In our previous video in our series on the ottomans we covered the battle of Ankara between Bayezid and Timur. As
the speed of the Ottoman conquest ramped up, the resistance against them grew stronger at the same time
internal strife would continue to alter the history of this empire.
Welcome to a video covering the results of both of these pressures as we explained the Ottoman Interregnum and the Crusade of
Varna.
The Ottoman Empire was dealt its first decisive blow at the battle of Ankara of 1402.
The new conqueror, Timur, defeated the sultan Bayezid I and took him prisoner.
The sultan's oldest son Suleyman managed to escape to Europe using ships from Venice and Genoa.
Timur chased Suleyman to the coast but he didn't have a navy so an attack on the ottoman territory in Europe wasn't possible
instead, to punish the Christians for ferrying Suleyman he captured the stronghold of Smyrna and executed its Hospitaller garrison
Timur then restored the turkic beylik's in Southern and Eastern
Anatolia but his enemies in Iraq took Baghdad so he had to leave the region.
this was the start of the Ottoman Interregnum period as sons of Bayezid attempted to consolidate their power.
Suleyman was able to take control of the European
holdings but his forces were still weak and the fact that one of Bayazid strongest vassals Stefan Lazarevic gained independence
after the Battle of Tripoli didn't help. In early
1403 suleyman decided that he needed to negotiate with the neighboring Christian realms.
The Treaty of Gallipoli confirmed the peace between
Suleiman and the Hospitallers, Venice, Genoa and the Byzantine Empire. The
Greeks stopped paying tribute and received a number of coastal areas in the Balkans.
Suleyman also promised to help Byzantium in the event of Timur attacking it.
This Treaty was full of other concessions by the Ottoman prince but it gave him a chance to bring Anatolia under his authority.
Meanwhile Beyazid passed away in captivity.
His other son Musa was allowed to return to Anatolia.
Musa took control of Bursa and nearby lands as a vassal of Timur.
Another ottoman prince, Mehmed was granted Amasya as his domain by Timur.
One more son of Bayezid, Isa joined the struggle and attacked Musa.
Despite early setbacks Isa managed to defeat his brother in 1403.
Musa found refuge in the court of Mehmed who moved against Isa in the same year, beat him at the battle of Ulubad and
took Bursa.
In 1404 Suleyman finally launched his Invasion of Anatolia and initially it was
successful. He conquered Bursa then Ankara but he failed to take Amasya and in 1409
Mehmed sent Musa with a strong army to attack Suleiman's European domains. He was forced to return to the Balkans.
In 1410 Suleiman defeated Musa at the Battle of Kosmidion.
Although it seems that the troops were not happy with Suleyman and in 1411
they defected to Musa who killed his brother and became the ruler of the region.
At this point Musa rebelled against Mehmed and in 1412 besieged
Constantinople as emperor Emmanuel II was an ally of Suleyman.
The Emperor asked for Mehmed's assistance and the Ottoman prince crossed into Europe and aided in the defense of the city against his brother.
Finally Musa was repelled and in
1413 Mehmed supported by Stefan Lazarevic and Manuel II won the Battle of Camrlu in modern-day
Bulgaria.
Musa was executed and the Ottoman Civil War came to an end.
Mehmed I became the Sultan and in the next decade re-conquered some lost territories in Anatolia and took parts of Albania.
His son, Murad II's reign began in 1421, with rebellion.
One more son of Bayazid, Mustafa appeared and as he was supported by the Byzantines he was able to take control of the European
holdings and declare himself Sultan.
However Mustafa's attack on Anatolia failed and in the same year he was executed.
Murad proceeded to siege
Constantinople but another rebellion this time led by his younger brother Mustafa and
supported by the Turkic Beylik's forced him to move back to Asia Minor.
The Sultan defeated the uprising and annexed some of the Beyliks.
In 1424 Murad forced the Byzantines to return the territory ceded to them according
to the Treaty of Gallipoli and start paying tribute once again.
The Sultan then forced the Albanian lord Gjon Kastrioti to accept his suzerainty.
A number of raids were conducted into modern-day Croatia and Romania and he also took even more lands in Anatolia.
With the death of the Despot of Serbia Stefan Lazarevic in 1427
the Ottomans and Hungary started fighting over his territory.
Parts of Serbia were
devastated but eventually it was established as a buffer region between the two states with Durad Brankovic at its helm.
The Plague of 1428 -
1429 halted Ottoman movement but in 1430 the Conquest was restarted.
Strategically crucial Thessalonica and Iona now were occupied.
As the King of Hungary Sigismund passed away in
1437 without leaving an heir the Ottoman attacks intensified and by the end of
1439 Murad took Smederevo and Serbia became part of his domain.
After a period of uncertainty the king of Poland Wladyslaw III was crowned the King of Hungary.
The Ottoman Invasions were worrisome for the leaders of Europe. an alliance began forming around
Wladyslaw and he was supported by the Church.
Wladyslaw and his commander John Hunyadi managed to win a few battles against the ottomans in 1441 and
1442.
At the beginning of
1443 pope eugene IV called for a Crusade and Wladyslaw was joined by Durad Brankovic, Prince of Wallachia
Mircea II and Prince of Bulgaria Fruzhin. They had around
40,000 troops and together moved against Nish.
The fortress was besieged and then conquered and three Ottoman armies that arrived in the area were defeated.
One significant result of these battles around Nish was that Albanian Lord George Castriot, who would later be known as Skanderbeg,
deserted the Ottomans. He would resist the Ottomans for the next three decades.
Despite their defeats at Nish the Ottoman still had an army nearby, this time under the direct command of the Sultan Murad.
The Crusaders approached his position nears Zlatitsa but were defeated.
Fortunately, for the Crusaders, in the beginning of
1444 at Kunovica they were able to win a battle against a smaller Ottoman army that was chasing them.
Both sides were exhausted and although the papal emissaries were against, it a tentative peace was signed.
Serbia was to be restored as a buffer state, the Ottomans were to pay war indemnity and Hungary promised not to cross the Danube.
The ottomans used this peace to pacify Anatolia once again and Murad felt that his borders were now secured.
He abdicated the throne to his son Mehmed.
Back in Europe local Ottoman lords attempted to mount a punitive attack against Skanderbeg in the June of
1444 but the latter outmaneuvered them at the Battle of Torvioll and the ottomans lost at least 10,000 troops.
It is not clear if it was due to this defeat or the influence of the Pope or the
abdication of Murad but Wladyslaw broke the peace and restarted his Crusade in the autumn of
1444.
Sultan Mehmed was just 12 at the time.
We don't know if he was influenced by his advisors or thought of this himself but he demanded that his father returned to the throne.
The letter from Mehmed to Murad reads "If you are the Sultan come and lead the armies. If I am the Sultan I
order you to come and lead the armies".
The Crusading army was moving towards the Black Sea this time around as support from the Venetian and Genoan navies was expected.
Nicopolis was taken and by November 8th the Crusaders were near Varna.
Murad indeed took command of the Ottoman army and approached Varna from the West for the next day.
The crusaders were now blocked and had to fight. The battle took place on november 10th, 1444.
The numbers of combatants are still debated as the Western and Ottoman sources present entirely different estimates.
Modern historians conclude that both armies had at least 20,000 - 25,000 troops.
The Crusaders deployed their army between the Franga Hill and Lake Varna with Polish and Hungarian
forces in the centre, Wallachians in reserve, German mercenaries and Bosnians on the right and
Transylvanians, Bulgarians and Czechs on the left.
Meanwhile the Ottoman center which consisted of Janissaries and Azaps mounted two burial mounds and set up barricades to their front.
The right wing was manned by Sipahi cavalry from Europe the left was made of Siparhis from
Anatolia and Akincis were positioned on the extreme left.
The Battle started with an attack from the Ottoman left but it was repulsed and the Crusader right chased the enemy.
However it was an ambush and the Akincis' managed to attack the Crusaders from the flank.
The Crusader right retreated in disarray.
The Ottomans attempted to crush the left flank of the enemy but they were stopped and Hunyadi went on to counter-attack here.
He succeeded and the right side of the Sultan's army also retreated.
At this point in the Battle King Wladyslaw moved his centre forward with hopes of killing or capturing Murad.
The details are not clear but it seems that initially Polish and Hungarian knights successfully drove the Azaps away.
They were met by the
Janissaries next and that clash decided the outcome of the battle; when Wladyslaw was killed by one of Murads guards
Hunyadi also attacked the Ottoman center to retrieve the corpse of his King but these efforts failed.
The Ottoman right and left encircled the crusaders and Hunyadi had to retreat.
Almost the entire crusader army was lost.
The Ottomans had won against another Crusade and the road to Constantinople was now open.
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