On March 30, 1432, Mehmed II was born in Edirne.  It is unknown whether or not his father, Murad II was present at the time of his birth.  Also unknown is his mother's identity.  It appears likely that she was a non-Muslim slave girl.  At age two, Mehmed traveled to the Anatolian city of Amasya, where his older brother Ahmed was serving as governor.  Three years later, Ahmed died prematurely.  With Ahmed's death, Mehmed became governor of Amsaya at age five.  Meanwhile, his oldest brother Alaeddin Ali, was also serving as a provicial governor in Manisa.  In 1443, Aleddin Ali also died.  A year later, when Mehmed II was only twelve years old he was called upon to become Sultan.  His father, Murad II, was fearful that unless he abdicated in favor of his son, a civil war concerning succession might break out upon his death.  As soon as he was sultan his Hungarian subject revolted.   The Hungary army aided their revolt.  Mehmed faced a serious threat to his rule.  His father, Murad II, quelled the revolt and defeated the Hungarian at the Battle of Varna.  Then only two short years on the throne Mehmed II was deposed and replaced by his father.  Seven years later, in 1451, the still teenaged Mehmed II regained the throne after his father had died.  
        Mehmed was a young man with great ambition, one year after becoming sultan he declared war on the Byzantine Empire.  He wished to conquer Constantinople and make it the empire's new capital.  On April 2, 1453 (the day after Easter Sunday) Byzantine sentries notices Turkish troop movements near the city's walls.  By April 5th, a massive Ottoman army had assemblied at the city's walls.  Their siege of Istanbul began the next morning.  The Turks began bombarding the city's seemingly impregnable walls with cannon fire.  The Byzantines had spread a large chain across the Golden Horn to prevent Turkish Ships from Encircling the city on two of its three sides.  Mehmed was not detoured.  He simple greased a path and transported his ships across the isthmus into the Golden Horn.  On May 27th, Mehmed rode amongst his troops announcing his plans for a great assault the next day.  The assault was a major success and during the early morning hours of May 29th, the first Turkish troops breached the city's walls.  It was customary for there to be three days of pillage when any city was conquered.  Mehmed rode into the city that afternoon and called for an end to the pillage before it had really gotten into full swing.  Whether he did this because he felt pity for the city inhabitants or because he wanted to preserve the infrastructure of his new capital (or both) is uncertain.  On June 21, Mehmed withdrew, with most of his troops, to Adrianople.  He sent a team of builders and architects to replace him.  In only a few months construction had begun on a new palace in Istanbul for Mehmed.
        Mehmed was not satisfied with a new capital alone.  He consolidated control over his European provinces and then he reclaimed both Serbia and Wallachia that had become independent after the Battle of Ankara.  After a sixteen years of war, in 1479, he defeated his empire's chief rival at the time, Venice.  This victory allowed him to seized Scutari (Uskudar), which faces Istanbul on the opposing Marmara coast.  Shortly thereafter, relations between Mehmed and the King of Naples deterrioted.  The increased tensions between the two rulers, culminated in a land invasion of the Italian peninsula in 1480.  Ottoman troops took the Italian citadel of Otranto and made that their base of operations in Italy.  Mehmed had hoped to reenforce his troops in Italy and have them eventually sack Rome.  However, this was not to be.  On May 1, 1481, Mehmed complained to his chief physician, Hamiduddin al-Lari, of severe abdominal pains.  What happened next is disputed.  Some believe that al-Lari accidentally gave the ailing sultan the wrong medication, others think he poisoned the Mehmed, and of course it might have been that Mehmed's condition was so advanced that treatment simply failed.  Regardless, Mehmed died two days later.  He had been a brilliant military leader, an egalitarian ruler, a patron of the arts, and much more.