Kosovo battle

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 took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an 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 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 (3.1 mi) 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, and both Lazar and Murad were killed. Although the Ottomans managed to annihilate the Serbian army, they also suffered huge casualties that 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 the decline of central power and the rise of numerous virtually independent principalities; this period is known as the fall of the Serbian Empire. Uroš V was neither able to sustain the great empire created by his father nor repulse foreign threats and limit the independence of the nobility; he 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 of (Moravian Serbia), was aware of the Ottoman threat and began diplomatic and military preparations for a campaign against them.

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