Battle of Nicopolis

The Battle of Nicopolis decisively defeated the last major multinational crusade organised against Ottoman power in Europe. Pope Boniface IX had called for a crusade following Ottoman advances in the Balkans, and a large coalition assembled under the Hungarian King Sigismund. The crusading force was notable for its overconfidence — the French knights reportedly boasted they would go all the way to Jerusalem. The battle began with an ill-disciplined charge by the French heavy cavalry, which broke through the first Ottoman line but then encountered Sultan Bayezid's reserve and elite Janissary forces in prepared defensive positions. The French charge was shattered, and Sigismund's Hungarian forces, seeing this collapse, fled. Approximately 10,000 crusaders were captured; most were executed the following day on Bayezid's order after news arrived of crusader atrocities against Ottoman prisoners. The defeat ended Western European hopes of rolling back Ottoman power in the Balkans and secured Ottoman control from Anatolia to the Danube.