Battle of Kruševac

Battle of Kruševac
Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe

Ruins of Kruševac
DateOctober 2, 1454
Location
Kruševac
Result

Serbo-Hungarian victory

  • Hungarians plundered Kosovo and Niš and gathered much loot
Belligerents
Serbian Despotate
Kingdom of Hungary		 Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Đurađ Branković
John Hunyadi		 Firuz Bey (POW)[1]
Strength
35,000[citation needed] 32,000[2]

The Battle of Kruševac was fought on October 2, 1454 between the forces of the Serbian Despotate, allied with the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.[3]

In 1454 the Ottomans launched a major invasion against Serbia, at the helm of which was the Sultan himself, Mehmed the Conqueror. The Ottoman army managed to capture two castles[4] and disperse a Serbian cavalry force of 9,000 sent against them,[5] before putting the Serbian capital Smederevo under siege. The siege was lifted when the Ottomans received reports of a relief force approaching under the command of John Hunyadi.[6] Mehmed marched back to his domains, returning to Sofia by August.[7] He left behind a powerful rear guard in Serbia under the command of Firuz Bey,[6] in anticipation of an attack on Ottoman territories by Hunyadi.[8] Serbian forces led by Nikola Skobaljić scored a victory against Ottoman forces in Serbia on the 24th of September in Vranje, near Leskovac.[9]

The victory at Leskovac allowed John Hunyadi and Đurađ Branković to decisively strike at the now isolated army of Firuz Bey, defeating it on the 2nd of October and capturing its commander,[8] after which they launched a major offensive, ravaging Niš and Pirot, and burning down Vidin in northern Bulgaria. Nikola Skobaljić continued his forays against the Ottomans, operating between Leskovac and Priština, before being defeated in battle near Tripolje on the 16th of November, where he was captured and impaled by Ottoman forces.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, (Princeton University Press, 1978), 110.
  2. ^ Babinger, Franz, William C. Hickman and Ralph Manheim, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, 110.
  3. ^ "Vladimir Corovic: Istorija srpskog naroda". www.rastko.rs.
  4. ^ Ibn Kemal, Tevarih-i Al-i Osman, VII. Defter, ed. Ş. Turan, 1957, pp. 109-118
  5. ^ Jorga, Nicolae (2018). Büyük Türk - Fatih Sultan Mehmed (in Turkish). Yeditepe Yayınevi. p. 73. ISBN 9786052070383.
  6. ^ a b Mureşanu, Camil (2018). John Hunyadi: Defender of Christendon. Center for Romanian Studies. p. 205. ISBN 9781592111152.
  7. ^ Elizabeth A. Zachariadou, Romania and the Turks Pt. XIII p. 837-840, “First Serbian Campaigns of Mehemmed II (1454-1455)”
  8. ^ a b Uzunçarşılı, İsmail Hakkı (2019). Osmanlı Tarihi Cilt II [History of the Ottomans Volume II] (in Turkish). Türk Tarih Kurumu. pp. 13–18. ISBN 9789751600127.
  9. ^ a b Babinger, Franz (2003). Fatih Sultan Mehmed ve Zamanı (in Turkish). Oğlak Yayıncılık. p. 109. ISBN 975-329-417-4.

References

  • Babinger, Franz, William C. Hickman and Ralph Manheim, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, Princeton University Press, 1978.