The Last Crusade - Battle of Varna 1444 - Crusaders attempt to drive out the Ottomans from Europe

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📢 Narrated by David McCallion

🎼 Music:
Epidemic Sound
Filmstro

📚 Sources:
Norman Davies – God’s Playground, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795
Pat Engel – The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526
Colin Imber – The Crusade of Varna, 1443-1445 (Crusade Texts in Translation)
John Jefferson – The Holy Wars of King Wladislas and Sultan Murad: The Ottoman-Christian Conflict from 1438-1444
Samuel Astley Dunham – The History of Poland
Camile Muresanu – John Hunyadi: Defender of Christendom

#history #medieval #crusades

[HistoryMarche]

🚩 Join over 4 million people who’ve met with a therapist on BetterHelp and started living a healthier, happier life.
🚩 Got a big one for you today, the Battle of Varna 1444 AD. The episode is similar in scale and detail to the Battle of Ankara 1402, so if you enjoyed that one you'll like Varna. I covered all three phases of the battle that are usually not mentioned, which make this battle so massive.

The Crusade of Varna, which culminated in the Ottoman victory over a largely Hungarian force on November 10, 1444, effectively ended the European efforts to save Constantinople and enabled the Turkish conquest and expansion into the Balkans and towards Central Europe.

[CatholicDragoon]

Ooh! Another Ottoman video. Definitely enjoy when you guys fill in the gaps in the Ottoman Empire's history, wish there was an Ottoman History playlist in chronological order.

[cenktuneygok]

21:00 A mistake here. It was not Vlad III Dracula Tepeş (impaler) who aided the crusade but his father Vlad II Dracul. The narrator spelled the correct name, but the name and the symbolic portrait shown are wrong.

[benimtelefoncaliyordk]

Murad II, who twice abdicated, was the most engaging character among all the sultans, a great warrior but also a great lover of the arts and philosophy .

[CrownHetman]

Fun Fact: In Poland, we talk of a legend of Zawisza Czarny (Zawisza the Black), who was considered the greatest knight of Poland at the time. He was meant to meet his end at the battle of Varna.
Also, King Wladislas is known as Wladislaw of Varna. That nickname was given to him upon his death at the battle.

[danielsantiagourtado]

Over forty minutes of historymarche?! YES PLEASE! Love your work 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[HistoryMarche]

🚩 Got a big one for you today, the Battle of Varna 1444 AD. The episode is similar in scale and detail to the Battle of Ankara 1402, so if you enjoyed that one you'll like Varna. I covered all three phases of the battle that are usually not mentioned, which make this battle so massive.

The Crusade of Varna, which culminated in the Ottoman victory over a largely Hungarian force on November 10, 1444, effectively ended the European efforts to save Constantinople and enabled the Turkish conquest and expansion into the Balkans and towards Central Europe.

[peregrinusdeflandria]

Everyone knows the borders of 11/11/1444!

[nenenindonu]

The Battle of Varna was the Manzikert of the Balkans; spontaneous event started by the enemy, cemented Turkish presence in Thrace as Manzikert did for Anatolia, and obviously a legendary victory

[benimtelefoncaliyordk]

Turkish historians declare that Murad II . was “ a just and valiant prince, of a great soul, patient of labors, learned, merciful, religious, charitable, a good sovereign, and a great general . ”
Christian writers also accord to him great abilities, and greater freedom from vice and passion than most of the rulers of that age . He was eighteen years of age when he ascended the throne in 1421 .

[nenenindonu]

One shouldn't expect less from Mehmed the Conqueror's father. Murad II was a bane of Crusaders and immortalized his name up there with kinsmen Baybars and Nuraddin Zengi

[giubgiubbi]

Pov: You're an Europa Universalis IV player.

[frankzohoolihan]

Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

[syedharis]

I love how murad didnt leave the battlefield or went home even after getting severe attacks He was there, waiting for his chance to shine...

[Davscabecinhadeguidao]

I'm sorry about the death of the Polish king, if he hadn't gotten excited at the time of the attack, perhaps the world would be very different today.
His death resulted in an Interregnum that united Poland and Lithuania into one nation.
But the Turks fought bravely and received their reward.

Hugs from Brazil, and thanks for the video!

[ozsalako]

The interpretation of the last attack of King Wladislas are different in Turkish accounts. According to Turkish accounts, King Wladislas and his knights never got close to threaten Sultan Murad. The distance between Sultan Murad and line of combat was close but there was still an impenetrable defense of janissaries. It was the famous proven defense tactic of janissaries. In many other battles, western knights were not able to penetrate through. The most important evidence showing that the sultan's life is not in danger that the janissary killing King Wladislas, yayabaşı Koca Hızır, was a captain of a regular janissary unit. There was another janissary unit which main responsibility is protecting the sultan. And there is no account showing that this unit got into the engagement. Most probably King Wladislas was killed long before creating a real threat to Sultan Murad life. Western historians prefers to create a heroic king image who was just so close to win the battle but was unlucky. In real life, he was a distrustful stupid young man chasing fame.

[kamilmucha]

I watched you from the very beginning of the channel and every video I saw I thought you can't get better, but every time you exceeded my expectations

[TrentBattyDrums]

Wow. That was mesmerizing. Great video mate, you had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. What it must have been like to see both armies fully formed up waiting to maul each other... We can only shudder and imagine. May all the fallen Rest in Peace.

[gaplan]

Let me provide information about the impaled head mentioned in the video, which deeply saddened the narrator. The Turks had signed a ten-year peace treaty with the Crusaders. The agreement was in favor of the Crusaders. During the treaty, the Turks swore on the Quran, and the Crusaders on the Bible, that they would remain faithful to the agreement. Subsequently, Sultan Murad, trusting this agreement, abdicated the throne and was succeeded by his 12-year-old son, Mehmet II. The Pope saw this as an opportunity and convinced Wladislas and other Christians that the promise made to the Turks had no value.

When it was heard that the Crusader army was preparing for war, the young Sultan Mehmet II wrote a letter to his father, saying, "If you are the Sultan, you should lead your army and state at such a time. If I am the Sultan, I order you to come and lead the army." Sultan Murad, in response to this call, took command of the army.

Before the battle, the Turkish army planted two spears in the ground. The first spear had the agreement document attached to it. The second spear was empty. The head of Wladislas, who broke his promise, would be placed on this empty spear. And so, the empty spear served its purpose. The Crusaders, who had previously broken their promises, were punished once again for this reason. Turks want even their enemies to be honorable!

[robbabcock_]

It constantly amazes me how often history turns on a knife edge!