The Italian Ambitions of Mehmed II.

With the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed II proclaimed the Ottomans as the legal successor of the Roman Empire and himself as its emperor. He further legitimized his claims by promoting former Byzantine nobility to senior positions in the administration of the state, made Constantinople to the capital of the Ottoman Empire and restored it to its former glory and took great inspiration from the Byzantines regarding matters of traditions of the court. Naturally, this claim of Roman succession was also used by Mehmed to justify an invasion of Otranto in 1480 with the further ambition to conquer Rome for the Ottomans. This endeavor found a premature end, however, when Mehmed died on the 3rd May 1481. Ever since, no other Ottoman Sultan set foot as conqueror on Italian soil again.