The Crusade of 1456 offers translations of key sources from an often overlooked yet consequential event in fifteenth-century Europe.
In July 1456, a massive Turkish army settled in before Belgrade, an ancient city at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. The army’s leader was the twenty-four-year-old Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, "the Conqueror," who sought to take one of the most strategically important fortifications in southeastern Europe. Three weeks later, Mehmed’s army was driven from Belgrade by a Hungarian warlord and his army, along with a ragtag force of ill-equipped crusaders.
In The Crusade of 1456, James D. Mixson gathers together the key primary sources for understanding the events that led to the siege of Belgrade. These newly translated sources challenge readers with their variety: papal decrees, letters, liturgies, and chronicles from Latin, Byzantine, and Ottoman perspectives. An accessible introduction, timelines, and maps help to illuminate this fascinating yet previously neglected story.
1. Pope Nicholas V, Etsi Ecclesia Christi
2. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Constantinopolitana Clades
3. Correspondence of 1455–1456
4. Liturgy for Taking the Cross
6. Pope Callixtus III, Omnipotentis dei misericordia
7. John of Capistrano to Pope Callixtus III
8. John of Capistrano to Pope Callixtus III
11. John Hunyadi to King Ladislaus V
12. John of Tagliacozzo to a Fellow Franciscan
13. John of Capistrano to Pope Callixtus III
14. Ambassador of the Bishop of Šibenik to Pope Callixtus III
15. Cardinal Juan Carvajal to Francesco Sforza
17. Ladislaus V to Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan
18. The City of Nuremberg to the City of Weissenburg
19. Pope Callixtus III to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan
20. Letters of Bernard of Kraiburg
21. Pope Callixtus III, Letter to Juan Soler
22. Anonymous (Pseudo-John of Capistrano), to All Christians
23. Anonymous, Letter to Henry of Eckenfelt
24. Liturgical Commemorations of Belgrade
25. John of Tagliacozzo, The Story of the Victory of Belgrade
26. Thomas Ebendorfer, Chronicle of Austria
27. Laonikos Chalkokondyles, The Histories
28. Michael Kritopoulos (Kritoboulos), History of Mehmed the Conqueror
29. Jacopo Promontorio, Recollecta
30. Âşıkpaşazade, Memories and Chronicles of the House of Osman
31. John Thurocz, Chronicle of the Hungarians
32. Tursun Beg, History of the Conqueror
33. The Oxford Anonymous Chronicle
34. Konstantin Mihailović, Memoirs
Timeline of the Crusade of 1456
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