Battle of the Blackbird Field (1448)
The second battle on the blackbird field ( Hungarian : második rigómezei csata , Turkish : İkinci Kosova muharebesi ) took place between the 17th and 20th October 1448 on Kosovo Polje ( blackbird field ) between the Kingdom of Hungary , which was a Roman Catholic coalition under Johann Hunyadi led against the Ottoman Empire held under Sultan Murad II . Like the first battle on the Amselfeld (1389), the battle ended with a victory for the Ottoman Turks.
prehistory
Around 1448 the Hungarian military leader Johann Hunyadi saw the right moment to move against the Ottomans. After the defeat in the Battle of Varna (1444) he raised another army against the Turks. His strategy was that a revolt of the peoples of the Balkans favored a surprise attack and he could defeat the Ottomans in a single battle. Relations with the Serbian despot Đurađ Brankovićs to Hungary had already hit rock bottom when Hunyadi began his crusade against the Ottomans. But he was still considered a vassal of Hungary, and so Hunyadi demanded that he join the campaign. Branković refused, however, as he had to carry the suzerainty of Hungary and that of the Ottomans at the same time and foresaw a defeat Hunyadis. His attempts to dissuade Hunyadi from the crusade failed. He is also said to have influenced Prince Skanderbeg not to join Hunyadi. There was even a suspicion that he had warned the Ottomans against another attack. Hunyadi then tried to force Branković to participate in the crusade. He deliberately went to Serbia with his army and plundered the country. At the news of the approach of the Ottomans he moved south, where it came to the second battle on the blackbird field.
course
The battle dragged on for three days. The Ottomans had already taken up their positions when Hunyadi appeared in the blackbird field. His knights conquered the hills already occupied by the Turks behind his army and fortified these positions with war chariots.
The next day the battle began with an attack by Hunyadi. The Turkish flanks formed by soldiers from Rumelia and Anatolia were initially pushed back until the Turkish light cavalry reinforced them. The subsequent defeat of the Hungarian flanks and their retreat induced Hunyadi to send his main army against the Turkish center. After the breakthrough came to a standstill at the Turkish camp - the Sultan's Schanze - the Turkish infantry managed to regroup and push back the Hungarian knights. During the withdrawal of the Hungarian forces, most of them were killed by the Janissaries . Hunyadi was forced to flee, but was captured and imprisoned by Branković. Hunyadi was released after pledging not to attack Branković's fiefs in Hungary and to pay for the damage his army had done in Serbia. Back in Hungary, Hunyadi was released from his obligations by the antipope Felix V and confiscated all of Branković's fiefs. This de facto ended the Hungarian sovereignty over Serbia. From then on, Branković was completely at the mercy of the Ottomans. He was later captured by the Serbs and only released against payment of a ransom.
The Battle in Serbian Folk Poetry
Hunyadi appears in Serbian epic poetry as Sibinian Janko . The second battle on the Blackbird Field is alive in two Serbian proverbs:
- "Late coming Janko for Kosovo Field" (Serbian: Касно Јанко на Косово стиже) formed on the first Battle of Kosovo (1389) alludes
- "Accident like Janko on the blackbird field" (Страдао као Јанко на Косову), which refers to the heavy losses of the Hungarian knights.
literature
- Matthew Bennett (Ed.): The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient & Medieval Warfare . Taylor & Francis, Oxford 1998, ISBN 1-85986-193-8 .
- John Julius Norwich: Byzantium, Vol. 3: The decline and fall . Penguin, London 1996, ISBN 0-14-011449-1 .
- German: Byzantium, vol. 3: Byzantium decay and decline. 1072-1453 . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0374-6 .
- Jean W. Sedlar: East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500 (A history of East Central Europe; Vol. 3). University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA 1994, ISBN 0-295-97290-4 .
- Stephen Turnbull : The Ottoman Empire 1326-1699 (Essential Histories; Vol. 62). Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2003, ISBN 1-84176-569-4 .