Bayezid II was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid consolidated the Ottoman Empire, thwarted a pro-Safavid rebellion and finally abdicated his throne to his son, Selim I. Bayezid evacuated Sephardi Jews from Spain following the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada and the proclamation of the Alhambra Decree and resettled them throughout Ottoman lands, especially in Salonica.
Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481.
Otranto is a coastal town, port and comune in the province of Lecce, in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.
Salento, is a cultural, historical, and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia, in southern Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the Italian Peninsula, sometimes described as the "heel" of the Italian "boot". It encompasses the entire administrative area of the Province of Lecce, most of the Province of Brindisi, and the south-eastern part of the Province of Taranto.
The Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire concerns the history of the Ottoman Empire from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 until the second half of the sixteenth century, roughly the end of the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During this period a system of patrimonial rule based on the absolute authority of the sultan reached its apex, and the empire developed the institutional foundations which it would maintain, in modified form, for several centuries. The territory of the Ottoman Empire greatly expanded, and led to what some historians have called the Pax Ottomana. The process of centralization undergone by the empire prior to 1453 was brought to completion in the reign of Mehmed II.
Gedik Ahmed Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and admiral who served as Grand Vizier and Kapudan Pasha during the reigns of sultans Mehmed II and Bayezid II.
The War of Ferrara was fought in 1482–1484 between Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and the forces mustered by Ercole's personal nemesis, Pope Sixtus IV and his Venetian allies. Hostilities ended with the Treaty of Bagnolo, signed on 7 August 1484.
The siege of Negroponte was fought between the forces of the Ottoman Empire, led by Sultan Mehmed II in person, and the garrison of the Venetian colony of Negroponte (Chalcis), the capital of the Venetian possession of Euboea in Central Greece. The Ottoman sultan Mehmed II laid siege to the fortress at Negroponte. It lasted for almost a month, and despite great Ottoman casualties ended in the capture of the city and the island of Euboea by the Ottomans.
The Second Siege of Krujë took place from 1466 to 1467. Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire led an army into Albania to defeat Skanderbeg, the leader of the League of Lezhë, which was created in 1444 after he began his war against the Ottomans. During the almost year-long siege, Skanderbeg's main fortress, Krujë, withstood the siege while Skanderbeg roamed Albania to gather forces and facilitate the flight of refugees from the civilian areas that were attacked by the Ottomans. Krujë managed to withstand the siege put on it by Ballaban Badera, sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Ohrid, an Albanian brought up in the Ottoman army through the devşirme. By 23 April 1467, the Ottoman army had been defeated and Skanderbeg entered Krujë.
Leonardo III Tocco was the last ruler of the Despotate of Epirus, ruling from the death of his father Carlo II Tocco in 1448 to the despotate's fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1479. Leonardo was one of the last independent Latin rulers in Greece and the last to hold territories on the Greek mainland. After the fall of his realm, Leonardo fled to Italy and became a landowner and diplomat. He continued to claim his titles in exile until his death.
The siege of Rhodes of 1522 was the second and ultimately successful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to expel the Knights of Rhodes from their island stronghold and thereby secure Ottoman control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The first siege in 1480 had been unsuccessful. Despite very strong defenses, the walls were demolished over the course of six months by Turkish artillery and mines.
In 1480 the small Knights Hospitaller garrison of Rhodes withstood an attack of the Ottoman Empire.
The Hungarian–Ottoman wars were a series of battles between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Following the Byzantine Civil War, the Ottoman capture of Gallipoli, and the decisive Battle of Kosovo, the Ottoman Empire was poised to conquer the entirety of the Balkans. It also sought and expressed desire to expand further north into Central Europe, beginning with the Hungarian lands.
Giulio Antonio Acquaviva was an Italian nobleman and condottiere. He was 7th Duke of Atri and 1st of Teramo, Count of Conversano and San Flaviano and Lord of Padula and Roseto.
Mesih Pasha or Misac Pasha was an Ottoman statesman of Byzantine Greek origin, being a nephew of the last Roman emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. He served as Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Navy and was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in 1501.
The Terra di Otranto, or Terra d'Otranto, is an historical and geographical region of Apulia, largely corresponding to the Salento peninsula, anciently part of the Kingdom of Sicily and later of the Kingdom of Naples, which became a province of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The Martyrs of Otranto, also known as Saints Antonio Primaldo and his Companions, were 813 inhabitants of Otranto, Salento, Apulia, in southern Italy, who were killed on 14 August 1480 after the city had fallen to an Ottoman force under Gedik Ahmed Pasha. According to a traditional account, the killings took place after the citizens had refused to convert to Islam.
Stefano Agricola was the Roman Catholic archbishop of Otranto, Italy. He was slain in 1480, along with all his priests, by the Ottoman force that invaded Otranto. He is among the 813 martyrs of Otranto canonized by Pope Francis in 2013.
The Portuguese expedition to Otranto in 1481, which the Portuguese call the Turkish Crusade, arrived too late to participate in any fighting. On 8 April 1481, Pope Sixtus IV issued the papal bull Cogimur iubente altissimo, which called for a crusade against the Ottomans, who had occupied Otranto, in southern Italy. The Pope's intention was that after recapturing Otranto, the crusaders would cross the Adriatic and liberate Vlorë (Valona) as well.
Crusades of the 15th century are those Crusades that follow the Crusades after Acre, 1291–1399, throughout the next hundred years. In this time period, the threat from the Ottoman Empire dominated the Christian world, but also included threats from the Mamluks, Moors, and heretics. The Ottomans gained significant territory in all theaters, but did not defeat Hospitaller Rhodes nor advance past the Balkans. In addition, the Reconquista was completed and heretics continued to be suppressed.
