In the mid-14th century, the Ottoman state was little more than a frontier principality on the edge of the Byzantine world. Within two generations, it would become the most feared power in the Balkans and Anatolia—only to be shattered on the plains of Central Asia.

In this episode of The Gilded Sword, we follow the breathtaking rise of the House of Osman from its first foothold in Europe at Gallipoli to its dramatic collapse at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. We begin with Orhan Gazi’s bold crossing of the Hellespont, the moment the Ottomans became a transcontinental power. We then explore how Murad I transformed conquest into empire—building a professional army, creating the Janissaries, and making Edirne the new capital of a growing Balkan dominion.

The story accelerates under Bayezid I “the Thunderbolt,” whose lightning campaigns crushed crusaders at Nicopolis, strangled Constantinople, and absorbed rival Turkish states across Anatolia. But ambition has a cost. When Bayezid’s expanding empire collides with the world conqueror Timur, the result is one of the most catastrophic defeats in Ottoman history.

From triumph to captivity, from imperial zenith to the brink of extinction, this episode tells the story of how the Ottomans rose too fast, flew too close to the sun, and very nearly disappeared—before history gave them a second chance.