October – 9 November 1444
The fleet in the straits, 1444
The crusade fleet sailed from Venice in June 1444 under the papal legate Cardinal Francesco Condulmer, with Venetian galleys under Alvise Loredan and Burgundian galleys under Walerand de Wavrin, and reached Methoni (Modon) by mid-July. Its task is to hold the straits, so that Murad, who has crossed to Anatolia against Karaman, cannot bring his army back to Europe. The main fleet holds the Dardanelles off Gallipoli, and six ships, two Burgundian, two Ragusan and two Byzantine, guard the Bosporus by Constantinople.
The Dardanelles on a map of Pierre Belon, 1554Wikimedia Commons, Pierre Belon, Public domain (Map of the Dardanelles - Belon Pierre - 1554.jpg)
Murad leaves Manisa with the troops of Anatolia. Because the fleet holds the Dardanelles, he marches by Balıkesir, Bursa and Gemlik to the Bosporus, and on 18 or 20 October the army crosses to Europe at the castle of Anadolu Hisarı on the Asian shore. Doukas writes that Genoese ships ferry the troops over for a ducat a head, and Halil Pasha has guns set up on the European shore to keep the galleys away. Kenneth Setton writes that contrary winds hold the fleet back, that the Venetians make no real effort to stop the crossing, and that the Genoese are accused of taking Murad’s money.
Anadoluhisarı, the castle of Güzelcehisar that Bayezid built on the Asian shore of the BosporusWikimedia Commons, flowcomm, CC BY 2.0 (Anadolu Hisarı in 2024 (cropped).jpg)
Murad marches fast to Edirne, spends the night with the army outside the city, and the troops of Rumelia join him there. Mehmed stays at Edirne. The army marches north across the Balkan range and on the evening of 9 November reaches the hills west of Varna, where the crusaders are camped.
Sources
- Doukas, Historia Turco-Byzantina (about 1462).
- Oruç Bey, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân (late 15th century).
- Gazavât-ı Sultân Murâd b. Mehemmed Hân (15th century).
- Kenneth M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), vol. 2 (1978).
- Colin Imber, The Crusade of Varna, 1443–45 (2006).
- John Jefferson, The Holy Wars of King Wladislas and Sultan Murad: The Ottoman-Christian Conflict from 1438–1444 (2012).
- Halil İnalcık, Fatih Devri Üzerinde Tetkikler ve Vesikalar I (1954).
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