Battle of Nicopolis

The Battle took place on 22/25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout
of an allied army of Hungarian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, French, German,
Burgundian and assorted troops (assisted by the Venetian navy) at the
hands of an Ottoman force, raising of the siege of the Danubian fortress
of Nicopolis and leading to the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire. It is
often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis and was the last largescale crusade of the Middle Ages.

Background
There were many minor crusades in the 14th century, undertaken by
individual kings or knights. Most recently there had been a failed
crusade against Tunisia in 1390, and there was ongoing warfare in

northern Europe along the Baltic coast. After their victory at the Battle of
Kosovo in 1389, the Ottomans had conquered most of the Balkans, and
had reduced the Byzantine Empireto the area immediately surrounding
Constantinople, which they later proceeded to besiege (in 1390, 1395,
1397, 1400, 1422 and finally conquering the Byzantine capital in 1453).
In 1393 the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman had lost Nicopolis his
temporary capital to the Ottomans, while his brother, Ivan Stratsimir,
still held Vidin but had been reduced to an Ottoman vassal. In the eyes
of the Bulgarian boyars, despots and other independent Balkan rulers,
this was a great chance to reverse the course of the Ottoman conquest
and free the Balkans from Islamic rule. In addition, the frontline between
Islam and Christianity had been moving slowly towards the Kingdom of
Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary was now the frontier between the
two religions in Eastern Europe, and the Hungarians were in danger of
being attacked themselves. The Republic of Venice feared that an
Ottoman control of the Balkan peninsula, which included Venetian
territories like parts of Morea and Dalmatia, would reduce their influence
over the Adriatic Sea,Ionian Sea and Aegean Sea. The Republic of
Genoa, on the other hand, feared that if the Ottomans would gain control
over River Danube and the Turkish Straits, they would eventually obtain
a monopoly over the trade routes between Europe and the Black Sea,
where the Genoese had many important colonies like Caffa,
Sinop and Amasra. The Genoese also owned the citadel of Galata,
located at the north of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, to which
Bayezid had laid siege in 1395.
In 1394, Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a new crusade against the Turks,
although the Western Schism had split the papacy in two, with rival
popes at Avignon and Rome, and the days when a pope had the
authority to call a crusade were long past.
The two decisive factors in the formation of the last crusade were the
ongoing Hundred Years' War between Richard II's England and Charles
VI's France and the support of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy. In 1389, the
war had ground to one of its periodic truces. Further, in March 1395,
Richard II proposed a marriage between himself and Charles VI's
daughter Isabella in the interests of peace and the two kings met in
October 1396 on the borders of Calais to agree to the union and agree

to lengthen the Truce of Leulinghem. The support of Burgundy, among

the most powerful of the French nobles was also vital. In 1391,
Burgundy, trying to decide between sending a crusade to either Prussia
or Hungary, sent his envoy Guy de La Trmoille to Venice and Hungary
to evaluate the situation. Burgundy originally envisioned a crusade led
by himself and the Dukes of Orlans and Lancaster, though none would
join the eventual crusade. It was very unlikely that defense against the
Turks was considered a particularly important goal of the crusade.
Burgundy's interest in sponsoring the crusade was in increasing his and
his house's prestige and power and, historian Barbara Tuchman notes,
"since he was the prince of self-magnification, the result was that opulent
display became the dominant theme; plans, logistics, intelligence about
the enemy came second, if at all." In 1394, Burgundy extracted 120,000
livres from Flanders, sufficient to begin preparations for a crusade, and
in January 1395 sent word to Sigismund, the King of Hungary that an
official request to the King of France would be accepted. (Sigismund
became Holy Roman Emperor in 1433).

King Sigismund

In August, Sigismund's delegation of four knights and a bishop arrived in

the court of Paris to paint a description of how "40,000" Turks were
despoiling and imperiling Christian lands and beg, on Sigismund of
Hungary's behalf, for help. Charles VI, having secured a peace with
England through the marriage of his daughter, was able to reply that "as
chief of the Christian kings" it was his responsibility to protect Christianity
and punish Sultan Bayezid. French nobility responded enthusiastically to
the declaration; Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, the Constable of France,
and Jean Le Maingre (Boucicaut), the Marshal of France, declared
participation in the crusade the duty of every "man of valor".
Strength of forces
The number of combatants is heavily contested in historical accounts.
Historian Tuchman notes, "Chroniclers habitually matched numbers to
the awesomeness of the event," and the Battle of Nicopolis was
considered so significant that the number of combatants given by
medieval chroniclers ranges as high as 400,000, with each side insisting
that the enemy outnumbered them two-to-one, which for the crusaders
offered some solace for their defeat and for the Turks increased the
glory of their victory. The oft-given figure of 100,000 crusaders is
dismissed by Tuchman, who notes that 100,000 men would have taken
a month to cross the Danube at Iron Gate, while the crusaders took eight
days. The closest record to a first-person account was made by Johann
Schiltberger, a German follower of a Bavarian noble, who witnessed the
battle at the age of 16 and was captured and enslaved for 30 years by
the Turks before returning home, at which time he wrote a narrative of
the battle estimating the crusader strength at the final battle at 16,000,
though he also also estimated Turkish forces as a wildly inflated
200,000. German historians of the 19th century attempting to estimate
the combatants on each side came to the figures of about 7,500-9000
Christians and about 12,000-20,000 Turks, while noting that, from the
point of logistics, it would have been impossible for the countryside
around Nicopolis to have supplied food and fodder for scores of
thousands of men and horses. (Medieval armies acquired supplies by
taking them from the surrounding area as they marched, as opposed to
using the supply lines of modern armies.)

Battle of Nicopolis, as depicted by Turkish miniaturist in 1588

Composition of crusader forces

From France, it was said about 2,000 knights and squires joined, and
were accompanied by 6,000 archers and foot soldiers drawn from the
best volunteer and mercenary companies. Totaling some 10,000
men. Next in importance were the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, who
were the standard bearers of Christianity in the Levantsince the decline
of Constantinople and Cyprus. Venice supplied a naval fleet for
supporting action, while Hungarian envoys encouraged German princes
of the Rhineland, Bavaria, Saxony and other parts of the empire to join.
French heralds had proclaimed the crusade in Poland, Bohemia,
Navarre and Spain, from which individuals came to join.
The Italian city-states were too much engaged in their customary violent
rivalries to participate, and the widely reported and acclaimed English

participation never actually occurred. The report of 1000 English knights

comes from contemporary Antonio Fiorentino, and was taken as fact by
historian Aziz S. Atiya and others following him. A thousand knights
would have actually amounted to "four to six thousand men and at least
twice as many horses", counting foot-soldiers and other retainers.
However, there are no records of financial arrangements being made in
England to send a force abroad, nor of any royal preparation needed to
organize and dispatch such a force. Reports of Henry of Bolingbroke or
other "son of the Duke of Lancaster" leading an English contingent must
be false since the presence of Henry and every other such son, as well
as almost every other significant noble in the land, is recorded at the
king's wedding five months after the crusade's departure. Atiya also
thought that the invocation of St. George as a war cry at Nicopolis
signified the presence of English soldiers, for whom George was a
patron saint; but Froissart, who mentions this, claims that the cry was
made by the French knight Philippe d'Eu. Furthermore, there was no
collection of ransom money in England to pay for captives, as there was
in every other country that had sent men to the battle. Sporadic mention
in contemporary accounts of the presence of "English" may be attributed
to Knights Hospitaller of the English tongue subgrouping, who joined
their comrades for the crusade after leaving Rhodes (where the
Hospitallers were based at the time) and sailing up the Danube. Possible
reasons for the English absence include the increasing tension between
the king and the Duke of Gloucester, which may have convinced the two
that they had best keep their supporters close, and the antipathy caused
by the long war between the English and French, resulting in the English
refusing to consider putting themselves under a French-led crusade,
regardless of the recently concluded peace.
Nevertheless, obviously inflated figures continue to be repeated. These
include 6-8,000 Hungarians, ~ 10,000 French, English and Burgundian
troops, ~ 10,000 Wallachians led by Mircea cel Batran (Mircea The
elder) the prince of Wallachia, ~ 6,000 Germans and nearly
15,000 Dutch, Bohemian, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Bulgarian, Scottish
and Swiss troops on the land, with the naval support of Venice, Genoa
and the Knights of St. John. These result in a figure of about 47,000 49,000 in total; possibly up to 120,000 or 130,000 according to
numerous sources, including the 15th-century Ottoman historian

krullah who gives the figure of the Crusader army as 130,000 in

his Behetu't-Tevrih.

Composition of Ottoman forces

Also estimated at about 20-25,000; but inflated figures continue to be
repeated of up to 60,000 according to numerous sources including the
15th-century Ottoman historian krullah, who gives the figure of the
Ottoman army as 60,000 in his Behetu't-Tevrih; alternately described
as roughly half of the Crusader army. The Ottoman force also included
1,500 Serbian heavy cavalry knights under the command of Prince
Stefan Lazarevi, who was Sultan Bayezid's vassal since the Battle of
Kosovo in 1389, as well as his brother-in-law after the Sultan married
Stefan's sister, Princess Olivera Despina, the daughter of Prince Lazar
of Serbia (Stefan's father) who had perished at Kosovo.
Journey
While Philip, Duke of Burgundy, had originally planned to lead the
crusade along with John of Gaunt and Louis of Orleans, all three
withdrew, claiming that the peace negotiations with England required
their presence, though perhaps also because none dared leave the
vicinity of the throne if their chief rivals stayed. However, Burgundy
retained control of the enterprise he was funding by naming 24-yearold John de Nevers, the Duke's eldest son, for nominal command.
Burgundy, perhaps recognizing that his son, as well as Constable d'Eu
and Marshal Boucicaut, who were both under 35, lacked the necessary
experience, summoned Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy, the most
experienced warrior and statesman of the realm, and prevailed on him to
be "chief counselor" to Nevers during the crusade. The ambiguity of the
crusaders' command structure would prove to be crucial in the final
outcome. While Nevers was given a long list of "counselors", as well as
another list of prominent French lords on the crusade with whom Nevers
could consult "when it seemed good to him", the concept of unity
of command was not yet understood by medieval warriors. Rules of
discipline for the crusade were decreed at a War Council on 28 March
1396, which included the final provision, "Item, that [in battle] the Count
and his company claim the avante garde," revealing that the chivalric

code continued to require knights to prove their valor by leading the

charge.

To Buda (Budapest)
The crusade set forth from Dijon on 30 April 1396, heading across
Bavaria by way of Strasbourg to the upper Danube, from where they
used river transport to join with Sigismund in Buda. From there the
crusader goals, though lacking details of planning, were to expel the
Turks from the Balkans and then go to the aid of Constantinople, cross
the Hellespont, and march through Turkey and Syria to liberate
Palestine and the Holy Sepulchre, before returning in triumph to Europe
by sea. Arrangements were made for a fleet of Venetian vessels to
blockade the Turks in the Sea of Marmara and for the Venetians to sail
up the Danube to meet the crusaders in Wallachia in July.

Map of Europe with the Danube marked

Enguerrand de Coucy was not with the crusader body as it traveled,

having been detached on a diplomatic mission to Gian Galeazzo
Visconti, the Duke of Milan. Furious at French political maneuvering that
had removed Genoa from his influence, Gian Galeazzo had been
attempting to stop the transfer of Genoese sovereignty to France and
Coucy was dispatched to warn him that France would consider further
interference a hostile act. The quarrel was more than political. Valentina
Visconti, the wife of the Duke of Orleans and Gian Galeazzo's beloved
daughter, had been exiled from Paris due the machinations of
Queen Isabeau the same month as the departure of the crusade. The
Duke of Milan threatened to send knights to defend his daughter's honor
but, in the wake of the disaster at Nicopolis, it was widely believed that
he had relayed intelligence to Bayezid I of crusader troop movements.
There is no firm evidence of this and it is likely that Gian Galeazzo
became a scapegoat after the fact due the existing animosity with
France, though there remains the possibility that the Duke of Milan, who
had murdered his own uncle to ensure his own power, did in fact betray
the crusaders. Enguerrand de Coucy, his diplomatic mission completed
and accompanied by Henry of Bar and their followers, left Milan for
Venice, from where he requisitioned a ship on 17 May to take him
across the Adriatic Sea, landing in the Croatian port of Senj on 30 May
before making his way overland to the rendezvous in Buda.
Coucy arrived before Nevers, who had stopped in the upper Danube for
receptions and festivities thrown by German princes. Nevers did not
arrive inVienna until 24 June, a full month behind the crusader vanguard
led by d'Eu and Boucicaut. A fleet of 70 Venetian vessels loaded with
provisions was sent down the Danube, while Nevers enjoyed yet more
parties thrown by his brother in law Leopold IV, Duke of Austria. Nevers
then asked his brother in law for a staggering loan of 100,000 ducats,
which took time to arrange, and eventually arrived in Buda in July.

Buda to Nicopolis
Once the leaders had arrived, strategy had to be coordinated with
Philibert de, Master of the Knights Hospitaller, and representatives of the
Venetian fleet. Forty-four Venetian ships had carried the Hospitallers

from Rhodes through the Aegean into the Sea of Marmara, and some
continued into the Black Sea and up the Danube without engaging in
battle. The fact that the Turks, who had an inferior naval presence, did
not challenge the Venetians for control of the sea is seen as evidence
that Sultan Bayezid and the majority of his forces were already on the
European side.
The War Council in Buda was immediately the forum of a fierce dispute.
The previous year, Bayezid had declared that he would attack Hungary
by May, yet he had not appeared by end of July. Hungarian scouts sent
out as far as the Hellespont could find no sign of him, causing the
French to proclaim that he was a coward. Sigismund of Hungary
assured the crusaders that Bayezid would come, and advised that it
would be wiser to let the Turks make the long march to them, rather than
make the same long march to find them. This strategy was rejected by
the French and their allies. Coucy, acting as spokesman, stated,
"Though the Sultan's boasts be lies, that should not keep us from doing
deeds of arms and pursuing our enemies, for that is the purpose for
which we came." Sigismund had little choice but to acquiesce, though
chroniclers also write that Coucy's speech excited jealousy in D'Eu, who
felt that he should have had the honor of spokesman due to his position
as Constable of France.
The crusaders began to march down the left bank of the Danube, though
part of the Hungarian army veered north to gather the forces of
Transylvania and the Mircea the Elder-led forces of Wallachia. The
remainder of the Hungarians brought up the rear of the crusader column.
As the crusaders moved into Muslim-held territory, pillaging and
mistreatment of the population reportedly grew. While crusaders had
been reported to engage in periodic pillage and rapine while passing
through Germany, the indiscipline of the French reportedly reached new
heights when they entered "schismatic" lands. Chroniclers also waxed
eloquent on the immorality and blasphemy of the crusaders, writing
detailed accounts of drunkard knights lying with prostitutes for days,
despite writing from at best second-hand accounts. Tuchman cautions
that such chroniclers were part of a contemporary tendency to blame the
defeat of the crusade on the immorality of the crusaders, and that it is
impossible to verify such claims.

The crusaders took eight days to cross the Danube at the Iron Gate
At Orova, where the Danube narrows at the Iron Gates gorge, the
column crossed to the right bank using pontoons and boats over eight
days. Their first target was Vidin, previously an important town of
westernBulgaria and then under Turkish control. The prince of Vidin,
having no desire to fight for his Turkish conquerors against an
overwhelming force of crusaders, promptly surrendered. The only
bloodshed was the execution of Turkish officers in the defending
garrison, though the incident served to further convince the French that
Turks were incapable of challenging the crusaders in the field.
The next target was Oryahovo (Rachowa), a strong fortress located 75
miles from Vidin. Frustrated by the lack of opportunity to show their
bravery in deeds of arms, the French carried out a forced march at night
to reach the castle before their allies, arriving in the morning just as the
Turkish forces had come out to destroy the bridge across the moat. In
fierce combat the French secured the bridge but were unable to push
forward until Sigismund arrived. The forces combined and managed to
reach the walls before night forced the combatants to retire. The next
morning the inhabitants of Oryahovo agreed to surrender to Sigismund
on the assurance that their lives and property would be spared. The
French promptly broke Sigismund's agreement, pillaging and
massacring the town after the gates were open, and later claiming that

they had taken the town by conquest because their men-at-arms had
topped the walls the night before. A thousand residents, both Turkish
and Bulgarian, were taken hostage and the town set ablaze. The
Hungarians took the French action as a grave insult to their king, while
the French accused the Hungarians of trying to rob them of the glory of
victory through combat.
Leaving a garrison to hold Oryahovo, the crusaders continued
towards Nicopolis, assaulting one or two forts or settlements along the
way, but bypassing one citadel from which messengers escaped to
inform Bayezid of the Christian army. On 12 September the crusaders
came within view of the fortress of Nicopolis on its limestone cliff.

Siege of Nicopolis
Nicopolis, located in a natural defensive position, was a key stronghold
controlling the lower Danube and lines of communication to the interior.
A small road ran between the cliff and river, while the fortress was
actually two walled towns, the larger one on the heights on the cliff and
the smaller below. Further inland from the fortified walls, the cliff sloped
steeply down to the plain. Well-defended and well-supplied, the Turkish
governor of Nicopolis, Doan Bey, was certain that Bayezid would have
to come to the aid of the town and was prepared to endure a long siege.
The crusaders had brought no siege machines with them, but Boucicaut
optimistically stated that ladders were easily made and worth more than
catapults when used by courageous men. However, the lack of siege
weapons, the steep slope up to the walls and the formidable fortifications
made taking the castle by force impossible. The crusaders set up
positions around the town to block the exits, and with the naval blockade
of the river, settled in for a siege to starve out the defenders.
Nevertheless they were convinced that the siege of the fortress would be
a mere prelude to a major thrust into relieving Constantinople and did
not believe that Bayezid I would arrive so speedily to give them a real
battle.
Two weeks passed as the bored crusaders entertained themselves with
feasts, games and insulting the martial prowess of their enemy. Whether

through drunkenness or carelessness, the crusaders posted no sentries,

though foragers venturing away from the camps brought word of the
Turks' approach. Bayezid was at this time already through Adrianople
and on a forced march through the Shipka Pass toTirnovo. His alls
Stefan Lazarevi of Serbia joined him on the way. Sigismund had sent
500 horsemen to carry out reconnaissance in force around Tirnovo, 70
miles to the south, and they brought word back that the Turks were
indeed coming. Word reached the besieged inhabitants of Nicopolis who
blew horns and cheered. Boucicaut claimed the noise of their celebration
was a ruse as he believed that the Sultan would never attack; he further
threatened to cut off the ears of anyone who discussed rumors of the
Turks' approach as being damaging to the morale of the crusaders.
One of the few to concern himself with scouting the situation was Coucy,
who took a group of 500 knights and 500 mounted archers south.
Learning of a large group of Turks approaching through a nearby pass,
he separated 100 horsemen to carry out a feint retreat, drawing the
pursuing Turks into an ambush where the rest of his men, waiting
concealed, attacked their rear. Giving no quarter, Coucy's men killed as
many as they could and returned to the camp where his action shook the
camp from its lethargy and drew the admiration of the other crusaders.
Tuchman argues that it also increased the overconfidence of the French
and again drew the jealousy of D'Eu, who accused Coucy of risking the
army out of recklessness and attempting to steal glory and authority
from Nevers.
Sigismund called a war council on the 24th, in which he and Mircea of
Wallachia suggested a battle plan in which the Wallachian foot soldiers
with experience in battles with Turks, would be sent in the first attack to
meet the Turk vanguard, which was usually a poorly armed militia
normally used for pillage but was used in battles to tire opponents before
they met better quality Turkish forces. Sigismund claimed that this
vanguard was not worthy of the attention of knights. Sigismund
proposed that, once the shock of first clash had passed, the French form
the front line to rush in, while the Hungarians and the other allies
followed to support the attack and keep the sipahis (Turkish cavalry)
from sweeping around the crusaders' flanks. D'Eu denounced the
proposal as a demeaning to the knights, who would be forced to follow

peasant footmen into battle. He reportedly stated, "To take up the rear is
to dishonor us, and expose us to the contempt of all" and declared that
he would claim front place as Constable and anyone in front of him
would do him mortal insult. In this he was supported by Boucicaut;
Nevers, reassured by the confidence of the younger French lords, was
easily convinced.
With the French set on a charge, Sigismund left to make a battle plan for
his own forces. Apparently within hours, he sent word to the camp that
Bayezid was only six hours away. The crusaders, said to be drunk over
dinner, reacted in confusion - some refusing to believe the report, some
rising in panic, and some hastily preparing for battle. At this point,
supposedly because of a lack of spare guards, the prisoners taken at
Rachowa were massacred. Even European chroniclers would later dub
this an act of "barbarism".

Battle Map

At daybreak on 25 September the combatants began to organize

themselves under the banners of their leaders. At this point, Sigismund
sent his Grand Marshal to Nevers to report that his scouts had sighted
the Turkish vanguard and asked for the offensive to be postponed for
two hours, when his scouts would have returned with intelligence as to
the numbers and disposition of the enemy. Nevers summoned a hasty
council of advisors, in which Coucy and Jean de Vienne, Admiral of
France and the eldest French knight on the crusade, advised obeying
the wishes of the Hungarian king, which seemed wise to them. At this,
D'Eu declared that Sigismund simply wished to hoard the battle honors
for himself and declared his willingness to lead the charge. Coucy, who
declared D'Eu's words to be a "presumption," asked for the council of
Vienne, who noted, "When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must
rule presumption." Vienne commented that if D'Eu wished to advance,
the army must follow, but that it would be wiser to advance in concert
with the Hungarians and other allies. D'Eu rejected any wait and the
council fell into a fierce dispute, with the younger hawks charging that
the elder knights were not prudent, but fearful. The argument seems to
have been settled when D'Eu decided to advance.
D'Eu took control of the vanguard of the French knights, while Count de
Nevers and de Coucy commanded the main body. The French knights,
accompanied by their mounted archers, rode out with their backs to
Nicopolis to meet the Turks, who were descending the hills to the south.
The Knights Hospitaler, Germans and other allies stayed with the
Hungarian forces under Sigismund. The subsequent events are
obscured by conflicting accounts. Tuchman notes, "Out of the welter of
different versions, a coherent account of the movements and fortunes of
the battlefield is not to be had; there is only a tossing kaleidoscope."

Depiction of the French charge

The French charge crushed the untrained conscripts in the Turkish front
line and advanced into the lines of trained infantry, though the knights
came under heavy fire from archers and were hampered by rows of
sharpened stakes designed to skewer the stomachs of their horses.
Chroniclers write of horses impaled on stakes, riders dismounting,
stakes being pulled up to allow horses through, and the eventual rout of
the Turkish infantry, who fled behind the relative safety of the sipahis.
Coucy and Vienne recommended that the French pause to reform their
ranks, give themselves some rest and allow the Hungarians time to
advance to a position where they could support the French. They were
overruled by the younger knights who, having no idea of the size of the
Turkish force, believed that they had just defeated Bayezid's entire army
and insisted on pursuit.
The French knights thus continued up the hill, though accounts state that
more than half were on foot by this point, either because they had been
unhorsed by the lines of sharpened stakes or had dismounted to pull up
stakes. Struggling in their heavy armor, they reached the plateau on the
top of the slope, where they had expected to find fleeing Turkish forces,
but instead found themselves facing a fresh corps of sipahis, whom
Bayezid had kept in reserve. As the sipahis surged forward in the
counterattack sounding trumpets, banging kettle drums and yelling "God
is great!", the desperation of their situation was readily apparent to the
French and some knights broke and fled back down the slope. The rest
fought on "no frothing boar nor enraged wolf more fiercely", in the words
of one contemporary chronicler. Admiral de Vienne, to whom was
granted the honor as the eldest knight of carrying the French standard
into battle, was wounded many times as he attempted to rally the morale
of his countrymen, before being struck down dead. Other notable knights
who were slain include Jean de Carrouges, Philippe de Bar and Odard
de Chasseron. The Turks threatened to overwhelm the Count de Nevers
and his bodyguard threw themselves to the ground in silent submission
to plead for the life of their liege lord. Notwithstanding the declaration
of jihad, the Turks were as interested in the riches that could be gained
by ransoming noble captives as anyone else, and took Nevers prisoner.
Seeing Nevers taken, the rest of the French yielded.

Depiction of the battle (1540)

The timeline of events is hazy, but it appears that as the French were
advancing up the slope, sipahis were sweeping down along the flanks in
an envelopment. Accounts tell of the Hungarians and other nationalities
in confused combat on the plain and of a stampede of riderless horses,
which Tuchman speculates pulled free from their tethers, at the sight of
which the Transylvanians and the Wallachians concluded that the day
was lost and abandoned the field. Sigismund, the Master of Rhodes, and
the Germans fought to prevent the envelopment with "unspeakable
massacre" on both sides. At this point, a reinforcement of 1,500 Serbian
knights under the command of Stefan Lazarevi proved critical.
Sigismund's force was overwhelmed. Convinced to flee, Sigismund and
the Master of Rhodes managed to escape by a fisherman's boat to the
Venetian ships in the Danube. Hermann, a soldier in Sigismund's army
led the force that allowed the escape and was later rewarded by being
named a count.
Sultan Bayezid and his ally Stefan Lazarevic recognized the Nikola II
Gorjanski, Lazarevic's brother-in-law, fighting on Sigismund's side. A
deal was made, and Sigismund's army surrendered, completing their
defeat in detail.
>>>

Aftermath
Sigismund would later state to the Hospitaller Master, "We lost the day
by the pride and vanity of these French. If they believed my advice, we
had enough men to fight our enemies." Chronicler Jean Froissart would
declare. "Since the Battle of Roncesvalles when [all] twelve peers of
France were slain, Christendom received not so great a damage."

King Sigismund of Hungary hardly makes it to the Danube

Captives and ransom

Bayezid toured the battlefield later that day, hoping to find the corpse of
the King of Hungary, and "torn by grief" at his great losses, which by far
outnumbered that of the Crusaders. His rage was only heightened by the
discovery of the massacred prisoners from Rahovo. He ordered all of the
prisoners assembled before him the following morning (26 September).
The Turks recognized Jacques de Helly, a French knight who had
served under Murad I, and had him identify the chief nobles for ransom.
Coucy, Bar, D'Eu, Gui de La Tremolle and several others were grouped
with Nevers to be spared. Those judged to be under age 20 were also
spared and put into forced servitude.

The rest, thought to number several thousand, were bound together in

groups of three or four and had their hands tied to be marched naked
before the Sultan. Ordered to proceed, a group of strong executioners
proceeded to kill each group in turn, either by decapitation or by
severing their limbs from the body. Nevers and the rest of the noble
captives were forced to stand beside Bayezid and watch the terrible
executions. Jean Le Maingre, called "Boucicaut", was recognized in the
line, and Nevers fell to his knees before the Sultan and indicated with
intertwined fingers that they were like brothers. Thus convinced that
Boucicaut was worth a noble ransom, he was spared and grouped with
the other high nobles. The killing continued from early morning until late
afternoon, at which point Bayezid, either himself sickened by the
bloodshed or convinced by his ministers that he was unnecessarily
enraging Christendom against him, called off the executioners. Leaving
aside the more hyperbolic account, the number of dead is said to have
ranged from 300 to 3000, though the number of dead on the battlefield
was much more.

The execution of the prisoners in retaliation

for the Rahovo massacre of Ottoman prisoners

Of those who fled the battlefield, few survived. So many attempted to

swim to the boats in the Danube that several sank from the load;
afterward, those on the boats pushed away those trying to board. Many
who attempted to swim all the way across the river drowned.
Sigismund, fearful of Wallachian treachery, sailed to the Black Sea and
Constantinople before making his way home by sea. Those Crusaders
who made it across the Danube and tried to return home by land found
that the land they were traveling over had already been stripped of
forage by the retreating force of Wallachians. Reduced to wandering
through the woods in rags and robbed of whatever possessions they
had, many of the starved survivors died along the way. Perhaps the
most famous of the few who reached home after this journey was Count
Rupert of Bavaria, who arrived at his doorstep in beggar's rags and died
later from his trials.
The captives were forced to march the 350-mile length to Gallipoli,
stripped of clothing down to the their shirts and most without shoes, with
hands tied and beaten by their captors. At Gallipoli, the noble captives
were kept in the upper rooms of a tower while the 300 prisoners that
were the Sultan's share of the common captives were kept below. The
ship carrying Sigismund passed within half a mile of the tower as it went
through the Hellespont, for which the Turks lined the captives along the
shore and mockingly called out for Sigismund to come and rescue his
comrades. Sigismund, while in Constantinople, had made overtures to
ransom the captives, but Bayezid was aware that Hungary's wealth had
been depleted in the crusade and that richer ransoms could be had from
France. After two months in Gallipoli, the prisoners were transferred
to Bursa, the joint Ottoman capital located in Asia, where they awaited
word of their ransom.
In the first week of December, rumors of unimaginable defeat arrived in
Paris. As no certain news was to be had, rumor-mongers were
imprisoned in the Grand Chtelet and, if convicted of lying, sentenced to
death by drowning. The King, Burgundy, Orleans and Duc de Bar all
sped envoys to Venice and Hungary to bring word back. On 16
December merchant ships brought word to Venice of defeat at Nicopolis
and the escape of Sigismund.

Jacques de Helly, the knight who had identified the nobles after the
battle, had been charged by Bayezid, under his vow to return, to inform
the King of France and Duke of Burgundy of his victory and demands for
ransom. On Christmas, de Helly rode into Paris and, kneeling before the
king, recounted the expedition, the battle, defeat and Sultan Bayezid's
massacre of the prisoners. He also carried letters from Nevers and the
other noble captives. Those for whom he did not carry letters were
assumed to be dead, and weeping members of the court gathered
around de Helly to seek more information about loved ones. According
to the Monk of St. Denis, "affliction reigned in all hearts" and Deschamps
wrote of "funerals from morning to eve." 9 January was declared a day of
mourning throughout France and that day "it was piteous to hear the
bells toiling in all the churches in Paris."
A delegation with rich gifts for Bayezid left Paris on 20 January 1397 to
negotiate the ransoms. Jaques de Helly, bound by his oath to return,
had already departed with letters for the captives. Gian Galeazzo's help
became vital, as he had extensive contacts in the Ottoman court.
Envoys were sent informing him of belated approval by the King allowing
the fleur-de-lis to be added to the Visconti escutcheon, Galeazzo's first
wife having been from the French royal house, and to make every effort
to gain his assistance. Meanwhile, those envoys sent in early December
had reached Venice and, having learned of the fate of the captives, were
attempting to make their way to Brusa. Venice, which was the French
conduit to the Muslim east due to her trade network, became the center
for exchange of news, cash and ransomed captives.
On 13 February 1397, de Coucy, ill and perhaps suffering from battle
wounds, died. Boucicaut and Guy de Tremoille released on their own
accord to seek funds in the Levant reached Rhodes where de Tremoille
fell ill and died around Easter. French negotiators in the Sultan's court
finally reached agreement on a ransom of 200,000 gold florins in June.
Comte d'Eu died on 15 June. With a down payment of 75,000, the
prisoners were released on 24 June on their promise to stay in Venice
until the rest of the ransom was paid. However, the nobles found it
unthinkable to travel in less than their accustomed splendor and
borrowed nearly as much as the ransom amount in reprovisioning
themselves. Arriving in Venice in October after stopping in various

islands to recover and borrow money, the financial transactions required

to both provide the ransom and pay for the travel arrangements and
living expenses of the nobles were tremendously complicated. A threesided transaction between Burgundy, Sigismund and Venice took 27
years to settle. A plague outbreak in Venice required the nobles to move
temporarily to Treviso, but still claimed the life of Henri de Bar.
The last of the Crusader leaders - Nevers, Boucicaut, Guillaume de
Tremoille and Jacques de la Marche -, along with seven or eight other
knights, re-entered France in February 1398. They were greeted by
minstrels, parties and parades as they journeyed across the kingdom,
though Tuchman notes, "the receptions probably represented not so
much popular enthusiasm as organized joy, in which the 14th century
excelled."
By their victory at Nicopolis, the Turks discouraged the formation of
future European coalitions against them. They maintained their pressure
on Constantinople, tightened their control over the Balkans, and became
a greater threat to central Europe.

12/01/2013/Kl