630 years ago, on the Kosovo field (near present-day Pristina) a major battle took place between the combined army of Serbian feudal lords and the army of Ottoman Turks. There is no consensus among historians about who won the battle, since both sides suffered heavy losses. The battle played an important role in strengthening the national identity of the Serbian people.
The beginning of the Serbian statehood
In the 6th century AD er began the active penetration of the Slavs in the Balkans. They created small political associations that were formally dependent on Byzantium. In the 9th century, the establishment of princely power began among the Serbs, but the process of formation of the state was rather slow. The Serbs were constantly dependent on either the Bulgarians or Byzantium.
In the 12th century, the Serbian political association, Raska, intensified. Under his control, a large part of the Serbian lands gradually became, and Byzantium was forced to recognize its independence. In the 13th century, Serbia had its own king and autocephalous church. The Serbian ruling dynasty of Nemanjic descended from the great Jupans (grand dukes) Raska.
From the end of the 13th century, as a result of negotiations with Byzantium, the Serbs began to gradually shift the border of their state to the south. In 1346, King Stephen Uros IV Dushan took the title of king of the Serbs and Greeks, establishing the Serbian Greek kingdom. Under his rule, the influence of Greek culture sharply increased in Serbia, and codification of legislation followed a Byzantine pattern.
The Serbo-Greek kingdom became the largest and most powerful state of South-Eastern Europe, but it did not last long.
Prologue to battle
At the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century, the Turkic-Muslim state, the Seljuk Sultanate, collapsed in Asia Minor. Subsequently, one of the Beyliks (fiefdoms), whose ruler was Sultan Osman I, quickly gained strength. The Ottoman Empire he created began to expand at the expense of neighboring Turkic and Byzantine territories. In the middle of the XIV century, the Turks began the invasion of the European possessions of Byzantium.
In 1371, the rulers of the Serbian units bordering on the Byzantine lands attempted to stop the Ottoman expansion, but were defeated in the battle of Maritza. After the death of the childless Uros V the Serbian kingdom ceased to exist.
- Painting by Stevo Todorovich “Cathedral in Prizren before the Battle of Kosovo”
The most powerful ruler in this territory was Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic, who controlled his northern part (Serbia), who was married to Militsa Serbska from the Nemanjic clan. He pursued a policy of centralization of the Serbian lands, but was forced to pay tribute to the Turks in order to ensure the temporary security of the principality. To contain the Ottoman expansion, Lazarus entered into an alliance with the Bosnian ban (ruler) Tvrtko I.
In 1389, the Ottoman Sultan Murad began a large-scale march to seize Serbia.
Battle of Kosovo field
Lazar and his son-in-law, the ruler of the Kosovo region, Vuk Brankovich, gathered an army to defend against the invaders. Tvrtko I sent them to the aid of a Bosnian detachment under the command of the governor Vlatko Vukovich. Ottoman and Serbian troops met on the Kosovo field.
Olga Saprikina, Candidate of Historical Sciences, associate professor of the Department of Universal History of the RSUH, told RT that this territory was of strategic importance, since it was a key to Serbia.
“The paths leading in different directions intersected here - in particular, to the north and south of the Balkan Peninsula,” the expert noted.
Historians do not know the exact number of Serbian and Turkish troops who took part in the battle. According to various sources, the Ottoman army numbered from 15 to 40 thousand people, and the Serbian army - from 10 to 33 thousand.
According to Saprikin, "it was a large force on the scale of its time."
The basis of the Serbian army was heavy cavalry. The Turkish army was more balanced because it included regular janissary corps, heavy cavalry of vultures, light infantry and cavalry, various auxiliary units. At the same time, the Ottoman military had a rich military experience, and the Serbs had not fought large-scale wars for several decades.
"Despite the fact that the Serbs were inferior in strength to the Ottomans, they were determined to fight for their independence," said Saprikina.
Most historians believe that the battle began with the Turkish shelling of the Serbian order and the attack of the heavy Serbian cavalry. She crushed the left flank of the Ottomans, who ruled the eldest son of Sultan Yakub. But the right flank of the Turkish army under the command of Murad’s other son, Bayazid, attacked the Serbs and broke through their defenses.
Lazar and Murad, who led the central forces of their armies, died during the battle. According to some data, Lazar was killed during the battle, according to others - was captured and executed by the Turks. In European and Turkish chronicles it is said that Murad died at the hands of the legendary hero of Serbia - Milos Obilic.
- "Milosh Obilic kills the Sultan", medieval engraving
- © hist-world.com
According to the Serbian epic, Obilic (or Kobilic) was the second son-in-law of Lazarus. Shortly before the battle, Vuk Brankovich, who envied more valiant Milos Obilich, allegedly slandered a relative, accusing him of conspiring with the Turks. To protect his honor, Obilic entered the Turkish camp, pretending to be a defector, and stabbed Murad with a dagger.
However, some scientists doubt the reality of Obilic due to the absence of such a name in official documents. According to other versions, Murad was killed by Serb cavalrymen who burst into Turkish order or lay on the field among the killed Serbian warrior.
Battle results
Olga Saprikina argues that "the outcome of the battle on the Kosovo field is not completely clear." According to her, according to the customs of the war of that time, the winner was most often the one who left behind the battlefield. On the one hand, the Turks pressed the Serbian warriors, on the other - they themselves retreated after the end of the battle, leaving Kosovo to the Serbs.
According to the expert, the Kosovo battle played a "crucial role in strengthening the self-consciousness and national identity of the Serbian people." The memory of her rallied the Serbian ethnos and did not allow him to dissolve in the Ottoman environment, despite the centuries of foreign oppression.
Both troops suffered huge losses during the battle, but their number is unknown. During the battle, Yakub, the eldest son of Murad, was killed. In these circumstances, Bayazid had to urgently establish himself on the throne, so he did not intend to continue the war.
- Painting by Uros Predich “Kosovo Girl”, 1919
Given the death of Murad and the Ottoman retreat, a number of historians in Europe attribute the victory of the Kosovo battle to the Serbs. However, due to heavy losses, Serbia could not provide the Turks with serious resistance. Almost all the nobility died in the battle, and the heir to Lazar, his son Stephen, was only 10 years old at that time. Until his majority, the regent was his mother Milica. Subsequently, Stefan Lazarevich declared himself a vassal of Turkey, however, he saved Serbia from devastation and direct Turkish rule. He was childless, so he proclaimed his son Vuk Brankovich - George.
In the middle of the 15th century, under the sultans of Murad II and Mehmed II, the Turks made several devastating campaigns against the Serbian lands and liquidated the Serbian statehood.
“In 1459, the country was finally incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, and thus came under the centuries-old Turkish oppression, which delayed the economic, political and cultural development of the Serbian people. None of the events of Serbian history left such a deep sorrowful trail as a defeat on the Kosovo field, ”writes in his book“ The Great Battles. 100 battles that changed the course of history ”historian Alexander Domanin.
According to the expert of the analytical center "Platform for Public Diplomacy of Serbia" political scientist Catherine Pomortseva, the battle on the Kosovo field is the most important event in Serbian history.
“The battle became the basis for the nation-forming myth. Kosovo is at the same time a dream, hope and pain of the Serbian people, the historical heart of Serbia, ”concluded Pomortseva.