ambitiously sought after the same deeming them altogether unworthy but upon such whose modesty and desert he took special notice of that they were worthy of such favours so tempering the severity of his commands with the greatness of his bounty that it is dubious whether he were of his Nobility or men of War for the one more feared or for the other beloved both the great staies of Princes States fear keeping the obstinate in obedience and love the dutiful in devotion Although by Religion he was a Mahometan yet would he dislike no man for his Religion whatsoever so that he did worship but one onely God creator of Heaven and Earth and all that therein is he himself beleiving that God was one in essence and in himself immutable without change or diversity and yet for the manifesting of his omnipotency and power he created in the world sundry kinds of people differing both in nature manners and conditions yet all framed to the Image of himself so in like manner was he contented of his Subjects to be diversly served according to the diversity of their natures and manners so they worshipped no strange Gods which was the cause that he permitted the exercise of all Religions in those Countries subject to his obedience were they not meer Atheists or Idolaters His Army though very great was like unto a well governed City in passing thorough any Country with his Souldiers he took such order that none of the people whereby he passed were by them any thing injured insomuch that if a Souldier had but taken an Apple or other thing of like value from any man he died therefore so severe were his commands It is reported that one of his Souldiers having taken a little milk from a Country woman and she complaining thereof he commanded the said Souldier to be presently killed and his stomach to be ript where the milk being found he satisfied the woman and so sent her away who doubtless else had died for her false accusation had it not so appeared This severity with some other of the like nature was very conducible to the preservation of his Army which was so great that it was thought almost impossible to have found sufficient victuals for the releif thereof but by his severe punishment of disorders both Artificers and Merchants from far Countries resorted with their Commodities and Merchandise to his Camp without fear from every place for which they received present mony and so in safety again departed Those Cities that yeilded to him he favourably received but the other that refused to submit themselves to his obedience he used with all extremity He used often to say that a small number well conducted did many times carry away the victory from the confused multitude He rather sought to maintain his Army upon the spoile of his enemy though with some hazard then upon his Friends and Allies and when he sent out any part of his vast Army for the taking of any place he would command them on pain of his displeasure so to behave themselves that at his comming he might either finde the City taken or the Gates shut against him which they seldom failed for to do for he had his men at so great command that no danger unto them was more dreadful then his displeasure nor did he punish any thing so severely as cowardise insomuch that if in his disport of Hunting the wild Beast any one did for fear give way either to a Bear or Lyon and slew him not was sure therefore to die himself and to turn his back upon the enemy was no less dangerous then to run upon his own death That he was free from covetousness and that ambition with which many Princes are infected may appear by this That after his many conâ—â—ests in the lesser Asia and the overthrow of Bajazet the Empire of Constantinople being profered to him by the Emperors Ambassadors he returned this answer That he was not come from so far Country for the enlargement of his Dominions already large enough but rather to win Honour and thereby make his name famous to all posterity That he come as his friend and Ally and that his upright meaning therein was in greatest cause that God from above had beheld his power and thereby bruised the head of the fiercest enemy of mankind that was under Heaven That unto his courage he had alwayes faith joyned such as should never suffer him to make so great a breach in his reputation as that it should be reported of him that in the colour of a friend he came to invade the Realm of his Ally That he desires no more but that the service he had done for the Greek Emperor might for ever be ingraven in the memory of his posterity to the end they might for ever wish well unto him and his successors by remembring the good he had done them That long might the noble Emperor live happily to govern his Estate and that before his return he would so well consider for the establishing of the same as that he should not lightly fall again into the like jepordy alwayes assuring himself of his good will and favour towards him Having thus purchased an everlasting renown by his many victories and restored several Princes that had fled unto him for refuge to their ancient inheritances after he had long time wasted Phrygia Caria Lydia with the most part of the lesser Asia and conquered all Syria Judea Egypt and Persia with divers other great Kingdoms and Provinces he returned home beautifying his Regal City of Samorcand with the spoyls of a great part of the world before by him wasted where he for a long space reigned in great peace and glory Afterwards hearing of the rising again of the Turkish Kingdom under the Ottoman Princes he resolved for a second expedition but in the midst of his preparations he was prevented by death dying of an Ague the 27 of January in the year of our Lord 1402. whose death was ushered by a terrible blazing Star portending as it were to the world the death of so eminent a Prince who while he lived made such a bustle therein The Character of Scanderbeg Prince of Epirus THis famous and renowned Champion was son to John Castriot who reigned in Epirus in the time of Amurath the fixth King of the Turks about the year of our Lord 1422. His father not being able to withstand the growing fortunes of that ambitious Tyrant delivered him with his three brothers as hostages to obtain peace whom the perfidious Amurath promised to entreat well and honourably but upon the death of their Father poysoned three of them only this George Castriot for so was his name whom the Tyrant entirely loved escaped death For his excellent feature and pregnant wit he was by the Turks named Scanderbeg or Lord Alexander and in his youth shewed many tokens what a rare Scholar he would prove in the School of Mars He was of a very noble generous
of Carasina In the year 1359. died Orchanes aged almost eighty years with grief at the death of his said Son Solyman who was killed with a fall from his Horse as he was a Hawking leaving his Son Amurath to extend his new acquests further into Thracia and Servia AMVRATH a very politique and Martial Prince at the very entrance of his Raign Surprized Adrianople and made the Greeks who regarded not the loss of Calipolis to bethink themselves of the danger of these encroachments He was the first that began the order of the Janizaries by taking Christian Children from their Parents and trayning them up in the Mahumetan Laws and Manners makes Leagues and Allyances with the Asian Potentates to secure his designes upon Europe as to cherish the divisions among the Greeks he did aid and assist the Emperour Cantacuzenus against John Palaeologus the third in the year _____ he invaded Servia and took Nyssa the Metropolis thereof and imposed a great Tribute upon the Country Returning thence he carried his victorious arms against Aladin King of Caramania his Son in Law by whom he had been provoked in his absence and in a great Battel overthrew him notwithstanding afterwards he restored him to his Kingdom upon conditions of homage From hence he came back again to Bulgaria which he over-ran and in a Mortal Battel slew and overcame Lazarus the Despot of Servia in the fatal plains of Cossova where he himself proudly surveying the carriage of the field was stabed in the belly by a wounded Christian Souldier named Miles Cobbelitz who staggering to approach him was by his own command admitted to his person since which time no Ambassador is suffered to come before the Grand Seignior unless his arms be guarded by one on each side This happened in the year 1390. in the 31. year of his reign He was interred at Prusa with his Predecessors BAJAZET sirnamed Gilderun or Lightning for his fierce and sudden violence of nature having strangled his only brother Jacup Zelebi so that he was the introducer of this most inhumane practise succeeded his Father Amurath and vanquished and subdued Mark the Prince of Bulgaria as he did also Lazarus the new Despot of Servia and spoyled Valachia making the Vayvod thereof his Tributary In Asia he tyrannized over the Mahometan Princes the successors of Aladin and in arrogance besieged Constantinople twice but in vain He subdued Thessaly and Phoci defeated Sigismond King of Hungary at Nicopolis assisted by an Army of French and Burgundians with a terrible slaughter so that the Turkish Power was first dreadful by his Puiffance He again vanquished the stubborn Aladin of Caramania with his Kingdom and the great Cities of Amasia and Sebastia in fine uncivilly treating the Ambassadors of Tamerlane sent in behalf of the poor Princes of Asia he was by him neer Sebastia after a most bloody dispute overcome and taken prisoner and put into an iron Cage carried about for Tamerlane's Horse-block until with impatience at his two years slavery he broke out his brains against the grates in the year 1399. This overthrow so blasted the greatness of the Ottoman Family that it was hudled up in a general confusion betwixt the interests and claims of Bajazet's Sons Solyman his eldest Son possessed himself of his Conquests in Europe and seated at Adrianople Mahomet his younger at Amasia and defended his Asiatick Provinces against the invasion of the Tartars some petty Princes whereof had those assigned to them by Tamerlane In conclusion Musa the second brother released out of his Captivity with his Fathers dead body by the assistance of Mahomet destroyed Solyman and seized himself of his Kingdom of which not long after Mahomet dispossessed Musa and strangled him and united the whole entire Dominion under himself He was but 15 years old when he began to reign yet such was his prudence and prowess that he restored this collapsed Empire in a few years He died in 1422. and was buried at Prasa neer his Father Bajazet who hath a sumptuous Monument in that City AMVRATH now the second being sent for to Adrianople was there by the Bashaws according to the appointment of Mahomet advanced to the Throne His first work was the suppression of a counterfeit Mustapha the son of Bajazet whom he caused to be strangled He next won Thessalonica with the greatest part of Atolia and Achaia and at the same time practised foully upon the King of Epirus the Father of Scanderbeg by poyson as tyrannically upon the petty Princes of Asia whence he converted his Army against the Despot of Servia whom he vallalized but invaded Transylvania with loss whereupon by much intreaty he obtained peace of Vliadslaus King of Hungary who breaking his faith so solemnly given and invading Amurath engaged in a prosperous War with the Caraman King in Asia was by Amurath recalled thus into Europe most miserably defeated at Varna and there slain The remainder of his long reign was spent in vexation at the successes of Scanderbeg whom with all his power he was not able to reduce whereupon he retired to a Monastery and with grief he died leaving the Government to his Son Mahomet MAHOMET was a perfect Athiest of no Faith or Religion murdered his Brethren subdued Mentesia and took Constantinople on the 29. of May 1453. and thereby put an end to the Greek Empire and caused himself to be stiled Emperor To omit the known story of his Concubine Irene we must pass with him to the siege of Belgrade in Hungary whence he was forced to rise with great loss and dishonour having been himself dangerously wounded afterwards he practised upon the Princes of Valachia and brought a horrible devastation on the Country and designed the like Treachery upon Scanderbeg but by him worsted before Croja nevertheless he gained Sordea from the Venetians after a vain and bloody siege by Treatie and Composition He attempted and staggered the Persian King also In vain likewise he besieged Rhodes and invaded Italy as his purposes against the Caramanian King were disappointed by his death not without suspicion of poyson 1481. He was buried at Constantinople BAJAZET his Son succeeded him and first managed a War against his brother Zemes who flying to Rhodes and thence sent to Rome was poysoned by Pope Alexander the sixth bribed thereunto by Bajazet He prepared for an expedition to Hungary but durst not prosecute it the effect speeding it self to his great loss upon Valachia and Transylvania with more indifferent fortune he combated Caitheius the Sultan of Egypt but finally vanquished the Caramanian King and united that Kingdom to his own He quarrelled the Venetians and took and lost several places The end as the beginning of his reign was disquieted with the unnatural disloyaltie of his Sons Cocutus Achomates and Selymus at whose instance he was at last poysoned by a Jew his Physician in the year 1512. SELTMVS began his reign not only with the death of his Father but the murder of his brother
Corcutus and five of his brother Achomet's Sons makes war against Hysmael the Persian Sophy with whom he had a signal encounter beyond Euphrates but such was the equal fortune of the day that Selymus content to have coped personally with that renowned and dreadful Potentate retreated back to Constantinople whence he threatned Hungary but the force and fury of his Army fell upon Campson Gaurus and Tomombeus Sultans of the Mamaluke Empire whom he overthrew in two fatal battels at Singa and in the City of Grand Cairo which with Egypt and Syria were annexed to his Dominions In his return hence as he was meditating an useful expedition into Hungary being seized by a canker in his back he breathed out his revengeful soul in the year 1520. SOLYMAN his only Son not so strange considering his Father was a most Martial Prince succeeded to the Throne in whose reign this great Empire rose to its highest pinnacle and culmination of Glory He was sirnamed the Magnificent for the nobleness of his Acts He first conquered the Isle of Rhodes defeated King Lewis of Hungary and slew him at Mohaez and besieged Vienna but in vain In fine this was the potent Monarch that conquered Hungary took Buda Strigonum Alba Regalis in pretence of the right of King John and his Orphant elected by the Hungarian Nobility against the due title of Ferdinand He likewise threatned Italy with his Fleets and aided the French King by them against Charles the Fifth as he likewise combated the Persian Kings Hysmael and Tamas He besieged Malta by his General Mustapha but was there worsted Towards the latter end of his reign he was enjealoused by his Paramour Recotane against the Noble Prince Mustapha his eldest Son by another woman to make way for her children and Mustapha strangled as Solyman was upon a pretended Expedition against the Persians In his seventh and last expedition into Hungary he died at the siege of Zigerh 1566. having made Hungary a Province of Turkie Selymus having met his Fathers Corps about Belgrade having been privily advertised of his death by Mahomet Bassa who had concealed it from the Janizaries as is usual in that Government to avoid the mutiny of the Janizaries was there saluted Emperor but not admitted to the Seraglio at his return to Constantinople till he had given them a large Donative He was a Prince no way like his Father but given to excess and debauchery which made him willing to make peace with the Emperor of Germany and the Persians notwithstanding by his Captains he gained Cyprus from the Venetians as he lost the famous battel of Lepanto to Don John of Austria Toward the end of his reign he subdued Moldavia and Valachia more absolutely to the Turkish subjection as he also reduced the Kingdom of Tunis and the strong Castle of Guletta taken from Barbarossa by Charles the fifth 42 years before He died at the 51 year of his age spent with wine and women and in the year of the Incarnation 1574. AMVRATH the third succeeded him having caused his five Brethren to be strangled in his sight He was a Prince not vicious as his Father but given to peace and addicted to a quiet life and managed his Arms as his Father had done before him by Lieutenants who were famous men in their times as Sinan Ferhates Mustapha and Osnan Bassa the first and last of whom sorely plagued the Persians against whom Amurath was provoked by a dream and vision and took from them the Province of Media now called Sirvan a great part of the greater Armenia and the Regal City of Tauris after two or three dismal encounters they confirmed likewise the Crim-Tartar in a surer obedience to the Ottoman Family The same Sinan waged a fierce War in Hungary took Raab and other Towns but they were all recovered again and he after many grand atchievements shamefully driven to flie out of Hungary by Sigismund Prince of Transylvania since which time until this day the Turks power was never formidable in Europe Amurath died in the year 1595. having raigned 21. years MAHOMET the third his eldest Son succeeded him commencing his reign with the bloody Massacre of 18. of his Brethren and ten of his Fathers Wives and Concubines thought to be impregnate with Posthume issue that so he might make sure work He was dreaded before his assumption to the Crown to have been of a fierce and untractable nature but he proved a meer swine for he was memorable for nothing of military concernment but his personal appearance in Hungary with 200000 men where he took Agria and was present at the battel of Keresture in 1596. the second of his reign out of which field he run in the beginning of the Fight and would never endure to hear of an engagement again something was done by his Captains in Hungary but as much was done against them and things continued there in statu quo to his death which hapned by his unweildy Fat under which he could not stand in the year 1603. ACHMAT his Son a stripling succeeded him a Prince proud and imperious yet no way Martial he had some Piques with the Persian who threatned him hard and made him glad to urge a peace with Rodolphus the Emperor being also perplexed with his Rebels in Asia Like his Predecessors he was engaged in a Valachian and Moldavian War which he finished with victory taking the Princes Alexander Bougdan and Coresky Prisoners the latter of whom made a great bustle in the Ottoman Court by his escape out of prison This Sultan Achmat was much given to women and with too frequent use of them died young at the age of 30. years in 1617. As to his Sons and Successors having spoken of them in the modern History of the Turks hereto adjoyned this is their brief Character Mustapha the Brother German of Achmat appointed by him because of the minority of his Sons to the Government was a bookish Philosophical man and bred in the fear of death all his dayes Osman Achmat's Son who dethroned him a Prince of 16. years of age was a very forward active Prince he quarrelled with the Poles and perceiving in that War the sloath and cowardliness of the Janizaries by which he came off with dishonour by the advice of Derlavir the grand Visier an experienced honest man and a great Captain on the Asian side intended the extirpation of them and the erection of a new Militia which design being sented was the cause of both their deaths Osman being strangled in prison and the Visier cut in pieces by the tumultuous mutinies of those Bands MVSTAPHA was re-inthroned but was the same man and again deposed by the same Janizaries and Sultan Morat the brother of Achmat established He was as warlike a Prince as his brother or any of his Progenitors for he recovered Bagdat taken by the Persians during these changes at Constantinople and there in prosecution of his Brothers intentions designed the perdition of
the place or Territory is first considered and the revenues thereof whereby the Turk apportioneth what number of Souldiers that can anually maintain then the Lord is injoyned always to keep in readiness that number for any his commands and in default his head is lost nothing can excuse his presence in any commanded place but known want of health sickness And whensoever it please the Turk to ease him of this benefit it 's at his liberty but if not deprived he enjoys it during life after death if his Successors will observe the same conditions they are often admited if not 't is then disposed to others And if it happen any one of these great ones have occasion to speak unto their King it is with eys fixed on the ground they dare not look him in the face Of Bassa's who may be called Counsellors Chancellors or Secretaries These for the most part are all Eunuchs castrated when youths and bred in Seraglio's for attendants on the Turkish Concubines and of later years some of them as I was informed being a slave to a great man in Constantinople are cut so close the body that they often dye by the incision and if live they ever after use small Pipes for discharging their water such is their cruel jealousie introduced as 't was said by an Emperor that perceived a Gelding leap a Mare these Bassa's are of greatest esteem with the Turk next to the Sanjacks and they are almost all that are preferred to that dignity children of Christian parents violently taken from them none of them although he hath to wife a daughter of a Turk as Hurstan Bassa had can enjoy a Parish Castle or Village by inheritance but if he be promoted to any dignity or possessions he enjoys it till his death or so long as the Turk pleaseth Each Bassa hath a Court of Justice in the province he commandeth from whence appeals are to the King or great Mufty whose sentence is concluding and immoveable The obedience of Turks to the King None of their Janizaries or great Captains have licence to wear Swords or other Arms within the Cities unless the King go forth his Palace for Devotion sake or Hunting And where there are Magistrates or Governours of Towns Porters carry with them staves or Clubs finding any quarrellings or offerings at injuries they presently punish them with those instruments No man speaks to them or dares look in their faces but falling on the earth kiss their feet with eys to the ground speak as to themselves And whensoever they send forth messengers with letters to Governours cities or provinces whose horse grows faint by journeying this messenger hath fall authority to dis-horse whom ere he meets and meeting none he turns into the next town or village repairs to the chief Officer if he presently provides him not an horse he 's hang'd before his door and for this cause many make use of Asses rather then horses And when this messenger shal come to whom he was sent he is most honourably received his Letters kissed with great humility and their contents answered with incredible celerity and quick dispatch No Princes dare contradict one sillable therein None dare as here rebel all men live in such awful fear and trembling Tortures and present death depending on his will The Turkish strength how diminished The Emperor distributes in some equality all Provinces to his Noblemen but with condition that such a Souldiery should be continually maintained by him with the Revenues of that Province both in time of Peace and War A Souldier killed is not loss to him unless the Province likewise be lost as for example the Turk hath now four hundred Souldiers whereof one hundred is maintained by Hungary now if he lose Hungary those Souldiers are lost if he lose no Province he loseth nothing for he can raise more in their rooms as Church-Officers or Benefices easily find in vacancies Successors The condition of Chazilars These are stout Souldiers and excellently versed in military affairs who in their first encounters break their Lances without other Armour then a Sword Lance and Target using it as we do with Coat of Fence and Helmet the Lance being broke they use the Sword and fight valiantly always aiming at the head or hands and think it ignominious to thrust at their adversary or an horse with point of Sword These men spend all their lives and hopes under the protection of a Goddess Fortune having a Proverb with them What is written will befall them that is What that Goddess hath printed on the head at each mans nativity cannot be possibly avoided though he were preserved in a Castle unexpugnable The actions of these men are writ in verses and sung by all men that others stirred up by like praise and honour might with like audacity advance against an enemy couragiously and valiantly and for each victory of these men their stipends are doubled and are obliged attendance on their King on horse-back with Lances Swords and Iron Clubs some have Targets some none and are paid as well in Peace as War The order of their foot Their first are Bowmen with Arrows Bows and Javelins they are distinguished from Janizaries by coverings of the head The second is of Janizaries who instead of Bows have Guns with short Hatchets all these are gathered from amongst Christians living under Tribute by force snatched from their Friends being young Circumcised and educated as aforesaid These fight most valiantly against Christians yet have but slender stipends for their maintenance some four five or six Aspers a day of which sixty make a Crown English And these are prohibited on pain of death to come on horse-back unless sick There are some few likewise Sons of Turks made Janizaries There is a third Order whom they call Azaplars whose stipends determine with the War and are all Sons of Turks These use a longer Lance with Swords and red Hats or Bonnets or other coloured cloth with crooked Angles like half Moons and so distinguished by Arms and Habit from the other orders There is a fourth of the Grecian Sect who have no other stipend then freedom from paying Tributes and Tenths They commonly attend the Turks horse of pleasure keeping them at their own charge and well managing them for War Of the Turks Pavilions When the King removes from Constantinople to any Expedition of War he carrieth with him double Tents that when one is planted this day the other is carried to the next station ready to receive him the day following the number and magnitude of these Pavilions is such that afar off they seem no less then Cities round about the King's Pavilion are the Tents of Princes and great Men encompassing his in circle Then the horse-men of Arms two or three together have their Tent the foot-men have the like for discipline sake and to keep them from cold Air. When the body of the Army
and gold to hang about their necks or wear upon their bodies perswading themselves that by wearing of them they should be partakers of such good fortune as had attended Scanderbeg whilst he lived MAHOMETS TOMBE A the Grand Signior B the Crim Tartar C the Emperour of Ger D the Pope I Chantry scuâ— CHAP. XII The Modern History of the Turkish Empire THis Puissant and almost numberlesse people in their Armies and Hosts which like Xerxes his Forces drink whole Rivers dry as they march came from most contemptible and petty Originals and like the Roman Empire which began from a collected rabble of loose and outlawed persons was founded in a company of thieving shepheards who wandring up and down like a running disease infested and disquieted all places they came to and at last grew to such considerable strength like a Snow-ball that they became suspect to the Monarchs of the East both Pagan and Christian The rise of the Turkish power The first appearance which rendred them Famous and Notable to the world was under the conduct and leading of their Captain Tangrolipix who was called in by the King of Persia to ayd him against the potent and prevailing Armies of the Saracens which having readily undertaken and strenuously and successfully atchieved this Auxiliary took occasion to crave for himself and erect a new principallity and Empire as well upon his friends whom he pretended to rescue as upon their common enemies territory making both of them the equal prey of his ambition of soveraignty and Dominion This new Family continued in this Usurpation and Intrusion with various success one hundred and seventy years to the yeare of our Lord 1300. But standing solely upon its own legs neither strengthned nor secuted by any alliances and wasted with a continual Warre with the former just Proprietors of the Land they had treacherously and forcibly wrested it expired its dying gasping breath into a younger slip of the same house for now the Zelzuccian Name and Fortune was transmitted to the Oguzian Tribe which were the two and onely Descendants of this people whom Fate had adopted to the reserve and residue of her greatest and benignest Favours which she decreed to double upon it for having made an essay of the formers aptnesse to glory and laid the dead colours in it of a Majestical and August Form and Feature drew it perfect afterwards in this beautifull and fair proportion in which we now see the Turkish Empire The rise of the Ottoman Family The Infant Darling of this rising greatnesse was the famous Ottoman to whom the grand Seignors refer â—nd ambitiously intitled their Sirname who having prevariously obtained a small quantity of ground from his Neighbours upon protestation of his quiet and peaceable demeanour partly by courage and partly by treachery over-ran the whole Country of Bythinia in the Lesser Asia and dying left the design of enlarging and extending his Dominions to his Son and Successor Orchanes whose Sons immense Fortune like the Collossus bestrid the Hellespont and conveyed the Turkish Ensigns into Europe whose delicious and useful soil so pleased and enticed those Conquerours that the Imperial Seat was first fixed here at Adrianople to which most of the vicine Princes were forced to come and pay tribute and homage such was the slavish condition of Servia and Bulgaria and most part of Scalavonia afterwards swallowed up in absolute Mahumetanism and made Provinces of this monstrous Seignory But that which constituted and was as the formal being thereof was the Conquest and possession of Constantinople now called Stamboll the Magnificent Throne of the Eastern Empire which resigned its glories to victorious Mahomet May 29. Anno Dom. 1450. and transferred its imperial Title to that Regal claim his Ancestors had enjoyed This irrecoverable losse and lop of one of the greatest and chiefest members of Christianity so stund the Greeks and other petty Princes who yet maintained their Dominions that most of them were either suddenly reduced or tamely yielded themselves which was the fate of the Epirots though they held out for a while by the unexampled conduct and felicity of Scanderbeg the Rhodians the Cypriots and Isles of the Mediteranian Sea and lastly in aâ—e Reign of Solyman of Moldavia Valachia part of Transilvania and Hungaria whither he pierced and passed as far as Vienna and beyond it in other parts of Austria which by the fear of his approach saw her Suburbs and Houses and Gardens of pleasure fired and ruined that he might have no shelter for his men when he should attempt the siege which he in vain offered but such was his importunate ambition of effecting a totall conquest of that Country in which he had been partly succesfull to the gaining of the better half of that Kingdom of Hungaria and seizing Buda the Capital City thereof that he made several expeditions in person even in his old age and dyed at his return from taking Zigeth though gallantly defended to the last man by Count Serinus great Ancestor to the Emperors Generalissimo now in that Kingdom Not to mention the augmentation of his Empire by the triumphal accessions of Egypt and remoter parts of Asia the Great both Nations of the same Religion From the time of this Solymans Decease the death of Solyman about 1566. till now little or no attempts were made this way by his Successors for Amurah his son who threatned more then he dared Mahomet and Achmat were Princes given to quiet and Home-Delights so that most men conjectured this Empire was at its Zenith and Solstice and full stop and would decline as fast as it rose and that glory wearied with such a train of greatness would flag at last if not be pulled back again with the weight of them the death of Achmat the first and crush it to nothing And this was concluded after the Achmat when immediately followed such Convulsions in that State and recedings from those observed rules of policy which were the security of its establishment viz. the saving the lives of the younger brethren of the Emperour as Achmat did by Mustaphas and he by Achmats three Sons Osman who at twelve years of age had the Government transfered to him from his Uncle Mustapha who from a bookish and contemplative stoick was become an active and busie Tyrant and for that reason deposed again and was afterward strangled by the tumultuary Janizaries Amurath or Morat and Ibrahim the Father of the present Emperonr who all reigned successively of which three Morat proved a most Heroique Prince and of as great if not greater spirit then any of his Progenitors He dyed in 1640. at the siege of Bagdate alias Babilon whether he had designed the Janizaries for slaughter and excerpation as being the causes and Agents of all those troubles and disloyalties which had happened to his Brother and Uncle intended in their room to erect a new kind of standing Militia which should be more absolutely at his command Being