1444: The Polish-Hungarian-Croatian King Władysław III&I dies at the Battle of Varna, at the age of 20, thus ending the Crusade of Varna.

25 comments

  5. Was a sad day for Poland, great one for Turkey. I just wonder how far could he go if he won this battle.

    On the sidenote: didn’t venetians betray christians during this event and transport the turkish army for money?

  6. And so the Osman Empire solidified it’s rule over the Balkans, which would only grow stronger until the empire waned 5 centuries later when the Rus would reclaim the Orthodox lands for Christendom.

  7. The Christian troops were caught in a disadvantageous geographic position on a wooden plateau; much of the army’s leadership wanted to wait for the fleet to arrive, but Hunyadi insisted to fight, and King Wladyslaw agreed.

    The battle initally favoured the Ottomans but Hunyadi’s masterful counteroffensives managed to break both the left and right flank of the Ottoman army inflicting heavy losses, and it seemed like the Christian army will win. But then Wladyslaw did an absolutely stupid fucking thing and with 500-strong cavalry contingent assaulted the still strong central group of the Janissaries, with predictable results, with this the remaining troops began a disorganized retreat leading to a disastrous defeat with much casulaties (although Murad too lost much of his army).

    The battle went hauntingly similar to the one fought at Nicopolis 1396; there too the Christian troops under Hungarian and Wallachian leadership set out a solid plan which they almost saw through, but then a stupid ass cavalry charge (that time by the French) caused mass confusion and eventual defeat for the crusade.

    The lesson is, trust the people who actually fought the enemy instead of your own gloryhunting desires.

  8. Damn at 20 years old, when I was 20 I was pooling money with my friends to buy alcohol, wait a sec, now I’m 23 and I still do that.

  10. Nowadays in Varna there’s a boulevard, a park and a district named after him. It’s probably among most notable battles in our history where Bulgaria wasn’t either of the major combatants.

  11. And that was great lesson for future kings, to not get into homosexual orgy the night before the battle.

  13. Mehmed 2 to his father: if i am the sultan, i order you to come and rule the army if you are the sultan, come and rule your army

    Crusaders: let’s beat the kid lol

    Mehmed: dadddyyy!! uncle stefaaaan!!!

    Stefan lazarovic was real og but noone knows because he was not a fancy french or englishman. I had written an essay at there once about him. Great commander, warrior and ruler

  14. More like: Polish-Hungarian-Dalmatian-Croatian-Serbian-Bulgarian king plus supreme duke of Lithuania

  16. A great “thank you for your sacrifice” to Wladysław III from Bulgaria or, as we remember him Waldysław III Varnenchik

  17. Ahhh the dumb ass king. How much of a dumbass you have to be to fuck up a pretty much won battle by attacking 500 vs 10 000.

    All the bullshit you hear of him after that, how pious righteous etc he is is bullshit. He was a kid puppet placed on a throne and teies chewing more than he could handle.

  19. After both the left and right wings of the ottomans have beed defeated, the dumbass king charged the untouched enemy front (the janissaries) with his bodyguards only, and surprise surprise he died. Hunyadi might have won the battle, but nooo, the young king had to get himself killed. I guess these Jagiellos just like to die in battle lol.

  21. There is a hypothesis that the king secretly survived battle, escaped to portugal, hide from europe, and (!) was a father of Cristopher Columbus. Google about it.

  23. Jagiellonian kings and dying in battles against Turks at the age of 20. Name a more iconic duo, I’ll wait.

  24. I never understood why we never became a Catholic country. Where was Moscovy/Ruthenia when this happened? Nowhere. But the Poles, the Hungarians, and the French did try to save us.

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