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 158 DESTRUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIRE and had to retire. In withdrawing he attempted to annex Serbia, on the pretext that Bajazed having married the sister of Stephen, the former sovereign, the crown belonged to him as the heir of Ilderim. In 1435, he laid siege to Belgrade, and put out the eyes of two sons of the kral, under the pretext that they had attempted to escape to their father. The siege lasted six months, but the attempt failed. The Serbians defended the city bravely. The Turkish army suffered from malarial fever, and a relieving army under a Polish general compelled them to raise the siege. It is worthy of note that during the absence of the emperor at Ferrara and Florence in order to treat of the Union of the Churches — an absence from his capital of two years and two months (November 1437 to February 1440) — Murad proposed to attack the city and was advised to do so by all his council with the exception of Halil pasha, 1 who pointed out that as John had gone to confer with the repre- sentatives of the Christian powers on questions of religion, at the request of the pope, they would feel bound to come to his aid, if advantage were taken of his absence to attack the capital. Halil' s advice was taken. 2 Immediately on John's return, he and other European Christian rulers began to make more or less combined movements against Murad. The influence of the pope was energetically used to make an alliance successful. The question was no longer one merely of defending a schismatic though Christian emperor, but of preserving the existence of great Catholic states. Nor were the means for offering a strong resistance to Turkish advance wanting. The crown of Hungary was worn by Ladislaus, the young king of Poland, who was crowned in 1440. Almost immediately after his accession, his army succeeded in defeating a Turkish detachment in Hungary. In the same year Scander- beg — that is, Alexander Bey — at the head of a large body of Albanians, declared war on Murad. Though John on his 1 Halil was the one Turkish leader in 1453 friendly to the Greeks. Even at this early date he showed a similar spirit. Chalc. 136, Venetian edition. 2 Phr. ii. 13, p. 180.