Siege of Novo Brdo (1440–1441)

Coordinates: 42°36′54″N 21°25′02″E / 42.61500°N 21.41722°E / 42.61500; 21.41722
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Siege of Novo Brdo
Part of the
Serbian-Ottoman Wars

Remnants of the Novo Brdo Fortress
DateOctober 1440 – 27 June 1441
Location
Novo Brdo, Serbian Despotate
42°36′54″N 21°25′02″E / 42.61500°N 21.41722°E / 42.61500; 21.41722
Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Serbian Despotate
Republic of Ragusa
Commanders and leaders
Murad II
Hadım Şehabeddin		 Đurađ Branković
Voivode Prijezda
Casualties and losses
Unknown heavy casualties of the population of Novo Brdo

The siege of Novo Brdo was a military blockade of Novo Brdo, an important fortified mining town in the Serbian Despotate, by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. The siege began in 1440 and lasted until the capture of the fortress on 27 June 1441. During the siege, the Serbian garrison was supported by the local community of citizens of the Republic of Ragusa.

Background

Novo Brdo was one of the largest cities in the Balkans,[1][2] and because of its rich gold and silver mines it was the most important non-coastal city in the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries.[3] The Ottomans besieged it without success in 1412 and in 1427[4] using cannons they'd constructed for the 1422 siege of Constantinople.[5]

In 1439 Ottoman forces led by Sultan

Ishak-Beg, who was returning from Mecca, to join forces with Hadım Şehabeddin
and besiege Novo Brdo.

On 6 August 1439 the Ottoman forces under Ishak-Beg defeated Serbian forces near Novo Brdo.

Adrianople.[8]

The Ottomans allowed Grgur Branković to govern his father's former estates in southern Serbia, as an Ottoman vassal.[9]

Siege

The layout of the Novo Brdo Fortress

In 1440, after the failure at Belgrade,[10][11] the Ottoman forces commanded by the beylerbey (the Lord of Lords) of Rumelia Eyalet, Hadım Şehabeddin,[12][13] again besieged Novo Brdo.[6]

The garrisoned Serbian forces were also supported by citizens of the Republic of Ragusa,[14] Ragusa having instructed their subjects in Novo Brdo to help defend the town. Ragusans, who were predominantly merchants, were practically forced to resist the Ottomans because otherwise their property in Novo Brdo would be confiscated, like it was in the case of Ragusan merchants who happened to be outside of the town when the siege began and refused to return to it.[15]

Despot Đurađ Branković and his wife traveled from Hungary to Zeta, accompanied with several hundred cavalry and

Gnjilane).[19][20]

In August 1440 Branković arrived at Bar where he stayed until the end of the winter 1440–41.

Vučitrn at the time, issued the requested guarantee to the Ragusans.[25]

During the siege of Novo Brdo its population suffered heavy casualties.[26] On 27 June 1441[A] Novo Brdo surrendered to the Ottoman forces, who then robbed and burned the captured town.[27][11]

Aftermath

Đurađ Branković received the news about the fall of Novo Brdo when he was in Zeta.

Crnojevići noble family trying to assert their dominance.[9] The Ottomans made significant efforts to again raise Novo Brdo and gave substantial privileges to people who settled in it and worked in its mines[29] while its Serb citizens were awarded with trading privileges.[30] Within the next three years the Ottomans re-established the mint in Novo Brdo[31] which began to strike akçe for the first time.[32]

In 1444, during the Crusader

devşirme). Approximately 700 girls and young women were given to Ottoman soldiers and their commanders.[34] The siege and its aftermath were described in Memoirs of a janissary, written in 1490—1501 by Novo Brdo resident Konstantin Mihailović, who was one of the boys taken. In 1455 the last voivode of Serbian despot in Novo Brdo was Lješ Spanović.[35]

Notes

  1. ^
    Some Ottoman chronicles gives 1439 as year of Ottoman capture of Novo Brdo, while scholarly consensus accept the other primary sources and Serbian chronicles which set 1441 as a date of the fall of Novo Brdo.

References

  1. ^ a b Setton 1978, p. 58.
  2. ISBN 9780362000481
    . In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the settlement of Novo Brdo, near Pristina, was described as "the largest and finest city in all the Balkans".
  3. ^ Babinger 1992, p. 126.
  4. better source needed
    ]
  5. ISBN 90-04-10032-6
    .
  6. ^ a b Jefferson 2012, p. 165.
  7. ^ Glasnik Muzeja Kosova i Metohije. Muzej. 1956. p. 263. Posle toga, uvidevái da ce im biti tesko da osvoje bógate i dobro branjeno Novo Brdo, Turci presreéu karavane Dubravcana i pljaëkaju ih i zauzimaju vazne prilaze ka Novom Brdu. Тек 1440 godine Turci su ponovo napali Novo Brdo i posle ...
  8. ^ Šolajić, Dragutin (1954). Ratna prošlost Beograda. Beogradske novine. p. 47. Мурат је са осталом војском кренуо у помоћ Исак-бегу под Ново Брдо. Међутим, јуначка посада Новог Брда одолевала ...
  9. ^ a b c d e Fine 1994, p. 531.
  10. ISBN 0-299-10740-X
    . Following his unsuccessful attempt on Belgrade in 1440, Murad had taken Novo Brdo with its valuable silver mines in 1441, while Turkish raiding parties plundered as far as Belgrade before being defeated by Hunyadi, who pursued them to ...
  11. ^ a b Vojni muzej JNA (1957). Vesnik. Belgrade. p. 223. Tek 1440 godine Turci su ponovo napali Novo Brdo i posle jednogodisnje opsade uspeli su da ga zauzmu 21 juna 1441 godine ... Posle toga Novo Brdo su opljaökali i popalild.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ISBN 978-0-521-81113-2
    . Şihabeddin Pasha was the commander of the Ottoman armies which conquered Novo Brdo in 1441.
  13. ISBN 978-975-428-015-9
    . Serbian annals record, in July, 1441, §ihabeddin Pasha captured Novo Brdo, the centre of the silver-mining district of southern Serbia.
  14. ISBN 978-0-295-80064-6
    . In 1441 it participated in the defense of Novo Brdo in Bosnia, the principal source of Serbian silver; and twice it gave asylum to the Serbian Despot George Brankovic when Turkish pressure forced him into exile. In 1444 Dubrovnik's fleet ...
  15. ^ Božić 1952, p. 83.
  16. ^ Glas. SANU. 1983. p. 72.
  17. ^ Slavisticheskiĭ sbornik. Matica. 1989. p. 100. ... жене Улриха Целског, а потом у Бар (Зету је jош сачувао од Турака).
  18. ISBN 978-9958-840-00-5
    .
  19. ^ Novaković, Stojan (1966). Iz srpske istorije. Matica srpska. p. 184.
  20. ^ Mijatović, Čedomilj (1907). Despot Đurađ Branković. p. 295. Негде између 1-ог јула и доласка Деспотова у Бар Новобpдска се војска тукла с турском код Макреша.
  21. ^ Božić 1952, p. 86.
  22. ^ a b SKA (1929). Godišnjak. Vol. 38. SKA. p. 286.
  23. ^ Новаковић, Стојан (1972). Из српске историје. Matica srpska. p. 201. .. и како их је 8. маја ослепио, а потом како је јуна те године Хадом-паша узео Ново Брдо и све српске градове.
  24. ^ Odjeljenje društvenih nauka. Društvo za nauku i umjetnost Crne Gore. 1975.
  25. ^ a b Božić 1952, p. 88.
  26. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 104.
  27. ISBN 978-0-299-10744-4
    . The Ottoman conquest of Novo Brdo, a center of silver production, took place on June 27, 1441; see JireSek, Geschichte der Serben, II, 178.
  28. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 134.
  29. ^ Hercegovine, Istorisko društvo Bosne i (1954). Godišnjak. p. 72.
  30. ^ Božić 1952, p. 87.
  31. ISBN 978-90-04-11075-5
    .
  32. ^ Balkan studies. Édition de lA̕cadémie bulgare des sciences. 1988. p. 111. The mint at Novo brdo (in Turkish "Novar"), was the first to start striking Ottoman akçe — as early as 1441, when Murad Il's military commander, the eunuch Sibab ed-Din pasa captured the town, which had the greatest silver deposits and the ...
  33. ISBN 9789999034739
    . As a child, Dimitrije Kantakuzin experienced the siege of Novo Brdo by the Turks, which lasted for two years after the fall of Smederevo, until 1441. He saw the town fall to the Turks, and the citizens rise up again and resist. And, in 1455, when ...
  34. ^ Dusan T. Batakovic, "Kosovo and Metohija Under the Turkish Rule" (in English)
  35. ^ SANU 1980, p. 57.

Sources


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