Timeline November 1444

Events in November 1444 2

• 1444 Battle of Varna -- the last Crusade fails The Battle of Varna (10 November 1444) is the last serious western military attempt to save Constantinople. A Hungarian-Polish Crusading army under King Vladislaus III of Poland and John Hunyadi marches through the Balkans but is catastrophically defeated by Murad II at Varna on the Black Sea coast. Vladislaus is killed; his head is displayed on a pike. The defeat ends western military engagement in the Balkans for a generation. There will be no further substantial western help for Constantinople before the fall. The city is on its own.
• 1444 Battle of Varna -- the last crusade against the Ottomans The Battle of Varna (10 November 1444) ends the last serious Western attempt to push the Ottomans out of Europe. A Hungarian-Polish army under King Władysław III breaks a recently-signed peace treaty (urged by papal legate Cardinal Cesarini) and advances along the Black Sea coast. Murad II, recalled from retirement by the crisis, defeats the Crusaders comprehensively; Władysław is killed and his head displayed on a pike. The defeat removes any realistic prospect of Western military intervention to save Constantinople. Varna and the second Kosovo (1448) confirm Ottoman dominance of the Balkans for four more centuries.