Battle of Niš (1443)

At the Battle of Niš (Battle of Nissa) (early November, 1443), crusaders led by John Hunyadi, captured Ottoman stronghold Niš and defeated three armies of the Ottoman Empire. The Battle of Niš was part of Hunyadi's expedition known as the long campaign. Hunyadi, at the head of the vanguard, crossed the Balkans through the Gate of Trajan, captured Niš, defeated three Turkish pashas, and, after taking Sofia, united with the royal army and defeated Sultan Murad II at Snaim (Kustinitza). The impatience of the king and the severity of the winter then compelled him (February 1444) to return home, but not before he had utterly broken the Sultan's power in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania.

Background
In 1440 John Hunyadi became the trusted adviser and most highly-regarded soldier of the king Władysław III of Poland. Hunyadi was rewarded with the captaincy of the fortress of Belgrade and was put in charge of military operations against the Ottomans. The king Władysław recognized Hunyadi's merits by granting him estates in Eastern Hungary. Hunyadi soon showed and displayed extraordinary capacity in marshalling its defenses with the limited resources at his disposal. He was victorious in Semendria over Isak-Beg in 1441, not far from Nagyszeben in Transylvania he annihilated an Ottoman force and recovered for Hungary the suzerainty of Wallachia. In July 1442 at the Iron Gates he defeated a massed Ottoman formation of 80.000 led by Sehabbedin. These victories made Hunyadi a prominent enemy of the Ottomans and renowned throughout Christendom, and was a prime motivator to undertake in 1443, along with King Władysław, the famous expedition known as the long campaign with Battle of Niš as one of the battles of this campaign. Hunyadi was accompanied by Giuliano Cesarini during this campaign.

Battle
There was no one major battle for Niš but five different battles. The first was a battle against a small garrison in Niš and the capture of the town, then three different battles against three different Ottoman armies advancing on Niš and last,they fought against the remnants of all three of them.

The battle took place in the plain between Bolvani and Niš on November 3, 1443. Ottoman forces were led by Kasim Pasha, the beglerbeg of Rumelia, Turakhan Beg and Isak-Beg. After Ottoman defeat retreating forces of Kasim Pasha and Turakhan Beg burned all villages between Niš and Sofia. The Ottoman sources justify an Ottoman defeat by lack of cooperation between the Ottoman armies led by different commanders.

Aftermath
According to Chalcocondyles, "Weary after Hunyadi forced the Ottomans to retreat in the Balkans in 1443, the old lords hurried on all sides to regain possession of their fathers' fields". One of them was George Kastrioti Skanderbeg who deserted the Ottoman army along with his nephew Hamza Kastrioti and 300 loyal Albanians and after capturing Krujë started a twenty-five year long struggle against the Ottoman Empire.

Murad II signed a treaty for ten years, and abdicated in favor of his son Mehmed II. When the peace was broken the next year, Murad returned to the Balkans and won the Battle of Varna in November 1444.