Betrothal (Aftermath of Nicopolis)
The aftermath of the Battle of Nicopolis saw heavy casualties on both sides. For the crusaders nearly the entire French contribution had been captured or killed, and the other elements of the crusade suffered heavily in the pursuit by Turkish and Serbian cavalry. The Ottomans meanwhile had lost nearly a third of their force to the destructive charge of the French and Hungarian knights. Those casualties were heavily concentrated among the Ottoman infantry however who’s lives ultimately were considered expendable.
The failure to bury the executed Ottoman prisoners before the battle would come to haunt the crusaders as the Ottoman army discovered the evidence of the massacre soon after their victory. An enraged Bayezid had his men pick out the highest ranking French noblemen to be saved for ransom. Then in retaliation he had the remainder of the French prisoners systematically marched past in front of him for execution as the French nobles were made to watch. Yet in the Sultan’s typical impulsive fashion he soon tired of this and allowed his advisors to talk him into halting the massacre around noon time to break for lunch. In that regard the Sultan seemed to share a personality trait with his similarly rash opponent Jean of Nevers. The survivors of the crusade would be force-marched to Gallipoli to await the arrangement of ransoms from France. Few of the battle’s participants could be said to have distinguished themselves positively.
The leader of the French, John Count of Nevers, earned the title Jean the Fearless for his combat prowess and near lack of bodily regard. He did ultimately however surrender to be captured. This is in contrast to Admiral Jean de Vienne who was killed in battle after multiple attempts to defend the French battle standard, and Count Enguerrand de Coucy who was captured only after having been severely wounded in fighting. The caution of both those knights had been derided as nothing more than elderly cowardice, yet that conservative advice would have served Nevers better than his fearlessness. Instead Jean had utterly failed in fulfilling the lofty goals set by his father, due to the exact causes that Philip the Bold had feared. This headstrong trait of Jean the Fearless would materialize later again in the far future, when he would orchestrate the assassination of the Duke of Orleans.
Enguerrand de Coucy, who had done nearly everything to avoid disaster short of dueling his fellow knight D’Eu outright for leadership, would survive the battle to be captured but would never make it home to France. The old knight would die of his wounds and illness before his ransom could be paid. His close friend and comrade Jean de Vienne had been killed in the battle itself, serving as the French standard bearer.
Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, could be said to have been the one most responsible for the disaster at Nicopolis through his poor counsel to Jean the Fearless and his steadfast opposition to cooperation with their allies at every opportunity. Like his rival Coucy, D’Eu would survive to be captured but would also die of the same illness before being ransomed. The only saving grace to be said of D’Eu’s tenure was that he had not brought his sword of office with him on crusade. As Constable of France, D’Eu was entitled to carry the Constable’s sword into battle. Yet the previous Constable, Olivier de Clisson, in opposition to his dismissal had stolen the sword and refused to transfer it to D’Eu. This thereby inadvertently prevented the sword of Charlemagne, Joyeuse, from falling into the hands of the Sublime Porte’s treasury with D’Eu’s capture.
The French knight Jean Le Maingre, who went by his father’s cognomen Boucicaut, would also be captured during the battle. As a common knight he had been a staunch supporter of Nevers and D’Eu during the crusade, even arguing with King Sigsimund as if they were of equal stature. His lowly noble status would hurt him now following capture as he was scheduled for execution alongside the other common knights. Only the pleading of Jean the Fearless and the promise of a sizable ransom convinced Sultan Bayezid to give a stay of execution.
Unlike many others Boucicaut would survive his imprisonment and return to the east several times more to continue fighting the Ottomans. With undampened enthusiasm he continued crusading in the Levant and Egypt, and in service of the Byzantine Empire during the Siege of Constantinople. The latter he considered his proudest accomplishment in life. Less sanguinely Boucicaut also commanded the French forces against England at the Battle of Agincourt near twenty years later. In which once more he again led a knightly cavalry charge in a frontal assault uphill towards a fortified position defended by stakes and archers. The French were once again utterly crushed in a legendary defeat, proving that Boucicaut had truly not learned anything from Nicopolis at all. The knight himself would against the odds survive Agnicourt but would never again be placed in command of troops for the rest of his life.
But for all the faults of the crusade, there were those who did acquit themselves well and made their name at Nicopolis. Count Hermann von Celje had been a relatively well-off but unnotable Holy Roman nobleman holding lands in the Windic Marches, his family and territory overshadowed by the much more prestigious and powerful neighboring Hapsburg dynasty. At Nicopolis when all was lost and the crusading army in retreat, Hermann of Celje had cut his way through the encircling Ottoman cavalry and led Sigismund towards the relative safety of the Danube. It was Hermann who would find a small fishing boat for the King of Hungary, rowing Sigismund and the Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller across the river as many others were stranded and chased down on the shore. In repayment Sigismund would make Hermann von Celje the richest man in Hungary, showering the Celje dynasty with favors, titles, offices, and lands, and bringing the family into the king’s inner circle.
Nicholas Garai had already been a favorite of Sigismund despite his talents being mainly off the battlefield. The Garai family had staunchly supported the claim of the von Luxembourgs in Hungary, even at the cost of their lives. When the Count Palatine Leustak Jolsval was unhorsed, Nicholas Garai took charge of the retreating Hungarian forces, leading them west rather than north to the Danube with the rest of the fleeing forces. Garai also held the good fortune to have married Teodora the elder sister of Stefan Lazarevic several years prior. Though the marital alliance had lapsed with the Serbian submission to the Ottomans, Garai was able to now leverage that connection to meet with the Serb prince under a brief banner of truce. The day was already won by the Serbians and the Sultan, further pursuit and the complete destruction of the Hungarian army now would only benefit the Sultan while removing Serbia’s usefulness to the Ottomans, Garai argued. While the Sultan still had enemies to fight Serbia’s knights possessed military value and negotiating power but what afterwards? This argument went to the heart of the knife’s edge Moravian Serbia was navigating as a vassal, and Stefan Lazarevic halted the pursuit of his brother in law. These actions allowed the remaining Hungarian army to escape Nicopolis and inadvertently on the part of Lazarevic also contributed to preventing Sigismund’s capture, which may have occurred if Lazarevic had pushed his pursuit onward. Similar to Celje, Nicholas Garai would be extensively promoted by a grateful Sigismund upon his return.
But the ones who garnered the most praise of all however would be Lazarevic and the Serbs, becoming the heroes of the hour. To an extent that the praise was disproportionate to their actual (but impressive) military contribution to the battle. Sultan Bayezid of course could be expected to reward and toast his brother-in-laws Stefan and Vuk for their victory and surprising loyalty to the Sublime Porte. Even if the loyalty was ensured by keeping Serbia as a vassal state and their sister as Bayezid’s wife. More strange would be the praise given by western chroniclers to Stefan Lazarevic, for the same virtues. Those who participated in the crusade itself, such as Sigismund, came away with strong impressions regarding the effectiveness of the Serbian black knights. But reports of the Nicopolis crusade went beyond mere respect for an opponent, but inexplicably started outright describing Lazarevic as the ideal Christian knight.
It was in some ways a sort of comfort to Western Christiandom and the prisoners at Gallipoli as they tried to understand their defeat. In the minds of men such as Nevers, D’Eu, and Boucicaut it was impossible for them to have been defeated by Turkish infidels, even as they lived with the evidence of their defeat. Rather they had only lost because they were facing what they rationalized to be an unparalleled paragon of knightly and Christian values, who just happened to be in the Sultan’s service for the romanticized reason of defending his sister. And it was not too much of a shame to lose against such a man, they consoled themselves, for it only increased their own honor to have tried their best.
Meanwhile in Croatia, the Vovoide Stefan Lackfi had withdrawn his troops from the Battle of Nicopolis without engaging in hopes of securing Hungary for Ladislaus of Durazzo following the death of Sigsimund. Lackfi would instead be shocked to hear that Sigsimund had survived the battle and Nicholas Garai had managed to save the core of the Hungarian forces. Despite their losses it was enough for the Hungarian nobles to reject Lackfi’s plans and enough to defeat his army if it came to battle.
In desperation Lackfi would send letters to Ladislaus, who was still fighting against Louis of Anjou for control of the Kingdom of Naples, encouraging him to bring his army over the Adriatic to deliver the final blow to Sigismund. Lackfi would go a step further and send ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire to obtain an alliance for the Angevin cause in Hungary. For these actions Lackfi would be denounced by Sigsimund as a traitor and an infidel. Fresh off the victory at Nicopolis, the Ottomans proved receptive to another opportunity to divide and conquer the Christian world, and agreed to an alliance to be sealed by the marriage of King Ladislaus to a daughter of Sultan Bayezid once circumstances permitted.[1]
This political shift would serve Moravian Serbia well as Princess Milicia resumed efforts to find a marriage for her sons and secure the future of the dynasty. Lazarevic’s unexpected rise in stature had opened new doors that would have balked at marrying a vassal of a Muslim state. Seeking to reinforce ties with Serbia’s western neighbor, Stefan Lazarevic would be betrothed to Katarina Hrvatinic, a niece of the powerful Bosnian Grand Duke Hrvoje Hrvatinic.[2] Sultan Bayezid would give his support to the marriage, both as a means to reward Stefan and since Hrvoje was an outspoken supporter of King Ladislaus in Croatia it would serve the Sultan's western strategies.
After all the combatants and leaders were accounted for there would be one final casualty of the Nicopolis Crusade. Philippe de Mezieres had fought in nearly all crusades of the fourteenth century, save for Nicopolis itself. A military career that had taken him as a young man from Smyrna to Cyprus to Alexandria, and even Jerusalem, as well as travels throughout Europe where he lectured on crusading theory and lobbied support for additional crusades. He would serve as counselor and tutor for Charles VI and write several treatises on his experiences and crusading ideals. Having not only fought against the Muslim powers but lived among them and observed their practices and armies, Mezieres became both the most fervent supporter of crusades and the most outspoken critic. Many of his contemporaries were satisfied to attribute military defeat to the will of God or moral failings of those involved, particularly to explain away the loss of Jerusalem and failed history of multiple crusades. Mezieres argued that if it was truly providence that they had been defeated, it had only become God’s will because the European crusaders had lacked knowledge of military strategy, logistics, terrain, and above all discipline. Qualities which their Saracen adversaries did not lack. The feudal armies of the west, he concluded, marched and fought like an angry mob.
In doing so the old crusader veteran was echoing sentiments that dated back to the thirteenth century, where western observers had made similar critiques after witnessing the discipline and effectiveness of the Mongol armies in comparison to their own, and argued that European knighthood must adopt the discipline of the Mongols to remain an effective military force. A hundred years later Mezieres attempted to do the same, seeking to reform the ideas of knighthood into a more effective professionally trained military force he called the Order of the Passion of Jesus Christ to correct those flaws. Unfortunately Mezieres would find that little had changed since the days of the Mongols, and his ideas were no more successful than those who came before him.
Now too old to campaign as part of the Nicopolis Crusade, Philippe de Mezieres would place his remaining hopes and dreams in the plans of Philip the Bold and the young crusaders marching to the east. Upon hearing of the disastrous defeat at Nicopolis, Philippe de Mezieres’ theories had once again been proven true in the worst way possible. Mezieres would break from the self-congratulatory rationalizations that prevailed among the French knights. Mezieres would sadly state in private that Jean of Nevers to be an incompetent fool, Philip the Bold to be an old fool, and himself as the biggest oldest fool of all for dedicating his life to a cause that amounted to nothing because of men like this.[3] The old veteran would be more conciliatory when Philip the Bold commissioned him to write the official after action report of the crusade, with Mezieres again advocating the ideals of his Order of the Passion as the medicine to solve France's military woes. It was no consolation at all that at Nicopolis the Serbian cavalry embodied his vision of a knightly order that was drilled to fight together and trained to obey the chain of command. Only they had been fighting for the other side.
[1] This is actually historical
[2] This is not historical. Our first POD
[3] A bit harsh, especially since the crusaders likely would have won Nicopolis if Philip the Bold had led in person as originally planned. However Burgundy had been both a political opponent or patron of Mezieres
