Battle of Nicopolis (1396): Sigismund's Crusade Crushed

The Battle of Nicopolis was fought on 25 September 1396 outside the Danube fortress of Nicopolis, now Nikopol in northern Bulgaria. An army of Hungarian, French, Burgundian and other western crusaders led by King Sigismund of Hungary was destroyed by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. It was the last large international crusade of the Middle Ages, and its failure confirmed Ottoman power in the Balkans.

Background

By the 1390s the Ottomans had defeated the Serbs at Kosovo, absorbed most of Bulgaria and begun a blockade of Constantinople. Their raids now reached the borders of Hungary. Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary since 1387, appealed to western Europe for help. He had already clashed with Ottoman forces on the lower Danube and knew that Hungary could not hold the frontier alone.

A long truce between England and France in the Hundred Years’ War freed many knights for adventure. Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy financed a large contingent led by his son John, Count of Nevers. Both rival popes of the Western Schism, in Rome and Avignon, blessed the expedition. The Knights Hospitaller and Venice sent ships, and Mircea the Elder of Wallachia joined with his troops.

The campaign

The western contingents gathered at Buda in the summer of 1396 and marched down the Danube. In August and September they took Vidin, whose Bulgarian ruler surrendered, and Rahova (modern Oryahovo), where much of the population was massacred. Around 12 September they arrived at Nicopolis.

The crusaders had brought no proper siege engines and settled down to starve the town out. Contemporary writers describe the camp as overconfident, with feasting and quarrels among the commanders and little effort to gather intelligence about the approaching enemy. Bayezid, meanwhile, lifted his siege of Constantinople and marched north far faster than his enemies expected, joined by Serbian vassal cavalry under Stefan Lazarevic.

The battle

On 25 September the Ottoman army took up position on rising ground south of the town. Its front lines of light horsemen and infantry stood behind a field of sharpened stakes, with Bayezid’s heavy cavalry, the sipahis, waiting behind the crest. The sultan’s army combined Janissary infantry and archers with provincial cavalry from Anatolia and the Balkans, all under a single, firm command, which the crusaders lacked.

Sigismund wanted his Hungarian and Wallachian light troops to lead. The French nobles refused to yield the honour of the first charge. They rode down the light cavalry, dismounted to pull up the stakes, broke the infantry and pursued uphill, only to meet Bayezid’s fresh cavalry on the ridge. Exhausted and many now on foot, they were surrounded.

Sigismund’s main army advanced to help but was hit by the Ottoman horsemen and by Stefan Lazarevic’s Serbian knights, whose charge decided the battle. Some wings, including the Wallachians and Transylvanians, withdrew. Sigismund escaped on a Venetian ship and returned home by a long route through the Black Sea, Constantinople and the Adriatic.

Captives and ransom

The day after the battle Bayezid, enraged by the massacre at Rahova and his own heavy losses, had a large number of prisoners executed. The Bavarian squire Johann Schiltberger, spared because of his youth, later described the killings in his memoirs. Figures vary from a few hundred to several thousand.

Rich captives were kept for ransom. John of Nevers was released after the payment of 200,000 florins. Admiral Jean de Vienne was killed in the battle, while Enguerrand VII de Coucy and Philip of Artois, Count of Eu and Constable of France, died in captivity.

Consequences

Nicopolis ended western hopes of driving the Ottomans out of Europe for a generation. Bayezid annexed Vidin and resumed the blockade of Constantinople, which was saved only when Timur crushed him at the Battle of Ankara in 1402.

John of Nevers, known afterwards as John the Fearless, became Duke of Burgundy in 1404. Sigismund later became Holy Roman Emperor and remained a key opponent of the Ottomans. The next great western attempt, the crusade that ended at Varna in 1444, also failed.

Numbers and myths

Chroniclers claimed that 100,000 or more crusaders took part. Modern historians usually estimate the crusader army at roughly 15,000-20,000 men and the Ottoman army at a similar or somewhat larger size.

• Myth: the crusade failed purely because of French arrogance. Fact: the impetuous charge mattered, but poor coordination, the absence of siege equipment and Bayezid’s speed and discipline were equally decisive.

Timeline

• 1396, spring-summer: western crusaders assemble at Buda.
• 1396, August-September: the crusaders take Vidin and Rahova.
• 1396, c. 12 September: the siege of Nicopolis begins.
• 1396, 25 September: Bayezid I defeats the crusaders at Nicopolis.
• 1397, June: the ransom is agreed and John of Nevers is released; he reaches Burgundy early in 1398.
• 1402, 20 July: Bayezid is defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara.

Why it matters

Nicopolis showed that the Ottomans could defeat the best knights of Latin Europe in open battle. It left Bulgaria firmly in Ottoman hands, isolated Constantinople and shaped the long struggle between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire that followed.