Mara Branković

Mara Brankovic ( Mara Hatun also, Despina Hatun, Amerissa; * 1412, † 1487 ) was a Serbian princess of the noble family of the Brankovic.

Life

Mara was a daughter of the Serbian despots Đurađ Brankovic and married Sultan Murad II of the Ottoman Empire.

From the marriage with the Turkish Sultan no children were born, but they had a good relationship with her ​​step- son, Mehmed II, which they after the death of her husband in political matters was often to help with advice. She retired soon after Serbia back and held court in Ježevo, a town in present-day Macedonia, where she surrounded herself with the exiled Serbian nobles.

In 1451 she called her sister, the late Count Ulrich II, Catherine Brankovic widow to himself, which strengthened its position in Macedonia and the Serbian nobility. In the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice 1463-1479, they played an important role as a mediator and have been used by both sides for diplomatic missions.

She accompanied a Venetian ambassador in 1471 personally to negotiate with the Sultan, they also remained influential in the leaders of the Orthodox Church, as well as the successor of Mehmed II, Sultan Bayezid II. After the battle of Vaslui in 1475 in Moldavia Mara noticed that the battle was one of the greatest defeats the seemingly invincible until then Ottoman Empire.