The Battle of Nicopolis is the battle that took place on September 25, 1396 in front of Niğbolu Castle and resulted in the defeat of the Crusader troops in a short period of time. What makes this battle important is that it was the first all-out attack by Christian Europe against the Turks.
The motivation behind the campaign was to stop the Turkish advance in the Balkans and to help Hungary. In this way, to ensure the security of Western Europe. Saving Constantinople and helping Byzantium was secondary. The planning of the campaign was done in accordance with the spirit of the Crusades. The main goal was to reach Jerusalem via Istanbul. However, the real organization of the expedition was the Hungarian King Sigismund of the Luxemburg Dynasty. Although the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II was also looking for allies in the West in the same years, it was Sigismund's resistance against the Turks that really mobilized Europe.
The general situation in Europe at the end of the XIVth century was favorable for such an alliance. As a result of the Hundred Years' War, an agreement was reached between England and France, and Pope Boniface IX in Rome and Pope Benedict XIV in Avignon issued a declaration in support of this campaign. Philippe de Meziere, a prominent figure of the period and an active Crusader, wrote a letter to the English King Richard II, calling for cooperation with King Charles VI of France. In addition, the dukes of Burgundy, Orleans and Lancaster expressed their readiness to help. The embassy delegation sent by the Hungarian king, headed by Johann de Kanizsa, Archbishop of Gran, first traveled to Venice, then to Lyon and Burgundy. Finally, it went to Paris and met with the King of France. Mircea, voivode of Wallachia, although worn out by the Ottoman struggle, accepted the aid. Promises of help were also received from the Italian maritime states and the Knights of Rhodes.
French forces were assembled in Dijon in April 1396 under the command of Jean de Nevers, the 24-year-old son of the duke of Burgundy. An advisory board was formed, consisting of Philippe, son of the Duke of Bar, Guy de la Tramouille, his brother Guillaume, Admiral Jean de Vienne and Oudard, the judge of Chasseron. It was then decided that the entire Crusader army would gather in Budin. The French gathered in Budin with approximately 10,000 men, the German princes with 6,000 men, the English with John Holland, Earl of Huntington and 1,000 men, and many knights and adventurers from Poland, Bohemia, Italy and Spain with 13,000 men. The Italian maritime states and the Knights of Rhodes also came to the Danube from the Black Sea. The main strength of the army was the Hungarians with 60,000 men. Although the gathered army pleased Sigismund very much, Sigismund wanted to act cautiously, attacking instead of attacking and defending instead of defending. But this idea did not please the European powers acting with the Crusader spirit. According to Froissart, who was in the army and wrote the history of the campaign, the whole of "Turkey" would be conquered and then Syria and other holy places would be reached.
While these developments were taking place in the West, Yıldırım, who threatened the Hungarian fortresses on the border by attacking the Danube region in 1394, was also continuing the blockade of Istanbul. Since the war with the Hungarians was also continuing, developments in the West were constantly monitored. According to Froissart, Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, informed Bayezid Yıldırım about the Crusader alliance. However, Bayezid's swift action as soon as he learned about the expedition shows that this was not the case. However, the Ottoman army had more than enough experience for such a sudden move and organization. Yildirim Bayezid moved quickly to Nicopolis, while other troops at war were quickly moved there as well. Bayezid's army size was between 60,000 and 80,000 men, some of whom were tired new recruits. Although Western sources show the Ottoman army outnumbering the Crusaders, in reality the Ottoman army was not even 80,000.
When Enguerrand de Coucy, the spokesman of the Crusaders, convinced Sigismund to launch a sudden attack without waiting for the Turks, a whole Crusader army crossed the Danube near Orsova and entered Ottoman territory. However, due to their lack of military discipline, the Crusaders did not hesitate to use oppression and violence in the places they passed through. This situation increased even more in the Ottoman lands. The Crusaders first entered Vidin, where the Bulgarian Prince Strassimir, who was loyal to the Ottomans, collaborated with them and destroyed a small Turkish troop. After this event, Jean de Nevers and some 300 noblemen were knighted. They then attacked the fortress of Rahova, which was defended by a small Turkish garrison. When the French under the command of Philippe d'Artois, Count of Eu, and Marshal Boucicaut failed to take the castle, Sigismund caught up and captured it. Crusader sources state that after the capture of this castle, many large and small places were captured. After this move, the Crusaders came in front of Nicopolis Castle and started to besiege it. However, the steep location of the castle enabled the Ottoman troops to defend it for a long time. Eventually, this siege turned into a blockade. The Crusaders lost time here, which allowed Yildirim Bayezid to catch up.
Early Ottoman sources report that a 130,000-strong Crusader army crossed the Danube from Wallachia to Nicopolis and that Bayezid, upon hearing the news, lifted the siege of Istanbul and marched to Nicopolis with his troops. Ibn al-Jazari, the only eyewitness of the battle, who was with Bayezid, writes that the news came during the siege of Constantinople and Bayezid immediately took action to meet the Crusaders before they entered Ottoman territory.
Bayezid stayed in Edirne for a few days and then moved to Tarnova, where he gathered the rest of his army. He sent Evrenos Bey to be informed about the situation of the Crusaders. When Evrenos Bey arrived in front of Nicoplis, he encountered Johann Maroti, one of the Hungarian king's men, who was the bani of Belgrade region, and had a small battle. Johann Maroti's mission, just like Evrenos, was to gather intelligence. Ottoman sources, on the other hand, write that Yıldırım Bayezid himself went to the front of Nicopolis Castle to gather information about Evrenos' weakness in gathering information.
Yildirim Bayezid set up his camp near Nicopolis on September 24, after a minor skirmish with Evrenos. The battle began the next day with the attack of the Crusaders. Bayezid, thanks to the information he had, had most probably placed his army in a defensive formation. It is noteworthy that Ibn al-Jazari mentions that only one of Bayezid's sons came to Nicopolis. For this reason, he states that many difficulties were encountered. While the Ottoman sources state that Bayezid divided his army into three, the Crusader sources state that there were irregular troops in the front, behind them were stakes erected to meet the attack, behind the stakes were the main forces and archers, and Bayezid was waiting at the back with his own forces. If the information in the battle conquest report is to be accepted as correct, the Ottoman army consisted of Emir Emir Süleyman Çelebi, the Prince, on the right flank with the Viziriazam Çandarlı Ali Pasha, Rumeli Beylerbeyi Firuz Bey, Malkoç Bey, Timurtaş Bey. On the left flank were Prince Mustafa, Anatolian Beylerbeyi Timurtaş Pasha, Karaman Beylerbeyi Mehmed, Turhan, Beşir, Tahir and Bayezid himself in the center.
The Crusaders organized an offensive and gave the French the lead. Sigismund's forces were right behind them. On the right flank was Laczkovic, Voivode of Transylvania, and on the left was Mircea, Voivode of Wallachia. The French armored cavalry attacked and was met by the Ottoman vanguard. Then, these cavalry were pulled in front of the pickets and were showered with arrows by the archers behind the pickets. As a result of the intense attack of the archers, the French cavalry had to dismount and continue the battle on foot. The horses of the dismounted cavalrymen fled left and right, misleading Sigismund, who was behind them, into thinking that the French had been defeated. This thought caused a great panic in the Crusader headquarters. This episode is an important example of the lack of discipline in Crusader army communication and organization. In reality, however, the French (according to the Fetihname) marched on foot on the Rumeli column and made some progress there. However, Şehzade Mustafa and Timurtaş Pasha, Beylerbeyi of Anatolia, who were in the left column, surrounded the French from behind and defeated them. Many of the French were killed in this battle and many were taken prisoner. Admiral Jean de Vienne was among the dead. Jean de Nevers, who was in charge of the army, was taken prisoner.
According to the Fetihname, the Hungarian commander Nicholas de Gara attacked the Anatolian soldiers with a sudden ambush just when it seemed that victory had been achieved. Due to the similar battle dress of both sides, it was not clear who was on which side and this confusion caused Bayezid's headquarters to be in danger. Crusader sources, on the other hand, state that the sudden attack of the Hungarians caused confusion in the Ottoman central army, but the Hungarian attack was repelled by the arrival of Serbian forces under Lazarevic's command. It is also reported that Sigismund escaped with his life by boarding a ship on the Danube. Among the Ottoman chronicles, only Tajü't-tawarih states that Bayezid, who was personally involved in the last attack, was knocked off his horse by a blow and remounted with the help of one of his servants.
In this battle, which resulted in the decisive victory of the Ottomans, although there is no exact number of casualties, there is a consensus that the Ottoman losses were around 30,000, while the Crusaders suffered more than that. On the Crusaders' side, nobles such as Jean de Nevers, Phillippe d'Artois, Count of Eu, Jacques de Bourbon, Count of La March, Enguerrand de Coucy, Henry de Bar and Guy de la Tramouille, Marshal Boucicaut were taken prisoner, and some of them were released after paying their ransoms. The Hungarian king also boarded a ship with a small number of his men and sailed first to a Crusader fleet off the Danube and then from Constantinople to Venice.
The Battle of Nicopolis was the last campaign of the classic Crusade. This loss of the Crusaders is blamed by Western historians on the failure to listen to the Hungarian king, who had experience against the Turks, and the thoughtlessness of the Count of Eu and Boucicaut, who wanted to claim victory. In addition to all these, the lack of a common battle plan among the Crusaders, debauchery, immorality, lack of discipline, lack of a backup plan and failure to study the geography are among the most important reasons for the Crusaders' loss. Yıldırım Bayezid, on the other hand, used this geography, which he already knew well, to hide his soldiers in the forests and fight by limiting the Crusaders' mobility. As a result of this battle, Yildirim Bayezid gained great fame in the Islamic world and the Ottoman presence in the Balkans was greatly strengthened. Byzantium, on the other hand, began to pin its hopes not on its own co-religionists, but on the Ottoman enemies emerging in the East.
REFERENCES
FERİDUN EMECEN, "NİĞBOLU SAVAŞI", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nigbolu-savasi (04.08.2024).
Fahamettin Başar, “Niğbolu Meydan Muharebesi ve Haçlı Seferleri Tarihindeki Yeri”, Haçlı Seferleri ve XI. Asırdan Günümüze Haçlı Ruhu Semineri, Bildiriler, İstanbul 1998.
Neşrî, Cihannümâ
İbn Kemal, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân
Âşıkpaşazâde, Târih
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