page_title: Ottoman conquest of Lesbos
section_title: Surrender and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Ottoman conquest of Lesbos / Conquest of Lesbos / Surrender and aftermath
context_page_description: The Ottoman conquest of Lesbos took place in September 1462. The Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Mehmed II, laid siege to the island's capital, Mytilene. After its surrender, the other forts of the island surrendered as well. The event put an end to the semi-independent Genoese lordship that the Gattilusio family had established in the northeastern Aegean since the mid-14th century, and heralded the beginning of the First Ottoman–Venetian War in the following year.
  In the mid-14th century, the Gattilusio family had established an autonomous lordship under Byzantine suzerainty on Lesbos. By 1453, the Gattilusio domains had come to include most of the islands in the northeastern Aegean. In the aftermath of the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, however, Mehmed II began reducing the Gattilusio holdings. By the end of 1456, only Lesbos remained in Gattilusio hands, in exchange for an annual tribute to the Sultan. In 1458 Niccolò Gattilusio seized control of the island from his brother, and began preparing for an eventual Ottoman attack. Despite his appeals, however, no help was forthcoming from other Western powers.
context_section_description: Mahmud Pasha drew up a document outlining the terms of surrender, and swore by his sword and by the Sultan's head that their lives would be safe. Niccolò also demanded that he be given, in recompense, a domain of equivalent value. Learning of the surrender, Mehmed again crossed to the island, where he remained for four days. Accompanied by the notables of Mytilene, Niccolò surrendered the keys of the fortress to the Sultan, and begged for his forgiveness. Mehmed accepted, and instructed him to order the surrender of the other forts on the island—Methymna, Eressos, and Agioi Theodoroi (probably near Antissa)—as well. Niccolò complied, sending a letter with his seal to the forts, urging their garrisons to submit. The garrison of Agioi Theodoroi sent emissaries to Cappello offering to surrender the fort to Venice instead, but he refused. After allowing his troops to celebrate their victory in a drunken feast, in which the remaining houses of the Melanoudion quarter were burned down, Mehmed installed a garrison of 200 Janissaries and 300 irregular infantry (azaps) as a garrison in Mytilene, and entrusted its governance to the Persian sheikh Ali al-Bistami.
  Although the lives of all people on the island had been guaranteed, some 300 Italian soldiers were executed as pirates by being cut in half—the Sultan reportedly remarked that he thus honoured Mahmud Pasha's promise to "spare their heads". The civilian population was not harmed at first, but on 17 September, the inhabitants of Mytilene were ordered to parade in front of the Sultan and three clerks, who recorded their names: some 800 boys and girls were selected for service in the Sultan's palace, including Niccolò's famously beautiful sister Maria, who became a member of the Sultan's harem, and her son Alexios, who became a page at the palace; while the remainder of the population was divided into three: the poorer and most frail of the inhabitants were allowed to remain in their homes, but the strongest and healthiest were sold off in auction as slaves to the Janissaries, and the third portion, including the island's nobility, were shipped off to repopulate Constantinople. Altogether, some 10,000 inhabitants of the island were violently uprooted from their homes, some of whom perished in the overcrowded ships conveying them to Constantinople and the slave markets. Niccolò Gattilusio himself was also taken to Constantinople, along with his cousin Luchino. They converted to Islam in an effort to save their lives, but were soon after strangled on Mehmed's orders.
  When the First Ottoman–Venetian War broke out in the next year, the former Gattilusio domains were an obvious target for the Christian fleets. But although the Venetians captured Lemnos in 1464, followed by Imbros, Tenedos, and Samothrace, these conquests proved ephemeral, as they were either recaptured by the Turks or abandoned at war's end. In April 1464, the Venetians under Orsato Giustiniano laid siege to Mytilene, but were forced to withdraw after six weeks of fruitless attacks, taking as many of the Christian inhabitants with them as they could. The island remained under Ottoman rule for four and a half centuries, until captured by the Kingdom of Greece on 22 November 1912, during the First Balkan War.
caption: Portrait of Mehmed II by Gentile Bellini
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