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Bayezid I (in Turkish Bayezıt, nicknamed Yıldırım, "the Thunderbolt"; ca 1354–1403) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He ascended to the throne following the assassination of his father Murad I and immediately had his younger brother Yakub strangled to prevent him from staging a coup.
In revenge for the assassination of Murad in the Battle of Kosovo, Bayezid massacred his Serb prisoners. Nevertheless, he was able to conclude a treaty with the Serb leader, Stephen Bulcovic, and granted Serbia considerable autonomy. In 1391 he laid siege to Constantinople. On the demand of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologus a new crusade was organized to defeat Bayezid. In 1396, the Christian allies, under the leadership of the Hungarian King and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, were defeated in the Battle of Nicopolis. The siege of Constantinople lasted until 1401 . The Emperor even fledfrom the city but salvation for the doomed Byzantine empire came unexpectedly from the Mongol declaration of war on Bayezid.
In 1400, the Central Asian warlord Timur Lenk had succeeded in rousing the local kingdoms that had been conquered by the Turks to join him in his attack on Bayezid. In the fateful Battle of Ankara, on July 20, 1402, Bayezid was captured by Timur. Some contemporary reports claimed that Timur kept Bayezid chained in a cage as a trophy. Likewise, there are many stories about Bayeazid's captivity, including one that describes how Timur used him as a footstool. However, these accounts are thought to be false, as writers from Timur's court reported that Bayezid was treated well, and that Timur mourned his death. Likewise, Timur's own history with other rulers demonstrated that he was true to his word when he later claimed to have aimed at re-establishing Bayezid on the Ottoman throne. One year later, Bayezid died — some accounts claim that he committed suicide.
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