battle of nicopolis, 1396.
ever wondered what that notorious battle of nicopolis was within the context of KCD2? well, look no further as i try to summarize it in a (not so) few key paragraphs.
the battle of nicopolis was significant because it was one of the last crusades in europe (alongside the battle of varna in 1444). at the time, sigismund, hungarian-croatian king, set his sights on the bulgarian region because he believed that re-establishing christian rule in that region would sufficiently serve as a future buffer to his kingdom against the ottoman expansion. this would mark the first part of his crusade likely towards constantinopole, which was besieged by the sultan bayezid i.
this campagin began by sigismund gathering western european forces, which had arrived all the way from france, spain, burgundy, poland, german states, hungary, croatia, wallachia, venice, genoa and others. (even both of the popes agreed on the necessity of this 'holy war' at the time of the western schism). these armies would later split into two, with venetian and genoan naval forces cutting off bayezid's forces from anatolian supplies at bospor passage.
in the north of bulgaria, sigismund and his troops arrived at vidin, where they were welcomed by the locals even though they were ottoman vassals. the crusaders slaughtered the ottoman garrison at vidin to provoke bayezid, and moved onwards towards nicopolis. sigismund believed that conquering and re-establishing nicopolis, the brief ex capital of the bulgarian region, was vital to establishing order.
on their way to nicopolis, the crusaders would pass through another place—oryahovo. the residents of oryahovo surrendered to sigismund, who had spared the inhabitants, but the franco-burgundian forces decided to disregard this and slaughter the inhabitants of oryahovo. thus, the local ottoman garrison along with the muslim and orthodox populace were slaughtered, much to sigismund's horror and frustration.
sigismund's continental advances along with the naval provocation forced sultan bayezid into action and to recuperate his forces and advance north.
the execution of the prisoners in nicopolis, in retaliation for the earlier oryahovo massacre of the ottoman prisoners by the crusaders.
what followed next was nothing short of a foolish, imature defeat.
there have been many internal clashes within the crusader army, but the franco-burgundian knights, young and overconfident, were perhaps the biggest contributors to this battle's ultimate failure.
sigismund had orchestrated a solid plan of attack with wallachian and bulgarian leaders who already had prior experience with battling ottomans along with sigismund's own experience. however, the french knights, seeking glory, accused sigismund of trying to take all the glory for himself and insisted on placing their own cavalry at the frontlines.
to prevent further inner conflict, sigismund was eventually forced to agree with the new plan of attack.
on the day of the battle, the ottoman army had cleverly set up atop a hill with deadly spikes at the bottom. restless, the french knights set out ahead of sigismund's own forces and began their own attack at the archers atop the spiked hill, lost their horses and were forced into submission by bayezid's forces.
by the time sigismund's reinforcements arrived, the ottomans had cut the french knights off from sigismund, and bayezid launched another attack on sigismund's flank via his serbian vassals, stefan lazarević, cavalry. this was the final push which forced sigismund and all his forces into retreat.
their retreat was messy and hurried, with many drowning in danube in the process. there are several recounts on how sigismund escaped, be it via fishing boat or venetian/genoan ships, but he had managed to escape via river with few of his forces remaining.
sultan bayezid, outraged by the crusaders treatment of the inhabitants of oryahovo, had almost the entire french crusaders executed in retaliation, with a rare few being ransomed for a very high price (such as john of nevers).
this battle was one of the main catalysts for western europe's creation of the image of ottomans according to its own christian standards—the west's subsequent poetic mourning of nicopolis was largely a religious and political tool for reuniting the rapidly dissolving christian ideals of unity.
a large number of chronicles on the threat of ottoman expansion were produced because the west wanted to propose a normative discursive order to legitimize the state building process led by the princes and their officials.
this defeat at nicopolis would go on and echo for decades in the european collective consciousness as it dampened the appetite for future crusades and revealed how fragile and divided christian europe had become in the face of a rising power.
on the other hand, the battle of nicopolis was hardly a footnote in ottoman chronicles, and even then it was written down decades later. the infighting within the ottoman empire and the turkish dynasties, along with the battle for constantinopole were far more important in this period of the ottoman empire and western european battles were barely noted in ottoman chronicles. this, combined with the looming threat of the timurid dynasty would prove as far bigger enemies to the ottoman empire than the dying european crusaders.
you could say that battle of nicopolis was 'business as usual' for the ottomans—and that, perhaps, was the most unsettling part for the defeated.
european chroniclers even recounted this defeat as a moral failing of the christian armies, the lack of faith the main 'insurgent' among crusaders, in the attempt to lessen the victory of the enemy.
this is a pretty bare bones explanation of the events, but i wanted to size it down into something more manageable and consumable for the average person on here. i leave some useful sources in my wake, as some people had shown interest in them. i hope you find it useful!
- https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_2013_num_91_4_8474#rbph_0035-0818_2013_num_91_4_T2_0931_0000 (personal favourite)
- https://historyofcroatia.com/2022/03/21/battle-of-nicopolis-1396/
- https://www.historico.blog/post/battle-of-nicopolis
- https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/crusader-disaster-at-nicopolis/
- https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?524449-DISCUSSION-The-forgotten-battles-of-the-DotS-timeline!&p=11077885#post11077885
- kings and generals: battle of nicopolis part 1,
now, all that's left is inserting istvan toth into this mess. can you imagine? should be fun (:<
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