The bank of Navarino still hung over the Ionian Sea when news of the catastrophe reached Istanbul. Mahmud II, the stern and miscarrying sultan, entered the reports with unbelief. The obliteration of his cortege was n't simply a military disaster it was a demotion, a public stripping of sovereignty. For centuries, the Banquettes had mandated the balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean. Now, in a single autumn of fire and thunder, the combined lines of Britain, France, and Russia had demonstrated that the conglomerate could be chastened, constrained, and indeed destroyed by the very powers it formerly considered inferior. The echoes of cannon fire from Navarino resounded far beyond the Aegean, motioning the morning of a new political order.