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10 November in military history: Battle of Varna, 1444

Military history · 10 November · Ottoman wars in EuropeFull calendar

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Oil painting of a battlefield by the sea under a bright sky with clouds: in the foreground a young knight in full plate armor lies dead beside his fallen white horse, while Ottoman officers in turbans and rich robes, one on horseback pointing, gather around under red banners, with a castle on a cliff at the left.
The Death of Władysław Jagiellon at Varna, painted by Stanisław Chlebowski between 1865 and 1876. Public domain. National Museum in Kraków (MNK II-a-280), via Wikimedia Commons.
Quick answer

On 10 November 1444 the Ottoman army of Sultan Murad II defeated a crusading army near Varna, on the Black Sea coast of today's Bulgaria. Its leader, the young Władysław III, king of Poland and Hungary, was killed charging the janissaries who guarded the sultan. Poles remember him as Władysław Warneńczyk, and Constantinople fell nine years later.1

Full story · ~11 min readBattle of Varna, 1444: how Władysław III died charging the sultan's janissariesWho won at Varna in 1444?Read the full story ›

A broken truce

In 1440 Władysław III, already king of Poland, also took the Hungarian throne. After a campaign against the Ottomans led by John Hunyadi in 1443 and 1444, Sultan Murad II asked for peace and agreed to a ten-year truce. The king swore to it on 1 August 1444, but the papal legate, Cardinal Julian Cesarini, talked him out of keeping it, and the war went on.2

Cesarini had promised a Venetian fleet that would stop the Ottomans bringing reinforcements across the straits from Anatolia. It never came, and the crusaders, some 16,000 to 18,000 men, found themselves facing a much larger Ottoman army near Varna.3

The king's charge

On 10 November 1444 Władysław led a cavalry charge at the sultan's position. The janissaries guarding Murad threw it back, the king was killed, and his head was displayed on a pike. Cardinal Cesarini also died in the defeat.4

The crusade was lost, but Hunyadi saved much of the Christian army from destruction and led it back to Hungary.5

A king who would not die

Władysław's body and armor were never found; the sultan had his head preserved in honey and sent to Turkey. The missing body fed rumors that the king had survived, and the monument raised on the battlefield in 1935 stands empty. Poland was left without a king for three years, until his younger brother Casimir took the throne in 1447. Varna also ended the union of the Polish and Hungarian crowns.6

The road to Constantinople

The defeat ended hopes of driving the Ottomans out of the Balkans and sealed the fate of Byzantium: Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmed II in 1453. The fall of the city is told in our article on the Siege of Constantinople, and the earlier crusade that ended in disaster in our article on Nicopolis.7

Frequently asked questions

Who won the Battle of Varna?

The Ottoman Empire. On 10 November 1444 Sultan Murad II defeated the crusading army of Władysław III, king of Poland and Hungary, near Varna on the Black Sea.8

How did Władysław III die?

He led a cavalry charge at the janissaries guarding the sultan and was killed; his head was displayed on a pike. His body was never found, which fed rumors that he had survived.9

Why was the Battle of Varna important?

It ended the crusade to drive the Ottomans from the Balkans and the union of Poland and Hungary, and Constantinople fell nine years later. In Poland it left the throne empty for three years.10

Notes

A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”. ↩
  2. Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”; Anna Obara-Pawłowska, “„in marium libidinem proclivus”: Długoszowa narracja o grzesznym życiu Władysława Warneńczyka”. ↩
  3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”. ↩
  4. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”; Anna Obara-Pawłowska, “„in marium libidinem proclivus”: Długoszowa narracja o grzesznym życiu Władysława Warneńczyka”. ↩
  5. Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”. ↩
  6. Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”. ↩
  7. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”. ↩
  8. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”. ↩
  9. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”. ↩
  10. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Varna”; Muzeum Historii Polski, “580 lat temu w bitwie pod Warną zginął król Polski i Węgier Władysław III”; Polish Army Museum, “Bitwa pod Warną”; Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna, “Władysław Warneńczyk. Bitwa pod Warną i jej konsekwencje”. ↩

Sources

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