The Battle of Kosovo (1389)

In 1380, the Sultan Murad began a campaign against the Serbs. He halted his advance at Kosovo in the summer of 1389 and decided to consult his commanders on whether to march his forces further into Serbia or to go after Macedonia. Before Murad could make a decision, a Serbian army half the size of the Sultan's army attacked. At the field of the Blackbirds, both the Serbian prince Lazar and the Ottoman Sultan Murad would die, the battle leaving both armies annihilated.

Sources on the Battle are divided, often contradicting each other. Conclusions are split even more so - some see it as a defeat for the Serbs, others a defeat for the Turks, but most as an immediate loss for both sides. However, Serbia was unable to recover from such losses, while the Turks were able to muster up replacements easily. Despite this, it took 70 more years for the Ottomans to fully subjugate the Serbs. The Battle of Kosovo certainly halted a Turkish advance further into Europe, though it left Serbia vulnerable.

The Battle of Kosovo is still incredibly significant. Prince Lazar is venerated in the Orthodox Church as a martyr and a saint for his effort against the invading Turks. Before he even set out for battle, Lazar understood his chances were slim. He proposed the options to his aristocracy - Fight to the death or surrender and embrace slavery under the muslims.

Instead of becoming vassals of the turks, instead of choosing an Earthly Kingdom, they put their faith in the Heavenly Kingdom. Showing devotion to their faith, the entire army and nobility participated in the Holy Eucharist before advancing to fight the turks on the 15th of June, Saint Vitus Day.

Around 12,000 to 15,000 men were brought by Lazar, while 5,000 to 10,000 were under Vuk Brankovic, a Serb noble from Kosovo. Vlatko Vukovic, sent by the King of Bosnia, brought as many men as Vuk. Joining the Serbian forces were the Knights Hospitaller, led by a Croatian Knight, John of Paplisna. They were up against a Turkish force double their size, led by the Sultan and his two brothers, Bayezid and Yakub.
As the Serbs advanced to meet their foe, Ottoman archers began to bombard the cavalry. Making ready for attack, they charged. Meeting the turks, the Serbian cavalry broke through the left-wing of the Ottoman forces. However, they met stiff resistance on the center and right.

Leaving Yakub's men battered, the rest of the Turks launched a counterattack against the Serb infantry. While the Serbs managed to push back the Ottomans in the center, Vlatko Vukovic inflicted heavy casaulties on Bayezid's wing. Another counter-attack followed, which finally pushed the Serbs back, eventually routing their infantry as the Christians moved to reinforce the center, where there were heavy losses.

During this time, Vuk Brankovic fled, bringing him and as many men as he could away from the fighting. Some saw this as a betrayal, seeing it as Vuk leaving Lazar and his men to die.

It is hard to say how Prince Lazar met his fate. According to some sources, he was captured during the battle and beheaded by the Turks. Other sources assert that he was killed during the fighting.

Details are just as murky surrounding the death of the Sultan Murad. One account, a letter from the Florentine senate to the King of Bosnia from the 20th of October, 1389 says that the initial Serbian charge was able to break through to the Sultan's tent, a knight heroically cutting him down. Other sources name this knight as Milos Obilic, yet others assert that Milos killed the Sultan after pretending to desert to the Turkish side. When he was presented to Murad, he killed the Sultan with a hidden dagger, before being killed by the Sultan's bodyguards.

It is more likely that Murad was killed during the fighting, and that his death led to confusion among the Ottomans that allowed the Serbs' initial success.

With Lazar martyred in the field and the Sultan dead, both armies left shattered. A setback for the Turks, it was in no ways a decisive victory. What was left of the Serbian nobility made a desperate attempt to either preserve their power or prepare for the return of the Ottomans.

The Serbian King of Bosnia declared the battle a victory, sending letters out to other Christians leaders, receiving congratulations in response. However, Serbs on the border with the Turks began to feel the Ottoman pressure.
Instead of putting their faith in the Heavenly Kingdom as Lazar had, they put their faith in the earthly kingdom, submitting themselves to slavery under the Turks. These Serbian nobles even wed their daughters to Bayezid, who strangled Yukab following the battle to secure his position as the new Sultan. One of those women was Lazar's own daughter.

Even more depressing is the compromise of Milica, Lazar's widow. The regent for Lazar's son, Stefan, she willingly made his inheritance into a tributary state of the Ottomans just a year following the battle, in 1390.

While Serbia may have began to slowly submit to the Turks following the battle of Kosovo, it can be argued that a decisive victory for the Ottomans at the field of the blackbirds would have opened up the entirety of Europe to Ottoman aggression. When the Turks fully subjugated Serbia 70 years later, they'd use it as a base to besiege Vienna in 1529. Without the sacrifice at Kosovo, the Turks would have been able to arrive at the gates of Vienna much earlier then 1529. A weaker Europe at that time may have failed at repelling the turks, opening yet another floodgate for muslim expansion into the Christian world.

The Serbs at Kosovo stalled the Ottomans. They may have not contained further muslim expansion for very long, but they put a stop to the Turks' momentum. This victory has enormous cultural significance on the Serbs, and certainly gave them strength against further submission to the Ottomans, in the form of religious conversion. With a long history of fighting back the muslim turks, the Serbs were able to maintain their culture and faith, not wanting to betray their Church and country. Unlike other subjects of the Ottomans, they stuck to their traditions, despite hundreds of years of subjugation, oppression, and persecution.