Siege of Smederevo (1459)

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Siege of Smederevo

Lithography of the castle of Smederevo by Adolph Friedrich Kunike
Date1459
Location
Result

Ottoman victory

Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Serbian Despotate
Kingdom of Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Mehmed II
Mahmud Pasha
Stephen Tomašević
Casualties and losses
Small Heavy
200,000 prisoners[1][page needed]

The siege of Smederevo was Mehmed II's assault on the Smederevo Fortress during his fourth Serbian campaign.

Background

At the beginning of 1458, the Serbian question re-emerged and the Serbs were divided over the solution. A large group of overlords sided with the

]

When the Ottoman government heard about these events, it decided to definitively settle the Serbian issue. In 1458, while the Sultan was on his way to the

Janissaries to Mahmud and sent them to Serbia.[3][page needed
]

After taking some important castles around Smederevo, the capital of the Serbs, Mahmud Pasha besieged Smederevo and took the outer walls, but he could not take the main castle and lifted the siege.[3]

Siege

However, for the Turks, Smederevo had to fall in order for Serbia to become a fully

Stephen Tomašević was forced to withdraw with the Hungarian soldiers at the beginning of July 1459.[4][page needed
]

Aftermath

The fall of Smederevo led to the surrender of all the small forts in northern Serbia. By the end of 1459, all of Serbia was under Mehmed's control, with some 200,000 Serbian captives, thus beginning more than 400 years of Ottoman rule.[1][page needed]

Smederevo became a sanjak created a bad situation for the neighboring governments and especially for the Hungarians. After that, the Smederevo fortress became a base for raids on Hungary until the capture of Belgrade.[4][page needed]

References