The following provides an alphabetized selection of brief descriptions for some of the most important figures in the story of Belgrade. Used in conjunction with the index and other general reference aids, it can provide a useful starting point for sorting through what may at first be a range of unfamiliar details. With a few exceptions, the list omits discussion of the authors whose works are translated here, since each of these is introduced at greater length in the documents themselves.
Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, humanist author, churchman, and later Pope Pius II (1458–64). Piccolomini rose from a position as a teacher in Siena to acting in the service of important Italian churchmen in the era of the Council of Basel, and eventually became imperial secretary to Frederick III. In that position he was a key diplomat during the negotiations over the launching of a crusade after 1453. He was also a prolific and talented humanist author, and he delivered the famous classicizing oration Constantinopolitana clades (document 2) at the Diet of Frankfurt in 1454.
Alfonso V, king of Aragon, Sicily, and Naples. Alfonso “the Magnanimous” was one of the most consequential political and cultural figures of his era. Along with Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, Alfonso was also one of the princes best positioned to help launch a successful campaign against Mehmed II. Alfonso took the vow to crusade in Naples in 1455 and supported the Christian warlord Skanderbeg, but in the end he remained distant from the campaign that ended at Belgrade.
Bayezid, the “Thunderbolt,” Ottoman sultan. Renowned for his military leadership, Bayezid rose to prominence after the battle of Kosovo in 1389. He married the youngest daughter of the deceased prince Lazar Hrebeljanović of Serbia and worked to consolidate Ottoman rule in both Rumelia and Anatolia. He defeated the crusade led by King Sigismund of Hungary at Nicopolis in 1396 but was then himself defeated by Timur at Ankara in 1402 and died in captivity shortly afterward.
Callixtus III, pope. Formerly Alfonso de Borja. A Catalan from Xátiva in Valencia, Alfonso was an aging, compromise candidate for pope upon his election in March 1455. But as Callixtus III he took to the crusading cause with surprising dedication and energy. Among his many efforts was the influential call to prayer (document 5) issued just days before the start of the siege of Belgrade.
Constantine XI, last Byzantine emperor. Defender of Constantinople against Mehmed II in 1453, he was killed in the last hours of the siege.
Frederick III, king of Germany and Holy Roman emperor. Frederick was a member of the Hapsburg dynasty and cousin to Emperor Albert V, who died in 1439. Elected king in 1440, Frederick became regent in Austria for the young Ladislaus V (Ladislaus the Posthumous), son of the deceased Albert V. Though in theory a key leader in any effort to launch a crusade against Mehmed II, Fredrick’s disposition and the complex political circumstances in the Empire prevented him from engaging fully in the crusade of 1456.
George Branković, despot of Serbia. Designated heir of Stefan Lazarević by treaty in 1427, in return for his title as despot George returned the fortress of Belgrade to Hungary. With complex ties across the region – a wife, Eirene, who was of the Byzantine Kantakouzenos family; a daughter, Katarina, married to Ulrich II of Celje; a daughter, Mara, married to Murad II; and a network of lands and titles in Hungary – for three decades Branković chose his alliances carefully and played a pivotal military and diplomatic role in the events leading up to Belgrade.
John VIII, Byzantine emperor. In 1438–9, John led a diplomatic mission to Italy that eventually settled in Florence, where his delegates negotiated (among many other matters) the agreement enshrined in the decree Laetentur coeli. In return for Byzantine recognition of papal authority and technical agreement on other theological matters (purgatory among them), John worked with Pope Eugenius IV to secure a fleet and an army that would campaign on behalf of Byzantium.
John Hunyadi, regent for Ladislaus V and captain general of Hungary. Hunyadi rose to prominence from the 1430s, when he was drawn into the service of King Sigismund of Hungary. After a string of victories that helped put an end to his kingdom’s civil war in 1440–2, Hunyadi was awarded broad territorial and military power across southern Hungary. Soon after, he was appointed captain general and led a series of important campaigns against the Turks, culminating at Belgrade. He died there after the battle on August 11, 1456.
John of Capistrano, jurist and Observant Franciscan preacher. After years of leading the reform of the Franciscan order, and after successfully working for the canonization of his mentor, Bernardino of Siena, in 1451 Capistrano was called north by Frederick III to preach in Vienna. At the end of what became a four-year preaching tour, in 1454–5 he was drawn into the service of preaching the crusade that ended at Belgrade.
Juan Carvajal, cardinal and papal legate to Hungary. Born to a distinguished noble family in Trujillo (in western Spain) and trained in church law, Carvajal rose to service in the Roman curia by the 1430s, and through the 1440s he earned a reputation as a diligent and skilled diplomat. He was a central figure amid the complex matters of diplomacy and strategy that led up to the battle for Belgrade.
Karaca Bey, Ottoman beylerbey of Rumelia. Karaca Bey was a seasoned veteran of the campaigns of both Murad II and Mehmed II, including the victory at Varna and the siege of Constantinople. As overlord of Rumelia, he was also a key commander and strategist for the siege of Belgrade. He was killed during the battle.
Konstantin Mihailović, Ottoman janissary and chronicler. A Serbian Christian who was captured at Novo Brdo in 1455, Mihailović converted to Islam and served for many years as an Ottoman janissary. He was later captured by Christians, reconverted to Christianity, and eventually recorded a compelling narrative of his experience (document 34). He may have been an eyewitness to the events of Belgrade.
Ladislaus V, king of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. Son of the Hapsburg emperor Albert V and Elizabeth of Luxembourg (the daughter of Sigismund), Ladislaus was born after his father’s death (and is thus often styled Ladislaus the Posthumous). Though his mother had him crowned as king of Hungary already as an infant in May 1440, his authority was repeatedly contested and he was forced to live under a series of wards and regents, including Frederick III and Ulrich II of Celje, until he claimed the throne in 1453. He then reigned only briefly, until his death in 1457.
Lazar Hrebeljanović, ruler of Moravian Serbia. As ruler of one of the most important fragments of an older Serbian empire, Prince Lazar was a key figure in this region during the early years of the Ottoman advance into southeastern Europe. He was killed at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, as was his rival Murad II.
Mara Branković, daughter of George Branković and consort of Murad II. Mara was married to the sultan in 1435, as part of her father’s wider efforts to forestall Ottoman encroachment into Serbia. Upon Murad’s death in 1451, Mara returned to Serbia, but after her father’s death, she ultimately made her way back to the circles of Mehmed II. He granted her an estate in eastern Macedonia, and she held court there under his patronage and protection until her death in 1487.
Mehmed II, Ottoman sultan. Son of Murad II, Mehmed “the Conqueror” first ascended to the throne at age twelve upon the abdication of his father in 1444. He ruled briefly before his father reclaimed the title of sultan, and then definitively from 1451. Two years later he captured Constantinople, the first in a series of conquests that expanded Ottoman rule from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. Interwoven with and reinforcing these conquests were Mehmed’s commitments to strengthening and refining the administration of the Ottoman court and to his role as a patron of arts and culture in the best tradition of the Roman emperors, to which he saw himself as heir.
Michael Szilágyi, Hungarian nobleman from Horogszeg in Temes county, ban of Macsó and Slavonia. Michael was the brother of John Hunyadi’s wife, Elizabeth. As castellan of Belgrade, along with Hunyadi and Capistrano, he was one of the most important leaders of the defense of the city during the Ottoman siege. In November of 1456, amid negotiations with Count Ulrich II of Celje, Szilágyi and his henchmen murdered the count. Szilágyi was then ban of Macsó (1457–8) and governor of Hungary (1458) before his death in 1461.
Murad II, Ottoman sultan. Murad’s long reign (from 1421) saw the consolidation of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, signaled by diplomatic alliances and institutional consolidation as well as important campaigns, including Thessalonica (1430), Varna (1444), and Kosovo (1448). Murad abdicated unexpectedly in 1444 but reclaimed the title of sultan in 1446 and ruled once more until his death in 1451.
Nicholas V, Tomasso Parentucelli, elected pope in March 1447. Parentucelli rose to prominence in Bologna, where he was made bishop in 1444. As Pope Nicholas V, he became famous for his many efforts at cultural patronage in Rome – among them the formation of what would become the Vatican Library. Nicholas also issued decrees that became foundational for the later history of Atlantic slavery, as well as the first call to crusade after Mehmed II’s capture of Constantinople.
Nicholas of Ilok, Croatian-Hungarian nobleman. Ban of Macsó, Croatia, and Slavonia, voivode of Transylvania. As one of the wealthiest magnates in Hungary and Croatia, Nicholas rose to prominence alongside Hunyadi during the civil wars and other campaigns of the 1440s and played a prominent role in the affairs surrounding Belgrade. John of Capistrano died in Ilok in October 1456 and was buried there, and the friar’s shrine and purported miracles brought Nicholas and his city great prestige in the years thereafter.
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. One of the most powerful princes in fifteenth-century Western Europe, Philip famously hosted the “Feast of the Pheasant” in February 1454, where he vowed to take up the cross against the Turks. Thereafter he often put forth sincere efforts to honor that vow, starting with his personal attendance at the Diet of Regensburg in May 1454. But the complexities of his political circumstances ultimately placed strong limits on his crusading aspirations.
Sigismund, king of Hungary and Croatia (1387), king of Germany (1411), Bohemia (1419), and Holy Roman emperor (1433). Son of Charles IV and last member of the Luxembourg dynasty, Sigismund led a crusade against the Ottomans that ended in defeat at Nicopolis in 1396. Thereafter he worked to reform Hungary’s military and financial affairs and played a central role in the affairs of the Council of Constance, including the execution of Jan Hus.
Stefan Lazarević, despot of Serbia and ban of Macsó. Son of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović of Serbia, Stefan was a key Ottoman vassal until Bayezid’s defeat at Ankara. Thereafter he cultivated ties with both Constantinople and Hungary. The Byzantines recognized him as despot in 1402, and in 1403 Sigismund recognized him as both ban of Macsó and a member of the Order of the Dragon. For two decades and more thereafter, until his death in 1427, Stefan became the patron of a remarkable architectural and cultural flowering in Belgrade.
Timur, or “Tamerlane,” central Asian warlord. An ambitious and energetic ruler who styled himself as successor to the legacy of Genghis Khan, Timur launched a series of campaigns across his far-western frontiers, into Syria and Anatolia. Among these was a campaign that ended in the defeat and capture of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid in 1402. A decade of feud and instability in the Ottoman world followed.
Ulrich II, Count of Celje. Ruler of an important network of territories along the Sava River (in modern Slovenia), Ulrich II claimed authority as regent for Ladislaus V and thus a role in the affairs of Hungary. He was also son-in-law to George Branković. As such, he was a key figure in the military and diplomatic affairs surrounding Belgrade. He was also a fierce rival to John Hunyadi, whose son Ladislaus murdered Ulrich II in Belgrade in November 1456.