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the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful of its era and conquered many regions in
a decisive fashion however their invasion of the Balkans was met with
stiff resistance the peoples of this region fought the intruders for almost
200 years and defied their rule long after that
the bloody Battle of Kosovo in 1389 exemplifies this struggle for
independence so let's see how this battle came to be the Celtic invasion
followed by the Crusades completely changed the balance of power in the
Middle East the biggest victim of these events was the Byzantine Empire it had
started to lose lands to the Seljuks in the 11th century then the Crusades
despite helping the empire in the very beginning led to the sack of its capital
Constantinople by the Latins Anatolia was fractured beyond anything
seen before the ethnic and religious makeup of Asia Minor changed as more
turkic tribes moved in as if it wasn't enough the Mongol invasion of the Middle
East started in the 13th century in 1241 they made their first foray into
Anatolia and in 1243 decisively defeated armies of the seljuk sultanate of room
near modern-day seevis the Sultanate became a vassal of the Mongols and a
Byzantine successor state the Empire of Nakia used that respite effectively by
1261 the Greeks took back Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire in the
northwestern part of Anatolia and central Balkans unfortunately for them
the mongols pushed more terrific tribes out of central asia and the Iranian
plateau towards Anatolia by 1299 the leader of one of these tribes Osman was
granted a small piece of land along the Byzantine border for his military
service to the Seljuks in 1302 he defeated a Byzantine army
near Nakia then Osman used the dissolution of the Sultanate in 1308 to
gain independence unlike other Balak leaders he didn't
care for the usual tribal infighting Osman and his descendants practiced a
version of Islam that was stricter than that of the seljuqs and saw glory only
in fighting against non-muslims his son Orhan took the Byzantine city of Prusa
the modern day Bursa and moved his capital there
nakiya and nikka media fell to his troops in 1331 and 1337 and a few
successful raids into byzantine lands in Europe were conducted Ottomans or
Ottomans as they were called by the Christians took their first city in
Europe in 1354 using the fact that the walls of
Gallipoli were destroyed by an earthquake in the next decade Adrianople
lofty and komotini were all conquered and the new leader Murad the first moved
the Ottoman capital to Adrianople modern-day Edirne
it seemed that nothing could stop the Ottomans but to the west of their new
Holdings the mighty Serbian Empire was ready to defend itself in 1371 King
Lucas in attempted to use the fact that most of the Ottoman forces were in Asia
to take adrianople and drive them out of Europe with around 35,000 troops under
his command he moves to the valley of the maritza River as no significant
enemy force was in the area the serbian king did not send any scouts ahead and
his camp was virtually unguarded but a small ottoman army of a thousand or so
riders attacks the camp during the night thousands of serbs were killed in their
sleep and even more drowned in the maritza during the chaos the king his
brothers and many aristocrats died in this battle which destroyed the Serbian
Empire almost all Serbian and Bulgarian aristocrats became the vassals of Murad
among them the Prince of Moravian Serbia despite that when most of the ottoman
army moved to central Anatolia lazar rebelled alongside many other local
feudal lords his troops defeated a small army at the Battle of plotnick in 1386
and pushed the Ottomans out of southern Serbia this victory increased lazarre's
Authority tenfold and he managed to form a broad Alliance consisting of serbs
volga's Bosnians and al burns even some bohemian and hungarian aristocrats
joined his army but this time around he would be facing the best the ottomans
could offer sultan murad alongside his sons bayazid and jakob moved towards
Pristina in the june of 1389 Lazar and his troops would be waiting for them on
the Kosovo the fields of the Blackbirds in Serbian let's take this opportunity
to talk about the composition of the opposing forces Murad had continued in
the footsteps of his father and grandfather expanding his Regular Army
which meant that Ottoman troops were very different from those once fielded
by the Seljuks still for sultan did have a significant number of light cavalry
called a Kim G they were armed with composite bows axes and maces and
usually acted as Raiders or a flanking force the regular cavalry called Sipahi
were a somewhat heavier horseman with lances and bows the irregular infantry
was represented by a saps who carry bows and pole arms or halbert's Ottoman
Sultans also started a practice of using personal slaves and Christian people's
to form their elite Janissary troops they also were armed with various
weapons Janissary served as the Sultan's guard and have both cavalry and infantry
units the ottomans also had early cannons in their service altogether
Mourad had 50,000 troops in this battle on the other hand the Serbs had a truly
European army most of their cavalry was heavy with only a handful of light
Hasan's in support serve infantry used both bows and melee weapons according to
the situation nazar had brought 30,000 warriors with him mountains surround the
field of Kosovo to the west and east Lazar knew that he would not be able to
contain the ottomans in the open plains to the north and hoped that the terrain
would prevent his enemies from using their superior numbers the Prince
commanded the center with 15,000 troops with cavalry in the first line and
infantry in the second the left was led by a flat Kovu Kovac while the right was
under the command a local aristocrat rook brankovic both had around 7,000
warriors on the opposite side the sultan stayed in the center with 20,000 of his
regular troops while Yakup commanded 15,000 Anatolian warriors on the left
and B as it was on the right with the same numbers again the Ottoman front
line consisted of archers who had dug a small protective trench and reinforced
it with stakes most of the artillery was in the center for both armies the battle
began on the morning of June 15th with a volley from the serb cannons which
failed to reach Ottoman lines due to the distance ottoman cannons also weren't
effective and their archers were ordered forward those are responded by ordering
his cavalry forward where this attack was stopped by the Ottoman center and
right flank the Serb cavalry suffered many casualties but on the right the
attack was successful the serbs pushed the enemy all the way back to their camp
however they is it on the Ottoman right was also pushing back the Serbian left
after some initial difficulty still Lazar had the initiative and Murat was
close to panic this moment of the battle is still hotly debated in the Balkans
leader of the right flank of the Christian army vogue brankovic
to the field with most of the troops under his command some say that he was a
traitor and had an arrangement with the Ottomans to abandon the battle others
claim that he saved the troops that allowed him to resist the Ottoman
onslaught for two more decades naturally that freed up the Ottoman left which
pushed forward and attached the Serb center from the flank the Serbian left
slowly retreated under overwhelming enemy pressure and soon their whole army
was surrounded we don't have all the details but two events happened
simultaneously at this point in the battle first Murad sent the majority of
his troops forward to finish off the enemy leaving himself nearly undefended
then a group of serb knights used that weakness to break the line of his
bodyguards and assassinate the Sultan Christian sources assert that 11 nights
sacrificed to themselves to allow their comrade Milosevic to strike the enemy
leader who was killed on the spot on another side of the battlefield Lazar
died fighting both Lazar and Melo's are venerated as Saints by the serbian
church after the death of the prince the fight was over and turned into a
bloodbath ultimately the casualties on both sides were catastrophic but still
the Ottoman invasion of Europe continued and many battles that we are planning to
cover in the future were fought while creating this documentary we used
the series of lectures on the Ottoman Empire by Professor Kenneth W Howe
provided by the sponsor of this video the great courses plus this beautifully
crafted thirty-six part series covers the whole history of the Ottoman Empire
in great detail and you should watch it to learn more about the political
economic and cultural situation surrounding events we talked about you
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