Excerpt from biography of Sultan Mehmed:
“By now, Mehmed was displaying natural leadership. After returning from the Karaman expedition, he received a letter from the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, demanding that Prince Orhan’s allowance be doubled. Prince Orhan was in exile in Constantinople and claimed that his Ottoman lineage entitled him to the sultanate. In this letter, the Byzantine Emperor threatened that if these demands were not met, then the Byzantine Empire would do its utmost to help Orhan’s claim to the Ottoman throne. Before Mehmed could reply to their demands, Halil Pasha surprised him with a now famous speech:
*“You stupid Greeks, I have known your cunning ways for long enough. The late sultan [Murad] was a lenient and conscientious friend to you. The present sultan Mehmed is not of the same mind. If Constantinople eludes his bold and impetuous grip, it will only be because God continues to overlook your devious and wicked schemes.*
*You are fools to think that you can frighten us with your fantasies when the ink on our recent treaty of peace is barely dry. We are not children without strength or sense. If you think that you can start something, do so. If you want to proclaim Orhan as sultan in Thrace, go ahead. If you want to bring the Hungarians across the Danube, let them come. If you want to recover places that you lost long since, try it. But know this: you will make no headway in any of these things. All that you will do is lose what little you have.”*
Mehmed’s reaction was more polite and reserved. He calmly gave them a friendly assurance that once in Edirne he would reply to the Emperor. But on his way there, Mehmed’s path was unexpectedly blocked by Christian ships. They had blocked the Gelibolu strait, which prevented Mehmed’s soldiers from crossing. He and his army were forced to take a longer passage and cross the Bosphorus through the Anadolu Hisarı. Keeping his anger to himself, he began to plan his own fortress, which became known as the throat cutter or Rumeli Hisarı, directly opposite his great-grandfather’s.”
