Possible Byzantine Reconquest

[Knight Templar]

L' Impressario, I think Byzantion's last chance was the time right after the battle of Ankara, when Timur captured Bayazid and destroyed his army. After that the Ottoman celebi (princes) got involved into a long, bloody civil war. If Byzantion could unite the Christians of the Balkans or could get support from Catholic powers (Hungary excluded, they were still liking their wounds after the harsh defeat of their "crusade" in the hands of "the Thunder") they had a very good chance of drawning the young Ottoman power in it's infancy. But they were unable to do that... the Byzantines got eventually the chance to support their favorite celebi for the Ottoman throne, but that didn't gave them more than just a few years of life - even Murad II renewed the ghazi spirit of the Ottomans and gained lots of land in the Balkans.

I would agree that had the Byzantines succeeded in uniting the Balkan christians, the empire would go mostly Slavic, but that wouldn't be the case if the "westeners" would come to aid the crumbling empire.

In 1402, when the battle of Ankara took place, Byzantine empire was so ruined that it was not able to take advantage of Turkish defeat in the battle of Ankara and Turkish civil war. In fact, I believe that Turkish were ready to conquer Constantinople at a time, but Ankara postponed this for half century.

And about uniting with the Slavic countries or Hungary:

Hungary:recovering from Nicopolis plus there was civil war.
Bosnia: the country was weaking, because of no strong kings in 15th century. Nobleman were too powerful.
Serbia: recovering from defeat at Kosovo field (1389), plus there were no strong rulers after death of emperor Dushan.
Bulgaia: IIRC, conquered by Ottomans in the last decade of 14th century.

My point is that no Slavic country in Balkan was strong enough to help the Byzantines.

The big Slavic coalition actually happened in 1444, when Vladislav, king of Hungary and also king of Poland united with Serbian despot. Coalition managed to re-gain some territories and win some battles. However, when king Vladislav alone (without the Srebs) went into antother campaign against the Turks, his army was crushed and he got killed (the battle of Varna 1444).

edit:grammar