Early Historical Background
While the history of eastern Europe lies far beyond our present subject, John
Smith's adventures can hardly be understood without at least a skeleton
résumé. In 1453 Mehmet the Conqueror, as he is called today, put an end
to the Eastern Roman Empire. The last emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologue,
was killed when Constantinople fell and became Istanbul. (Smith's
"Seignior Theadora Polaloga" was a collateral descendant of Constantine.)
Mehmet quickly protected his Black Sea flank by instating Mengli Giray as
vassal khan of Crimea and by marrying his son to Mengli's daughter.
(Mengli's son was an ancestor of Gazi Giray, the "Crym-Tartar" whose
foragers captured Smith.)
Mehmet's great-grandson was Suleiman, called "the Magnificent" in
the West and "the Lawgiver" in Turkey, who ascended the throne in 1520,
the year when Henry VIII of England held parleys with Francis I of France
and Charles V, the young Holy Roman emperor. Suleiman startled Europe
by extending the Asiatic Ottoman Empire almost to the walls of Vienna,
when he suddenly died in 1566. The Ottoman grand vizier secured a treaty
with Charles V's successor, Ferdinand I, "along a defensible line" that included
practically all Suleiman's conquests.
This treaty was maintained, despite frequent petty violations, until
1593, when Suleiman's grandson, Murat III, was drawn into all-out war:
the "Long War" of 1593–1606, in which John Smith would eventually play
a small part. Murat died in January 1595 and was succeeded by his son
Mehmet III (both spellings are modern Turkish). Murat had sustained the
empire at its zenith, what with an area of a million square miles, plus vassal
or tributary states.
But no sooner had Mehmet mounted the imperial
taht
(couch-throne) than Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha was defeated by a Christian
coalition led by Zsigmond Báthory, just married to the Holy Roman emperor's
first cousin Maria Christina. Zsigmond's right and left hands were
Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave), voivode of Walachia, famed for his
franc-tireurs, and István Bocskai, Zsigmond's uncle, commander of the
Szeklers who comprised the main body of troops. The scene of action was
Giurgiu, on the Danube, south of Bucharest.
Tangential to the main story, but illustrative of the confused actions in
which Smith became involved, it should be noted that Mihai was independent
of spirit — so much so that he is considered one of the forerunners of the
movement that created the modern state of Rumania. His services against
the Turks at Giurgiu were rewarded five years later in August 1601, by his
being murdered at the instigation of Gen. Giorgio Basta, imperial commander
in Transylvania, after Mihai had supported Basta against Zsigmond.
