Meñli I Giray

Prince Isaac of Theodroro, the final rump state of the Eastern Roman Empire, had engaged in a rapprochement with the Genoese at Caffa in the face of the mounting Ottoman danger, and has wed his sister Maria Asanina Palaiologina to Stephen the Great, ruler of Moldavia.

His increasingly pro-Ottoman stance in later years, however, leads to his overthrow by his brother Alexander, with Stephen’s backing.

This comes too late to save Theodoro: Gedik Ahmed Pasha, who also fought against Venetians in the Mediterranean, is dispatched in 1475 by the Sultan to aid the Crimean Khanate against Genoese forces.

He conquers Caffa, Soldaia, Cembalo and other Genoese castles as well as the Principality of Theodoro, after a three-month siege of its capital, Mangup.

Alexander and his family are taken captive to Constantinople, where the prince is beheaded, his son is forcibly converted to Islam, and his wife and daughters become part of the Sultan's harem.

Gedik Ahmed Pasha also rescues the Khan of Crimea, Meñli I Giray, from Genoese forces.

As a result of this campaign, Crimea and Circassia enter into the Ottoman sphere of influence.

The Crimean Khanate originated in the early fifteenth century when certain clans of the Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in the the Kipchak Steppes of today's Ukraine and southern Russia and decided to make Crimea their yurt (homeland).

At that time, the Golden Horde of the Mongol empire had governed the Crimean peninsula as an ulus since 1239, with its capital at Qirim (Staryi Krym).

The local separatists had invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne, Hacı Giray, to become their khan.

Accepting their invitation, Hacı Giray had traveled from exile in Lithuania and warred for independence against the Horde from 1420 to 1441, in the end achieving success.

He then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449, after which he moved its capital to Qırq Yer (today part of Bahçeseray).

The khanate includes the Crimean Peninsula (except the south and southwest coast and ports, controlled by the Republic of Genoa) as well as the adjacent steppe.

Following the death of Hacı I Giray in 1466, his sons have contended against each other to succeed him.

The Ottomans had intervened and installed one of them, Meñli I Giray, on the throne for some months until he was deposed by his brother Nur Devlet.

Meñli had been restored to the throne in January 1469, but loses power again in March 1475 as a result of a rebellion of the rival brothers and nobility.

In 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha, conquer the Greek Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at Cembalo, Soldaia, and Caffa (modern Feodosiya).

The Empire annexes the Crimean coast, but recognizes the legitimacy of the khanate rule of the steppes, as the khans are descendants of Genghis Khan.

Henceforth the khanate is a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman sultan will wield veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans.

Menli I Giray, now become a vassal of the sultan, takes the imperial title "Sovereign of Two Continents and Khan of Khans of Two Seas."

Mehmed invades Moldavia in 1476 with an army of one hundred and fifty thousand, which is joined by ten thousand Wallachians under Laiotă and thirty thousand Tatars under Meñli I Giray.

The Tatars, who call for a Holy War, attack with their cavalry from the north and start to pillage the country.

The Moldavians give chase after them, routing and killing most of them.

Giray writes to Mehmed that he cannot wage more war against Stephen, as he has lost his son and two brothers, and has returned with only one horse.

In July 1476, after killing thirty thousand Ottomans troops, Stephen is defeated at the Battle of Valea Albă.

However, the Ottomans are unsuccessful in their siege of the Suceava citadel and …

…the Neamţ fortress, while …

…Laiotă is forced to retreat back to Wallachia when Vlad and Stefan Báthory, Voivode of Transylvania, gives chase with an army of thirty thousand.

Stephen assembles his army and invades Wallachia from the north, while Vlad and Báthory invade from the west.

Laiotă flees, and in November, Vlad Țepeș is installed on the Wallachian throne.

He receives two hundred loyal knights from Stephen to serve as his loyal bodyguards, but his army remains small.

When Laiotă returns, Vlad Tepes goes to battle and is killed by the Janissaries near Bucharest in December 1476.

Laiotă again occupies the Wallachian throne, which prompts Stephen to make another return to Wallachia and dethrone Laiotă for the fifth and last time, while a Dăneşti, Ţepeluş, is established as ruler of the country.

Following the assassination of Ahmed Khan bin Küchük of the Great Horde in 1481, his sons had feuded for power, only further weakening the Horde.

Historically allied with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Horde has been fighting with the Crimean Khanate, allied with the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Lithuania in 1500 had allied once again with the Great Horde, when the Muscovite–Lithuanian War resumed.

Khan Sheikh Ahmed in 1501 attacks Muscovite forces near Rylsk, ...

…Novhorod-Siverskyi, and …

…Starodub.

Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon, preoccupied with his succession in the Kingdom of Poland, does not participate in the campaign.

A harsh winter in the territory of the Great Horde, combined with the burning of the steppe by Meñli I Giray, Khan of the Crimean Khanate, results in famine among Sheikh Ahmed's forces.

Many of his men desert him and the remainder are defeated on the Sula River in June 1502.

The Crimean Tatars destroy the Great Horde, a Lithuanian ally, when its capital New Sarai is conquered in 1502.

The Crimean Khan seizes most of the Great Horde's people and herds and moves them to the Crimea.

Shaikh Akhmat flees.

He is next reported near Kazan with four thousand horsemen, negotiating with Muscovy.