Battle of Varna

Battle of Varna
Part of the Crusade of Varna and the Ottoman wars in Europe

The Crusaders were trapped below. Their defeat permitted the Conquest of Constantinople. Beyond the Ottoman Sultan and the Janissaries was the cradle of medieval Bulgaria.
Date10 November 1444
Location
Near Varna, Ottoman Empire
Present-day Bulgaria
43°13′N 27°53′E / 43.217°N 27.883°E / 43.217; 27.883
Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Varna Crusaders:
Commanders and leaders
Murad II
Prince Mehmed[1]
Karaca Pasha
Julian Cesarini †
Stephen III Báthory †
Michael Szilágyi
Franko Talovac
Jan Chapek
Simon Rozgonyi  †
John de Dominis †
Rafael Herczeg
Strength

Around 60,000[2][3][4][5]

  • 40,000–50,000 Anatolian troops[2]
  • 10,000 Rumelian troops[2]
Or in total 40,000[6][7][unreliable source?]

20,000 (6,000 Hungarians, 5,000 troops by Hunyadi, 4,000 Polish cavalry, 4,000 Wallachian cavalry, 1,000 Crusaders recruited by Cesarini)[6]
Between 30,000–40,000[2][4][3][8]

or in total 80,000[9][unreliable source?]
Casualties and losses
Heavy casualties
10,000–15,000[10][unreliable source?]		 About half the army[4][11][12]
65,000[13][unreliable source?]
Battle of Varna is located in Bulgaria
Battle of Varna
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Location within Bulgaria
Battle of Varna is located in Black Sea
Battle of Varna
Battle of Varna (Black Sea)

The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in what is today eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman army under Sultan Murad II (who did not actually rule the sultanate at the time) defeated the Crusaders commanded by King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary, John Hunyadi (acting as commander of the combined Christian forces) and Mircea II of Wallachia. It was the final battle of the unsuccessful Crusade of Varna, a last-ditch effort to prevent further Ottoman expansion into the Balkans.[14][15]

  1. ^ İnalcık, Halil (1954). Fatih devri üzerine tetkikler ve vesikalar. p. 107.
  2. ^ a b c d Frank Tallett, D. J. B. Trim. European Warfare, 1350–1750. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 143
  3. ^ a b Jean W. Sedlar. East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500. University of Washington Press, 2013. p. 247
  4. ^ a b c Setton 1978, pp. 89–90.
  5. ^ Stephen Turnbull. The Ottoman Empire 1326–1699. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2014. p. 32
  6. ^ a b Bánlaky, József. "A várnai hadjárat 1444-ben – Események a várnai csatáig" [The Campaign of Varna in 1444 - Events up to the Battle of Varna]. A magyar nemzet hadtörténelme [The Military History of the Hungarian Nation] (in Hungarian). Budapest.
  7. ^ "Sultân II. Murâd".
  8. ^ Emecen, Feridun "VARNA MUHAREBESİ". islamansiklopedisi.org. (in Turkish)
  9. ^ Osmanlı Devleti'nin Kuruluş Tarihi (1299-1481) Müneccimbaşı Ahmed B. Lütfullah
  10. ^ Varna (1444), Kosova (1448) Meydan Muharebeleri ve II.Murat. Genelkurmay Askerî Tarihi ve Stratejik Etüt Başkanlığı (PDF) (in Turkish). Kültür ve Turizim Bakanlığı. p. 79.
  11. ^ Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches in Europa, vol: 1, pp. 700–705
  12. ^ "Battle of Varna". britannica.com.
  13. ^ Varna (1444), Kosova (1448) Meydan Muharebeleri ve II.Murat. Genelkurmay Askerî Tarihi ve Stratejik Etüt Başkanlığı (PDF) (in Turkish). Kültür ve Turizim Bakanlığı. p. 79.
  14. ^ Bodnar, Edward W. Ciriaco d'Ancona e la crociata di Varna, nuove prospettive. Il Veltro 27, nos. 1–2 (1983): 235–51
  15. ^ Halecki, Oscar, The Crusade of Varna. New York, 1943