page_title: Siege of Novo Brdo (1440–41)
section_title: Siege
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Novo Brdo (1440–41) / Siege
caption_attribution_description: English: Novo Brdo Fortress Layout
context_page_description: The Siege of Novo Brdo was a military blockade of Novo Brdo, an important fortified mining town in the Serbian Despotate, by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. The siege began in 1440 and lasted until the capture of the fortress on 27 June 1441. During the siege, the Serbian garrison was supported by the local community of citizens of the Republic of Ragusa.
context_section_description: In 1440, after the failure at Belgrade, the Ottoman forces commanded by the beylerbey (the Lord of Lords) of Rumelia Eyalet, Hadım Şehabeddin, again besieged Novo Brdo.
  The garrisoned Serbian forces were also supported by citizens of the Republic of Ragusa, Ragusa having instructed their subjects in Novo Brdo to help defend the town. Ragusans, who were predominantly merchants, were practically forced to resist the Ottomans because otherwise their property in Novo Brdo would be confiscated, like it was in the case of Ragusan merchants who happened to be outside of the town when the siege began and refused to return to it.
  Despot Đurađ Branković and his wife traveled from Hungary to Zeta, accompanied with several hundred cavalry and vojvoda Petar Spani. They first went to Zagreb, to Đurađ's sister Katarina who was the wife of Ulrich II, Count of Celje. Then Branković arrived at Ragusa (Dubrovnik) at the end of July 1440 and after several days he continued his journey toward his coastal towns of Budva and Bar which became the new capital of the remaining part of his despotate. In the period between 1 July 1440 and his arrival at Bar, the Ottoman forces defeated some military units from Novo Brdo in a battle near Makreš (a village near modern-day Gnjilane).
  In August 1440 Branković arrived at Bar where he stayed until the end of the winter 1440–41. There he tried to mobilize forces to recapture the territory of the Serbian Despotate he lost to the Ottomans. At the same time, Branković maintained communication with the garrison in Novo Brdo and his son Grgur, who at the time was an Ottoman governor. That was one of the main reasons why the Ottomans, probably justifiably, accused Grgur of treason and dismissed him from his governorship in April 1441. On 8 May 1441, both Grgur and his brother Stefan were blinded, based on the order of Sultan Murad II. Branković faced another disappointment in Zeta where he found out that the Crnojevići rebelled against vojvoda Komnen, the governor of Zeta. Branković left Zeta in April 1441 and resided in Ragusa for a while. This angered the Ottomans who requested, through their envoy Agub, that Ragusa should hand over Branković. Ragusans refused this request and explained in a letter to Ishak-Beg and Hadım Şehabeddin that Ragusa has not accepted Branković because he was an enemy of the sultan but because it was a free city that accepts anybody who seeks shelter in it. They also emphasized that Branković being in Ragusa is the best guarantee that he would not undertake any action against the Ottomans. Ragusans wanted to send their diplomats to Hadım Şehabeddin and requested his written guarantee for their safe conduct. On 13 June 1441 Hadım Şehabeddin, who was in Vučitrn at the time, issued the requested guarantee to the Ragusans.
  During the siege of Novo Brdo its population suffered heavy casualties. On 27 June 1441 Novo Brdo surrendered to the Ottoman forces, who then robbed and burned the captured town.
caption: The layout of the Novo Brdo Fortress
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