Toktamish was put to flight in 1399 by Timour Koutlough, a grandson of Tamerlane who reigned in his stead until 1401, after which the sovereignty of the Horde was disputed and held by several khans, while Ydegou, a celebrated general, led the forces to battle. This old warrior, who was an uncle of Timour Koutlough, seizing a favourable opportunity during the period of these dissensions, and white a son of Toktamish was the ruler, gathered together the various tribes on the shores of the Black Sea, including that of the Nogal of Azofl", and placing himself at their head, formed an independent Horde; but at his death each of his sons strove for the supreme power, which led to civil war and to their own extinction.
The Tatars who occupied the Crimea, at length proceeded to the election of a khan for themselves, when the choice fell, circa 1428, on a youth of eighteen, named Hadgy, a descendant through Toktamish of Zenghiz Khan. He had been snatched from death in his infancy by a poor man named Ghyrey, who brought him up by Google
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
as his own son, and as an expression of his gratitude, Hadgy added the name of Ghyrey to his own, on becoming khan of the Tatars of the Crimea, a distinctive appellation that was assumed by his successors. Hadgy Ghyrey, better known as Dj'vlett Hadgy Ghyrey, subdued other tribes and founded a new Horde, and taking up his residence at Solghat, declared himself hostile to the Genoese, refusing to listen to their overtures for peace. Carlo Lomellino, thereupon marched on Solghat from Caffa, after his reduction of Cembalo in 1434, with the intention of forcing the Khan to terms; but he met with a crushing reverse, aird the Italians were thenceforth constrained to pay tribute to their uncompromising enemy.'
The Khanate of the Crimea enjoyed its independence until the conquest of the peninsula by Mahomet II., who at the same time carried the Genoese away into captivity. The Khan Mengly Ghyrey, a firm ally of the Grand Prince of Moscow, was made prisoner and taken to Constantinople, but the Sultan sent him back to rule as a vassal, having given him the preference over several pretenders, Mengly was afterwards attacked by the great Horde, and deprived for the second time of his dominion, but he soon recovered it, to find his capital, Solghat, completely destroyed.
Upon his subjugation of Kazan and No\^orod, John III., Grand Prince of Moscow, entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with Mengly Ghyrey, with the determination of resisting the pretensions of the Great Horde which had oppressed Russia for more than two centuries, and upon the first occasion of the ambassadors presenting themselves according to custom, to demand the yearly tribute, bearing with them the basma or imi^e of ' Heyil, Le Cotomt, &c. ii. p. 146.
t, Google the Khan, John seized the emblem, and dashed it to the ground, commanding at the same time that the ministers should be put to death, one only being left alive to carry back the tale,'
Ahmed, the Khan of the Great Horde, then set out to invade Russia, and his army and that of the Grand Prince met on the banks of the Ougra. Whilst Ahmed awaited his allies the Lithuanians before taking the offensive, Mengly Ghyrey was giving them battle, and the Russian prince remaining undecided, awaited the Tatar attack; but the opposing armies were overtaken by winter, and Ivan having withdrawn to Borofsk, Ahmed turned back, to meet with his death at the hands of a rival at Azoff, The assassination of Ahmed led to the breaking up of the Horde, which was completely annihilated in 1502 by the Crimean khan, and Russia thenceforth breathed more freely.
Notwithstanding the close alliance that had existed between
Russia and Mengly Ghyrey, that khan, at the instigation of
Lithuania, invaded the Russian provinces as far as Riazan.
His successor destroyed Varonesh and Nijny Novgorod by fire,
and besieged Moscow, but withdrew upon the Grand Prince Vassily consenting to pay tribute. The southern provinces thereafter became the battle-fields on which the Muscovite princes fought for their independence against the Crimean khans, who, like the
Great Horde, sought to enforce the payment of tribute. The rigorous nature of the climate kept the destructive hosts from permanently occupying the plains of Russia, and they contented