In 1400, Europe stood at a tense crossroads between the medieval world and the changes that would define the coming century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, ruled by Wenceslaus IV of Luxembourg, remained one of the most important powers of Central Europe, though its king’s authority was increasingly contested; Bohemia was also closely connected to the wider Holy Roman Empire, a politically fragmented realm of princes, duchies, bishoprics, and free cities under the nominal authority of the emperor.

To the south and east, the Kingdom of Hungary, ruled by Sigismund of Luxembourg, was a major Central European power whose territories extended into Transylvania and Croatia, while the frontier principality of Wallachia, under Mircea the Elder, stood between Hungary, the Balkans, and the expanding Ottoman sphere.

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​Farther south, the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Bayezid I had expanded dramatically across the Balkans and into Anatolia, threatening Constantinople and bringing its frontier increasingly close to Hungary and Wallachia. 

Meanwhile, trade routes linking Europe with the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, Central Asia, and the Islamic world continued to bind these politically divided regions into a much larger and increasingly interconnected world.