Ottoman-Hungarian War of 1444-56
Years: 1444 - 1456
The Hungarians recover their strength after the Crusade of Varna and Hohn Hunyadi is able to lead another expedition down the Danube.
Turkish counterattacks see this "crusade" driven back.
After Sultan Murad deals with the Greeks at the Peloponesse and others who had fought him at Varna, he turns his attention to Albania, whose leader, once an Ottoman hostage, is now a popular resistance leader.
Hunyadi cannot refuse an offer to fight the Turks and in 1448 an army of some twenty-four thousand Hungarians marches south into Serbia.
At the Second Battle of Kosovo, Murad scores another victory against the Hungarians.
This time, Hunyadi has had enough and is unable to campaign against the Ottoman Sultan.
Murad II passes on his powers to his successor, Mehmed II.
Thanks to such victories, the Ottoman forces are able to capture Constantinople in 1453 with only the Italians offering minimal support to the Byzantines.Meanwhile, the Ottoman issue has again become acute, and, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it seems natural that Sultan Mehmed II is rallying his resources to subjugate Hungary.
His immediate objective is Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade).
Nándorfehérvár is a major castle-fortress, and a gatekeeper of south Hungary.
The fall of this stronghold will open a clear path to the heart of Central Europe.
Hunyadi arrives at the Siege of Belgrade at the end of 1455, after settling differences with his domestic enemies.
At his own expense, he restocks the supplies and arms of the fortress, leaving in it a strong garrison under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László Hunyadi.
He proceeds to form a relief army, and assembles a fleet of two hundred ships.
His main ally is the Franciscan friar, Giovanni da Capistrano, whose fiery oratory draws a large crusade made up mostly of peasants.
Although relatively ill-armed (most are armed with farm equipment, such as scythes and pitchforks) they flock to Hunyadi and his small corps of seasoned mercenaries and cavalry.On July 14, 1456 the flotilla assembled by Hunyadi destroys the Ottoman fleet.
On July 21, Szilágyi's forces in the fortress repulse a fierce assault by the Rumelian army, and Hunyadi pursues the retreating forces into their camp, taking advantage of the Turkish army's confused flight from the city.
After fierce but brief fighting, the camp is captured, and Mehmet raises the siege and returns to Constantinople.
With his flight begins a seventy-year period of relative peace on Hungary's southeastern border.However, plague breaks out in Hunyadi's camp three weeks after the lifting of the siege, and he dies on August 11.