The Battle of Nicopolis (1396), according to Johann Schiltberger

One of the most important battles in European history was fought on September 25, 1396.  Nicopolis was the first battle where the Ottoman Turks encountered a western European army.  The Ottomans were led by their sultan, Bayezid I, while the Christian crusaders came from several nations.  Among their leaders were several important French and Burgundian figures, namely Philip of Artois, the Constable of France; Jean II le Miengre dit Bouciciault, the Marshal of France; and John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.  The crusader army also included Sigismund I, king of Hungary, and men from Germany, England and parts of southeastern Europe.  Among these forces was Johann (also called Hans) Schiltberger, a sixteen year old from Bavaria.  He was captured in this battle, and would spend most of his life as a servant for various masters.  Johann would travel throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, until 1427, when he managed to escape and return to Bavaria, where he wrote an account of his ordeal and travels.  For more information about the battle, please see the article "The Battle of Nicopolis", by Kelly DeVries, in Medieval History Magazine i.2 (October 2003).

I, Johanns Schiltberger, left my home near the city of Munich, situated in Payren, at the time that King Sigmund of Hungary left for the land of the Infidels.  This was, counting from Christ's birth, in the thirteen hundred and ninety-fourth year, with a lord named Leinhart Richartingen.  And I came back again from the land of the Infidels, counting from Christ's birth, fourteen hundred and twenty-seven.  All that I saw in the land of the Infidels, of wars, and that was wonderful, also what chief towns and seas I have seen and visited, you will find described hereafter, perhaps not quite completely, but I was a prisoner and not independent.  But so far as I was able to understand  and to note, so have I [noted] the countries and cities as they are called in those countries, and I here make known and publish many interesting and strange adventures, which are worth listening to.

Chapter 1 – Of the first combat between King Sigmund and the Turks

From the first, King Sigmund appealed in the above-named year, thirteen hundred and ninety-four, to Christendom for assistance, at the time that the Infidels were doing great injury to Hungary.  There came many people from all countries to help him; then he took the people and led them to the Iron Gate, which separates Ugern from Bulgaria and Wallachia, and he crossed the Tunow into Bulgaria, and made for a city called Pudem.  It is the capital of Bulgaria.  Then came the ruler of the country and of the city, and gave himself up to the king; then the king took possession of the city with three hundred men, good horse and foot soldiers, and then went to another city where were many Turks.  There he remained five days, but the Turks would not give up the city; but the fighting men expelled them by force, and delivered the city to the king.  Many Turks were killed and others made prisoners.  The king took possession of the city also, with two hundred men, and continued his march towards another city called Schiltaw, but called in the Infidel tongue, Nicopoli.  He besieged it by water and by land for sixteen days, then came the Turkish king, called Bayezid, with two hundred thousand men, to the relief of the city. When the king, Sigmund, heard this, he went one mile to meet him with his people, the number of whom were reckoned at sixteen thousand men.  Then came the Duke of Wallachia, called Werterwayvod, who asked the king to allow him to look at the winds.  This the king allowed, and he took with him one thousand men for the purpose of looking at the winds, and he returned to the king and told him that he had looked at the winds, and had seen twenty banners, and that there were ten thousand men under each banner, and each banner was separate from the other.  When the king heard this, he wanted to arrange the order of battle.  The Duke of Wallachia asked that he might be the first to attack, to which the king would willingly have consented.  When the Duke of Burgundy heard this, he refused to cede this honour to any other person, for the just reason that he had come a great distance with six thousand men, and had expended much money in the expedition, and he begged the king that he should be the first to attack.  The king asked him to allow the Ungern to begin, as they had already fought with the Turks, and knew better than others how they were armed.  This he would not allow to the Ungern, and assembled his men, attacked the enemy, and fought his way through two corps; and when he came to the third, he turned and would have retreated, but found himself surrounded, and more than half his horsemen were unhorsed, for the Turks aimed at horses only, so that he could not get away, and was taken prisoner.  When the king heard that the Duke of Burgundy was forced to surrender, he took the rest of the people and defeated a body of twelve thousand foot soldiers that had been sent to oppose him.  They were all trampled upon and destroyed, and in this engagement a shot killed the horse of my lord Lienhart Richartinger; and I, Hanns Schiltberger, his runner, when I saw this, rode up to him in the crowd and assisted him to mount my own horse, and I then mounted another which belonged to the Turks, and rode back to the other runners.  And when all the Turkish footsoldiers were killed, the king advanced upon another corps which was of horse.  When the Turkish king saw the king advance, he was about to fly, but the Duke of Iriseh, known as the despot, seeing this, went to the assistance of the Turkish king with fifteen thousand chosen men and many other bannerets, and the despot threw himself with his people on the king's banner and overturned it; and when the king saw that his banner was overturned and that he could not remain, he took to flight.  Then came he to Cily, and Hanns, Burgrave of Nuremberg, took the king and conducted him to a galley on board of which he went to Constantinople.  When the horse and foot soldiers saw that the king had fled, many escaped to the Tunow and went on board the ships; but the vessels were so full that they could not all remain, and when they tried to get on board they struck them on the hands, so that they were drowned in the river; many were killed on the mountain as they were going to the Tunow.  My lord Leinhart Richartinger, Werner Pentznawer, Ulrich Kuchler, and little Stainer, all bannerets, were killed in the fight, also many other brave knights and soldiers.  Of those who could not cross the water and reach the vessels, a portion were killed; but the larger number were made prisoners.  Among the prisoners were the Duke of Burgundy, and Hanns Putzokardo [Boucicault], and a lord named Centumaranto [Saint Omer].  These were two lords of France, and the Great Count of Hungary.  And other mighty lords, horsemen, and footsoldiers, were made prisoners, and I also was made a prisoner. 

Chapter 2 – How the Turkish king treated the prisoners

And now when the King Bayezid had had the battle, he went near the city where King Sigismund had encamped with his army, and then went to the battlefield and looked upon his people that were killed; and when he saw that so many of his people were killed, he was torn with grief, and swore he would not leave their blood unavenged, and ordered his people to bring every prisoner before him the next day, by fair means of foul.  So they came the next day, each with as many prisoners as he had made, bound with a cord.  I was one of three bound with the same cord, and was taken by him who had captured us.  When the prisoners were brought before the king, he took the Duke of Burgundy that he might see his vengeance because his people that had been killed.  When the Duke of Burgundy saw the anger, he asked him to spare the lives of several he would name; this was granted by the king.  Then he selected twelve lords, his own countrymen, also Stephen Synuher and the Marshal Boucicault.  Then each was ordered to kill his own prisoners, and for those who did not wish to do so the king appointed others in their place.  Then they took my companions and cut off their heads, and when it came to my turn, the king's son saw me and ordered that I should be left alive, and I was taken to the other boys, because none under twenty years of age were killed, and I was scarcely sixteen years old.  Then I saw the lord Hannsen Grieff, who was a noble of Payern, and four others, bound with the same cord.  When he saw the great revenge that was taking place, he cried with a loud voice and consoled the horsemen and footsoldiers who were standing there to die.  "Stand firm," he said, "When our blood this day is spilt for the Christian faith, and we by God's help shall become the children of heaven."  When he said this he knelt, and was beheaded together with his companions.  Blood was spilled from morning until vespers, and when the king's counselors saw that so much blood was spilled and that still it would not stop, they rose and fell upon their knees before the king, and entreated him for the sake of God that he would forget his rage, that he might not draw down upon himself the vengeance of God, as enough blood was already spilled.  He consented, and ordered that they should stop, and that the rest of the people should be brought together, and from them he took his share and left the rest to his people who made them prisoners.  I was amongst those the king took for his share, and the people that were killed on that day were reckoned at ten thousand men.  The prisoners of the king were then sent to Greece to a chief city called Andranopoli, where we remained prisoners for fifteen days.  Then we were taken by sea to a city called Gallipoli; it is the city where the Turks cross the sea, and there three hundred of us remained for two months confined in a tower.  The Duke of Burgundy also was there in the upper part of the tower with those prisoners he had saved; and while we were there, the King Sigismund passed us on his way to [Croatia?].  When the Turks heard this, they took us out of the tower and led us to the sea, and one after the other they abused the king and mocked him; and this they did to make fun of him, and skirmished a long time with each other on the sea.  But they did not do him any harm, and so he went away.

This text is from The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, trans. J. Buchan Telfer (London: Hakluyt Society, series 1, no.58; 1879.