Battle of Kosovo

Part of the Ottoman wars in Europe and Serbian-Ottoman Wars

16th-century Russian miniature of the battle

Date	June 15, 1389
Location	Kosovo field, District of Branković
Result	Tactically inconclusive Strategic Ottoman victory Mutual heavy losses—devastating for the less numerous Serbs

Belligerents

Ottoman Empire

Moravian Serbia

District of Branković

Kingdom of Bosnia

Commanders and leaders

Sultan Murad I †

Bayezid I

Yakub Çelebi

Prince Lazar †

Vuk Branković

Vlatko Vuković

Strength

~ 27,000–40,000

~ 12,000–30,000

Casualties and losses

Sultan Murad I and most of the troops

Prince Lazar and most of the troops

The Battle of Kosovo (Serbian: Косовска битка/Kosovska bitka, Turkish: Kosova Meydan Muharebesi) took place on 15 June 1389 between the army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Murad Hüdavendigâr. The army under Prince Lazar consisted of his own troops, a contingent led by Serbian nobleman Vuk Branković, and a contingent sent from Bosnia by King Tvrtko I, commanded by Vlatko Vuković. Prince Lazar was the ruler of Moravian Serbia, and the most powerful among the Serbian regional lords of the time, while Vuk Branković ruled District of Branković located in a part of Kosovo and other areas, recognizing Lazar as his overlord. The battle was fought on the Kosovo Field, in the territory ruled by Branković, in what is today Kosovo. Its site is about 5 kilometers northwest of the modern city of Prishtina.

Reliable historical accounts of the battle are scarce. The bulk of both armies were wiped out in the battle; both Lazar and Murad lost their lives in it. Although Ottomans managed to annihilate the Serbian army, they also suffered high casualties which delayed their progress. The Serbs were left with too few men to effectively defend their lands, while the Turks had many more troops in the east. Consequently, one after the other, the Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals became so in the following years.

Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan "the Mighty" (r. 1331–55) was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V "the Weak" (r. 1355–71) whose reign was characterized by decline of central power and rise of numerous virtually independent principalities; this period is known as the fall of the Serbian Empire. Uroš V was unable to sustain the great empire created by his father nor to repulse the foreign threats and to limit the independence of the nobility; Uroš V died childless on 4 December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been destroyed by the Ottomans in the Battle of Maritsa earlier that year. Prince Lazar, ruler of the northern part of the former empire (Moravian Serbia), aware of the Ottoman threat, began diplomatic and military preparations for a campaign against the Ottomans.

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Wikipedia