Battle of Niğbolu

Battle of Nicopolis

miniature by Jean Colombe (c. 1475)

Date	25 September 1396
Location	Nicopolis, Bulgarian Empire 43°42′21″N 24°53′45″E / 43.70583°N 24.89583°E / 43.70583; 24.89583Coordinates: 43°42′21″N 24°53′45″E / 43.70583°N 24.89583°E / 43.70583; 24.89583
Result	Decisive Ottoman victory

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Strength

Heavily disputed but credibly estimated at perhaps 15,000-20,000. See the Strength of forces section.

Heavily disputed but credibly estimated at perhaps 16,000. See the Strength of forces section.

Casualties and losses

Moderate casualties, including the massacre of ~1,000 civilian hostages (Turkish and Bulgarian) by the Crusaders the night before the battle.

Most of the Crusader army was destroyed or captured; a small portion, including Sigismund, escaped.
300-3,000 prisoners were executed.

The Battle of Nicopolis (Bulgarian: Битка при Никопол, Bitka pri Nikopol; Turkish: Niğbolu Savaşı, Hungarian: Nikápolyi csata, Romanian: Bătălia de la Nicopole) took place on 25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout of an allied crusader army of Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, French, English, Burgundian, German and assorted troops (assisted by the Venetian navy) at the hands of an Ottoman force, raising of the siege of the Danubian fortress of Nicopolis and leading to the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire. It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443–1444.