Opposing forces for this decisive victory over the Ottomans comprised on the Hungarian side a motley crowd of allegedly 60-75,000 crusaders, chiefly Germans, the majority armed with no more than swords, cudgels and slings, plus (or including) about 4,000, or according to one authority 10,000, well-armed troops provided by the banderia of Janos Hunyadi and his closest associates, all on foot because of a shortage of horses; and on the Ottoman side 60,000 cavalry and perhaps 20,000 infantry under Sultan Mehmed II, plus allegedly 200 ships, but probably in reality no more than about 60, on the Danube, and some 300 guns including 22 massive siege pieces and 7 mortars.
Contemporary sources give confused descriptions of this battle, but it seems that following the successful repulse of the Ottomans from Belgrade in a street-fight and a bloody battle around the city’s defensive ditches during the previous night (in which both the beylerbey of Rumelia and the Aga of Janissaries were killed), some 2-6,000 unruly crusaders followed a Franciscan preacher, Giovanni da Capistrano, out beyond the defences. They marched straight for the Turkish gun positions and overran both lines (the Turks abandoning the guns, which were not ready to be fired), turning the captured guns on the Ottomans as they counterattacked with 6,000 fresh cavalry late in the afternoon. A 5-hour battle ensued in which the guns were retaken three times, the Christians being driven right back to the very walls of Belgrade on one occasion, but it was eventually the Turks who fell back, Sultan Mehmed himself being wounded in the leg, and at nightfall they abandoned their guns and baggage and fled.
Some accounts make the attack on the Ottoman positions one of some 8,000 men led by Hunyadi, following — or in support of — an earlier unsuccessful assault by the crusaders, some saying that Capistrano called the crusaders back, thus preventing disaster, Capistrano himself writing that he called them back in order to put them in some kind of battle-order and then led them in the attack himself. Either way it is apparent that Hunyadi led an attack against the Turks at some point during the day. Turkish losses were high — a later source says over 13,000 were killed, while Capistrano claims 24,000 — their dead including the beylerbey of Anatolia and the khan of their Tartar auxiliaries. In addition they lost much if not all of their artillery, one eye-witness reporting that 13 guns, including one very large one, were captured (Hunyadi mentions 12 5-foot bombards and many catapults), though these figures probably refer only to those captured in serviceable condition, since we know that Mehmed had ordered the guns to be spiked. Lastly, many of the Ottoman galleys were captured and sunk or burnt, though some escaped; Hunyadi’s account refers to 22 large galleys being captured.
World History
