First Reigns: Manisa & Edirne

The death of my mother and my only two siblings, Ahmed and Alaeddin changed the course of my life.  When I was only five years old my mother died when she was sent away from the palace and Ahmed died at a very young age. Alaeddin died during the battles against the crusaders at the age of 18. All those events changed my life. Right after the death of Alaeddin, I became the sole heir for the throne at just 11 years of age, because of that my father, Murad II, got the idea to prepare me for the throne and sent me to the city of Manisa with my two tutors, even though I was very young, for my society it was a tradition to prepare young heirs to set affairs and to get an idea of ruling before taking the throne and replace my father. I was following an ancient tradition. When I turned 12 years old, in the year 1444, my father abdicated the throne, due to a peace treaty, and I took a step on it and became the youngest sultan to ever hold the throne in Edirne and that also made my father the youngest sultan to ever leave the throne. Also, because of my age the crusaders sought the opportunity to invade Edirne and they broke the treaty and started an invasion, their main goal was to remove us, the ottomans from Europe. Due to my little to no experience in the battlefield made me panic and I asked my father for help and asked him to lead the armies against the crusaders to what became to be known as the “Battle of Varna” in the same year of 1444. My father won the battle and returned from his retirement to stay. In the year 1446,  I thought the city needed a strong leader that showed fear and respect, resulting in the restoring of my father to the throne once again.