Macedonia, Ottoman Vardar

Most historians believe that the Croats are a purely Slavic people who probably migrated to the Balkans from present-day Ukraine.

A newer theory, however, holds that the original Croats were nomadic Sarmatians who roamed Central Asia, migrated onto the steppes around 200 BCE, and rode into Europe near the end of the fourth century CE, possibly together with the Huns.

The Sarmatian Croats, the theory holds, conquered the Slavs of northern Bohemia and southern Poland and formed a small state called White Croatia near present-day Kraków.

The Croats then supposedly mingled with their more numerous Slavic subjects and adopted the Slavic language, while the subjects assumed the tribal name "Croat."

A tenth-century Byzantine source reports that in the seventh century Emperor Heraclius enlisted the Croats to expel the Avars from Byzantine lands.

The Croats had overrun the Avars and Slavs in Dalmatia around 630, then drove the Avars from today's Slovenia and other areas.

In the eighth century, the Croats lived under loose imperial rule, and Christianity and Latin culture recovered in the coastal cities.

The Franks subjugated most of the Croats in the eighth century and sent missionaries to baptize them in the Latin rite, but the Byzantine Empire continued to rule Dalmatia.

Croatia emerges as an independent nation in 924.

Tomislav (910-ca. 928), a tribal leader, establishes himself as the first king of Croatia, ruling a domain that stretches eastward to the Danube.

The Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Macedonians, and Albanians have virtually independent histories.

The Slovenes will struggle to define and defend their cultural identity for a millennium, first under the Frankish Kingdom and then under the Austrian Empire.

The Croats of Croatia and Slavonia will enjoy a brief independence before falling under Hungarian and Austrian domination; and the Croats in Dalmatia struggle under Byzantine, Hungarian, Venetian, French, and Austrian rule.

The Serbs, who will briefly rival the Byzantine Empire in medieval times, will suffer five hundred years of Turkish domination before winning independence in the nineteenth century.

Their Montenegrin kinsmen will live for centuries under a dynasty of bishop-priests and savagely defend  their mountain homeland against foreign aggressors.

Bosnians will turn to heresy to protect themselves from external political and religious pressure, convert in great numbers to Islam after the Turks invade, and become a nuisance to Austria-Hungary in the late nineteenth century.

A hodgepodge of ethnic groups will people Macedonia over the centuries.

As the power of the Ottoman Empire wanes, the region is contested among the Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Albanians and also is a pawn among the major European powers.

Finally, the disputed Kosovo region, with an Albanian majority and medieval Serbian tradition, will remain an Ottoman backwater until after the Balkan wars of the early twentieth century.

John VII Palaiologos had acted as regent for Manuel at Constantinople from 1399 to 1402 during the latter’s fruitless solicitation of Western aid.

Timur’s victory over the Ottoman Turks the previous year has, however, resulted in a respite for the embattled empire.

During Manuel's absence, John has arranged a treaty with the Ottomans, granting them financial and religious privileges.

Manuel, having acquired mercenaries to compel the Ottoman Turks to withdraw from their ten-year siege of Constantinople, disavows the treaty on his return, …

…arranges a peace treaty in 1403 with Bayezid's eldest son and putative successor Süleyman, putting an end to tribute payments, and recovering Thessalonica (modern Thessaloníki, Greece) to which he sends John as governor.

Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos withdraws from state affairs to pursue his religious and literary interests.

His son John VIII, crowned co-emperor in 1421, ignores the tenuous bond with the Ottomans that has been established and in this year supports the pretender Mustafa against the rightful heir to the Turkish throne, Murad II, in hope of causing disruption within the ranks and leadership of the Ottoman Empire.

However, …

…Murad is placed on the throne by non-Ottoman but politically powerful Turkish notables who had joined the Ottoman state during the first century of its existence.

Murad, only eighteen when he becomes sultan, soon begins to resent the power they have gained in return.

He counters by beginning to build up the power of various non-Turkish groups in his service, particularly those composed of Christian slaves and converts to Islam, whose military arm is the Janissary corps.

The days of Constantinople and of Hellenism are numbered with Murad as sultan.

After restoring order in the Ottoman empire, Murad revokes all the privileges accorded in 1399 to Constantinople by his father and …

…lays siege to Constantinople in June 1422.

The combination of stiff resistance by the defenders and the city's nearly impregnable walls force the attackers to retire, but only after the Greeks provide Murad with huge amounts of tribute.

(Another factor prompting the Turkish withdrawal may have been Murad's necessary return to the Ottoman capital to prevent another pretender, also possibly encouraged by Constantinople, from usurping power.)

Andronikos Palaiologos is a son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and his wife Helena Dragaš.

His maternal grandfather was the Serb prince Constantine Dragaš.

His brothers include emperors John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos, as well as Theodore II Palaiologos, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, who rule as despots in the Morea.

In childhood, Andronikos had survived the sickness that had killed his older brother Constantine and two sisters.

He has never recovered in full and will remain n poor health for the rest of his life, eventually developing leprosy.

When he was only eight years old his father had made him a despot (despotēs) and appointed him imperial representative in Thessalonica, where he succeeded his deceased cousin John VII Palaiologos.

As he was still a minor, for the first years of his rule there, until about 1415/1416, he was under the tutorship of the general Demetrios Laskaris Leontares.

After John VIII assumes control of the imperial government in 1421, the Empire faces an increasingly hostile Ottoman Empire.

Constantinople had been attacked in 1422 by the Ottomans.

Although the Turks had lifted the siege of Constantinople, Murad's armies had invaded Greece and in 1422–1423 subjected Thessalonica to a long blockade in 1422–1423.

Under siege, and increasingly unwell, Andronikos had begun diplomatic initiatives for the surrender of the city to the Republic of Venice.

Although he does not have the support of the whole of the population, and is opposed by the church, which mistrusts the Latins, these negotiations result in a Venetian force entering the city in 1423.

The handing over of Thessalonica to Venice contributes to the outbreak of the first in a series of wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

Murad has distributed most of his conquests to members of the Kapikulu force, occasionally as timars but more often as tax farms (iltizams), so that the treasury can obtain the money it needs to maintain the Janissary army entirely on a salaried basis.

In addition, in order to man the new force, Murad has developed the devsirme system by which promising Christian youths are drafted from the Balkan provinces for conversion to Islam and life service to the sultan.

Subject to strict rules, including celibacy, they are organized into three unequal divisions (cemaat, bölükhalki, segban) and commanded by an aga.

By 1425, Murad has eliminated his rivals, has reestablished Ottoman rule over the Turkmen principalities of western Anatolia, and has once again forced Constantinople to pay tribute.

He now turns his attention to the Balkans.