Interregnum, Ottoman

Chaos reigns in the Ottoman Empire following the defeat of Sultan Bayezid I by the Turco-Mongol warlord Tamerlane in 1402.

The Ottomans are reduced to Mongol vassals but their empire in Europe is left largely untouched.

However, Bayezid's capture by Timur has thrown the young Ottoman state into a condition of near-collapse.

At this time, a strong European crusade might manage to push the Ottomans out of Europe altogether, but weakness and division south of the Danube and diversion to other matters to the north leaves an opportunity for the Ottomans to restore what has been torn asunder without significant loss.

Internal divisions, however, are to hinder Ottoman efforts to restore their power during a period that will come to be known as the Interregnum (1402-13), during which four of Bayezid's sons will compete for the right to rule the entire empire.

His eldest son Süleyman has assumed control in Rumelia (Balkan lands under Ottoman control), establishing a capital at Edirne, and gained the support of the Christian vassals and those who had stimulated Bayezid to turn toward conquest in the East.

The sixty-six-year-old Timur, now called the “Prince of Destruction,” invades Anatolia after wintering in Georgia.

The crafty conqueror leads his one hundred and sixty thousand-man army into the mountains, leading Bayezid to believe the invaders are withdrawing.

Bayezid makes camp at Çubukovasi on the plain near Angora (now Ankara), leaves supplies there, and pursues Timur, who doubles back, captures the camp and on July 20, 1402 arrays his troops against the now undersupplied and waterless Ottoman army.

Many Turkmen vassals and Muslim followers, uncomfortable in the first place because Bayezid has abandoned the old Ottoman ghazi tradition of advancing against the infidel, and now dismayed at his poor judgment, go over to Timur's side.

Left only with forces provided by his Christian vassals, Bayezid is decisively overwhelmed in the desperate fighting that ensues.

Taken captive, he will die in Samarkand within a year.

Djurje’s brother-in-law, the newly-crowned Despot Stefan Lazarević, returning from the Battle of Angora in the late summer of 1402, stays at his court.

Djurdje aids him in organizing an army to battle Stefan’s rival Djurdje Brankovic, son of the late Vuc, in Ottoman service at the Battle of Tripolje on June 21 1402, near Gračanica, Kosovo.

The battle ends in full victory for Stefan, but Djurdje sustains serious injuries.

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.

With Timur's departure, even Bayezid's sons are able to assume control over the family's former possessions in western Anatolia.

The populous Bosnian nobility, having brought to power Queen Jelena Gruba, the first female ruler of Bosnia, in 1395, had dethroned her in 1398 and replaced her with King Stjepan Ostoja, a client of the powerful Duke Hrvoje Vukčić.

Ostroja, siding with King Ladislaus of Naples in his struggle against the Hungarian King Sigismund, Bosnia's liege, in 1403 wars against the Republic of Ragusa, a Hungarian vassal.

The seventeen-year old son of Djuradje II, ruler of the Principality of Zeta, succeeds to the throne as Balša III after the death of his father in April 1403 in consequence of the injuries suffered in the Battle of Gracanica.

As he is young and inexperienced, his main advisor is his mother, Jelena, a sister of Serbian ruler Stefan Lazarević.

Under the influence of his mother, Balsa reverts the order of the state religion, passing a law declaring Christian Orthodoxy as the official confession of the state, while Catholicism becomes merely a tolerated confession.

The considerable weakening of Ottoman power resulting from the resounding defeat inflicted by Timur in 1402 has enabled the independence of Wallachia as well as …