Landgraviate of Thuringia were given to the House of Wettin , based on a promise made by Emperor Frederick II: King Rudolph I of Germany gave

16506-583: Was next in rank to the King. As he is also the chief commander of the King's army the rank is merged with Wojewoda , with the latter replacing the title of Palatine. During the Fragmentation of Poland each Prince would have his own voivode . When some of these Principalities were reunited into the Kingdom of Poland, the Palatines were infeudated with them, as there was no longer a local Prince to rule on behalf of

16637-641: 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, the Venetian Republic had appointed Sigismondo Malatesta for the upcoming campaign of 1464. He launched attacks against Ottoman forts and engaged in a failed siege of Mistra in August through October. Small-scale warfare continued on both sides, with raids and counter-raids, but

16768-522: Was one of the most powerful ones. Hungary in the Middle Ages: nádorispán or nádor (see Palatine of Hungary ) The term count palatine was not used in the United Kingdom . Just as count always remained reserved for continental territories, even though the equivalence of earl became clear by rendering it in Latin also as comes , earl palatine was the exclusively British title for the incumbent of

16899-434: Was sunk with a single shot and all the surviving sailors beheaded, except for the captain, who was impaled and mounted like a human scarecrow as a warning to other sailors on the strait. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari , the companion and standard bearer of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople (674–678) . As Mehmed II's army approached Constantinople, Mehmed's sheikh Akshamsaddin discovered

17030-543: Was surrounded by sea and land; the fleet at the entrance of the Bosphorus stretched from shore to shore in the form of a crescent, to intercept or repel any assistance for Constantinople from the sea. In early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the city's walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmed's army used the new bombard designed by Orban , a giant cannon similar to the Dardanelles Gun . The harbor of

17161-420: Was undergoing such hardship for the sake of Trebizond. Mehmed replied: Mother, in my hand is the sword of Islam, without this hardship I should not deserve the name of ghazi , and today and tomorrow I should have to cover my face in shame before Allah . Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and he placed it under siege . The city held out for

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