The Battle of Nicopolis Events

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The Battle of Nicopolis took place on 25 September 1396 between the Hungarian king, Sigismund of Luxembourg and the Ottoman Turks, led by Sultan Bayezid.
Sigismund’s army was made up of soldiers from France, Burgundy, Germany, England, Italy, Bohemia, Poland and other countries. In total, it numbered between 10 and 15 thousand men. The Ottomans, to whom the Balkans belonged at the end of the 14th century, numbered nearly 20 thousand.
The experienced Turkish warriors completely crushed the Christian knights, mainly due to undisciplined French knights who disobeyed orders, they attacked the Turkish vanguard thinking it was the main army, and were subsequently crushed.
Those who did not die on the battlefield were brutally executed - reportedly up to 3,000 men. The richest were captured and saved only by ransoms, which they repaid over decades. When news of the defeat reached Paris, no one believed it, and those who initially spread it were sentenced to death by drowning for “spreading lies.”
The Ottoman victory was a triumph of Islam over Christianity. Turkish troops posed a real threat to European countries, especially to Hungary.

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