🇹🇷Ottoman Empire Podcast 🇹🇷
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I've been spending the last two days
researching the Ottoman Siege of the Serbian city/town/fort of Novo Brdo.
(Map of the strategic situation in 1455)
This occurred in May/June of 1455. Sultan Mehmed II was down in Constantinople working on replenishing his exhausted army and rebuilding from the ruins of the once great Byzantine capital when news reached him of two very disturbing events.
First, the Hungarian Regent, John Hunyadi was reaching an agreement with the King of Poland and a new King of Hungary was fixing to take the Crown. This meant that Hunyadi could step away from the internal politics of his "fighting with itself" kingdom and turn his attention to his favorite hobby, fighting the Ottomans with every drop of blood, guts, and sweat he could squeeze.
We learned about the military, tactical, strategic, and just overall genius the man Hunyadi was in an earlier episode you can catch here➡️John Hunyadi Episode Podcast⬅️
(John Hunyadi)
John Hunyadi began a flurry of diplomatic exchanges with another trouble spot for the Ottomans.. Serbia. The Kingdom of Serbia, more commonly referred to by its contemporaries as the Despotate of Serbia, was ruled by a guy named Đurađ Vuković Branković. He was 80 years old when the Siege of Belgrade happened in 1456 and he had seen some stuff during his lifetime. Born in the 1370s he was present at the terrible defeat of the Ottomans by Timur in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara. He had watched as one Ottoman prince after another fought against one another during what history calls the Ottoman Interregnum, the Crusade of Varna, Second Battle of Kosovo and SOO much more. Throughout it all Branković kept Serbia more or less independent of Ottoman control by fortifying river passes, building strong fortresses in important towns, generally mobilizing every nobleman, peasant, and anyone capable of carrying a spear and sword. He also centralized the economy to focus on silver and gold mines and the productions of military equipment like armor.
Because of Serbia's geo-strategic situation he was forced to play both Muslim and Christian sides of things. This meant he was obligated to pay tribute to the Ottomans in the form of gold and and the slave children system, Devshrime. On the other hand he didn't render aide to the Crusaders when they came pouring down from Hungary in the 1440s which put him at odds with Hunyadi who twice had him imprisoned when he was traveling.
(pic above: map of Novo Brdo fortress. It held out for over 40 days against Mehmed)
Things were getting tense though by 1454. Sultan Mehmed II, knew then powers in the Balkans, Hungary, the Germans in Vienna, and the Poles would be gearing up to strike after the Conquest of Constantinople. He had to act. As such he put out feelers to the Serbians to see where they'd stand in the event of a conflict by sending out his envoys to the capital of Serbia at the time, Smederevo in 1454. Sultan Mehmed's envoys returned with news that no the Serbians weren't paying anymore tribute in either gold, silver, or children and they were in a formal military alliance with Hungary.
The stage was then set for the upcoming Siege of Novo Brdo. Episode 27 is still in the research stage bur right now this blog post's thumbnail (is that what we're calling it on a blogpost instead of a YouTube channel?) is up and is a work in progress. I hope to have Episode up and out the door fully recorded by the second week in July.
-Frank