April – June 1463
Bosnia, 1463
King Stephen Tomašević of Bosnia is crowned at Jajce in November 1461 with a crown sent by Pope Pius II. In spring 1462 he makes his peace with Matthias Corvinus and promises him that he will stop paying tribute to the sultan, and in June 1462 he refuses it. In Chalkokondyles’s account he shows the sultan’s envoy the money set aside for the tribute and says that he would rather spend it on war. Matthias, Skanderbeg and the Ragusans promise help, but none comes.
Stephen Tomašević kneels before Christ, a panel of about 1461 attributed to Lovro DobričevićWikimedia Commons, attributed to Lovro Dobričević, Public domain (Stjepan Tomašević.jpg)
In spring 1463 Mehmed gathers about 150,000 men at Edirne and marches by Skopje into Bosnia, and the king’s last request for a truce of 15 years comes to nothing. Stephen leaves the royal castle of Bobovac for Jajce, where he means to gather an army. Mahmud Pasha lays siege to Bobovac on 19 May 1463, Mehmed arrives the next day, and the castle falls within days. Mahmud pursues the king and finds him at Ključ, which surrenders after four days on Mahmud’s written promise that the king will come to no harm.
The captive king orders his commanders to surrender, and more than 70 towns open their gates within a week. Mehmed does not hold himself bound by Mahmud’s promise, and on 25 May 1463 Stephen Tomašević is beheaded in a field near Jajce with his uncle Radivoj and his cousin Tvrtko, which ends the Kingdom of Bosnia. At Milodraž Mehmed gives the Franciscans of Bosnia a charter, the Ahdname of Milodraž, which lets them move freely in the empire and keep their churches and monasteries, and Bosnia becomes an Ottoman province.
The ahdname of Milodraž, Mehmed’s charter for the Franciscans of Bosnia, kept at the monastery of FojnicaWikimedia Commons, Mrjazz123, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Ahdnama zvizdović.jpg)
Sources
- Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Histories (c. 1464).
- Konstantin Mihailović, Memoirs of a Janissary (about 1500).
- Pope Pius II, Commentaries (1464).
- Sima Ćirković, Istorija srednjovekovne bosanske države (1964).
- Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (1978).
- John V. A. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans (1987).
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