This Week in History - Nicopolis (22-28 September 1396

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The battle of Nicopolis was the end of the crusades, but also the first encounter between the Ottoman Turks and the soldiers of western Europe. During the second half of the 14th century, the rapid spread of Ottoman Turkish conquests, and particularly the Ottoman threat to Hungary, was causing great consternation in western Europe. Further provocation was provided by the siege of Constantinople, the last remnant of the Byzantine Empire, in 1391 by Sultan Bãyazîd I 'The Lightning'. Pope Boniface IX preached a crusade and soon an army of English, French, Germans, Italians and Knights Hospitallers under the leadership of John of Nevers, son of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy marched east towards Constantinople, joining a Hungarian army under King Sigismund of Hungary on the way. They advanced deep into new Turkish territory, but were halted at the town of Nicopolis, which resisted the Crusader siege for over two weeks.

Sultan Bãyazîd decided to march to the town's rescue. He chose a defensive position straddling the road to the city with his flanks protected by ravines. Sigismund advised a cautious approach, but the western crusaders would have none of that. Instead, they charged straight at the Ottomans.
After a fierce battle, the Ottomans were victorious. It was a devastating loss for the Crusaders, particularly as Bãyazîd, enraged by his heavy losses, slaughtered most of his prisoners the next day.

This Week in History - Constantinople, 1453 (3-10 April)

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Constantinople was built by the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine, in AD 325 as the Christian equivalent in the east to Rome, the capital of the western empire. Built on the strategically crucial site of ancient Byzantium, it controlled the entrance to the Black Sea as well as the east-west route from Europe to Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Surrounded by water on three sides, it was easy to defend and difficult to cut off entirely in a siege. Springs provided fresh water inside the walls, and fields between the circuits of walls provided food throughout attacks. Successive emperors of the eastern Roman Empire improved and added to the circuits of walls and defences. It was attacked on many occasions, by Roman and barbarian forces, but was only taken twice, once by the Latins in the Fourth Crusade, who held it for 50 years before the Nicaeans regained it, and then in 1453. The importance of Constantinople as an impregnable capital grew after the collapse of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century, as the eastern Roman Empire found itself with few allies. The Byzantine Empire fought its way through the centuries, sometimes on the offensive, often on the defensive, until it eventually went into a final slow decline in the 14th and 15th centuries, threatened by Serbia’s growing power, and then that of the Ottoman Turks.

Sułtan Murad II ćwiczy strzelanie z łuku, miniatura turecka, XVI w.