Konstantin Mihailovic, the Serbian Janissary

Few Janissaries ever had the opportunity, or even the inclination, to return to the Christian fold. Far less ever thought to record their experiences in writing and for this reason the testimony of Konstantin Mihailovic, the so-called Serbian janissary, is of immense interest and importance.

Konstantin Mihailovic was a native of Ostrovica, a town difficult to locate for certain but probably identical to the Ostrovica about 40 miles south of Belgrade. His memoirs tell us nothing about his early life. Instead we are introduced to him at the siege of Constantinople in 1453 where he claims to have been present, although this may be a fabrication. He implies that he was one among 1,500 cavalrymen supplied by George Brankovic, the Despot of Serbia, under the requirements of his vassalage to the Turkish Sultan. Konstantin's narrative is somewhat stilted here. He wants to record his involvement in this major historical event, but is also reluctant to admit that he was required to serve on the Turkish side. As Konstantin was only a boy it is unlikely that he took part in any fighting, and none is recorded in his memoirs. Instead we have some vivid eyewitness descriptions of some of the key moments of the siege such as the dragging of the Turkish ships overland into the Golden Horn.

By the time his story has become more reliable the political problem has disappeared, because the Turks have now invaded his home country and Konstantin is involved in the resistance against them. This was Mehmet the Conqueror's second Serbian campaign of 1455. Starting from Edirne, the Ottoman Army marched via Sofia and laid siege to Novo Brdo, which capitulated on 1 June 1455 after a siege of 40 days. This was the occasion when Konstantin was captured:

the Emperor [i.e. the Sultan] himself standing before the small gate sorted out the boys on one side and the females on the other, and the men along the ditch on one side and the women on the other side. All those among the men who were the most important and distinguished he ordered decapitated.

The boys were taken 'into the janissaries', and Konstantin was among them:

I was also taken in that city with my two brothers, and wherever the Turks to whom we were entrusted drove us in a band, and whenever we came to forests or mountains, there we always thought about killing the Turks and running away by ourselves among the mountains, but our youth did not permit us to do that.

Konstantin's mention of his youth clearly refers to the unlikelihood of them being able to overpower their captors, but flight was still possible:

for I myself with 19 others ran away from them in the night from a village called Samokovo. Then the whole region pursued us, and having caught and bound us, they beat us and tortured us and dragged us behind horses. It is a wonder that our soul remained in us. Then others vouched for us, and my two brothers, that we would not permit this any more, and so they peacefully led us across the sea.

It is from this time that Konstantin is commonly assumed to have become a janissary. However, we see him in action the following year at the siege of Belgrade, which would not have allowed time for the training required. Also he refers to 'the janissaries' in his account in a way that does not imply that he was actually serving in their ranks.

We may therefore assume that Konstantin was attached to the Janissary corps in some way. His account of the events of the siege of Belgrade is very interesting. For example:

The highest lord after the Emperor, named Karadiabassa [Karaca Pasha ], was standing on a rampart alongside the great cannon observing, and a cannoneer fired from the great cannon into a wall, and the stone, having torn loose from the wall, struck Karadiabassa in the head. He was not alive for long.

The Sultan was then advised to send the janissaries into the attack. Konstantin watched them going in:

and so they stormed until they got into the city. Four hundred and some Janissaries were listed wounded, but also some, but not many of them, killed. Then, in a short time we saw the Janissaries running back out of the city fleeing and the Hungarians running after them and heating them.

This was the beginning of the rout described above. Konstantin's next campaign in the Sultan's service was against Trebizond (Trabzon), a land he says that is 'mountainous and great, surrounded everywhere by heathens - all Tartars such as the great Khan':

And also rains fell every day so that the road was churned up as high as the horses' bellies everywhere. And so with great effort we arrived at a mountain in the Trebizond area. The road descending from the mountain was ruined and blocked.

This called for desperate measures, and Konstantin tells us how the Sultan was forced to destroy and burn the supplywagons and give the horses away. The baggage was carried forward on camels instead. The excellent discipline of the janissaries is illustrated by the amusing incident that followed, because one of the camels carrying treasure slid off the mountain path. The chest it was carrying broke open, disgorging 60,000 gold pieces. The janissaries immediately mounted guard with their swords until the owner of the treasure came along, and when the Sultan arrived on the scene he demanded to know why the whole convoy had come to a grinding halt:

and immediately the Emperor gave the order permitting anyone who could to pick up the gold pieces, and the army moved forward. And it was lucky for those who were there at that time, for some did well in that accident. I too happened upon it but late, for the gold pieces were already where they belonged and only black earth remained, for whoever could had grabbed them up with mud and grass, and from each other's hands as necessary.

The next time Konstantin is in action we find him in the Sultan's advance against the notorious impaler lord: Vlad Dracula of Wallachia. Konstantin's vivid account of the war against this larger than life character is very valuable. He confirms Dracula's use of impalement, and adds the gruesome detail that Dracula cut off the noses from his victims and sent them to Hungary, boasting about how many Turks he had killed.

Konstantin was present at the janissaries' attempt to cross the Danube at Nicopolis:

Then the Emperor immediately ordered that they be given 80 large and well-rigged boats and other necessities for shooting: guns, mortars, field pieces and pistols. And when it was already night we boarded the boat and shoved off downstream in that river so that oars and men would not be heard. And we reached the other side some furlongs below where the Voivode's army lay, and there we dug in, having emplaced the cannon and having encircled ourselves with shields and having placed stakes around ourselves so that die cavalry could do nothing to us. Then the boats went to the other side until the Janissaries had all crossed to us.

Konstantin records that 250 Janissaries were killed by cannon fire as they disembarked, but the Turkish cannon fire and the sheer weight of numbers eventually drove the Wallachians away. The Sultan must have been very concerned over the possible outcome, because Konstantin tells us that he distributed 30,000 gold pieces among his troops and assured the Janissaries that as a result of their service they would be permitted to leave their property to whomsoever they chose after their deaths. Konstantin then describes the Turkish advance to Tirgoviste and Dracula's surprise attack:

we were always on the lookout for them and every night surrounded ourselves with stakes. Despite this we couldn't always protect ourselves, for striking us in the night they beat and killed men, horses and camels and cut down tents so that they killed several thousand Turks and did the Emperor great harm. And other Turks fleeing before them towards the Janissaries, the Janissaries also beat back and killed so as not to be trampled by them.

Konstantin spares us a description of the 'forest of the impaled'. Perhaps his lowly rank did not permit him to ride so close to the vanguard and the Sultan? In any case the campaign ended soon, and Konstantin's memoirs go on to tell us about his involvement in the Bosnian campaign of 1463, an action that had fateful personal consequences for him.

And so we marched to Bosnia and came to the lands of a Bosnian prince named Kovacevic. Not knowing that the Emperor was on the march they surrendered to the Empeor. Then they cut off his head ... And from tliere we marched into the King's land and he (the Sultan) first besieged a fortress called Bobovac. Not having cannon with him he had them cast there below the fortress, and he took the fortress by battering it with these guns.

Bobovac was a small castle in eastern Bosnia. The Bosnian King Tomas fled from his capital of Jajce at the approach of the Turkish Army, hoping to reach Croatia. Part of the Ottoman Army went in pursuit of him while the Sultan besieged Jajce. The king eventually surrendered at the fortress of Kljuc:

And Machmutbassa, having heard this, besieged the fortress, and the next day he negotiated with the king [to come] down from the fortress, swearing on books of soap, of which there was earlier discussion, promising that nothing would happen to his neck.

The curious comments about swearing on 'books of soap' rather than the Koran is a fabrication inserted by Konstantin to show the deceit of Mahmut Pasha, because King Tomas surrendered and was executed. In reality Mahmut Pasha was sincere in his desire to save the Bosnian king's life but was overruled by the Sultan.

At the end of the Bosnian campaign Konstantin Mihailovic was left with a garrison of Janissaries to defend the fortress of Zvecaj. He appears to have had considerable responsibility because he was given half a year's wages for each janissary and had another 30 Turkish soldiers with him. But their resistance was feeble, because Zvecaj was besieged and captured by King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. Konstantin was among the prisoners taken, and when his identity became known he was repatriated to the Christian side, rich in experience and memories:

And King Matthias, having taken Jajce with a treaty immediately marched back to the Hungarians at Zvecaj, and we also had to surrender; and whatever Turks were at Jajce and Zvecaj, few of them returned to the Turks, for King Matthias wishd to keep them with him. And I thanked the Lord God that I thus got back among the Christians with honour.

With this event he abruptly concludes his personal reminiscences. The rest of his memoirs, including a large introductory section, are observations and reflections on the Ottoman Army and society. The remarkable document ends with the words:

Lord God Almighty, help faithful Christians against the ignoble heathens, to wipe them out. Amen.