Secure from destruction by any foes but those of his own household, as none knew better than he, the reigning Osmanli was scheming to regain the independence and dignity of his forefathers.  Himself a creature of the Janissaries, Mahmud had plotted the abolition of his creators from the first year of his reign, but making a too precipitate effort after the conclusion of peace with Russia, had ignominiously failed and fallen into worse bondage than ever.  Now, better assured of his imperial position and supported by leading men of all classes among his subjects, he returned not only to his original enterprise but to schemes for removing other checks on the power of the sovereign which had come into being in the last two centuries—­notably the feudal independence of the Dere Beys, and the irresponsibility of provincial governors.

Probably Mahmud II—­if he is to be credited with personal initiation of the reforms always associated with his name—­was not conscious of any purpose more revolutionary than that of becoming master in his own house, as his ancestors had been.  What he ultimately accomplished, however, was something of much greater and more lasting moment to the Osmanli state.  It was nothing less than the elimination of the most Byzantine features in its constitution and government.  The substitution of national forces for mercenary praetorians:  the substitution of direct imperial government of the provinces for devolution to seigneurs, tribal chiefs, and irresponsible officers:  the substitution of direct collection for tax-farming:  and the substitution of administration by bureaucrats for administration by household officers—­these, the chief reforms carried through under Mahmud, were all anti-Byzantine.  They did not cause the Osmanli state to be born anew, but, at least, they went far to purge it of original sin.

That Mahmud and his advisers could carry through such reforms at all in so old a body politic is remarkable:  that they carried them through amid the events of his reign is almost miraculous.  One affront after another was put on the Sultan, one blow after another was struck at his empire.  Inspired by echoes of the French Revolution and by Napoleon’s recognition of the rights of nationalities, first the Serbs and then the Greeks seized moments of Ottoman disorder to rise in revolt against their local lords.  The first, who had risen under Selim III, achieved, under Mahmud, autonomy, but not independence, nothing remaining to the sultan as before except the fortress of Belgrade with five other strongholds.  The second, who began with no higher hopes than the Serbs, were encouraged, by the better acquaintance and keener sympathy of Europe, to fight their way out to complete freedom.  The Morea and central Greece passed out of the empire, the first provinces so to pass since the Osmanli loss of Hungary.  Yet it was in the middle of that fatal struggle that Mahmud settled for ever with the Janissaries, and during all its course he was settling one after another with the Dere Beys!