Battle of Nicopolis
Battle of Nicopolis | |||||||||
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Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe and the Crusades | |||||||||
miniature by Jean Colombe (c. 1475) | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Crusade: | |||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Stefan Lazarević |
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Strength | |||||||||
10,000–20,000[8][9][10] | 17,000–20,000[8][10][11] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Considerable Ottoman losses[12] | |||||||||
The Battle of Nicopolis took place on 25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout of an allied Crusader army of Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, Polish, French, Burgundian, German, English, Knights Hospitaller, Iberian, Italian, Bohemian, Serbian and Byzantine troops (assisted by the Venetian navy) at the hands of an Ottoman force, raising the siege of the Danubian fortress of Nicopolis and leading to the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire. It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443–1444. By their victory at Nicopolis, the Turks discouraged the formation of future European coalitions against them. They maintained their pressure on Constantinople, tightened their control over the Balkans, and became a greater threat to Central Europe.[15]
Background
There were many minor crusades in the 14th century, undertaken by individual kings or knights. Most recently there had been a failed crusade against Tunisia in 1390, and there was ongoing warfare in northern Europe along the Baltic coast. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Ottomans had conquered most of the Balkans and had reduced the Byzantine Empire to the area immediately surrounding Constantinople, which they blockaded from 1394 on.[citation needed]
In 1393 the
In 1394, Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a new crusade against the Turks, although the Western Schism had split the papacy in two, with rival popes at Avignon and Rome, and the days when a pope had the authority to call a crusade were long past.[citation needed]
The two decisive factors in the formation of the last crusade were the ongoing
In August, Sigismund's delegation of four knights and a bishop arrived in the court of
Strength of forces
According to the Chronica Hungarorum, King Sigismund of Hungary was so delighted at the sight of the large army gathered around him in Buda, he exclaimed in joy: "Who would be so bold as to dare to resist us? If the enormous weight of the sky were to fall on us, with spears that we carry, we would also hold it up so that no harm would come to us."[20][21]
The number of combatants is heavily contested in historical accounts. Historian Tuchman notes the Battle of Nicopolis was considered so significant that the number of combatants given by medieval chroniclers ranges as high as 400,000, with each side insisting that the enemy outnumbered them two-to-one, which for the crusaders offered some solace for their defeat and for the Turks increased the glory of their victory. The oft-given figure of 100,000 crusaders is dismissed by Tuchman, who notes that 100,000 men would have taken a month to cross the
The closest record to a first-person account was made by Johann Schiltberger, a German follower of a Bavarian noble, who witnessed the battle at the age of 16 and was captured and enslaved for 30 years by the Turks before returning home, at which time he wrote a narrative of the battle estimating the crusader strength at the final battle at 17,000,[9] though he also overestimated Turkish forces as a wildly inflated 200,000.[22] German historians of the 19th century attempting to estimate the combatants on each side came to the figures of about 7,500–15,000 Christians and about 12,000–20,000 Turks, while noting that, from the point of logistics, it would have been impossible for the countryside around Nicopolis to have supplied food and fodder for scores of thousands of men and horses.[9] (Medieval armies acquired supplies by taking them from the surrounding area as they marched, as opposed to using the supply lines of modern armies.)
Source | Year | Affiliation | No. of crusaders | No. of Turks | Total no. | Cite |
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Johann Schiltberger | 1427 | European | 16,000 | 200,000 | 216,000 | [22] |
Şükrullah in his Behçetu't-Tevârih | 1460s | Ottoman | 130,000 | 60,000 | 190,000 | [23] |
German historians of the 19th c | 19th century | European | 7,500–9,000 | 12,000–20,000 | 19,500–29,000 | [9] |
David Nicolle | 1999 | European | 16,000 | 15,000 | 31,000 | [8] |
Composition of crusader forces
From France, it was said about 5,000 knights and squires joined, and were accompanied by 6,000 archers and foot soldiers drawn from the best volunteer and mercenary companies; totalling some 11,000 men.[24] Next in importance were the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, who were the standard bearers of Christianity in the Levant since the decline of Constantinople and Cyprus. Venice supplied a naval fleet for supporting action, while Hungarian envoys encouraged German princes of the Rhineland, Bavaria, Saxony, and other parts of the empire to join. French heralds had proclaimed the crusade in Poland, Bohemia, Navarre, and Spain, from which individuals came to join.[2]
The Italian city-states were too much engaged in their customary violent rivalries to participate, and the widely reported and acclaimed English participation never actually occurred. The report of 3,000 English knights comes from contemporary Antonio Fiorentino, and was taken as fact by historian
Nevertheless, obviously inflated figures continue to be repeated. These include 6,000–12,000 Hungarians,
Composition of Ottoman forces
The strength of the Ottoman forces is also estimated at 15–20,000;[10] but inflated figures are common here as well. Numerous sources provide estimates of the size of the army as up to 60,000 including the Ottoman historian Şükrullah, who, writing in the 1460s, gives the figure of the Ottoman army as 60,000 in his Behçetu't-Tevârih;[23] alternately described as roughly half of the Crusader army.[28] The Ottoman force also included 1,500 Serbian heavy cavalry knights[29] under the command of Prince Stefan Lazarević, who was Sultan Bayezid's brother-in-law and vassal since the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.[1]
Journey
While Philip,
To Buda
The crusade set forth from
Coucy was not with the crusader body as it traveled, having been detached on a diplomatic mission to Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the Duke of Milan. Furious at French political maneuvering that had removed Genoa from his influence, Gian Galeazzo had been attempting to stop the transfer of Genoese sovereignty to France and Coucy was dispatched to warn him that France would consider further interference a hostile act. The quarrel was more than political. Valentina Visconti, the wife of the Duke of Orleans and Gian Galeazzo's beloved daughter, had been exiled from Paris due to the machinations of Queen Isabeau the same month as the departure of the crusade. The Duke of Milan threatened to send knights to defend his daughter's honor but, in the wake of the disaster at Nicopolis, it was widely believed that he had relayed intelligence to Bayezid I of crusader troop movements. There is no firm evidence of this and it is likely that Gian Galeazzo became a scapegoat after the fact due to the existing animosity with France, though there remains the possibility that the Duke of Milan, who had murdered his own uncle to ensure his own power, did in fact betray the crusaders. Coucy, his diplomatic mission complete and accompanied by Henry of Bar and their followers, left Milan for Venice, from where he requisitioned a ship on 17 May to take him across the Adriatic Sea, landing in the Croatian port of Senj on 30 May before making his way overland to the rendezvous in Buda.[32] Croatian forces led by Ban Nicholas II Garai moved towards Buda from the coastal town of Nin in June, following a session of the Croatian Parliament, and joined the royal Hungarian army led by Sigismund.[33]
Coucy arrived well before Nevers, who had stopped in the upper Danube for receptions and festivities thrown by German princes. Nevers did not arrive in Vienna until 24 June, a full month behind the crusader vanguard led by d'Eu and Boucicaut. A fleet of 70 Venetian vessels loaded with provisions was sent down the Danube, while Nevers enjoyed yet more parties thrown by his brother-in-law Leopold IV, Duke of Austria. Nevers then asked his brother-in-law for a staggering loan of 100,000 ducats, which took time to arrange, and eventually arrived in Buda in July.[34]
Buda to Nicopolis
Once the leaders had arrived, strategy had to be coordinated with Philibert de Naillac, Master of the Knights Hospitaller, and representatives of the Venetian fleet. Forty-four Venetian ships had carried the Hospitallers from Rhodes through the Aegean into the Sea of Marmara, and some continued into the Black Sea and up the Danube without engaging in battle. The fact that the Turks, who had an inferior naval presence, did not challenge the Venetians for control of the sea is seen as evidence that Bayezid and the majority of his forces were already on the European side.[34]
The War Council in Buda was immediately the forum of a fierce dispute. The previous year, Bayezid had declared that he would attack Hungary by May, yet he had not appeared by end of July. Hungarian scouts sent out as far as the Hellespont could find no sign of him, causing the French to proclaim that he was a coward. Sigismund of Hungary assured the crusaders that Bayezid would come, and advised that it would be wiser to let the Turks make the long march to them, rather than make the same long march to find them. This strategy was rejected by the French and their allies. Coucy, acting as spokesman, stated, "Though the Sultan's boasts be lies, that should not keep us from doing deeds of arms and pursuing our enemies, for that is the purpose for which we came." Sigismund had little choice but to acquiesce, though chroniclers also write that Coucy's speech excited jealousy in D'Eu, who felt that he should have had the honor of spokesman due to his position as Constable of France.[35]
The crusaders began to march down the left bank of the Danube, though part of the Hungarian army veered north to gather the forces of Transylvania and the Mircea the Elder-led forces of Wallachia. The remainder of the Hungarians brought up the rear of the crusader column. As the crusaders moved into Muslim-held territory, pillaging and mistreatment of the population reportedly grew. While crusaders had been reported to engage in periodic pillage and raping while passing through Germany, the indiscipline of the French reportedly reached new heights when they entered "schismatic" lands. Chroniclers also waxed eloquent on the immorality and blasphemy of the crusaders, writing detailed accounts of drunkard knights lying with prostitutes for days, despite writing from at best second-hand accounts. Tuchman cautions that such chroniclers were part of a contemporary tendency to blame the defeat of the crusade on the immorality of the crusaders, and that it is impossible to verify such claims.[36]
At
The next target was Oryahovo (Rachowa), a strong fortress located 75 miles (121 km) from Vidin. Frustrated by the lack of opportunity to show their bravery in deeds of arms, the French carried out a forced march at night to reach the castle before their allies, arriving in the morning just as the Turkish forces had come out to destroy the bridge across the moat. In fierce combat the French secured the bridge but were unable to push forward until Sigismund arrived. The forces combined and managed to reach the walls before night forced the combatants to retire. The next morning the inhabitants of Oryahovo agreed to surrender to Sigismund on the assurance that their lives and property would be spared. The French promptly broke Sigismund's agreement, pillaging and massacring the town after the gates were open, and later claiming that they had taken the town by conquest because their men-at-arms had topped the walls the night before. A thousand residents, both Turkish and Bulgarian, were taken hostage and the town set ablaze. The Hungarians took the French action as a grave insult to their king, while the French accused the Hungarians of trying to rob them of the glory of victory through combat.[37][38]
Leaving a garrison to hold Oryahovo, the crusaders continued towards Nicopolis, assaulting one or two forts or settlements along the way, but bypassing one citadel from which messengers escaped to inform Bayezid of the Christian army.[38] On 12 September the crusaders came within view of the fortress of Nicopolis on its limestone cliff.[39]
Siege of Nicopolis
Nicopolis, located in a natural defensive position, was a key stronghold controlling the lower Danube and lines of communication to the interior. A small road ran between the cliff and river, while the fortress was actually two walled towns, the larger one on the heights on the cliff and the smaller below. Further inland from the fortified walls, the cliff sloped steeply down to the plain.[39] Well-defended and well-supplied,[14] the Turkish governor of Nicopolis, Doğan Bey, was certain that Bayezid would have to come to the aid of the town and was prepared to endure a long siege.[40]
The crusaders had brought no siege machines with them, but Boucicaut optimistically stated that ladders were easily made and worth more than catapults when used by courageous men. However, the lack of siege weapons, the steep slope up to the walls and the formidable fortifications made taking the castle by force impossible. The crusaders set up positions around the town to block the exits, and with the naval blockade of the river, settled in for a siege to starve out the defenders.[40] Nevertheless, they were convinced that the siege of the fortress would be a mere prelude to a major thrust into relieving Constantinople and did not believe that Bayezid I would arrive so speedily to give them a real battle.[41]
Two weeks passed as the bored crusaders entertained themselves with feasts, games, and insulting the martial prowess of their enemy. Whether through drunkenness or carelessness, the crusaders posted no sentries, though foragers venturing away from the camps brought word of the Turks' approach. Bayezid was at this time already through
One of the few to concern himself with scouting the situation was de Coucy, who took a group of 500 knights and 500 mounted archers south. Learning of a large group of Turks approaching through a nearby pass, he separated 200 horsemen to carry out a feint retreat, drawing the pursuing Turks into an ambush where the rest of his men, waiting concealed, attacked their rear. Giving no quarter, de Coucy's men killed as many as they could and returned to the camp where his action shook the camp from its lethargy and drew the admiration of the other crusaders. Tuchman argues that it also increased the overconfidence of the French and again drew the jealousy of D'Eu, who accused Coucy of risking the army out of recklessness and attempting to steal glory and authority from Nevers.[43]
Sigismund called a war council on the 24th, in which he and
With the French set on a charge, Sigismund left to make a battle plan for his own forces. Apparently within hours, he sent word to the camp that Bayezid was only six hours away. The crusaders, said to be drunk over dinner, reacted in confusion; some refused to believe the report, some rose in panic, and some hastily prepared for battle. At this point, supposedly because of a lack of spare guards, the prisoners taken at Rachowa were massacred. Even European chroniclers would later call this an act of "barbarism".[44]
Battle
At daybreak on 25 September the combatants began to organize themselves under the banners of their leaders. At this point, Sigismund sent his Grand Marshal to Nevers to report that his scouts had sighted the Turkish vanguard and asked for the offensive to be postponed for two hours, when his scouts would have returned with intelligence as to the numbers and disposition of the enemy. Nevers summoned a hasty council of advisors, in which Coucy and Jean de Vienne, admiral of France and the eldest French knight on the crusade, advised obeying the wishes of the Hungarian king, which seemed wise to them. At this, D'Eu declared that Sigismund simply wished to hoard the battle honors for himself and declared his willingness to lead the charge. Coucy, who declared D'Eu's words to be a "presumption", asked for the counsel of Vienne, who noted, "When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must rule presumption."[45] Vienne commented that if D'Eu wished to advance, the army must follow, but that it would be wiser to advance in concert with the Hungarians and other allies. D'Eu rejected any wait and the council fell into a fierce dispute, with the younger hawks charging that the elder knights were not prudent, but fearful. The argument seems to have been settled when D'Eu decided to advance.[45]
D'Eu took control of the vanguard of the French knights, while Nevers and Coucy commanded the main body. The French knights, accompanied by their mounted archers, rode out with their backs to Nicopolis to meet the Turks, who were descending the hills to the south. The Knights Hospitaler, Germans, and other allies stayed with the Hungarian forces under Sigismund. The subsequent events are obscured by conflicting accounts. Tuchman notes, "Out of the welter of different versions, a coherent account of the movements and fortunes of the battlefield is not to be had; there is only a tossing kaleidoscope."[46] The French charge crushed the untrained conscripts in the Turkish front line and advanced into the lines of trained infantry, though the knights came under heavy fire from archers and were hampered by rows of sharpened stakes designed to skewer the stomachs of their horses. Chroniclers[who?] write of horses impaled on stakes, riders dismounting, stakes being pulled up to allow horses through, and the eventual rout of the Turkish infantry, who fled behind the relative safety of the sipahis. Coucy and Vienne recommended that the French pause to reform their ranks, give themselves some rest and allow the Hungarians time to advance to a position where they could support the French. They were overruled by the younger knights who, having no idea of the size of the Turkish force, believed that they had just defeated Bayezid's entire army and insisted on pursuit.[29]
The French knights thus continued up the hill, though accounts state that more than half were on foot by this point, either because they had been unhorsed by the lines of sharpened stakes or had dismounted to pull up stakes. Struggling in their heavy armor, they reached the plateau on the top of the slope, where they had expected to find fleeing Turkish forces, but instead found themselves facing a fresh corps of sipahis, whom Bayezid had kept in
The timeline of events is hazy, but it appears that as the French were advancing up the slope, sipahis were sweeping down along the flanks in an envelopment. Accounts tell of the Hungarians and other nationalities in confused combat on the plain and of a stampede of riderless horses, which Tuchman speculates pulled free from their tethers, at the sight of which the Transylvanians and the Wallachians concluded that the day was lost and abandoned the field. Sigismund, the Master of Rhodes, and the Germans fought to prevent the envelopment with "unspeakable massacre" on both sides.[29] At this point, the Turks received a reinforcement of 1,500[29] Serbian knights under the command of Stefan Lazarević, which proved critical.[10][how?] Sigismund's force was overwhelmed. Convinced to flee, Sigismund and the Master managed to escape on a fisherman's boat to the Venetian ships in the Danube.[29] Count Hermann of Cilli, governor of Habsburg Carniola and a cousin of Sigismund's deceased wife, led the force that allowed the escape and would later become the king's father-in-law. Bayezid and his vassal Stefan Lazarević recognized Nicholas II Garai, Lazarević's brother-in-law, fighting on Sigismund's side. A deal was made, and Sigismund's army surrendered, completing their defeat in detail.[citation needed]
Aftermath
Sigismund would later state to the Hospitaller Master, "We lost the day by the pride and vanity of these French. If they believed my advice, we had enough men to fight our enemies." Chronicler Jean Froissart would declare. "Since the Battle of Roncesvalles when [all] twelve peers of France were slain, Christendom received not so great a damage."[48]
Captives and ransom
Bayezid toured the battlefield later that day, hoping to find the corpse of the King of Hungary. His rage was only heightened by the discovery of the massacred prisoners from Rahovo. He ordered all of the prisoners assembled before him the following morning (26 September). The Turks recognized Jacques de Helly, a French knight who had served under Murad I, and had him identify the chief nobles for ransom. Coucy, Bar, D'Eu, Gui de La Tremoïlle and several others were grouped with Nevers to be spared. Those judged to be under the age of 20 were taken as slaves by the Turks.[49]
The rest, thought to number several thousand, were bound together in groups of three or four and had their hands tied to be marched naked before the Sultan. Ordered to proceed, a group of executioners proceeded to kill each group in turn, either by
Of those who fled the battlefield, few survived. So many attempted to swim to the boats in the Danube that several sank from the load; afterward, those on the boats pushed away those trying to board. Many who attempted to swim all the way across the river drowned. Sigismund, fearful of Wallachian treachery, sailed to the Black Sea and Constantinople before making his way home by sea. Those Crusaders who made it across the Danube and tried to return home by land found that the land they were traveling over had already been stripped of forage by the retreating force of Wallachians. Reduced to wandering through the woods in rags and robbed of whatever possessions they had, many of the starved survivors died along the way. Perhaps the most famous of the few who reached home after this journey was Count Rupert of Bavaria (
The captives were forced to march the 350-mile length to Gallipoli, stripped of clothing down to their shirts and most without shoes, with hands tied and beaten by their captors. At Gallipoli, the noble captives were kept in the upper rooms of a tower while the 300 prisoners that were the Sultan's share of the common captives were kept below. The ship carrying Sigismund passed within half a mile of the tower as it went through the Hellespont, for which the Turks lined the captives along the shore and mockingly called out for Sigismund to come and rescue his comrades. Sigismund, while in Constantinople, had made overtures to ransom the captives, but Bayezid was aware that Hungary's wealth had been depleted in the crusade and that richer ransoms could be had from France. After two months in Gallipoli, the prisoners were transferred to Bursa, the joint Ottoman capital located in Asia, where they awaited word of their ransom.[50]
In the first week of December, rumors of unimaginable defeat arrived in Paris. As no certain news was to be had, rumor-mongers were imprisoned in the Grand Châtelet and, if convicted of lying, sentenced to death by drowning. The King, Burgundy, Orleans and Duc de Bar all sped envoys to Venice and Hungary to bring word back. On 16 December merchant ships brought word to Venice of defeat at Nicopolis and the escape of Sigismund.[51]
Jacques de Helly, the knight who had identified the nobles after the battle, had been charged by Bayezid, under his vow to return, to inform the King of France and Duke of Burgundy of his victory and demands for ransom. On Christmas, de Helly rode into Paris and, kneeling before the king, recounted the expedition, the battle, defeat and Bayezid's massacre of the prisoners. He also carried letters from Nevers and the other noble captives. Those for whom he did not carry letters were assumed to be dead, and weeping members of the court gathered around de Helly to seek more information about loved ones. According to the Monk of St. Denis, "affliction reigned in all hearts" and Deschamps wrote of "funerals from morning to eve". 9 January was declared a day of mourning throughout France and that day "it was piteous to hear the bells toiling in all the churches in Paris."[52]
A delegation with rich gifts for Bayezid left Paris on 20 January 1397 to negotiate the ransoms. De Helly, bound by his oath to return, had already departed with letters for the captives. Gian Galeazzo's help became vital, as he had extensive contacts in the Ottoman court. Envoys were sent informing him of belated approval by the King allowing the fleur-de-lis to be added to the Visconti escutcheon, Galeazzo's first wife having been from the French royal house, and to make every effort to gain his assistance. Meanwhile, those envoys sent in early December had reached Venice and, having learned of the fate of the captives, were attempting to make their way to Bursa. Venice, which was the French conduit to the Muslim east due to her trade network, became the center for exchange of news, cash and ransomed captives.[53]
On 13 February 1397, de Coucy, ill and perhaps suffering from battle wounds, died. Boucicaut and Guy de Tremoille released on their own accord to seek funds in the Levant reached Rhodes where de Tremoille fell ill and died around Easter. French negotiators in the Sultan's court finally reached agreement on a ransom of 200,000 gold
The last of the Crusader leaders (Nevers, Boucicaut, Guillaume de Tremoille and Jacques de la Marche), along with seven or eight other knights, re-entered France in February 1398. They were greeted by minstrels, parties and parades as they journeyed across the kingdom, though Tuchman notes, "the receptions probably represented not so much popular enthusiasm as organized joy, in which the 14th century excelled."[55]
Broader ramifications
With a historian's hindsight Johan Huizinga remarked upon "the lamentable consequences of statecraft recklessly embarking on an enterprise of vital import in the spirit of a chivalrous adventure",[56] though participants and contemporary chroniclers did not analyse the event in these terms.
No new expedition was launched from Western Europe to stop the Turkish advance in the Balkans after this defeat, until the 1440s. England and France soon renewed their war. Wallachia continued its stance against the Ottomans, having stopped another expedition in the next year, 1397, and in 1400 yet another expedition of the Ottomans. The defeat and imprisonment of Sultan Bayezid I by
The Battle of Nicopolis is also widely regarded as the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire, since hopes for its revival had come to an end with the defeat of the Crusaders. Its last ruler, Ivan Sratsimir of Bulgaria, was captured and killed in Bursa.[57]
By their victory at Nicopolis, the Turks discouraged the formation of future European coalitions against them. They maintained their pressure on Constantinople, tightened their control over the Balkans, and became a greater threat to central Europe.[12]
See also
References
- ^ a b Alexandru Madgearu, The Wars of the Balkan Peninsula: Their Medieval Origins, ed. Martin Gordon, (Scarecrow Press, 2008), 90.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tuchman, 548
- ^ The Crusades and the military orders: expanding the frontiers of latin christianity; Zsolt Hunyadi page 226
- ^ Valerii︠a︡ Fol, Bulgaria: History Retold in Brief, (Riga, 1999), 103.
- ISBN 978-1-84176-091-9.]
Ali Pasha Candarli, who served Bayazit I so well (see Campaign 64, Nicopolis 1396).
[permanent dead link - ^ (Djokić 2023, p. 128)
Not all Serb magnates fought and died as Ottoman vassals. Vuk Branković, who survived the Kosovo battle, and who continued to rule over his realm that included Kosovo, joined a large Christian coalition led by Hungary, which now represented the 'bulwark of Christianity' and included Wallachian, Venetian, Bulgarian, Croatian, French and English troops. The Christian coalition was defeated by Ottomans at Nicopolis, Bulgaria in 1396. Branković died as an Ottoman prisoner the following year, but is ironically portrayed in the Serbian folklore as a Judas-like figure.
- ^ (Cerović 2002, p. 228)
Вук Бранковић, син Бранков, оженио се Маром, кћерком кнеза Лазара. Његови поседи протезали су се од Скопља до Копаоника и Сјенице, до горњих токова Таре и Мораче. После битке на Косову, примио је вазални однос према Турској. У бици код Никопоља учествовао је на страни Угарске, када га је заробио султан Бајазит и одвео га у заробљеништво, где је умро, 1397. године.
- ^ a b c Nicolle, p. 37. "In fact the Crusaders probably numbered some 17,000 men. Traditional Turkish sources give the number of Ottoman troops as 10,000 but when their Balkans vassals were included they may have numbered around 15,000."
- ^ a b c d e f Tuchman, 554
- ^ a b c d e Grant
- ^ Rogers, Clifford (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology.
- ^ a b c "Battle of Nicopolis". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ a b c Tuchman 562
- ^ a b Grant, p 122
- ^ "Battle of Nicopolis". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ^ Tuchman, 544–545
- ^ Tuchman, 533–537
- ^ a b Tuchman, 545
- ^ Tuchman, 545–546
- ^ Szende, László (May 2022). "A Magyar Királyság geopolitikai helyzete Luxemburgi Zsigmond korában" [The geopolitical situation of the Kingdom of Hungary in the time of Sigismund of Luxembourg]. Rubicon (Hungarian Historical Information Dissemination) (in Hungarian).
- ^ Bánlaky, József. "Hadműveletek a nikápolyi csatáig" [Operations up to the Battle of Nicopolis]. A magyar nemzet hadtörténelme [The Military History of the Hungarian Nation] (in Hungarian). Budapest.
- ^ a b Schiltberger, Johann (c. 1427). "The Battle of Nicopolis (1396)". from The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, trans. J. Buchan Telfer (London: Hakluyt Society, series 1, no. 58; 1879. The Society for Medieval Military History. Archived from the original on 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ a b c "Askerı Yapi Ve Savaşlar: Savaşlar (2/11)" (in Turkish). www.theottomans.org. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, by Spencer C. Tucker, 2009 p. 316
- ^ Tipton, Charles L. (1962). "The English at Nicopolis". Speculum (37): 533–540.
- ^ a b Madden
- ^ a b c d See, for example, an estimate of 10,000 executed in "I Turchi E L'Europa: Dalla battaglia di Manzikert alla caduta di Costantinopoli: Bayazed I (1389–1402)" (in Italian). www.maat.it. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ a b "Niğbolu Savaşı (Niğbolu Zaferi)" [Battle of Nicopolis (Victory of Nicopolis)]. Türk Tarihi (in Turkish). Archived from the original on June 2, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e Tuchman 560
- ^ Tuchman, 549
- ^ a b Tuchman, 550
- ^ Tuchman, 550–551
- ^ Andrić 2015, p. 485.
- ^ a b Tuchman, 552
- ^ Tuchman, 553
- ^ Tuchman, 553–554
- ^ Tuchman, 554–555
- ^ a b Madden, p. 184
- ^ a b Tuchman, 555
- ^ a b Tuchman, 556
- ^ Madden, 185
- ^ a b Tuchman, 556–557
- ^ a b Tuchman, 558
- ^ Tuchman, 558–559
- ^ a b Tuchman 559
- ^ Tuchman 559–560
- ^ Tuchman 560–561
- ^ Tuchman 561
- ^ Tuchman 561–562
- ^ Tuchman 564–566
- ^ Tuchman 566
- ^ Tuchman 566–567
- ^ Tuchman 568
- ^ Tuchman 571–575
- ^ Tuchman 575
- ^ Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (1919) 1924:69.
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