The period of coexistence of the small Balkan principalities, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman state came to an end in 1421, with the ascension of Murat II to the throne. The young sultan ascended the Ottoman throne, in Bursa, with the support of the janissaries, the ulema and officials of the eastern provinces. The Byzantines tried, in vain, to create a distraction by supporting other claimants to the throne, who were however immediately defeated by Murat.
In 1423 the Ottomans invaded the Peloponnese, forcing Manuel II Palaiologos to recognize their sovereignty again. In the same year, the commander of Thessaloniki, Andronikos, surrendered the city to the Venetians, in order to protect it from the aggression of the Ottomans. In the end, however, fate was not avoided. Thessaloniki fell into Ottoman hands seven years laterin 1430.
The Ottoman tendency to expand into the Balkans continued in the following years.
The Ottoman tendency to expand into the Balkans continued in the following years. In 1438, Ottoman troops captured the Semendria fortress and crossed the Danube for the first time. Although they failed to take Belgrade, they overthrew the despotate of Serbia, whose ruler, George Brankovic, fled to Hungary.
The Byzantines tried once more to activate the lure of the union of the two Churches in order to mobilize the West to carry out a new crusade. John VIII Palaiologos went to Italy accompanied by high-ranking ecclesiastical officials and negotiated the issue in Ferrara and Florence between 1437-1439. The final text of the union was signed in July 1439. The decisions of the council, however, remained a dead letter, since the popular element and most ecclesiastical rulers rejected them expressing their displeasure at this development. A new internal conflict in the Byzantine Empire emerged, that between unionists and anti-unionists.
The successes of the Hungarians were received with enthusiasm in the Christian world, and the pope called the West to an anti-Ottoman crusade.
At the same time, the conflict between the Ottomans and the Hungarians on the Danube front reached great proportions. In 1441-1442 the Hungarian voivode, Ioannis Unyadis, not only pushed back the Ottomans south of the Danube, but reached with his troops as far as the Aimos mountain range. The successes of the Hungarians were enthusiastically received in Christendom, and the pope invited the West to an anti-Ottoman crusade in 1443. About 25,000 Hungarians and Poles gathered to wage war against the Ottomans. They were headed by Unyadis, the Polish king Vladislav III and the exiled Serbian ruler Branković.
Although a ten-year truce was initially agreed upon between the two belligerents, the Christian forces did not show the intention of keeping it, wishing for the dissolution of the Ottoman state. They felt that an end had to be given to the Ottoman threat. After crossing the Danube the Christian army moved towards the Black Sea in order to avoid the main road arteries of the Balkans. The aim was to approach Constantinople from the coast. Their crusade, however, was not well organized. There was no unity in the army.
Murat II transported tens of thousands of troops from Asia Minor to Europe with their ships.
Having received the implicit support of the Genoese, by bribing them, Murat II transported tens of thousands of troops from Asia Minor to Europe with their ships. The two armies met on November 10, 1444 in Varna, where one of the greatest battles of the era took place. The Ottoman army crushed the Christian forces, putting an end to the crusading ventures for nearly a century. The outcome of the battle largely determined the historical fate of the Balkans, as almost the entire geographical zone up to the Danube was now under Ottoman control.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
