This battle took place during an Hungarian invasion of Ottoman-held Serbia. The Hungarian army, commanded by Hunyadi, numbered between 24-40,000 men, most authorities settling on a figure at the lower end of this range. It included Bohemians, Germans, about 800 Poles and 8,000 (some say 10,000) Wallachians of suspect loyalty under their voivode, Vladislas II (one Roumanian authority mentions 3,000 Moldavian cavalry and 4,000 Wallachian archers). The Turkish army, under Murad II, was clearly larger — some say 4 or 5 times larger — and is put at 50-60,000 men by most of the Ottoman sources, including Janissaries and artillery.
Hunyadi drew up his army in 38 divisions, over-extending his line because of the numerical superiority of the Ottomans, who could otherwise have easily outflanked him. His centre comprised a wagon-fortress of allegedly 1,000 wagons manned by the infantry (notably 2,000 Bohemian and German handgunners) and Transylvanians, with his cavalry on the wings — Wallachians on the right, Hungarians under Janos Szekely, Marshal of Hungary, on the left. The Ottomans too put their infantry in the centre, with the Janissaries and artillery ‘surrounded by a trench, behind which were ranged the camels, and behind them again a belt of shields or bucklers fixed in the ground’. Anatolian and Rumelian feudal cavalry were positioned on the right and left flanks respectively. (Pears transposes the wings of both armies.)
The first day’s fighting seems to have involved only skirmishing and no general engagement took place, but at noon of the second day battle began in earnest. While the opposing infantry exchanged fire in the centre of the line several cavalry clashes occurred on the wings, until the Ottoman attack was checked all along the line, the Hungarians proving to have a decisive advantage in firepower. Mistakenly thinking that the Turks would abandon their camp and withdraw under cover of darkness, Hunyadi next launched a night-attack, which was repulsed. The next day proved disastrous for the Hungarians — the Wallachians deserted to the Turks, and on the opposite flank Szekely was defeated, obliging Hunyadi’s troops to fall back on the wagon-fortress. Rightly sensing that all was now lost, Hunyadi withdrew ‘in the dark hours of early dawn’, leaving behind as his rearguard the German and Bohemian handgunners, who courageously held back the Ottoman pursuit the next morning by their defence of the wagon-fortress, until they were eventually overwhelmed. Hungarian losses totalled 8,000 according to a letter written by Sultan Murad, though other sources claim 13-17,000, these latter figures doubtless including the Wallachians, who according to Chalkokondyles were butchered by Murad, who suspected that their desertion was an Hungarian trick. The Turkish losses appear to have been higher, several authorities putting their dead at a quarter or a third of their total strength.
World History
