Three decades after the Ottomans seized their first territory in Europe,
the Gallipoli peninsula, they crushed a collective crusading effort at the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.
29-year-old Bayezid succeeded his father after his death in battle. Nicknamed the Thunderbolt for his
decisiveness, he captured the Serbian Emperor Lazar and had him beheaded as retribution. He
installed Lazar’s son Stefan Lazarevic as a loyal Serbian vassal and married his sister
to ensure loyalty. But he could not stay in the area for too long. On the Anatolian peninsula,
an invasion by the hostile Karaman tribe, a powerful contender in the region, loomed.
To Nicopolis (1396)
Already under Murad, the Ottomans purchased the territories of the Hamid,
and Bayezid’s marriage to a Germiyan princess provided him with their territory.
This led to a shared border with the Karamanids, led by Bayezid’s brother-in-law Aeleddin Bey.
Fearful of the ever-expanding Ottomans, he established an anti-Ottoman alliance. Taking
the initiative, Bayezid returned from Rumelia and marched his army to the east. He annexed Germiyan,
which had been lost to a Karamanid invasion, and conquered Aydin. Meanwhile, he also defeated the
emirates of Saruhan and Mentese, giving the Ottomans access to the entire western
coastline of Anatolia. Finally, he conquered the Beylik of Isfendiyar before the news reached
him of insubordination by his Balkan vassals. In the subsequent war, he put his vassals back
in line. Bulgaria got the brunt of his wrath. In 1393 he successfully besieged the Empire’s
capital Tarnovo, before trekking northward towards Wallachia. Its Voivoide, Mircea the Elder, was a
Hungarian vassal and fled to Hungary. Besieging and capturing Nicopolis, Bayezid had Sishman
executed. While campaigning in Bulgaria, he also launched a blockade against Constantinople.
Hungarian King Sigismund’s pleas to other Christian rulers were fruitful at last, and he was
able to organise a multi-ethnic crusade. Receiving news of the crusade, Bayezid hastily raised an
army and advanced onto the crusader encampment. In September 1396, the armies faced each other.
The Ottomans decisively crushed the crusader army, cementing their control south of the Danube.
One of the few surviving prisoners of war, Johann Schiltberger, described the aftermath as such:
“Then each was ordered to kill his own prisoners, and the king appointed others in their place for
those who did not wish to do so. Then they took my companions and cut off their heads, and when it
came to my turn, the king’s son saw me and ordered that I should be left alive, and I was taken to
the other boys, because none under 20 years of age were killed, and I was scarcely 16 years old.”
The Ottoman victory ended the Second Bulgarian Empire. Resistance continued
under Ivan’s son and his cousin until 1422, but the Empire was never reinstated.
After Nikopolis (1396-1402)
Thanks to Bayezid’s success in subduing his European vassals and Turkic tribes on Anatolia,
and by defeating the crusaders, he could finally dedicate all his might to Constantinople.
Meanwhile, cities such as Edirne and Bursa grew into international trading hubs and the Rumelian
salt- and metal mines ensured a steady stream of significant income. To the east, Aelladin
continued provocations, and in 1398 Bayezid marched an army to the Karamind capital Konya.
His campaign was merciless but rapid. He executed Aelladin and annexed his territory. Another thorn
in Bayezid’s eastern side was the Eretnid dynasty under Kadi Burhan Al-Din. His territory was
annexed later that year, with its capital Sivas symbolising the Ottomans’ most eastern frontier.
Fearing the Ottoman Might, Byzantine Emperor Manuel II travelled to European courts to secure
support. But little did he know the eventual relief of Constantinople would not come because of
Christian intervention. In fact, when he returned in 1403, the dynamic on Anatolia had changed
significantly. To understand what happened, we have to look at the east of the empire.
In Central Asia, Timur had been expanding his emerging Turco-Mongol Empire for three decades.
He had set his eyes on India, invading it in 1398. But the rapid expansion of the Ottomans
made him question whether heading east was the right move. Moreover, multiple dethroned Turkic
beys fled to his court and encouraged him to take up arms against Bayezid. They certainly
helped his decision making. Deciding to subdue the Ottomans, he abandoned his India expedition,
gathered a large army and travelled west. In 1400 he captured the city of Sivas,
making sure Bayezid heard of his victory. Receiving news about Timur’s invasion,
Bayezid broke off the blockade of Constantinople and prepared for battle.
For now, the Byzantine city was spared. It was around the end of the harvest
season and Bayezid ignored his advisor’s pleas to wait for Timur’s army at Ankara.
Instead, Bayezid moved east with his army. After a long, useless march, Timur’s army reached Ankara
first. Bayezid received this news and returned, a march which took two days.
When he arrived at Ankara his 85000-strong army was in a poor state, while Timur’s
had ample time to line his 140.000-strong up. In July 1402, the parties clashed. The former beys
of Aydin, Saruhan, Mentese and Germiyan augmented Timur’s army. Bayezid’s soldiers recognised many
of their former leaders fighting in his army, and desertion became no rare occurrence. His
Serbian vassals held firm, but the numerically superior army eventually decimated the Ottomans.
By nighttime, Bayezid was only left with 300 men when he was captured. After that,
the mighty Sultan was at Timur’s mercy. In the aftermath, Tamerlane’s troops marched
west, plundering many Ottoman territories, besieging and plundering cities such as Bursa.
Bayezid was shipped around Ottoman territories on display, before passing away a few months
later. To contemporaries, it must have seemed like Timur had demolished the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Interregnum (1402-1413)
Following Bayezid’s capture and death, over a decade of a power struggle among his sons
followed. Already during his lifetime Suleyman Celebi governed the European territories while
his brother Isa Celebi ruled Western Anatolia. Prince Mehmed retained parts in the east. Suleyman
quickly contacted his Balkan vassals, curbing any potential insubordination. Still, using Suleyman’s
weakened position Manuel II managed to relieve Byzantium’s vassal status and gain Thessalonika.
In the east young Mehmed set his eyes on what he undoubtedly perceived as his rightful throne.
In 1404 he marched into Bursa, dethroning his brother Isa who fled to Rumelia through
Byzantine lands. It is assumed Isa died a few years later, potentially murdered. Soon after,
Suleyman sailed to Anatolia and captured Bursa and Ankara. Mehmed retreated to Tokat,
where he propped up his brother Musa to meet the Wallachian vassal Mircea and gain his support.
This initially ended in disaster. Musa managed to get Mircea to support him, but Suleyman defeated
him at the Battle of Kosmidion. Chroniclers reveal Suleyman grew complacent after this victory.
Rapidly losing supporters, Musa tried his luck again one year later and marched onto Erdine.
With barely any supporters left, Suleyman was killed in an attempt to flee.
Contrary to expectations, Musa proclaimed himself sultan of the Ottomans.
Angered by this perceived betrayal, Mehmed declared war. At the 1413 Battle of Kamerlu,
he beat Musa, killing him during an attempt to flee. Mehmed now proclaimed himself the
legitimate sultan. The remainder of Mehmed’s reign saw multiple pretenders attempting to
seize the throne and a four-year major popular revolt under the mystic Sheikh Bedreddin.
During the eight remaining years, he captured parts of Albania, Greece and several Beyliks
on the western Anatolian coast who declared their independence after the Battle of Ankara.
Sultan Murad II (1421-1451)
Before his death, Mehmed blinded his nephew Orhan and sent his two sons as hostages to
Constantinople. He did all this for his oldest son Murad to enjoy a smooth transition. Murad
would reign over the Empire for 30 years. He made serious incursions against Christian territories,
particularly weakening Constantinople. When he besieged the city in 1422, it was like a great
dress rehearsal for the eventual conquest a bit over three decades later. Murad had learned from
the past besiegement mistakes and utilised siege equipment to batter the cities’ fortifications.
But within a year, he abandoned the siege, concluded a truce with Byzantium, severely
impeding its trading routes, forcing it to pay tribute and once again set his eyes on Europe.
Hungary and Venice, worried about the resurgence of the Ottoman Empire, hoped they could pry its
vassals Wallachia and Serbia to rise up. Assuming they would, Murad invaded both Wallachia and
Serbia, crushing any potential for resistance. Before too long, the Sultan twisted Wallachia’s
arm into vassalage. In 1427 the Serbian Stefan Lazarevic died, and King Sigismund quickly
captured the strategically located Belgrade. Murad conquered Golubac and concluded a treaty
with Hungary confirming these new acquisitions. The new Serbian despot Durad Brankovich was
forced to pay tribute to Murad. To ensure his loyalty, Murad married Brankovic’s daughter.
In 1430 he recaptured Thessolinki and began the process of subduing Albania right after.
Considering the size of the territory and the internal divisions between local chieftains,
it should have been an easy task. But, instead, one of the Ottoman commanders defected at the
1443 Battle of Nis. This George Kastrioti returned to his ancestral homeland, assumed
the name Skanderbeg, and led a 25-year-long revolt against the Ottomans, with considerable success.
Withstanding a Karamanid invasion while preoccupied in the Balkan,
he managed to gain some minor acquisitions in Anatolia. The majority of his reign was focused
on expanding into the Balkan. After a military expedition through Wallachia into Transylvania,
he besieged the Serbian Smederevo and Belgrade. Doubling as his father-in-law,
Brankovich fled to Hungary, tirelessly requesting King Sigismund’s aid against
the marauding Ottomans. A relief force under Janos Hunyadi was unsuccessful. Smederevo was
captured after three months, although Belgrade withstood Murad’s besiegement.
Emboldened by his success, Murad invaded Transylvania in 1442. Hunyadi,
the voivode, fought them at Hermannstadt and repelled them. Meanwhile, using diplomacy,
Hunyadi appealed to other European kings and princes to join him in an anti-Ottoman crusade.
Successfully so. The so-called Long Campaign was a military campaign that saw crusaders capture Nis,
Krusevac and even Sofia, before returning to Belgrade due to the severe winter.
In the background, Brankovich organised the 1444 Peace of Szeged, which returned Smederevo
to him. This truce ensured a decade of ceasing hostilities between the Hungarians and Ottomans,
allowing Murad to focus on internal consolidation and expanding
trading routes, hubs and silver- and salt mines in Rumelia. Nevertheless,
raids continued at the borders of Serbia and Transylvania.
At least, internal consolidation was expected. But instead, Murad abdicated in favour of his
12-year-old son Mehmed. Historians still struggle to explain this act to this day.
This, in combination with the positive feedback on the Long Campaign, emboldened the Hungarian
party to organise another crusade, disregarding the Peace of Szeged. Hunyadi broke his oath and
organised another crusader force. He embarked with his king Wladyslaw, Vlad Dracul’s son,
and Rome’s legate Cardinal Cesarini to once and for all expel the Ottomans from Europe.
Skanderbeg too pledged his support. But Brankovich figured his best chance at
retaining his territories was by remaining neutral, and either he or local Ottoman
commanders blocked Skanderbeg from sending his troops to support the crusaders’ army.
Troops from the papal states did not arrive either. Not a great start.
Mehmed received information of the impending attack and summoned his father to assume
command over the Ottoman army. Chronicles reveal he wrote him: "If you are the sultan,
come and lead your armies. If I am the sultan, I hereby order you to come and lead my armies."
Outnumbering the crusaders 4 to 1, they met at Varna in November 1444.
Although the battle initially developed promising for the crusaders, Wladyslaw was
lulled into a false sense of security and was assassinated by Janissaries.
Displaying the King’s head on a spear, the crusaders quickly deteriorated into a rout.
Cesarini too was killed, and Hunyadi only barely escaped with his life.
Battle of Kosovo (1448)
The aftermath of Varna was debilitating for the Ottoman enemies. Hunyadi spent the next few years
improving the domestic instability of Hungary. He even dethroned Vlad II Dracul of Wallachia,
who became recalcitrant after Varna and concluded a peace with the Ottomans,
allowing them to use Wallachia as a springboard to raid into Wallachia.
Things weren’t calm within the Ottoman Empire either. An uprising of Janissaries, most likely
caused by Mehmed’s fiscal policies, forced him to abdicate and his father to retake control. Mehmed
retreated to Manisa, while Murad took revenge against the people who supported the oathbreakers
of Szeged. In 1446 he annexed the Peloponnese and made some territorial gains in Albania.
But before he could annex more territories, news reached him
from Rome. After managing to convince both Hunyadi and Skanderbeg to take up arms against the Sultan,
the Pope had declared yet another crusade. Hunyadi and his vassal Vladislav II of Wallachia raised an
army, crossed the Danube and marched towards Kosovo. Murad took Mehmed with him. It would
be the first time to future Sultan saw combat. Commanding an army outnumbering
the crusaders 2 to 1, they moved towards the west. In 1448 at Kosovo Polje Murad faced Hunyadi’s
army. The armies clashed in a battle which would last for three days. During the battle, Hunyadi’s
Wallachian allies abandoned him and during their retreat, Janissaries slew most Hungarian nobles.
Hunyadi once again barely escaped, retreating to the north. To top it all off, the battered
crusader army received news that in Vladislav’s absence, the Ottomans installed the pretender to
the Wallachian throne, Vlad III Dracula, also known as ‘the Impaler’. As Hunyadi returned to
Hungary, Brankovic captured and imprisoned him. He demanded a hefty ransom for his release. Instead
of helping his lord, Vladislav marched an army into Wallachia and managed to drive out Dracula…
at least, for now. It was the beginning of deterioration in relations between Hungary
and their Wallachian vassal, a struggle that became beneficial to the Ottomans later on.
As for Murad, his final years were uneventful. The victory at Kosovo was one for the history
books and cemented Ottoman control in the region. He passed away three years later,
and his ambitious son succeeded him as Sultan Mehmed II. And this Mehmed now looked for one
of the greatest objects to conquer, to restore his authority and confirm his independence.
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