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Events on Sunday 25 September 1396 1
1396Battle of Nicopolis -- the last crusadeThe Battle of Nicopolis (25 September 1396) is the last large-scale crusading effort of the Middle Ages. A Hungarian-led coalition of French, Wallachian, German, English and other knights -- perhaps 16,000 strong -- advances to relieve the siege of Constantinople. Bayezid I defeats them comprehensively on the Danube; the French knights charge without coordination and are surrounded. Most of the noble prisoners are ransomed; the common soldiers are massacred. The defeat ends serious Western military efforts to halt Ottoman expansion for 50 years. Europe turns its attention elsewhere; Constantinople is left to its fate.