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| Siege of Smederevo | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lithography of the castle of Smederevo byAdolph Friedrich Kunike | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Ottoman Empire | Serbian Despotate Kingdom of Hungary | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mehmed II Mahmud Pasha | Helena Palaiologina Stefan Branković Stephen Tomašević | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Small | Heavy 200,000 prisoners[1] | ||||||
Thesiege of Smederevo wasMehmed II's assault on theSmederevo Fortress during his fourth Serbian campaign.
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 theOttomans. Being aware that they would not be able to last for a long time, they preferredOttoman rule over the domination ofCatholicHungarians.[2][page needed]
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 theMorea expedition, he gave 1000Janissaries to Mahmud and sent them to Serbia.[3][page needed]
After taking some important castles around Smederevo, the capital of theSerbs, Mahmud Pasha besieged Smederevo and took the outer walls, but he could not take the main castle and lifted the siege.[3]
However, for the Turks, Smederevo had to fall in order for Serbia to become a fullyTurkish province. For this reason, Mehmed came toSofia to take Smederevo himself in 1459 and marched on Serbia from there. During the Sultan's journey, he was assisted by Serbs. When he appeared in front of Smederevo, the Serbs sent the keys to the castle to the sultan and asked him to be protected. In the face of this situation, the Serbian despotStephen Tomašević was forced to withdraw with the Hungarian soldiers at the beginning of July 1459.[4][page needed]
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 asanjak created a bad situation for the neighboring governments and especially for the Hungarians. After that, the Smederevo fortress became a base for raids onHungary until the capture ofBelgrade.[4][page needed]
