Battle of Varna . It took place on October of November of 1444 , near Varna , Bulgaria . The Ottomans, under the orders of Sultan Murad II , defeated the army made up of Hungarians, Poles, Válachs and soldiers of other European nationalities , under the command of Ladislaus III of Poland and John Hunyadi, thus marking the last serious and organized effort made by the Christian world to save Eastern Europe , including Constantinople , from the threat of Islam .
Summary
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- 1 Background
- 2 The battle
- 1 Deployment of troops
- 2 Start of battle
- 3 Defeat of the crusaders
- 3 consequences
- 4 References
- 5 Sources
Background
After the victories of Juan Hunyadi in his fight against Sultan Murad II , Pope Eugene IV, sent Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini to meet with King Ladislaus III of Poland and Hungary , with the aim of launching a crusade that would end the threat from the Ottomans to the Christian world. The campaign plan was similar to that used in the Nicopolis crusade of 1396 .
Juan Hunyadi
The 22 of July of 1443 , Ladislao left Hungary with an army of 35,000 soldiers. Despite obtaining a series of victories that weakened Ottoman power in the Balkans , the severity of the winter forced the king to order the return of the army to its Hungarian bases in February 1444 . In June of that same year, forced by the defeats, Murad II signed a truce for ten years by which the conditions of the Christian peoples of the Balkans were softened and he resigned the throne, succeeded by his 12-year-old son, Mehmed II .
This was an opportunity that the pope did not miss. As soon as Hunyadi returned to Hungary, he received tempting offers to resume the war and realize the ideal of expelling the Ottomans from Europe. The plan was as follows: a crusader army would follow the course of the Danube , advancing towards the city of Varna , and then sail along the coast to Constantinople, thus pushing the Ottoman forces out of Europe. For its part, a Venetian fleet would prevent the transit of Turkish soldiers from Anatolia to Europe.
Encouraged by Cardinal Cesarini, Ladislao broke the truce with the sultan, under the pretext that the oaths made to the infidels were invalid, and on September 22 , 1444 , the Polish-Hungarian army crossed the Danube. The advance was rapid, surpassing the Ottoman fortresses, while local Bulgarians joined them. With this news, Murad was called back to the throne by his son, but he refused, on the grounds that he was no longer sultan. His son then ordered him to lead his armies.
On October 10 , near Nicopolis, some 4,000 Valkian knights under Mircea II also joined the army. The crusaders occupied several small castles and fortresses throughout their march and on November 6 they were 30 km away. of Varna. There, Hunyadi was informed that Murad II had bribed the Genoese to transport his army to Europe.
On November 9 , a large Ottoman army of about 60,000 men approached Varna from the west. At a military council conducted by Hunyadi, Cesarini insisted on a quick withdrawal. However, the crusaders were sandwiched between the Black Sea , Lake Varna, and the enemy, so Cesarini then proposed to defend himself using war chariots until the Christian fleet arrived. Hungarian nobles and commanders supported him, but Ladislao and Hunyadi rejected the defensive tactics and chose combat.
The battle
Map of the battle of Varna
Deployment of troops
On the morning of November 10 , Hunyadi deployed his army in an arc to avoid being surrounded, thus taking advantage of the characteristics of the terrain to balance his numerical disadvantage. The left flank of the crusader army settled it by the lake of Varna, while the right was bordered by hills. The artillery and chariots were arranged in such a way as to support this flank, as it was the most vulnerable. Not having much faith in the Wallaks, he left this contingent as a reserve.
The Crusader army consisted of 6,000 Hungarians, 4,000 Polish soldiers and 1,000 Western Crusaders recruited by Cardinal Cesarini, 5,000 soldiers contributed by Hunyady, and 4,000 Válachian fighters. In total, the crusader forces numbered about 20,000 soldiers. [3]
For his part, Murad II deployed his army in the traditional way. The Janissaries occupied the center, the Rumelian cavalry the right flank and the Anatolian cavalry the left flank. The sultan placed the sipahis in the center, just behind the janissaries. Realizing the weakness of the Crusader right flank, he ordered the Akinji cavalry to take the high ground northwest of Varna.
Start of battle
Sultan Murad II
The Ottomans began the battle with a light cavalry attack on the crusader right flank, being repulsed by the heavy cavalry of the crusaders and by artillery fire. After sending the sipahis to reinforce his left wing, Murad ordered an attack on the crossed left flank but was unsuccessful either.
The Hungarian right flank, however, began to feel the pressure, and many soldiers tried to escape to the small fortress of Galata on the other shore of Varna Bay, most dying in the swamps around the lake, where the lake also fell. envoy of Pope Cesarini. Only a few survivors were able to take refuge behind the war chariots. Faced with this situation, Hunyadi ordered the Válacos to reinforce the flank and with these reinforcements, the Turks began to flee. The Válachs broke into a fortified Ottoman camp, and after looting it they abandoned the fight. The rest of the crusader forces continued the pursuit until the Turkish left wing regrouped behind the Janissaries.
After reorganizing his forces and reinforcing the left flank, Hunyadi advanced with two squadrons of cavalry towards the sipahis, defeated them and pursued them. Some of them reached the river and crossed it about 30 km away. Murad II, seeing all his efforts frustrated, thought it was time to retire.
Defeat of the crusaders
Ladislao V of Hungary and III of Poland
However, King Ladislaus, ignoring Hunyadi’s advice to wait until he returned, led 500 of his knights and charged into the Ottoman center, attempting to take Murad prisoner. He managed to surpass the Janissary infantry, but was surrounded by them. Hunyadi, who had gone to check the state of the left flank, when he saw Ladislaus among the Janissaries tried to rescue him, but the king was killed and his head cut off and later taken to the Ottoman court.
After the king’s death, defeat was inevitable. The crossed troops became disorganized due to the spread of panic, and Hunyadi barely managed to gather the remains of the army, finally withdrawing from the battlefield.
Consequences
The consequences of the battle were serious. The crusaders suffered from 11,000 to 13,000 casualties, including the king of Hungary and the papal delegate. Many of the prisoners were killed or sold as slaves. For their part, the Ottomans lost from 8,000 to 20,000 soldiers, being unable to pursue the Crusader army and continue the campaign in Europe.
On the death of Ladislao, Ladislao the Posthumous , only 4 years old , succeeded him . In this way, Juan Hunyadi became his tutor and the regent of Hungary. Defeat also ensured Ottoman dominance of the Balkans, which made possible the fall of Constantinople in 1453 .
