Ottoman

 My bedtime reading has been another historical fiction book I saved from my wife's paperback bookshelf cull on the understanding I would reread and donate. This is Alan Savage's take on the Ottomans from Mehmed the Conqueror to Lepanto.

The vehicle he uses is the Hawkwood family. This is a clever hook because most of us will know of Sir John Hawkwood (1320 – 1394), an English soldier who served as a mercenary leader or condottiero in Italy. He did have an illegitimate son named John, but sadly, he didn't arrive in Constantinople before the great siege. Savage has Hawkwood as a gunner, who comes to Constantinople to serve the Byzantines. However, he falls out with a powerful faction and has to flee the capital, with another of his sons being executed. His ship is forced to beach in Ottoman territory, and he is taken into Ottoman service. 

There is a tenuous link to history here, as the Ottomans had a renegade gunner who had originally offered his services to the Byzantines. He was a Hungarian (possibly Wallachian) named Orban. The sultan provided him with funds and materials to build a giant gun. He built it within three months at Adrianople, using sixty oxen to drag it to Constantinople. Orban also produced other, smaller cannons used by the Ottoman siege forces. It played an important, but not decisive role, in the successful 1453 siege. Orban died soon after and didn't create a dynasty.

Savage develops the Hawkwood family into an important Ottoman dynasty, leading armies on land and later on sea. They have a palace in Galata, and can benefit and fall foul of Ottoman politics across four generations of sultans. I won't spoil the story because, although it was first published in 1991, you can get a copy at a reasonable price. And I recommend you do because this is a cracking read. Historical fiction at its very best.

My 1453 renegade gunner in 28mm