The
crowns of Bohemia and Hungary were united in the person of Ladislaus,
who was without children. As Maximilian already enjoyed the title of
King of Hungary, no one enjoyed so good a chance as he of securing both
of those crowns so soon as they should fall from the brow of Ladislaus.
Europe was still trembling before the threatening cimeter of the Turk.
Mahomet II., having annihilated the Greek empire, and consolidated his
vast power, and checked in his career by the warlike barons of Hungary,
now cast a lustful eye across the Adriatic to the shores of Italy. He
crossed the sea, landed a powerful army and established twenty thousand
men, strongly garrisoned, at Otranto, and supplied with provisions for a
year. All Italy was in consternation, for a passage was now open
directly from Turkey to Naples and Rome. Mahomet boasted that he would
soon feed his horse on the altar of St. Peter's. The pope, Sextus IV.,
in dismay, was about abandoning Rome, and as there was no hope of
uniting the discordant States of Italy in any effectual resistance, it
seemed inevitable that Italy, like Greece, would soon become a Turkish
province. And where then could it be hoped that the ravages of the Turks
would be arrested?
In this crisis, so alarming, Providence interposed, and the sudden death
of Mahomet, in the vigor of his pride and ambition, averted the danger.
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