Editing Pope Pius II (section)

===Crusade===
The crusade for which the Congress of Mantua had been convoked made no progress. In November 1463, Pope Pius II tried to organize the crusade against the Ottomans, similar to what Nicholas V and Calixtus III had tried to do before him. Pius II invited all the Christian nobility to join, and the Venetians immediately answered the appeal. So did George Kastriot Skanderbeg the leader of Albanian resistance, who on 27 November 1463 declared war on the Ottomans and attacked their forces near Ohrid. Pius II's planned crusade envisioned assembling 20,000 soldiers in Taranto, and another 20,000 would be gathered by Skanderbeg. They would have been marshaled in Durazzo under Skanderbeg's leadership and would have formed the central front against the Ottomans. The Pope did his best: he addressed an eloquent letter to the Ottoman ruler, [[Mehmet II]], urging him to become a Christian.<ref>N. Bisaha, "Pius II's letter to Sultan Mehmed II: A Re-examination," in: ''Crusades'' vol. 1 (Routledge 2002), pp. 183-201; ISSN: 1476-5276.</ref> The pope even suggested that if Mehmed were to convert, he would be recognized as "Emperor of the Greeks and of the East."<ref>Pastor III, p. 256.</ref> However, there are historians who believe that the mentioned letter was sent to the Sublime Porte.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/inalcik-fatihi-hiristiyan-yapmak-istedi,bYvo7OTi7E6JUjD0M-cWdw|title=İnalcık: Fatih'i Hıristiyan yapmak istedi|date=14 November 2009|work=NTV}} {{better source needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> Not surprisingly, if it was delivered, the invitation was not successful.<ref>Chloë Houston, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EI0IJhyjNo8C&pg=PA99 "The Prospect of Conversion in Safayid Iran,"] in: Lieke Stelling, Harald Hendrix, Todd Richardson (edd), ''The Turn of the Soul: Representations of Religious Conversion in Early Modern Art and Literature,'' Boston-Leiden: Brill 2012, pp. 85-108, at pp. 99-100.</ref> In April 1462, a public pageant was staged for the pope to receive the relics of the head of [[Saint Andrew]] when it was brought from Patras in the Peloponnese to Rome by Thomas Palaeologus.<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=P1MZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA205 ''History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages'']. Volume 7, Part 1, pp. 205-209.</ref>

Pius II succeeded in reconciling the Emperor and the King of Hungary,<ref>{{cite book|last=Creighton | title= A History of the Papacy during the period of the Reformation| date= 21 March 1882|volume= II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfdJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA457}}, pp. 457-458.</ref> and derived great encouragement as well as pecuniary advantage from the discovery of mines of [[alum]] in the papal territory at [[Tolfa]], c. 1459.<ref>Raymond De Roover. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3ptzaUifK2AC&pg=PA153 ''The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494,''] (Washington DC: Beard Books, 1999), p. 153.</ref> However, France was estranged; the [[Duke of Burgundy]] broke his positive promises; [[Milan]] was engrossed with the attempt to seize [[Genoa]]; Florence cynically advised the Pope to let the Turks and the [[Venice|Venetians]] wear each other out. Pius II was aware that he was nearing his end, and his malady probably prompted the feverish impatience with which, on 18 June 1464, he assumed the cross and departed for [[Ancona]] to conduct the crusade in person.<ref>{{cite book|last=Creighton | title= A History of the Papacy during the period of the Reformation| date= 21 March 1882|volume= II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfdJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA472}}, p. 472.</ref>