Bayezid I

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Bayezid I (Turkish: Beyazıt, nicknamed Yıldırım, "the Thunderbolt"; Arabic: بايزيد الأول; ca 1354–1403) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He ascended to the throne following the assassination of his father Murad I and immediately had his younger brother Yakub strangled to prevent him from staging a coup.

In revenge for the assassination of Murad I in the first Battle of Kosovo, Bayezid massacred the Serbian prisoners responsible. He then took as a wife the daughter of King Lazar of Serbia, allying himself with Serbs and enabling his offspring to claim Serbia as a dynastic privilege. He appointed Stefan Lazarević as Serbian leader, and granted Serbia considerable autonomy. After this victory he started drinking alcohol but stopped after social unrest about his conduct.

In 1391 Bayezid laid siege to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire. On the demand of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologus a new crusade was organized to defeat him. This proved unsuccessful: in 1396 the Christian allies, under the leadership of the Hungarian King and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, were defeated in the Battle of Nicopolis. Bayezid built the beautiful Ulu Camii in his capital, Bursa, to celebrate this victory.

Thus, the siege of Constantinople continued, lasting until 1401. At one point, the Emperor even fled from the city. Salvation for the Byzantine empire, assaulted by Bayezid's Ottomans, came unexpectedly from the declaration of war on Bayezid by the Mongols.

In 1400, the Central Asian warlord Timur Lenk had succeeded in rousing the local kingdoms that had been conquered by the Turks to join him in his attack on Bayezid. In the fateful Battle of Ankara, on July 20, 1402, Bayezid was captured by Timur. His sons, however, escaped, and fled to Serbia until Timur died. Some contemporary reports claimed that Timur kept Bayezid chained in a cage as a trophy. Likewise, there are many stories about Bayezid's captivity, including one that describes how Timur used him as a footstool. Another one describes how Timur made Bayezid's Serbian wife dance naked at his court. However, these accounts are thought to be false, as writers from Timur's court reported that Bayezid was treated well, and that Timur even mourned his death. Likewise, Timur's own history with other rulers demonstrated that he was true to his word when he later claimed to have aimed at re-establishing Bayezid on the Ottoman throne. One year later, Bayezid died — some accounts claim that he committed suicide by smashing his head against the iron bars of his cage.

Resources

Goodwin, Jason - Lords of the Horizons (book)

Sultans of the Ottoman Empire

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Rise (1299 – 1453)
Osman I	Orhan I	Murad I	Bayezid I	Mehmed I	Murad II	Mehmed II
Growth (1453 – 1683)
Bayezid II	Selim I	Suleiman I	Selim II	Murad III	Mehmed III	Ahmed I
		Mustafa I	Osman II	Murad IV
Stagnation (1683 – 1827)
Ibrahim I	Mehmed IV	Suleiman II	Ahmed II	Mustafa II	Ahmed III	Mahmud I
Osman III	Mustafa III	Abdul Hamid I	Selim III	Mustafa IV	Mahmud II
Decline (1828 – 1908)
	Abd-ul-Mejid I	Abd-ul-Aziz	Murad V	Abdulhamid II	Mehmed V
Dissolution (1908 – 1923)
			Mehmed VI

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