There is some fear that Rome will suffer the same fate as Constantinople, which had fallen only twenty-seven years earlier.

Plans are made for the Pope and citizens of Rome to evacuate the city.

Pope Sixtus IV repeats his 1471 call for a crusade.

Several Italian city-states, Hungary and France respond positively to this.

The Republic of Venice does not, as it had signed an expensive peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1479.

An army is raised by king Ferdinand I of Naples to be led by his son Alphonso II of Naples, and king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary provides a contingent of troops.

The Christian forces besiege  the city on May 1, 1481, but when the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed II, dies on May 3 without the quarrels about his succession being finalized, the subsequent succession crisis results in the failure to send Ottoman reinforcements to relieve Otranto.

The Turkish garrison in Otranto is forced to negotiate with the Christian forces, which permit the Turks to withdraw to Albania.