Battle of Nicopolis
The Battle of Nicopolis took place on September 25, 1396, between a French-Hungarian alliance and the Ottoman Empire. It is often referred to as the crusade of Nicopolis, and was both the largest and last large-scale "crusade" of the Middle Ages. The battle is sometimes dated to September 28.
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 (see Northern Crusades). After the Ottoman victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, they had conquered most of the Balkans, and had reduced the Byzantine Empire to the area immediately around Constantinople, which they were now besieging. The Kingdom of Hungary was now the frontier between Islam and Christianity in eastern Europe, and the Hungarians were in danger of being attacked themselves. Venice feared that the Ottomans would reduce their control of the Adriatic.
In 1394, Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a new crusade against the Turks, although by this time the papacy was split in two, with rival popes at Avignon and Rome (see Western Schism), and the days when a pope had the authority to call a crusade were long past. Nevertheless, England and France were now at an intermission in their Hundred Years' War, and Richard II and Charles VI were willing to work together to finance a crusade. French negotiations for a joint crusade with Sigismund of Hungary had been underway since 1393.
Preparations
The plan was for John of Gaunt, Louis of Orleans, and Philip the Bold to leave in 1395, with Charles and Richard following them the next year. By the beginning of 1396 these plans had been abandoned. Instead, John of Nevers led a force of approximately 10,000 Burgundians, mostly cavalry, with an English contingent of about 1000 men. There were also about 6000 men from the Palatinate, Bavaria, and Nuremberg. Sigismund had the largest force by far, about 60,000 men. The French forces set off from Montbéliard in April of 1396, arrived in Vienna in May and June, and met with Sigismund in Buda in July.
Sigismund wanted to take a defensive stance, suggesting that they wait until the Ottoman army arrived to attack them. He had fought smaller battles with the Ottomans earlier in the year, but to the French, ignorant of Turkish tactics, this was unacceptable: they had come to fight and refused to wait. Sigismund gave in and the combined force, now numbering about 100,000, marched south towards Nicopolis. The countryside was plundered along the way, and the city of Rahova was sacked, its inhabitants killed or taken prisoner. Meanwhile, a fleet led by the Venetians, Genoese, and the Knights of Rhodes sailed up the Danube and its tributaries to Nicopolis, where they met the crusaders on September 10.
Siege of Nicopolis
Nicopolis was immediately besieged, but it was well-defended and well-supplied, and the crusaders had brought no siege machines with them. Nevertheless they remained, waiting for the Ottomans to come to its relief. The Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, already occupied with his own siege at Constantinople, gathered his army and marched to Nicopolis. His ally Stefan Lazarevic of Serbia joined him on the way, and they arrived on September 24, with about 104,000 men. The numbers are probably exaggerated on both sides, but the point is clear: the armies were approximately equal in number.
The battle
On the 25th both sides prepared for battle. Before the battle began, the prisoners from Rahova were killed, for unknown reasons. The French and English formed the vanguard, while Sigismund divided his troops into three: he commanded the centre himself, the Transylvanians formed the right wing, and the Wallachians under Mircea cel Batran formed the left. Bayezid formed his lines with a vanguard of cavalry protected by a line of stakes, a main line of archers and Janissaries, and the main body of Ottomans and Serbians hidden behind a hill some distance away.
Sigismund suggested caution, but again the French were impatient. They charged toward the Ottoman vanguard, but realized they would have to dismount when they reached the line of stakes. They did so, and began to remove the stakes, while under fire from the Ottoman archers. When this was accomplished, the unarmoured Ottoman infantry met the now horseless but well-armoured knights, and the French were victorious, killing about 10,000 men. The French rushed forward to attack the cavalry and were again successful, killing about 5000. Although they were still without their horses, the French pursued the fleeing Ottomans all the way back to the hill. Upon reaching the top, the now exhausted French discovered the main Ottoman army awaiting them. In the ensuing fight, the French were completely defeated. Jean de Vienne, admiral of France, was killed, although he is described as having defended the French standard six times before he was finally killed. John of Nevers, Enguerrand VII de Coucy and Jean Le Maingre, marshal of France, were captured.
Meanwhile, the riderless horses made their way back to Sigismund's camp. Seeing this, the Transylvanians and Wallachians assumed all was lost, and retreated from the field. Sigismund instead came to the aid of the French, and met Bayezid's force on the hill. The battle was about evenly matched until the Serbians arrived. Sigismund was persuaded by his companions to retreat; he was able to reach a Venetian ship, which carried him to safety.
Aftermath
On September 26, Bayezid ordered three thousand prisoners to be killed, in retaliation for the killing of the prisoners from Rahova. He was also angry that he had lost so many men, about 35 000, especially in the early stages of the battle, despite his overall victory. He kept the younger prisoners for his own army. Those who escaped eventually returned home, although many were impoverished on the way; Sigismund himself took the sea route home through the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean, suspecting the Wallachians of treachery. Charles VI was informed of the defeat on Christmas.
The knights of western Europe soon lost their enthusiasm for crusading. Fighting would continue in Spain and the Mediterranean, and among the pagans of northern Europe, but no new expedition was launched from the west after this defeat. England and France soon renewed their war. The Hungarians and Poles were defeated at the Battle of Varna in 1444, and Constantinople finally fell in 1453, but western Europe did not organize another expedition against the Ottomans until the Renaissance.
Names in other languages
Hungarian: Nikápoly
References
- Aziz S. Atiya, The Crusades in the Later Middle Ages. New York, 1965.
- Aziz S. Atiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis. New York, 1978.
- Norman Housley, ed., Documents on the Later Crusades, 1274-1580. New York, 1996.
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Oxford History of the Crusades. Oxford, 1995.
- Froissart's Chronicles Book IV 1389-1400