Ottoman and Hungarian Wars

1. Ottoman–Hungarian wars Text Wikipedia, slideshow Anders Dernback

2. Background In the century after the death of Osman I in 1326, Ottoman rule began to extend over the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, slowly at first and later in earnest. Gallipoli was captured in 1354, severing the Byzantine Empire from its continental territories the important city of Thessaloniki. Making it larger than London at the time. (with a greater population than London at the time) was captured from the Venetians in 1387, and the Turkish victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into the rest of Europe.

3. Ottoman Empire

4. As the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman I (d. 1323/4), a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, with many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River. A Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Bapheus in 1302 contributed to Osman's rise as well. It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the lack of sources surviving from this period. The Gaza Thesis theory popular during the twentieth century credited their success to their rallying of religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, but it is now highly criticised and no longer generally accepted by historians, and no consensus on the nature of the early Ottoman state's expansion has replaced it Ottoman Empire Rise (c. 1299–1453)

5. In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osman's son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326, making it the new capital of the Ottoman state and supplanting Byzantine control in the region. The important port city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387 and sacked. The Ottoman victory in Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, widely regarded as the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages, failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottoman Turks. As the Turks expanded into the Balkans, the conquest of Constantinople became a crucial objective. The Ottomans had already wrested control of nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the strong defence of Constantinople's strategic position on the Bosphorus Strait made it difficult to conquer. In 1402, the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when the Turco-Mongol leader Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, invaded Ottoman Anatolia from the east. In the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Timur defeated the Ottoman forces and took Sultan Bayezid I as a prisoner, throwing the empire into disorder. The ensuing civil war.

6. The Balkan territories lost by the Ottomans after 1402, including Thessaloniki, Macedonia, and Kosovo, were later recovered by Murad II between the 1430s and 1450s. On 10 November 1444, Murad repelled the Crusade of Varna by defeating the Hungarian, Polish, and Wallachian armies under Władysław III of Poland (also King of Hungary) and John Hunyadi at the Battle of Varna, although Albanians under Skanderbeg continued to resist. Four years later, John Hunyadi prepared another army of Hungarian and Wallachian forces to attack the Turks, but was again defeated at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448. The son of Murad II, Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized both state and military, and on 29 May 1453 conquered Constantinople. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion. Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Iran, in the Battle of Chaldiran. Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars. Ottoman forces besieged the Spanish garrison of Castelnuovo in 1539. France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became strong allies. The French conquests of Nice (1543) and Corsica (1553) occurred as a joint venture between the forces of the French king Francis I and Suleiman.

7. The extent of the Ottoman Empire in 1566, upon the death of Suleiman the Magnificent

8. Vlad Vlad the Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Dracula Vlad Drăculea 1428/31 – 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. the Impaler Impaler He was the second son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436. Vlad and his younger brother, Radu, were held as hostages in the Ottoman Empire in 1442 to secure their father's loyalty. Vlad's father and eldest brother, Mircea, were murdered after John Hunyadi, regent-governor of Hungary, invaded Wallachia in 1447.

9. Lands ruled around 1390 by Vlad the Impaler's grandfather, Mircea I of Wallachia (the lands on the right side of the Danube had been lost to the Ottomans before Vlad's reign)

10. Ottoman–Hungarian wars The Ottoman–Hungarian Wars were a series of battles between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Following the Byzantine Civil War, the Ottoman capture of Gallipoli, and the decisive Battle of Kosovo, the Ottoman Empire was poised to conquer the entirety of the Balkans and also sought and expressed desire to expand further north into Central Europe beginning with the Hungarian lands. Hungarian defenders in Belgrade (1456) part of the Ottoman Wars in Europe

11. Siege of Belgrade (in Hungarian: Nándorfehérvár) 1456. Hünername 1584

12. Crusades of Varna Initial Hungarian success culminated in the Crusade of Varna, though without significant outside support the Hungarians were defeated. Nonetheless the Ottomans suffered more defeats at Belgrade, even after the conquest of Constantinople. In particular, the notorious Vlad the Impaler, with limited Hungarian help, resisted Ottoman rule until the Ottomans placed his brother, a man less feared and less hated by the populace, on the throne of Wallachia. Ottoman success was once again halted at Moldavia due to Hungarian intervention, but the Turks finally succeeded when Moldavia and then Belgrade fell to Bayezid II and Suleiman the Magnificent, respectively.

13. Fortress of Belgrade as it looked in the Middle Ages. The lower and upper town with the palace are visible.

14. 1526 the Ottomas crushed the Hungarian army In 1526 the Ottomans crushed the Hungarian army at Mohács with King Louis II of Hungary perishing along with 50,000 of his armored knights. Following this defeat, the eastern region of the Kingdom of Hungary (mainly Transylvania) became an Ottoman tributary state, constantly engaged in civil war with Royal Hungary. The war continued with the Habsburgs now asserting primacy in the conflict with Suleiman and his successors. The northern and most of the central parts of Hungary managed to remain free from Ottoman rule, but the Kingdom of Hungary, the most powerful state east of Vienna under Matthias I, was now divided and constantly threatened by Ottoman ambitions in the region.

15. The Battle of Nicopolis, as depicted by Turkish miniaturist

16. Result Flag of Ottoman Empire Date1366–1526 Location Central Europe (Kingdom of Hungary), Eastern Europe (Moldavia), Balkans (Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, and Wallachia) Result Flag of Hungary Ottoman victory, Hungarian Kingdom partitioned, war continues between the Habsburgs and Ottomans

17. Ottoman Empire 1300 - 1683 Territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire from 1300 until its greatest extent in 1683.

18. Balkans and Turkish wars of Louis I of Hungary In 1344 Louis I of Hungary, who would rule from 1342–1382 and earn the epithet "the Great", invaded Wallachia and Moldavia and established a system of vassalage. Louis and his 80,000 strong army repelled the Serbian Dušan's armies in the duchies of Mačva and principality of Travunia in 1349. When Czar Dušan broke into Bosnian territory he was defeated by Bosnian Stjepan II with the assistance of Louis' troops, and when Dušan made a second attempt he was decisively beaten by Louis in 1354. The two monarchs signed a peace agreement in 1355. The Battle of Nicopolis, as depicted by Turkish miniaturist His latter campaigns in the Balkans were aimed not so much at conquest and subjugation as at drawing the Serbs, Bosnians, Wallachians and Bulgarians into the fold of the Roman Catholic faith and at forming a united front against the Turks.

19. 1352 - 1365 It was relatively easy to subdue the Balkan Orthodox countries by arms, but to convert them was a different matter. Despite Louis' efforts, the peoples of the Balkans remained faithful to the Eastern Orthodox Church and their attitude toward Hungary remained ambiguous. Louis annexed Moldavia in 1352 and established a vassal principality there, before conquering Vidin in 1365. The rulers of Serbia, Walachia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria became his vassals. They regarded powerful Hungary as a potential menace to their national identity. For this reason, Hungary could never regard the Serbs and Wallachians as reliable allies in subsequent wars against the Turks.

20. Spring 1365 In the spring of 1365, Louis headed a campaign against the Bulgarian Tsardom of Vidin and its ruler Ivan Sratsimir. He seized the city of Vidin on 2 May 1365; the region was under Hungarian rule until 1369. In 1366 Byzantine Emperor John V visited Hungary to beg for help against the Ottoman Turks, who were in increasing conflict with the Balkan vassal states. The Battle of Nicopolis (25 September 1396) is thought to be the first encounter between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, where a broad alliance of Christian monarchs and the Knights Hospitaller were crushed by a numerically superior Turkish army under their 4th Sultan Bayazid I.

21. Timur and the Ottoman Interregnum Despite these successes the Ottomans were dealt a major setback when at Ankara in 1402 Timur the Great of the Timurid Empire defeated and captured the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid the Thunderbolt (so named for the speed of his crushing victories against his Christian opponents, most notably at Nicopolis). After a decade of internecine battles, Mehmed I emerged victorious and reestablished the Ottoman Empire and Byzantine Emperor accepted its vassalship and agreed to pay tribute. The Ottoman Interregnum, or the Ottoman Civil War (20 July 1402 – 5 July 1413; Turkish: Fetret Devri, "Interregnum Period"), was a civil war in the Ottoman Empire between the sons of Sultan Bayezid I following the defeat of their father at the Battle of Ankara on 20 July 1402. Although Muhammad Çelebi was confirmed as sultan by Timur, his brothers İsa Çelebi, Musa Çelebi, Süleyman Çelebi, and later, Mustafa Çelebi, refused to recognize his authority, each claiming the throne for himself. Civil war was the result. The Interregnum lasted a little under 11 years until the Battle of Çamurlu on 5 July 1413, when Muhammad Çelebi emerged as victor, crowned himself Sultan Mehmed I, and restored the empire.

22. Musa and Suleyman Late 16th-century depiction of Musa and Suleyman, facing each other Prince Isa and Prince Muhammad Civil war broke out among the sons of Sultan Bayezid I upon his death in 1403. His oldest son, Süleyman, with his capital at Edirne, ruled the recently conquered Bulgaria, all of Thrace, Macedonia and northern Greece.

23. Campaigns of Murad II, 1421–1451 Murad II, the successor to Mehmed I, proved to be a man of far greater military skills then his peaceful predecessor. In 1422, no longer professing suzerainty to the Byzantines, he laid siege to Constantinople, which narrowly avoided becoming an Ottoman conquest. However he had managed to capture lands surrounding Constantinople.[citation needed] With Byzantium no longer a threat, Murad II began his war against his Christian opponents, attacking Macedonia and capturing Thessalonika from the Venetians in 1430. Between 1435 and 1436 the Ottomans made a show of strength in Albania, but the country survived due to intervention from the Kingdom of Hungary, whose borders now neared those of the Ottoman Empire.

24. Campaigns of John Hunyadi In the 1440s and 1450s, the Hungarian military leader John Hunyadi became the key architect of campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. In 1441 he scored a pitched battle victory at Semendria over Ishak Bey. The following year, he annihilated an Ottoman force invading Transylvania at Sibiu.[citation needed] Following this victory, Wallachia again accepted the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Hungary.[citation needed] With the help of knights from western Europe, Hunyadi succeeded in capturing Nis on November 3, 1443, defeating another Turkish army as they crossed the Balkan Mountains and then taking another victory on Christmas Day. Because supplies for the Crusader army were low, Hunyadi concluded a ten- year peace treaty with Murad II, presumably on Hunyadi's terms, for it was the triumphant Hungarian that entered Buda in February 1444. Ten years was the maximum time permitted by Islamic law for a treaty with an "infidel". The peace was short lived, as Cardinal Julian Cesarini incited the Hungarians to break the treaty and attack the Turks once more. However, much of the Crusader armies' strength had been reduced due to the loss (by defection) of Serbia, Albania and the Byzantine Empire.

25. Battle of Varna The Crusader army attacked across the Danube. Murad, upon hearing of the Christian breach of the treaty, is said to have mounted the broken treaty on his standard and said the words, "Christ, if you are God as your followers claim, punish them for their perfidy. The two armies met on November 10, 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. Accounts vary as to how many troops were present but the Crusaders may have been 30,000 strong whilst the Ottoman forces were two to three times larger. Nonetheless, Hunyadi's successful defense wagons held the line until King Ladislas led a charge to his death against the Turkish lines. His head was mounted on a spear where all the defeated Crusaders could see it. Few Crusaders survived the battle, although Hunyadi did escape with his life.

27. After Varna The Hungarians recovered their strength after Varna and Hunyadi was able to lead another expedition down the Danube. Turkish counter-attacks saw this "crusade" driven back. After Murad dealt with the Greeks at the Peloponesse and others who had fought him at Varna, he turned his attention to Albania, whose leader, once an Ottoman hostage, was now a popular resistance leader. Hunyadi could not refuse an offer to fight the Turks and in 1448 an army of some 24,000 Hungarians marched south into Serbia. At the Second Battle of Kosovo Murad scored another victory against the Hungarians. This time, Hunyadi had had enough and was unable to campaign against the Ottoman Sultan. Murad II passed on his powers to his successor, Mehmed II. Thanks to such victories, the Ottoman forces were able to capture Constantinople in 1453 with only the Italians offering minimal support to the Byzantines.

28. Battle of Belgrade 1456 Meanwhile, the Ottoman issue had again become acute, and, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources to subjugate Hungary. His immediate objective was Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade). Nándorfehérvár was a major castle-fortress, and a gatekeeper of south Hungary. The fall of this stronghold would have opened a clear way to the heart of Central Europe. Hunyadi arrived at the Siege of Belgrade at the end of 1455, after settling differences with his domestic enemies. At his own expense, he restocked the supplies and arms of the fortress, leaving a strong garrison there under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László Hunyadi. He proceeded to form a relief army, and assembled a fleet of two hundred ships. His main ally was the Franciscan friar, Giovanni da Capistrano, whose fiery oratory drew a large crusade made up mostly of peasants. Although relatively ill- armed (most were armed with farm equipment, such as scythes and pitchforks) they flocked to Hunyadi and his small corps of seasoned mercenaries and cavalry.

29. Battle of Nándorfehérvár, Hungarian painting from the 19th century. In the middle Kapisztrán János with the cross in his hand.

30. Siege of Belgrade (1456) The Siege of Belgrade, Battle of Belgrade or Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Hungarian: nándorfehérvári diadal; lit. "Triumph of Nándorfehérvár") was a military blockade of Belgrade that occurred from July 4–22, 1456. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror rallied his resources in order to subjugate the Kingdom of Hungary. His immediate objective was the border fort of the town of Belgrade (in Hungarian: Nándorfehérvár). John Hunyadi, the Count of Temes and captain-general of Hungary, who had fought many battles against the Turks in the previous two decades, prepared the defenses of the fortress. The siege escalated into a major battle, during which Hunyadi led a sudden counterattack that overran the Ottoman camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Mehmed II to lift the siege and retreat. The battle had significant consequences, as it stabilized the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary for more than half a century and thus considerably delayed the Ottoman advance in Europe.

31. July 1456 the flottillia destroyed the Ottoman fleet On July 14, 1456 the flotilla assembled by Hunyadi destroyed the Ottoman fleet. On July 21, Szilágyi's forces in the fortress repulsed a fierce assault by the Rumelian army, and Hunyadi pursued the retreating forces into their camp, taking advantage of the Turkish army's confused flight from the city. After fierce but brief fighting, the camp was captured, and Mehmet raised the siege and returned to Constantinople. With his flight began a 70-year period of relative peace on Hungary's southeastern border. However, plague broke out in Hunyadi's camp three weeks after the lifting of the siege, and he died on August 11. He was buried inside the (Roman Catholic) Cathedral of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár), next to his younger brother John. Sultan Mehmet II paid him tribute: "Although he was my enemy I feel grief over his death, because the world has never seen such a man."

32. Turkish wars of Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490) Hunyadi's son Matthias Corvinus was crowned king in Buda in 1458 at the age of 15. In 1471 Matthias renewed the Serbian Despotate in south Hungary under Vuk Grgurević for the protection of the borders against the Ottomans. In 1479 an Ottoman army, on its return home from ravaging Transylvania, was annihilated at Szászváros (modern Orăştie, 13 October 1479) in the Battle of Breadfield. The following year Matthias recaptured Jajce, drove the Ottomans from northern Serbia and instituted two new military banats, Jajce and Srebernik, from reconquered Bosnian territory. Military actions of Matthias Corvinus and the Black ArmyIn 1480 an Ottoman fleet seized Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples. At the earnest solicitation of the pope Matthias sent the Hungarian general, Balázs Magyar, to recover the fortress, which surrendered on 10 May 1481. Again in 1488, Matthias took Ancona under his protection for a while, occupying it with a Hungarian garrison.

33. Battle of Breadfield

34. Wallachian and Moldavian wars 1456 - 1475 Mehmed II's post-Constantinople troubles escalated further when the Balkan principality of Wallachia under Count Vlad III Dracul rebelled against the Ottoman Empire and declared the King of Hungary as his suzerain. The main drive for these actions was Vlad's return to his homeland after being in exile as a hostage of the Ottoman sultan. In 1461, five years after his return, Vlad initiated war with the Turks when he impaled the Turkish ambassadors demanding tribute from him and took the fortress of Giurgiu. Vlad then began a bloody assault across the Danube to the Black Sea, destroying as many of the ports as he could to prevent Ottoman naval attacks. Ottoman attempts to subdue Vlad militarily proved a failure, but his cruelty, which had terrorized his enemies, proved to be his undoing. When Mehmed offered the populace the choice of Vlad or his brother Radu, the populace chose Radu and soon Vlad was again an exile on the run. An attempt to return a few years afterwards ended in his death in battle.

35. Military actions of Matthias Corvinus and the Black Army The Black Army (Hungarian: Fekete sereg), also called the Black Legion/Regiment – possibly after their black armor panoply – is a common name given to the military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. The ancestor and core of this early standing mercenary army appeared in the era of his father John Hunyadi in the early 1440s. The idea of the professional standing mercenary army came from Matthias' juvenile readings about the life of Julius Caesar.

36. A knight from the Black Army

37. Stephen the Great and war against Moldavia, 1475–1476 Mehmed's army seems to have spent itself in Wallachia for the campaign against the Moldavians was shorter and yielded poorer results. In 1475 Mehmed ordered an invasion of Moldavia. Again, the Ottomans often took possession of the field but Moldavian hit-and-run tactics proved effective against the Turks. Poor roads further slowed the Ottomans until Stephen the Great was able to concentrate his forces at Vaslui. An Ottoman offensive was held in check and then finally driven from the field on 10 January 1475. The Ottomans returned in 1476, this time assisted by their allies from Crimea, the Tartars and their newly conquered Vassal of Wallachia. Stephen knew that he did not have the resources to defend his people and evacuated them to the mountains. After a failed attack on the Ottoman vanguard Stephen seemed on the brink of defeat when King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary offered assistance. The Ottomans withdrew when the Hungarians began moving in and fighting did not resume until 1484.

38. Bayezid II 1481–1512 The early reign of Bayezid II included a small civil war against his brother Jem, who escaped to the west. There European leaders entertained ideas of installing a pro-Western sultan while sending a crusade to the Balkans. Consequently, Bayezid did not incite any serious wars with his Christian opponents until his brother's death in 1495. In the meantime Bayezid signed a ten-year peace with Hungary in 1484, although this did not prevent a defeat of an Ottoman army at Villach in 1493. Between 1484 and 1486 Bayezid campaigned annually against Moldavia in an attempt to subdue it and link up with Crimea, his Muslim vassal and ally. Despite two defeats in 1485 and 1486 Moldavia was subjugated. As Bayezid's reign drew to a close he was entangled in a civil war between his sons Ahmed and Selim. Eventually Selim took the throne in 1512 and for the next eight years continued minor conquests in the west, although his main achievement was the conquest of the Mamluke Sultanate. It would be Selim's successor, Suleiman who would continue the war against Hungary.

39. Campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520–1566 Suleiman the Magnificent resumed the war against Hungary by attacking the city of Belgrade, the same settlement that had defied Mehmed II over half a century earlier. Despite strong resistance, the city fell to Suleiman. In 1522 Suleiman took his army to a strategically successful siege of Rhodes, allowing the Knights Hospital to evacuate for the fort. 6 November 1494 – 6 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Kanunî Sultan Süleyman (Ottoman "Suleiman the Lawgiver") in his realm, was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under his administration, the Ottoman state ruled over at least 25 million people.

40. Discovery of the Corpse of King Louis II When Suleiman launched an invasion in 1526 the Grand Vizier constructed a great bridge ahead of the Sultan allowing his army to march into Hungary. Despite eighty days of marching and taking five days to cross the Danube River, the Ottomans met no resistance from the Hungarians

41. Battle of Mohács The original plan of Hungarian King Louis II had been to send a vanguard to hold the Danube where the Ottomans were expected to cross, yet the nobles of the Kingdom refused to follow the King's deputy in battle, claiming that they did so out of zealous allegiance to the King (and would therefore only follow him). Consequently, when King Louis II took the field his army of 36,000 men seemed to be doomed to fail against the Ottomans' 80,000. Louis II (Czech: Ludvík, Croatian: Ludovik, Hungarian: Lajos, Slovak: Ľudovít; 1 July 1506 – 29 August 1526) was King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia from 1516 to 1526. He was killed during the Battle of Mohács fighting the Ottomans, whose victory led to the Ottoman annexation of Hungary. He had no legitimate issue.

42. Battle of Mohács At Mohács the plains of Hungary allowed the heavier Christian knights to launch an effective charge. As the Hungarian knights brushed aside first the Akinjis and then the Sipahis, the Ottoman cavalry regrouped and flanked the Knights inflicting a moderate amount of casulties. The Sultan then placed his Janissaries and cannon into position chained up as an effective line . The Hungarian cavalry took serious casualties from the skilfully handled Turkish artillery. With the cavalry annihilated, the infantry suffered immense casualties as the weight of numbers of the Ottomans and their skill in battle took their toll. When Suleiman the Magnificent found the body of Louis II he is said to have been saddened by his untimely death.

43. After Zapolya's death Zápolya would rule Hungary until his death in 1540. Following his demise, Hungary was split into three parts. The north-west (present-day Slovakia, western Transdanubia and Burgenland, western Croatia and parts of north-eastern present- day Hungary) remained under Habsburg rule; although initially independent, later it became a part of the Habsburg Monarchy under the informal name Royal Hungary. The Habsburg Emperors would from then on be also crowned as Kings of Hungary. The Women of Eger The eastern part of the kingdom (Partium and Transylvania) became at first an independent principality, but gradually was brought under Turkish rule as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The remaining central area (most of present-day Hungary), including the capital of Buda, became a province of the Ottoman Empire.

44. Nikola Šubić Zrinski's Charge from the Fortress of Szigetvár

45. Siege of Eger (1552) Siege of Eger (1552) The Siege of Eger occurred during the 16th century Ottoman Wars in Europe. In 1552 the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Kara Ahmed Pasha laid siege to the Castle of Eger, located in the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the defenders led by István Dobó repelled the attacks and defended the castle. The siege has become an emblem of national defense and patriotic heroism in Hungary.

46. North wall of the Belgrade Fortress from the 17th century https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Severni_bedem3.jpg

48. Hungary

49. A map of the lands ruled by Louis

50. From a small noble family in Transylvania, John Hunyadi grew to become one of the country's most powerful lords, thanks to his outstanding capabilities as a mercenary commander. In 1446, the parliament elected him governor (1446–1453), then regent (1453–1456). He was a successful crusader against the Ottoman Turks, one of his greatest victories the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. Hunyadi defended the city against the onslaught of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II.