For years, the Turks of the Ottoman Empire had been on the steady incline as they began to conquer their way through Anatolia and the Balkans, consistently beating back the fledgling Byzantine Empire until they were little else but Constantinople and the despots of Morea. By the turn of the 15th century, it seemed Byzantium was all but lost but as fate would have it, Byzantium was just barely saved. In 1402, Timur the Lame, after years of insulting letters between him and the Turkish Sultan Bayezid I, invaded Anatolia, which would lead to one of the worst disasters for the Turks at that point in the Battle of Ankara that saw the Ottoman Army of 85,000 lose nearly half it's forces while the Timurid Army of between 140,000-800,000
[1] lost 40,000 men. In said battle, perhaps the biggest victory for Timur was the capture of Bayezid himself. This would lead to Ottoman Interregnum period of 1402-1413, also known as the Ottoman Civil War.
Bayezid's son, Muhammed Celebi, by the allowance of Timur, became the next Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, though many historians do agree that if anything, the Ottomans at this point in time were nothing but a vassal of Timur and the position of Sultan was nothing more than to allow the local turks of the empire to be ruled by the royal family that has ruled them since Osman I. Despite Muhammed, now Mehmed I, being confirmed as Sultan, his brothers Isa, Musa, Suleyman, and later Mustafa soon began to turn against his rule, claiming the throne for themselves. The Civil War for the Ottoman throne first began in 1403 upon the death of Bayezid, which would see a divided empire between the children. Suleyman, the oldest, would rule over Bulgaria, Thrace, Macedonia, and Northern Greece while stationed in Edirne. The second son, Isa, would rule over Bursa while Muhammed formed his kingdom at Amasya. Eventually, the fragile peace would be broken as Isa and Suleyman would go to war with one another, culminating in the Battle of Ulubad and ending with Isa fleeing to Constantinople while Suleyman conquered Bursa.
A subsequent battle at Karasi between Isa and Muhammed would see the former lose most of his credibility as a potential ruler and he fled once more, this time to Karaman, only to be assassinated by agents of Muhammed whilst he was in a bath. Meanwhile, the final son, Musa, who was himself captured at Ankara along with his father, was released by Timur to Yakub of Germiyan, a principality and vassal of him, though, after a request by Muhammed for his brother's freedom, Musa was allowed to leave. As this was going on, Suleyman, fresh off his conquests of Ankara and Bursa in 1404, attempted to combat Muhammed's forces only to be beaten back several times, leading to a five year stalemate going from 1405-1410. During said stalemate, looking to gain an edge in the civil war, Muhammed sent Musa across the Black Sea to Thrace to attack Suleyman's south eastern holdings. In the beginning, it seemed like Suleyman would be victorious, winning at the Battle of Kosmidion in 1410, but in 1411, for unknown reasons, most likely bribery, his army would defect to Musa and Suleyman was executed on his orders, granting Musa full control of the European Territories for the Ottomans.
However, there was still the problem of Byzantium. During Suleyman's rule over Europe, he had allied himself with Emperor Manuel II of House Palaiogos. As the Timurid Empire had quickly begun to collapse following the death of it's ruler in 1405, the Ottomans regained independence and therefore, now with the two troublemakers of Suleyman and Isa gone, they could began to focus on internal and external problems. Musa, enraged at the Byzantines for daring to support his brother, besieged the great city for the 22nd time since the City has had it's name. Being on good terms with Mehmed, the Emperor requested his assistance and the Sultan acquiesced, sending his forces to garrison the city against Musa. Unable to break the siege through several sallies out of the Theodosian Walls and having been forced to move out of the city to crush a revolt in his own territories, Mehmed was forced to leave his ally behind and this was followed by Musa pressing his advantage. However, Mehmed had put down the revolt unexpectedly quick and returned with his army in Thrace with the aid of Serbia's Despot, Stefan Lazarrevic.
Soon, the two brothers would clash in the final conflict of the Civil War at the plains of Chamurli. Hassan, Agha of Mehmed's Janissaries, walked out with an officer to try and convince Musa's army to switch sides. However, Musa would charge and kill him before this deed could be accomplished, though he was wounded himself by the officer who went with Hassan. In the ensuing the engagement, Musa's forces would fight well, but the end result saw Mehmed come out on top. Musa fled for his life, but eventually he was hunted down and strangled, leading to Mehmed being the sole surviving son of Bayezid I and thus his rightful heir as Sultan. For the next 8 years, Mehmed I would focus on both consolidating his holdings and expanding in all directions, conquering Albania, the Mamaluk controlled Armenian Kingdom of Cicillia, and the Jandarid Emirate in the 8 years he reigned all while focusing on his realm's stability, though he would maintain his alliance with Manuel II and didn't make any movements against the Byzantines.
This would all change following Mehmed's death as his successor, Murad II, would become the next Sultan. Following his ascension, Manuel would release the pretender Mustafa from confinement within Constantinople and recognized him as the legitimate Sultan. For some time, it seemed Mustafa would succeed in the goal and he would become the next Sultan as more and more of Murad's forces fell to him. However, Murad was eventually able to outmaneuver him and crush Mustafa, forcing the pretender to flee to Gallipoli but, with the aid of the Genoese, Murad was able to storm the city and capture and kill the Pretender, consolidating control over his throne for the time being. Believing that with Mustafa gone, he could focus on more important things, his attention turned towards repaying the Byzantines for what they did by taking Constantinople and ending the Empire's existence, beginning a siege of the city in 1422. However, the Byzantines plotting with several Anatolian Turkish states allowed for the rebellion of the Sultan's 13 year old brother Kucuk Mustafa to rebel and besiege Basra. This rebellion would force the Sultan to call off his siege, saving the remnants of the Roman Empire once again, the third time in the 15th Century no less even though everyone knew the Empire's days were indeed numbered.
Eventually, Murad was able to defeat Prince Mustafa and execute him followed by the annexation of the Anatolian states that plotted against him into the Ottoman Sultanate, though he would not move against the Byzantines again as he planned to expand deeper into Europe and Asia, defeating the Karamanid Emirate, Venice, and Serbia the several wars throughout the 1420s and 1430s. However, everyone knew one showdown would happen in the Balkans. For years, the Roman Catholic Church had been long advocating a crusade against the Ottomans to liberate the Balkans. Finally, the impetus came when Hungarian General John Hunyadi halted a raid conducted by Ishak Pasha of Smederevo before advancing into Rumelia to exact vengeance, all while being aided by the proper heir to Bulgaria, Fruzhin, who had led an unsuccessful revolt during the Ottoman Interregnum.
On January 1, 1443, Pope Eugene IV published a crusading bull and by early may, it was believed that due to all the internal unrest and civil wars, the ottomans were in a weakened state and thus could be easily repulsed from Europe. The man chosen to lead the Crusade was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick I von Hohenzollern, who eagerly answered the call and set about with a 25,000 man army before he met up with a further 40,000 men under Hunyadi, who was ordered by the Queen Regent of Bohemia and Hungary, Elisabeth of House Luxembourg
[2], to participate. At the same time, the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I of Austria, was himself convinced to send at the very least 15,000 troops to aid in the crusade, giving the Crusaders an Army 80,000 strong and under the commands of Albert Achilles, Frederick of Poland, and Hunyadi, though Hunyadi was more trusted to lead by both men as compared to them, he was the most experienced with Ottoman forces.
The biggest success would come in November-December of that year following the Battle of Nis, where the Crusaders bested the Army of Kasim Pasha in Serbia, leading to perhaps one of the luckiest breaks in history. Realizing that the Crusaders where advancing rather quickly to the city of Sofia. In order to combat this, Kasim Pasha and Turahan Bey suggested to the Sultan that the City be burned down and destroyed before they withdrew into the Mountains. Murad II, in an act that still puzzles historians to this day, agreed with the plan and ordered the city to be destroyed so the Crusaders would have to march into the mountains, where the Ottomans wouldn't be at any disadvantage. However, the Ottomans were off by their estimates of how long it would take for the Crusaders to reach the city and were thusly caught off guard and trapped in the city as the soldiers of Hunyadi and Frederick clashed with Murad's men. In the fighting, Murad himself was killed by Frederick after a brief duel and both the pasha and Bey died during the battle for the city itself.
[3]
Following the successful battle of Sofia, luck would turn even moreso against the Ottomans as the Byzantines, seizing the moment, would release the grandson of Suleyman Celebi, Orhan Celebi, to challenge the twelve year old Mehmed II for the throne in Edirne, beginning yet another period of civil strife and conflict that wouldn't see the Ottomans fully recover from until decades later during the 1470s. At this point in time, releasing their business partner had been weakened and was not worth supporting for the time being, the genoese allowed the Venetians to give aid to the crusaders by not blockading the bosporous or giving aid to Turkish forces secretly. With the Empire now being forced on the defensive and enemies all around as the Mamluks came in to support the Karamanid war, Mehmed II sued for peace and the terms that was listed, called the Treaty of Varna, were the following :
- The Byzantium Empire shall gain Athens as a Despot and Thessaly and Edirne for themselves
- Venice gains the Dardenelles and Thessaloniki
- The Borders of Epirus re restored
- Albania is restored and all but a handful of lordships shall fall under Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg's Dominion
- the Despot of Serbia shall receive Montenegro and Kosovo
- Karaman is allowed to extend westwards into formerly non-ottoman territory
- the Mentesh Beylik shall be resurrected as a Karaman vassal
- The Isfendiyarid Beylik shall restore their old Western borders
- Orhan Celebi is allowed to establish his own Sultanate in Bursa
- The Kingdom of Bulgaria is to be made up of Rumelia
- Fruzhin Shishman and Prince of Ansbach Albert Achilles von Hohenzollern shall rule as Co-Monarchs of Bulgaria as Constantine III and Alexander I Respectfully
- Alexander I's heirs give up their claims to the Principality of Ansbach to King Frederick I of Poland and his successors so they can claim the crown or Co-Crown of Bulgaria
- Should a co-monarch die without an heir, the crown passes to their co-monarch as of that time. Should both co-monarchs have heirs, and die, then the crown shall be inherited and split between the two heirs of the co-monarchs. Until a time comes, when either line disappears from the ruling of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, in inheritance, or issue, then the line remaining in the ruling, will become the primary ruling family of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. As King Alexander I von Hohenzollern and his heirs are to rule over the Bulgarian people, as to ingratiate and endear themselves to their new subjects, they are to learn the languages and customs of the Bulgarian people and become proficient with them
- All Christian powers in this treaty shall join in alliance once more should the Ottomans attack any of the Balkan states within the lifetimes of each ruler.
Following the Treaty and its subsequent signing, as well as an enforcement of War reparations, Europe went back to business as usual. The success at Varna at certainly given Frederick I some leverage over the Nobility and the birth of his son, named Wladyslaw to appease the more upset members of the Polish Nobility that disliked the fact that their king was using German names instead of Polish names. The time of peace, however, was shortlived, as in the summer of 1444, Pomerania, believing it had the support of the ever weakening Kalmar Union and the Teutonic Knights, neither of which were true, declared war upon Brandenburg with the goal of taking over Uckermark. As expected, the war quickly went south for the Pomeranians as the Polish Army of 10,000 defeated the forces of the dukes and duchies of the region. By Early March, 1445, Frederick gets them on the negotiating table and convinces them to simply become vassals of Brandenburg and Brandenburg alone. With all the wars he fought in recently completed, he could now sit down and focus on what he believed was truly important, controlling the Nobility and ensuring they nor the Clergy becomes too powerful.
[1] - Estimates vary on the size on Wikipedia from what I've seen, but I think lowballing it and say it's 140,000 is our best guess.
[2] - No Wladyslaw III, Ladislaus the Posthumous can become King of Bohemia and Hungary even if he had to wait quite a while through regency
[3] - Major POD for TTL's version of Varna and major POD for beyond in the Middle East and Ottomans
Family Lines
Polish Line of Hohenzollerns
Frederick II of Brandenburg/Frederick I of Poland and Lithuania (1413-?) m. Hedwig Jagiellon, Queen Consort of Poland and Lithuania (1408-?) (2 months pregnant)
Leopold, Crown Prince (1429-?) b. Catherine of Valois, Princess of France (1428-?)
Helen, Princess of Poland (1431-?) b. Giovanni Visconti, Heir to Duchy of Milan (1433-)
Phillip, Prince of Poland (1434-?) b. Eleanor, Princess of Portugal
Augusta, Princess of Poland (1441-?) (To be Bethrothed at Age 6)
Wladyslaw, Prince of Poland (1443-?) (to be bethrothed at age 6)
Bulgarian Line of Hohenzollerns
Albert I Achilles, Prince of Ansbach/Alexander I, Co-King of Bulgaria (1414-?) b. Margaret of Baden, future Princess-Consort of Ansbach/Margarita, future Co-Queen Consort of Bulgaria (1431-?)
Alright, so that's chapter 3 finished and done. Now, I'm willing to get some help as for Chapter 4, I'll be focusing on the Papal Conclave of 1447 and gave a major summary of Europe for the next few decades, so if you're willing to help me, please feel free to send me a DM. I'll take any help I can get. As for the update itself, I hoped you all enjoyed it, most of it was background, but after spending pretty much all day yesterday typing up something big, I'm just too exhausted to do much thinking creatively, so don't expect too much for me for the next few days. Many apologies. Anways, hope to hear from you all soon.
Also, credit for the Treaty of Narva that ends the Crusade of Sofia (TTL's name for it) can be credited to this thread : https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/best-pod-for-successful-crusade-of-varna.396628/ with a few changes
.
