Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430)

Siege of Thessalonica
Part of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars and the Ottoman–Venetian Wars
City wall of Thessalonica
Date June 1422 – 29 March 1430 Location Thessalonica and environs, with engagements at Gallipoli and various raids in the Aegean Sea Result Ottoman victory, capture of the city
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire (to September 1423)  Republic of Venice (from September 1423)	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Andronikos Palaiologos Pietro Loredan Fantino Michiel Andrea Mocenigo Symeon of Thessalonica Pseudo-Mustafa	Murad II Bürak Bey Hamza Bey Sinan Pasha

The siege of Thessalonica between 1422 and 1430 was an ultimately successful attempt by the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad II to take the Byzantine city of Thessalonica. Thessalonica had already been under Ottoman control in 1387–1403, before returning under Byzantine rule in the aftermath of the Battle of Ankara. In 1422, after the Byzantines supported Mustafa Çelebi as a rival pretender against him, the Sultan attacked Thessalonica. Unable to provide manpower or resources for the defence of the city, its ruler, Andronikos Palaiologos, handed it over to the Republic of Venice in September 1423.

The Venetians sent several embassies to the Sultan, trying to secure recognition in exchange for an annual tribute, but Murad refused to accept the handover, claiming that his prior right of conquest had priority, and viewing the Venetians as interlopers. This led to an undeclared conflict between the Ottomans and Venice, which followed a pattern of Ottoman blockade of the city by land, and Venetian naval operations and diplomatic efforts to form an anti-Ottoman league, designed to put pressure on the Sultan. Venetian operations, chiefly aimed at Gallipoli and blocking the passage of the Dardanelles, achieved few results, as did their occasional attempts to capture other strongholds such as Platamon and Christopolis. On the other hand, during the last years of the conflict the Ottomans started conducting raids of their own against Venetian possessions in Albania and the Aegean Sea. The Republic also made efforts to find allies against the Ottomans among the autonomous Turkish rulers of Anatolia as well as among the Christian princes of Europe, but with limited success: Junayd of Aydın was defeated in 1425, efforts to bring the Karamanids into an alliance were ultimately fruitless, and attempts to form a Crusade were scuppered by the hostility between Venice and the King of Hungary, Sigismund, who pursued his own independent campaigns along the Danube until concluding a truce with Murad in 1428. In the meantime the Ottoman blockade, which occasionally flared up to attacks on the city, reduced the inhabitants to near starvation. Coupled with the restrictions placed on them by the siege, the inability of Venice to properly supply and guard the city, and the violations of their customary rights and rampant profiteering by Venetian officials, this led to the growth of the pro-surrender party among the inhabitants. The city's Metropolitan, Symeon, tried to encourage his flock to resist, but by 1426, with Venice's inability to secure peace on its own terms evident, a majority of the local population had come to prefer a surrender to avoid the pillage accompanying a forcible conquest.

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