‘Twelve years have passed since the disastrous Crusader Battle of Varna and three years since the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Europe is reeling under the relentless pressure of Ottoman advances: Serbia fell in 1455, and Sultan Mehmed II had now amassed his forces for an invasion of the Kingdom of Hungary. To launch this invasion, he first needs the fortress town of Belgrade, known in Hungarian as Nándorfehérvár, to fall. Control of Belgrade would allow him to use the Danube to transport troops, cannons, and supplies. Despite Ottoman supremacy and widespread European ambivalence, not everyone was cowed’

This episode was written by Michael Kerr

Michael is an amateur historian from New Zealand. With a graduate diploma in History from the University of Auckland. He has a keen interest in Byzantine and medieval Eastern European History after living in Hungary for several years.