Siege of Minas Tirith vs The Siege of Belgrade

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A friend posted this to me from a Perl messageboard. Anyone have any thoughts?

Siege of Minas Tirith

I can't find anything about this anywhere, but I was reading up on the famous Siege of Belgrade (at the time, called Nandorfejervar) in 1456, and the similarities of this bit of history to Tolkien's battle of Minas Tirith, struck me.

The similarities are both obvious and striking, starting with the name: Nandorfejervar means "Nandor's White Castle," and Minas Tirith is also called "The White City." It's a white castle on a hill, next to a river and surrounded by the city, with elaborate walls between each segment of the city.

Janos Hunyadi (Aragorn), king of Hungary (Gondor), learns that Turkey (Mordor) is planning a massive invasion of all of Europe (Middle-Earth), beginning with the closest major city, Nandorfejervar (Minas Tirith). So he goes across Europe gathering allies, and the Pope (Elrond) announces a crusade (quest) to repel the invaders.

Few nations (races) respond, and Hunyadi returns to Belgrade -- including by boat up the river with more reinforcements -- to find the massive Turk army having already encircled and invaded the city, though the castle in the center has not yet been breached. They attacked the much larger force from behind, and eventually drive them off.

Then Hunyadi contracted a disease from the Turk soldiers and died (married an elf).

[superwizard]

The two seiges seem rather close together. It seems possible that Tolkien was influenced by this seige, however it may all be just a coincidence.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Finding these historical parallels is entertaining. The one you quote is particularly so. The danger lies in stretching the parallels too far and also implying that Tolkien copied the incident into the book. I remember once on TORC I drew a parallel with Théoden' and his bodyguard's attack on the Southron king with the failed attempt by Richard III to charge across Bosworth Field with his bodyguard to take out Henry Tudor. My parallel failed immediately if it was stretched any more than that.
What these incidents do is help clothe fiction with reality; it helps us to imagine the siege of Minas Tirith even better (and show how rooted in reality Tolkien's descriptions of warfare were)

[axordil]

Then Hunyadi contracted a disease from the Turk soldiers and died (married an elf).

You know, there are a lot of possibilities in this one line...

The question would be for me, in what text(s) is the standard account of the siege of Belgrade found? How likely would it be that JRRT would find said texts?

[Jnyusa]

History of the Crusades?

Chances are good, I would think, that he might have read about it under Dr. Francis' tutelage.

Jn

[Túrin Turambar]

I doubt that Tolkien was influenced by any real history post-1066. The parallels are interesting, though.

[Inanna]

Then Hunyadi contracted a disease from the Turk soldiers and died (married an elf).

Can you imagine how horrible it must be for Hunyadi - great strong warrior fighting off the Turks - surviving for glory - and then Ooops...

Guess he wasn't a "real" King (a.k.a. Healer)