Belgrade’s fall to the Turks in the late-Medieval period was not the question of if but of when. The Ottoman victories against the Serbs in the battles of Maritza in 1371, Kosovo in 1389 and in the remaining Serbian lands in 1439 established them as the leaders in most of the Balkan Peninsula. They controlled vast territory south of the Danube, and regularly crossed the river and plundered the Kingdom of Hungary. These pillages provided a rich harvest. Contemporary Turkish writer Asıkpasazade relates that a female slave could be bought for a pair of boots, and boasts that he, although poor, “…bought a beautiful young boy for 100 akçe,” which was a very low value of small silver coins.
Belgrade city and fortress was the last Christian bastion defying the Turks on the Danube’s right bank. In 1440, it successfully resisted the siege launched by the Sultan Murad II. Even though he besieged the city for months, the Sultan had to retreat with his tail between his legs. But, everyone knew that this victory was only a temporary one, and in 1456 the Turks came back with a vengeance. This time they were led by Murad II’s son, Mehmed II, rightfully called the Conqueror. Only three years earlier, the then 21-yearold besieged and captured Constantinople, effectively putting an end to the Eastern Roman Empire. After massive preparations, the Conqueror came beneath the city walls leading a convoy consisting of the janissaries, sipahis (Muslim nobles), Christian vassals, companies of fighters from Persia and Egypt, Tatars, Turkmen, and more. The troops were followed by horses, mules, oxen and camels carrying small ships for the siege from the river, besieging cannons and other devices for destroying the city walls. To eye witnesses, who described the site of the army gathered beneath Belgrade walls like an “earth covered by clouds,” Mehmed II appeared invincible; he was mighty, he could rely on resources from a vast, centralised empire and he was eager to avenge his father by capturing Belgrade.
Local Christians, mainly Hungarians and Serbs, pinned their hopes to John (Janos) Hunyadi, the most influential Hungarian noble in the Southern lands and the fiercest enemy of the Turks. In the 1440s and early 1450s, he had launched repeated surprise attacks on the Turks throughout Serbia and Wallachia, and occasionally even defeated them on the open field. This earned him respect and popularity, and the fame that surpassed him. Arguably, oral songs celebrating his deeds were already circulating during his lifetime, and he remained the great hero of the pan-Balkan epic ever since, called variably Sibinyanin Janko in Serbian epic poetry, Ion of Hunedoara by the Romanians, Jansekula by the Bulgarians and Macedonians, and Ugrin Janko by other Slavs. The Greeks appropriated him under the name of Janko of Byzantium, and his contemporary, Byzantine historian Dukas, compared him to the Ancient Greek heroes Achilles and Hector. Nevertheless, individual bravery of a single leader and a handful of nobles could only have limited results. After Christian defeats in the 1444 Battle of Varna and 1448 Battle of Kosovo, it was clear only a vast coalition of Christian forces could be a match for the Ottoman Empire. Yet, even in the face of this constant and imminent threat, Christian nobility remained disunited and immersed in petty disputes.