Ottoman

by Christopher Nicole

First published 1990

Amazon

4.4(688)

Constantinople, 1448. English master gunner John Hawkwood brings his family to the Byzantine capital, where the emperor needs his knowledge of cannon and gunpowder against the approaching Ottoman army. Political disgrace forces the Hawkwoods to flee, and capture places John’s military skills at the disposal of the very power he was hired to resist. His change of allegiance begins a family relationship with the Ottoman state that outlives the fall of the city.

Across five generations and more than a century, Hawkwood soldiers and envoys serve successive sultans in campaigns, diplomacy and court intrigue. Wealth and command never remove the danger created by imperial succession, faction and collective punishment. The saga moves from Mehmed II’s conquest of Constantinople through the age of Suleiman the Magnificent to the Battle of Lepanto, where loyalty to the dynasty and loyalty to the Hawkwood name finally become impossible to reconcile.