Battle of Kosovo (1448)

For other combat operations in the Kosovo region, see Battle of Kosovo (disambiguation).
Second Battle of Kosovo
Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe and Ottoman-Hungarian Wars and Ottoman-Wallachian wars

An akinji defeating a Hungarian knight with a lasso.
Date17–20 October 1448 (O.S.)
(3 days)
Location
Kosovo Field, Serbian Despotate
Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire
Karamanids[1]		 Kingdom of Hungary
Holy Roman Empire
Kingdom of Bohemia
Moldavia
Grand Duchy of Lithuania[2]
Wallachia[a]
Commanders and leaders
Murad II
Prince Mehmed		 John Hunyadi
Franko Talovec †
Michael Szilágyi
Strength
50,000–60,000[8][9] 31,000–47,000 (7,000 cavalry , 24,000–40,000 infantry)[10]
Casualties and losses
4,000–34,000[11][12][b] 6,000–17,000[11][12][b] 17,000 (9,000 Hungarians, 2,000 Mercenaries, 6,000 Wallachians)[5]

The Second Battle of Kosovo (Hungarian: második rigómezei csata, Turkish: İkinci Kosova Muharebesi) was a land battle between a Hungarian-led Crusader army and the Ottoman Empire at Kosovo field that took place from 17–20 October 1448. It was the culmination of a Hungarian offensive to avenge the defeat at the Battle of Varna four years earlier. In the three-day battle the Ottoman army under the command of Sultan Murad II defeated the Crusader army of regent John Hunyadi.

After the battle, the path was clear for the Turks to conquer Serbia and the other Balkan States, it also ended any hopes of saving Constantinople. The Hungarian kingdom no longer had the military and financial resources to mount an offensive against the Ottomans. With the end of the half-century-long Crusader threat to their European frontier, Murad's son Mehmed II was free to lay siege to Constantinople in 1453.

  1. ^ Koçu, Reşad Ekrem. Fatih Sultan Mehmed. p. 39.
  2. ^ Osmanlı Devleti'nin Kuruluş Tarihi (1299–1481) Müneccimbaşı Ahmed B. Lütfullah
  3. ^ Bury, p. 1814.
  4. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 797.
  5. ^ a b Bánlaky, József. "A rigómezei csata 1448 október 17-től 19-ig" [The Battle of Kosovo at 17–19 October in 1448]. A magyar nemzet hadtörténelme [The Military History of the Hungarian Nation] (in Hungarian). Budapest.
  6. ^ Mesut Uyar Ph.D., Edward J. Erickson (2009). A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Ataturk (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-02-27. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  7. ^ Chalkokondyles, Laonikos (1464). The Histories of Laonikos Chalkokondyldes, Volume I (Translated by Anthony Kaldellis, 2014).
  8. ^ Mufassal Osmanlı Tarihi 1.cilt Mustafa Cezar
  9. ^ Babinger, Franz. Fatih Sultan Mehmed ve Zamanı. Alfa Yayınevi. p. 98.
  10. ^ Babinger, Franz. Fatih Sultan Mehmed ve Zamanı. Alfa Yayınevi. p. 96.
  11. ^ a b Antoche 2017, p. 273.
  12. ^ a b Babinger, Manheim & Hickman 1978, p. 55.


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