Battle of Varna – Varna

Fact of the Polish figure „The Meeting of the Jagiellonian Kings with Emperor Maximilian in Vienna” – painting by Jan Matejko”

Part of the „Legacy of the Jagiellonians and Habsburgs dynasties” topic

On 10 November 1444, the coalition of crusading European nations led by Jagiellonian King Władysław/Ulászló of Poland-Hungary was defeated by the Ottoman Turks in the battle of Varna, modern day Bulgaria. Despite support from most of Christian Europe and internal turmoil of their enemy, the crusaders experienced major defeat due to conflicts tearing down their coalition from within and Ottomans’ military superiority. The monarch in lead, merely twenty years old, died in the fight, causing the greatest of the consequences. King’s demise brought sudden end to the short-lived union between the kingdoms of Poland and Hungary, united for just four years. Although the Jagiellonians claimed Hungarian throne again in a couple of decades, the distance between the two countries was never shorter than under Władysław’s short reign.