In 1492 Kazimir IV fell ill while visiting Lithuania, and hastened toward Poland; but he died on the way, at Grodno. In his will he had designated his second son, Yan Albrecht, to the Polish throne, and Alexander, his third son, to the throne of Lithuania. The Poles and Lithuanians afterward confirmed each selection.
During Kazimir’s time rose the Khanate of the Crimea. Information touching the origin of this Crimean dynasty is obscure and misleading. There is a tradition that the Black Sea Horde, crushed by civil war, after Edigai’s death chose as Khan a certain Azi, one of Jinghis Khan’s descendants. In childhood, Azi’s life had been saved in Lithuania, and he was reared by one Girei, whose name Azi and his family afterward assumed out of gratitude. Some chronicles describe the accession of the new Khan as happening in Vitold’s time, and under his auspices; according to others, it took place in the days of King Kazimir. One thing is clear, that this Azi lived really in Lithuania, and was descended from Tohtamish, who, as is known, found a refuge in that land.
According to the second account, when Mongol raids increased against Russia, Kazimir was advised by his counselors to establish a Khan who might be devoted to Poland, and opposed to the Golden Horde rulers. So advantage was taken of the tendency to establish a Mongol state on the Black Sea.
In 1446 the king sent Azi Girei to the Crimea with a convoy of his own men, commanded by Radzivill, and on his arrival, the murzas made him Khan. Besides the Crimean populations, Girei had under him the Nogai Horde, which lived between the Sea of Azoff and the Dnieper. In general he is considered the real founder of the Khanate. This separation of the lands along the Black Sea from the Golden Horde on the Volga was attended by a strife which was increased through inherited hatred between the descendants of Tohtamish and Kutlui.
Kutchuk Mohammed was a grandson of Timur Kutlui, and under obligations to King Kazimir for his election. Azi, or Hadji Girei, remained faithful to the king all his life, and frequently punished other Mongols for attacking Russo-Lithuanian lands. [[452]]Especially distinguished for such robber expeditions at that time was Sedi Ahmed, apparently ruling in the steppes between the Don and the Dnieper. In 1451 Ahmed’s son, Mazovsha, was sent by him to collect tribute. He reached Moscow in July, and burned its outskirts, but at the walls of the town his men were defeated by the Russians, and withdrew in a panic, leaving everything behind them. The following year, while Sedi Ahmed’s men were making raids in Chernigoff, Girei attacked him suddenly and crushed his forces. In 1455 he was forced to seek refuge in Lithuania, but was later captured and imprisoned at Kovno, where he died in confinement.
The Genoese colonies felt the weight of this Crimean Horde, which extended its lordship throughout the steppes on the north of the Tauric peninsula, and strove to possess the southeastern shores of it. They hampered greatly the Genoese, who were at last forced to declare themselves vassals. The Khan now transferred his residence to Bakche-Sarai in the Southern Crimea, a city existing to the present day. This first Khan died in 1467.
The power of the Crimean Khan was limited to a few groups of people. Of these there were five chief groups: Shirym, Barym, Kuluk, Sulesh, and Mansur, which managed the destinies of the Khanate. Their influence was felt mainly in choosing each new Khan. Since the Khans had many sons, the indefiniteness of succession caused dreadful quarrels and bloodshed. Such struggles were frequent. Girei, who left several sons, was succeeded by his eldest son, Nordoulat, but Mengli Girei, one of the younger sons, got the throne later. This renowned Khan more than once experienced the vicissitudes of fortune. He mounted the throne many times, and was driven from it each time by rivals, but at last he fixed himself firmly, through the aid of the Osmanli.
In 1453 the Byzantine Empire fell. The Genoese had given active assistance to the Empire in its agony, and hence they had suffered severely from Mohammed II, whose first work was to ravage Galata, the Genoese suburb. In 1475 a strong Turkish fleet attacked Kaffa (Theodosia). Internal dissensions, treason and the imbecility of the local power helped the Turks to get possession of the city. Among merchants robbed and slain were many Muscovites. After this the Turks subjected other Cumean colonies from Italy. We know not exactly what rôle Girei played in these [[453]]events; we know that he soon after recognized the Sultan as suzerain, and that Turkish garrisons were established in various towns on the Black Sea.
The Crimean Khans, freed recently from subjection to Sarai, fell under the far stronger grasp of the Osmanli, but Mengli Girei, relying on the Sultan, established himself firmly, and continued the policy of his father. As to Sarai, he was its worst enemy, and was ever ready to aid its opponents. He did not, however, carry out his father’s projects with reference to Lithuania and Poland.
Never had the Lithuanian state suffered such terrible blows as from Mengli Girei, in whose day the Crimean Horde received that robber character which for three hundred years made it famous. It tormented specially Russian regions connected with Poland, by seizing great numbers of captives, who, forced into slavery, were taken as living wares to the markets of the Osmanli.