Bayezid I . Ottoman Sultan from 1389 to 1402 , known as El Rayo for his quick victories. He possessed great courage and quick thinking, which he applied to his campaigns to surprise his enemies. In addition to his conquests, the process of creating a more complex Turkish state advanced during his reign, increasingly abandoning the tribal structure of the early Ottomans.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Political trajectory
- 2 Battle of Nicopolis
- 3 Later conquests
- 4 Death
- 2 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born in Edirne , Turkey . Son of Sultan Murad I and one of his wives, Gülçiçek Hatun. He lived during his childhood in the palace of Bursa, on the shores of the Sea of Marmara . Like the rest of the nobility of the time, a soldier since childhood, he had been born with a bow next to his cradle. When he learned to walk they put him in a saddle and, probably since he said his first words, they taught him to handle the sword . He had five wives and four children.
Political career
In his youth he was governor of Kutahya province. At the age of twenty-nine he succeeded his father in 1389 , killed in the course of the Battle of Kosovo between the Turks and a coalition of Slavic peoples headed by the Serbian prince Esteban Lazarevich . Proclaimed sultan, he continued the fighting until achieving a complete victory. This extended the Turkish dominion over almost all of Serbia , subjected since then to vassalage and tribute, so that from now on the Ottoman sultans would frequently use Serbian troops in their armies.
In order to eliminate possible threats to his crown, he ordered to kill his younger brother Yakub. He intervened in the internal affairs of Byzantium , deposing Emperor John V Palaiologos in 1390 , and in his place he placed John VII , his grandson, whom he also forced to pay tribute and provide military aid (he incorporated several thousand Greek soldiers to Your army).
For the moment he did not continue with the submission of the Balkans south of the Danube , but instead faced the Turk Karamán, who had created an independent principality in eastern Asia Minor with capital in Konya , and who had also caused the uprising of other small Turkish principalities against the sultan. In 1391 he defeated him and continued his advance until he was stopped by the prince of Sidas, Kadi Burhaneddin.
While gathering a stronger army to overcome this obstacle he had to return to Europe , where the Bulgarian vassals had risen and allied with the Wallachians and Hungarians , while the Byzantines reconquered Thessaly and Macedonia . Bayezid took very little to regain what he lost: in 1393 he conquered Bulgaria and took its capital, executing King Ivan Shishman in 1394 . In the north he stopped the Wallachians and the Hungarians from plundering their countries, and in the south he again took the city of Salonica from the Byzantines, carrying out incursions into Greece .
Battle of Nicopolis
Final stage of the Battle of Nicopolis
Alarmed by the Turkish advances, Sigismund the king of Hungary , had requested aid to the Christian states of the West; reason why in 1394, a crusade was proclaimed in their aid, to which diverse groups of horsemen responded, especially French , that were reinforced with the contingents contributed by Sigismund and by the voivode of Wallachia. The December of September of 1396 the forefront cross – sighted atop a cliff the city of Nicopolis , in Bulgaria , to which they laid siege.
The city was well defended and supplied, and the Crusaders were not armed with siege engines. However, they stayed and waited for the Ottomans. Meanwhile, Bayezid, already preparing the siege of Constantinople , had left Adrianople and with a large army was advancing at forced marches towards the city.
On September 25, 1396, turning their backs on Nicopolis, the French cavalry advanced in combat order, crushing the sultan’s vanguard. They surpassed this first line and attacked the infantry; Outnumbered not in numbers but in strength, the Turkish foot soldiers were also defeated and fled to the third line, that of the sipahis. The more experienced French gentlemen then advised a pause, to reestablish contact with the vanguard, which had been left far behind. But the younger gentlemen, encouraged by success, decided to move on.
Meanwhile, behind him, the remains of the first and second Ottoman lines, along with some sipahis, had regrouped and were attacking the positions of Sigismund and his allies. There was a stampede of riderless horses belonging to the reserve cavalry, and the Wallachians and Transylvanians, believing it to be the prelude to the disbandment, withdrew from the fight. Sigismund managed to maintain his positions, but at the last moment a regiment of 1,500 Serbs appeared, commanded by Esteban Lazarevich, who hated the Hungarians more than the Ottomans themselves. These Serbs, who made up Bayezid’s army as vassals, decided the contest. Sigismund had to withdraw from the battlefield and fled on a raft down the Danube .
Meanwhile, the French pursued the rest of the enemy infantry, but at the top, where they expected to find a demoralized sultan, they found themselves face to face with a fresh, rested body of reserve sipahis. They knew immediately that the end had come: some fled but much of the survivors fought until exhaustion struck. A few French nobles were taken prisoner, but many others died in battle.
Later conquests
The Battle of Nicopolis had a profound impact on the relationship of forces in the Balkans. In the immediate term, it ensured the subjugation of Bulgarians and Serbs to the Ottomans, and led to increasing isolation from Constantinople. From then on, Bayezid enjoyed great prestige in the Islamic world and began to become sultan ; He was thus able to return to Asia Minor to finish the initiated subjugation of the Turkish principalities.
He attacked Karamania, conquering its capital, Konya , as well as Kayseri and Sivas, and also Kadi Burhaneddin, in 1398 . Advancing through the valley of the Euphrates River , he seized various territories from the Mamluks in the Malatya region. But not all the rulers of those small kingdoms died, and those who could fled to take refuge in safer places, waiting for the right moment.
Death
Capture of Bayezid I by Tamerlane
These conquests extend their dominion over the eastern part of Asia Minor, with which the confrontation with the military leader of Mongol origin Tamerlane became inevitable. The local lords attempted to maneuver between the two great chiefs, seeking refuge with Bayezid or Tamerlane respectively, which provides each the necessary pretext to attack the other.
The 20 of July of 1402 , the two leaders meet in the decisive Battle of Ankara , which starts in the morning and lasts until late afternoon. Modern estimates place the Tamerlane and Bayezid armies at around 140,000 and 85,000 men respectively. Besides being inferior in number, the Ottoman army was exhausted due to the long forced march from Bursa to Sivas and Tokat, and back again to Ankara, in pursuit of the enemy.
During the battle, Bayezid was betrayed by a considerable part of the Turkish clans, who did not welcome his campaigns against the Muslim peoples of Asia , making him too weak to face Tamerlane. He was captured along with his son, and later died in captivity at Aksehir, on March 9 , 1403 .
