Video - Child Sultan's Challenge

Sultan II. Murad placed his 13-year-old son, Prince Mehmed, on the throne, saying, "I cannot put my son on the throne in my lifetime, until I see when I look at him, in what way he will be sultan." The accession of a child ruler to the throne gave Europeans hope. Preparations were made for a crusade against the Ottomans. Polish King Ladislas, along with the Hungarian King Yanosh Hunyad, set out on an expedition to expel the Ottomans from the Balkans with a crusader army of 100,000 people. Although Grand Vizier Çandarlızade Halil Pasha explained the situation to Sultan Murad and told him that he should immediately head the army, he did not accept. Thereupon, the young sultan II. Mehmed immediately sent a letter to his father and wrote: "If you are the sultan, you must be the head of your state in this difficult situation. If we are the sultan, I order you to head the army immediately!"