Battle of Niš (1443)

Battle of Niš
Part of Crusade of Varna
Date early November 1443 Location Niš, Ottoman Empire Result Victory for the Christian contingent
Belligerents
Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Poland Serbian Despotate	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Władysław III of Poland John Hunyadi Đurađ Branković	Kasim Pasha * Turakhan Beg * Isak-Beg * Skanderbeg
Strength
20,000 Hungarian soldiers and mercenaries 5,000 Polish soldiers 8,000 Serbs	12,000 sipahi cavalry under direct command of Kasim Pasha frontier army of unknown number
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Skanderbeg along with 300 Albanian cavalrymen deserted

At the Battle of Niš (Battle of Nish) (early November, 1443), crusaders led by John Hunyadi, captured the Ottoman stronghold of Nish (now Niš, Serbia) and defeated three armies of the Ottoman Empire. The Battle of Niš was part of Hunyadi's expedition known as the long campaign. Hunyadi, at the head of the vanguard, crossed the Balkans through the Gate of Trajan, captured Niš, defeated three Turkish pashas, and after taking Sofia, united with the royal army and defeated Sultan Murad II at Snaim (Kustinitza). The impatience of the king and the severity of the winter then compelled him (in February 1444) to return home, but not before he had utterly broken the Sultan's power in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania.

In 1440 John Hunyadi became the trusted adviser and most highly regarded soldier of king Władysław III of Poland. Hunyadi was rewarded with the captaincy of the fortress of Belgrade and was put in charge of military operations against the Ottomans. King Władysław recognized Hunyadi's merits by granting him estates in Eastern Hungary. Hunyadi soon showed and displayed an extraordinary capacity to marshal his defences with the limited resources at his disposal. He was victorious in Semendria over Isak-Beg in 1441. Not far from Nagyszeben in Transylvania he annihilated an Ottoman force and recovered for Hungary the suzerainty of Wallachia. In July 1442 at the Iron Gates he defeated a massed Ottoman formation of 80,000 men led by Sehabbedin. These victories made Hunyadi a prominent enemy of the Ottomans and renowned throughout Christendom, and were prime motivators for him to undertake in 1443, along with King Władysław, the expedition which became known as the long campaign with the Battle of Niš as one of the battles of this campaign. Hunyadi was accompanied by Giuliano Cesarini during this campaign.

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Wikipedia