Battle of Nicopolis 1396 AD - Part 1 of 2 - The Crusade Beckons
The Ottoman Sultanate has just scored a hard won, but important victory in the Battle of Kosovo.
With Prince Lazar perishing in battle, the Serbian-led Christian coalition fell apart, and the powerful local lords now seek to assert their rule over territorial remnants of what was once,
the Serbian Empire.
But…
Sultan Murad I, the man who transformed the Osmanli tribe into a sultanate and engineered the early Ottoman expansion into Europe, also fell on the fields of Kosovo.
For a brief time,
the future remained uncertain… As the two battered armies retreated from Kosovo,
news of Murad I's death reached the courts of Europe.
Without his capable leadership, it perhaps seemed that the early Ottoman conquest would be just another onrushing horde, more interested in raiding and tributes, than in ruling the conquered lands.
But… in Bayezid I, the Ottomans were blessed with a gifted leader.
The realm he inherited from his father was loosely held together, still lacking the forms of government needed,
for the long term consolidation of Ottoman rule.
The new Sultan centralized the state based on Turkish and Muslim traditions, founding the institutions and bureaucracy that could support an efficient rule, over the growing dominion.
To strengthen his position in Europe, Bayezid interfered in the power vacuum in Serbia, left in the wake of the Battle of Kosovo.
With Prince Lazar’s death, his wife Milica ruled until her son Stefan Lazarevic, came of age, but her hold on power and territory,
was threatened by Hungary and other Serbian lords.
Taking advantage of this, the Sultan used a softer approach,
offering to back young Stefan’s succession to the throne, in exchange for Moravian Serbia becoming an Ottoman vassal.
Seeing this as the only option for her family to stay in power,
Milica accepted, giving her daughter’s hand in marriage to Bayezid, to officialise the treaty.
With this shrewd bit of diplomacy, the Sultan gained a strong buffer against Hungary and a vassal with an experience army that would become a vital component in many Ottoman campaigns to come.
In addition, the treaty freed up Ottoman troops that were sent to subjugate other Serbian principalities to the south.
With his western flank secured, Bayezid turned his army east into Anatolia, recognizing that its' resources and manpower could fuel further Ottoman expansion.
Despite being met by a strong anti-Ottoman alliance, Bayezid scored a string of victories, often catching enemy commanders off-guard with rapid movement and deployment of his troops, relying heavily on the Byzantine, but especially Serbian shock heavy cavalry throughout the campaign.
He began the resettlement of numerous Turkish tribes from the conquered areas into the fertile plains of Thrace and Rumelia.
This influx of immigrants provided additional revenue and manpower for future campaigns in the Balkans.
Peace was signed in early 1391, but Bayezid began making plans for another campaign
into eastern Anatolia.
Then… news came from Europe… With most of Ottoman troops in Anatolia, Hungarian forces raided deep into Serbian territory, which undermined Ottoman influence and sowed seeds of rebellion in some areas.
To the east, Voivode Mircea of Wallachia pushed into the Bulgarian Principality of Karvuna
to get the vital access
to the Black Sea,
while also supporting rebellions against the Turks further afield.
Bayezid ordered his limited forces in southern Bulgaria to gather and strike north, meanwhile, abandoning his Anatolian campaign
in preparation to march back west, aware that if Bulgaria was lost, Ottoman authority in the Balkans would disintegrate.
In Serbia, Turkish akinjis responded with raids of their own, spreading devastation in Hungary’s southern regions, while Ottoman forces in Bulgaria took Nicopolis and began conducting
operations into Wallachia.
This forced Mircea to turn back west, but with his troops stretched thin, he reluctantly sought support from King Sigismund.
The combined Hungarian-Wallachian offensive gradually pushed back across the Danube, retaking Nicopolis
by the end of the year.
This galvanized anti-Ottoman sentiment in Bulgaria,
and a new Christian coalition seemed to be forming.
But, by the following year Bayezid had returned…
Before any Christian coalition could take shape, the Sultan coordinated a series of lightning campaigns, absorbing the Kingdom of Tarnovo and conquering most of Karvuna, before moving west to stabilize the situation in Serbia and help his vassal Stefan to consolidate and expand his rule.
The Despotate of Vidin was forced into the Ottoman sphere and the Danubian fortresses of Silistria, Nicopolis and Vidin were strengthened.
Bayezid’s rapid campaign stunned the Christians but, sensing that this would provoke a response from European rulers, he summoned his vassals at Serres, to reaffirm his overlordship and secure the Ottoman position in the Balkans.
Directives and pledges were exchanged and the Sultan selected Stefan Lazarevic as his most trusted vassal, with whom he carefully cultivated a friendship, recognizing the importance of having the experienced Serbian knights and heavy cavalry on his side.
But not everyone at the meeting was pleased.
Emperor Manuel left the gathering firmly believing that Byzantium was doomed to be absorbed by the Turks, and upon returning to Constantinople he threw off Ottoman suzerainty and prepared the city for a long siege, one that would soon come, calling for help from the West.
King Sigismund echoed Manuel’s concerns, urging other Christian rulers to mobilize and drive the Ottomans out of Europe!
The two Popes in Rome and Avignon also encouraged a crusade against the Turks, although the Western Schism eroded any authority that the papacy had in calling for a crusade.
Hungarian envoys travelled to all major European powers and, most importantly, confirmed treaties with England and France.
The temporary cessation of hostilities in the long Anglo-French war freed up vast manpower
and financial resources
and was crucial in enabling the West to form a multinational force.
Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy was the principal financier of the endeavour and his son, John of Nevers was given command of the Franco-Burgundian element.
Europe’s most advanced Mediterranean maritime power, the Republic of Venice, together with the Republic of Genoa, combined their fleets and joined the enterprise soon after, wanting to protect their lucrative trade routes and rich coastal outposts.
From the island of Rhodes, the Knights Hospitaller pledged their support,
having already been actively attacking Ottoman pirates and shipping in the Aegean, including the conquest of Smyrna some 50 years earlier.
Wallachia and Bohemia joined too, as did the Teutonic Knights and various German princes, and warriors also came from the Kingdom of Naples, Aragon, Castille, and Portugal, as well as the Swiss Confederacy, the Duchy of Savoy, Poland, and Moldova.
Contingents from across Europe set out towards the rendezvous point at the Hungarian city of Buda.
Bayezid responded with a full-scale invasion of Wallachia, aiming to create another buffer state against the Christians, and gain control over both banks of the Lower Danube, a key strategic objective in the upcoming war.
However, Voivode Mircea
inflicted heavy defeats
on the Ottomans in late 1394 and in the spring of 1395, but having suffered heavy losses himself, he was forced to retreat to Hungary, while Bayezid held on to most of his territorialgains, placing Vlad the Usurper on the Wallachian throne, and installing additional garrisons along the Danube,
before retreating back to Edirne.
By summer of 1396, the Franco-Burgundian and other Crusader contingents gathered near Buda.
At a War Council held in early July, the first order of business, was to coordinate
land and naval operations.
The overwhelming naval superiority of the Crusaders was to play a major role during the Nicopolis campaign.
In the south, Venetian and Genoese fleets were to combine with the Knights Hospitaller in the Aegean, and sail up into the Sea of Marmara.
A part of the fleet would remain there to raid the enemy coast and prevent the transport of Ottoman supplies and troops from Anatolia, using ports in Constantinople, Smyrna and Genoese possessions
to dock and repair their vessels.
From the Sea of Marmara, another part of the fleet would sail to the river Danube, where the Genoese garrison at Kiliya would be strengthened to help protect the mouth of the river from any possible Ottoman relief forces sailing upstream.
The remainder of the fleet were to then proceed up the Danube, until they met up
with the army at Nicopolis.
Meanwhile, another fleet of some 70 ships and barges sailed down the Danube, in support of the army that marched out of Buda, led by the Hungarian vanguard along the left bank of the river, followed by the Western Crusaders, with Sigismund leading the Hungarian force in the rear.
The King of Hungary at first preferred a defensive strategy, wanting to let Bayezid wear down his troops by marching into hostile Hungarian territory.
But with the summer ending and the enemy nowhere in sight, Sigismund knew that it would be impossible to maintain a large army in one area for long, proposing instead a pre-emptive strike and the re-establishment of Christian rule in Bulgaria, which would inevitably restrict the Ottoman expansion into Europe.
The king also preferred to send a part of his army east through southern Transylvania and then into Wallachia to reassert his overlordship and, once across the Carpathian mountains, Hungarian troops were to help restore Mircea to the throne and regain control over the left bank of the Lower Danube.
But the French and Burgundian commanders insisted on a decisive campaign that would expel the Ottomans from the continent, by marching through Bulgaria to capture the capital Edirne and relieving Constantinople, which was under blockade for the past two years.
By mid-to-late August, the main Crusader column stopped at Orshova, where the supply fleet began ferrying the troops across the Danube for the next 8 days.
The news of the invading force reached Bayezid at Constantinople.
Unable to transport more troops from Anatolia due to the Christian blockade in the Sea of Marmara, he withdrew with his best troops and headed towards Edirne, maintaining only a loose blockade around
the Byzantine capital.
Meanwhile in the west, vassal contingents, led by the Serbs under Stefan Lazarevic, were to march via Sofia towards Plovdiv.
It was around this time that Ottoman spies intercepted a letter from Manuel to Sigismunud that said:
“The Turks are coming, prepare yourself!” Bayezid ordered the troops to gather south of the Balkan mountains, wishing to stay out of range of any Crusader scouting parties and keep the enemy guessing on his whereabouts until his army was ready.
Knowing that the Christians crossed at Orshova,
the Sultan sensed that they will stay close to their support fleet on the Danube, and that Nicopolis would be their main entry point into Bulgaria.
Standing on high ground, Nicopolis had a commanding view over the Danube.
It was a major port and ferry crossing, close to the river Olt, that is navigable far into Wallachia towards Transylvania, and the river Osam, who’s valley leads deep into central Bulgaria.
During the past couple of years, Bayezid strengthened its’ fortifications and placed a well-supplied garrison under the command of one of his highly experience officers, Dogan Beg, knowing that the strategically important city had to be held.
To the north, part of the Hungarian army, together with Transylvanian and Wallachian troops, managed to restore Mircea to the throne and establish contact with the Crusader fleet anchored at the mouth of the Danube, telling them they can now move upstream.
Meanwhile the main Crusader army advanced along the right bank of the Danube into the Despotate of Vidin.
Sratsimir of Bulgaria, having no desire to fight for the Turks,
surrendered the fortified city of Vidin without a fight.
Subsequent Crusader raids were conducted across his lands towards the south-west, displeasing Sigismund, who perhaps sought to gain control over these lands after the war.
Priests and friars that were part of the expedition noted the indiscipline of the Frankish troops, who frequently mistreated the Christian population.
At Rahovo, after a brief skirmish the population agreed to surrender to the King of Hungary and, with assurance that their lives and property would be spared, they opened the gates.
But to Sigismund’s dismay, Franco-Burgindian troops broke the agreement and proceeded to pillage and massacre the inhabitants, taking around 1000 Turkish and Christian hostages, before setting the town ablaze.
Not far to the east, was Nicopolis…
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