Behold the great feats of John Hunyadi! First part is about his rise, the situation with the Ottomans and his early campaigns. Part 2 will be about the Battle of Varna. 3rd part will be about the Second Battle of Kosovo. 4th part will be about the Siege of Belgrade. Enjoy! NOTE: There are many versions to Hunyadi's early campaigns. Different chroniclers and historians present contradictory versions. I chose the most plausible ones. Another version of the 1441 campaign states that Hunyadi was present at the first battle where the Hungarians were defeated. Then he organized a much stronger army and defeated the Ottomans close to Szeben/Sibiu. The 1442 campaign is even more controversial. Some authors state that the Ottomans were defeated at the Carpathians when they tried to enter Transylvania (after pillaging Wallachia). Another version is that he defeated them in Wallachia when most of the Akinji were not present. The reason why I chose the version I presented is that the "golden standard" for defeating the Akinji was to let them prey on the countryside, then confront them once they were cumbered with loot and slaves. This was the standard Hungarian tactic since the 2nd Mongol Invasion, and the standard procedure for the people of the Balkans. Hunyadi was most certainly aware of this, therefore in regards to 1441 this was the most likely case. As for 1442 it also makes sense that Hunyadi would exploit the crossing of the Danube as he caught the retreating Ottomans.
@@MrRobfullarton Unfortunately that's almost all built in the 18th century (not that it's not impressive!). Also check out Alba Iulia (Gyulafehervar) if you like YUGE star forts... Same time you can see Hunyadi's tomb, also to be found there.
Yea I am of the mindset we have lost something of ourselves, living in the modern times and all. For all humanity's "distaste" for battle, humans are born from battle. In this era of never ending peace, we see the truly worst of humanity. Without the fear of conscription, or the evil (insert either Turk or Mongol) an always constant threat of coming for you and dragging you off to some hell in the deep dessert. We instead see a new bread of cucked beta males, who blow all their money watching skanks eat roman and then pass out in a thong. Women can seriously say they are becoming wealthy from sitting in their underwear doing nothing.... sigh we are doomed! What would our warrior ancestors say if they saw us today? I am almost certain it would be shame.... The problems of today are just so trivial and yet we make A HUGE deal about them. Anyway felt this argument I have been stewing on for many months now, was relevant.... (for some reason or another lol)
Everyone in my country knows this name - Janos Hunyadi, because he was a true friend of our leader Scanderbeg. Best wishes to Hungary, a marvelous country. 🇦🇱🙏🏻🇭🇺
The Vereb family derives itself directly from the Vereb-Hunyadi family in Mátra-Verebely. According to all these, János Hunyadi came with the conquering Hungarians from the Besenyő tribe, its Vereb family. Dénes Beke, a researcher, has collected a number of valuable pieces of information.
Wee sadly don' t see much about hungarian history im happy to learn more about the history of my ancestor thanks to you. Clearly the best channel on the early rennaissance. Hope you gain more success
Once you are finished with this series, the French Wars of Religion are also a good subject since it's a hilarious mess. Some of the highlights include (1) three guys named Henry fighting over supremacy in France and (2) the leader of the Huguenot forces converting to Catholicism, 5 seconds after defeating the Catholic League.
ok so let me clear this out, there was no clear winner in battle of kosovo. Both kings died in that battle. Murad I and Lazar Hrebeljanovic. Even tho Serbs lost more in that battle, you cant just say that it was straight up ottomans victory
You forgot to add that on Battle of Kosovo while John Hunyadi was waiting for Skanderbeg and Albanians to arrive to help the Hungarians, Serbia didnt allowed them. Point is Serbia was still on Ottoman's side even afterwards
Serbs fought Ottomans more than 150 years before they were occupied and later they had many revolutions against Ottomans, Albs foufgt while Skenderbeg was alive after that they converted so fast and served Ottoman throught centuries against Serbs.
No joke but my grandma told me John Hunyadi was my family like 23 genrations back. So he was my grand grand grand,... and so on. I would really like to make a research on it. I come from Slovenia.
The Vereb family derives itself directly from the Vereb-Hunyadi family in Mátra-Verebely. According to all these, János Hunyadi came with the conquering Hungarians from the Besenyő tribe, its Vereb family. Dénes Beke, a researcher, has collected a number of valuable pieces of information.
@@vatravlahilor492 Royal diplomas prove the origin of the Hunyadians, Vereb (in Lénár Fráter's book "The Hungarian Origin of Hunyadi in Diplomas") has already been documented (1227). “György Vereb raised his first son, Peter, to serve in the royal court. This is how Peter came to King Louis the Great. The king undertook the service of Miklós Laczfy in Transylvania. He held this position between 1360 and 1368. He was wounded in battles against the Vlajko Oláh voivode by the Iloncsa River (1368). "We don't know his wife's name, some say Zapolya was a girl." Peter moved back to his ancient homeland around 1380 and lived there until 1403. He is buried there in the rebuilt church. The following is recorded on the tombstone placed in the wall of the Mátra-Verebely Parish Church: HIC REQIESCIT CORPUS STRE (nui) IMVI (eti) MILITIS MAG (ist) RI PET (ri, filii) (Geor) GY. OLI (m) VICEVAIVODAE T (ranssilvaniae) FU (n) DATO (r) IS HUI (us) E (cclesiae) “The year in the circular. On the lower half of the tombstone is a cross, on the upper part is the coat of arms, with the well-known and legendary image of a bird, the raven. CANONICA VISITATIO, page 96, quoted by Lénár Fráter, quoted in the book, dated '1789, preserves the origin of János Hunyadi from Verebély, stating that he is a blood relative of King Matthias buried there. Thus, the Vereb family already had (1403) documented kinship with the Hunyadians, namely King Matthias, as the author of the book says, "grandfather and grandson."
@@vatravlahilor492 The tombstone in Verebély was also described by Iván Nagy in Felsőgyőr in his 1865 book "Families of Hungary". Vereb khan around 990 Stephanus (1180) Zacharias (1227) John (1250) George (1300) Peter (1350) John (1386). The Zápolya (Szapolyai) girl from Slavonia was not the wife of an unknown Vojk, but of Peter (1330). He quotes, among other things, the diploma of magnifying and decorating the coat of arms of King László V., dated 1453: used .. "(This text is quoted from the diploma found on Teleki: 10, K. 365 pages). Thus, according to the text, the previous kings gave the Hunyadi family and their ancestors the right to use the coat of arms, and were born into the Hunyadi Hungarian noble family. Also looking for where the coat of arms leads? This travels to the Sparrow family by the aforementioned coat of arms. But he also confirms his belief in the tombstone in the church in Verebely, with a coat of arms featuring the legendary bird, the raven, at the top. The tombstone is in Hungarian: "Here lies the body of the fearless, invincible soldier, Master Peter, son of George, former Transcendental Transylvania, founder of this church, who died in 1403." "We meet John in Transylvania in 1425 (DL. 11 716)." “This John receives a property donation from Ulászló in 1441 .. (transcribed from the authentic place of Jászó). It is as follows in these documents: "Johannes, filius Vojvodae de Verebel." “The Hunyadi name is for him. received from a donated castle ... " The documents and particulars given above certify that: First János Hunyadi, grandson of György Vereb and Péter Vereb's fourth son came from the El Shur family of the Besenyő nation at the time of the conquest, the Khan tribe of Vereb. Second The family probably bore the name Vereb until the time of King Sigismund, 1416. Third The Hunyadi name was taken up by John, the fourth son of Peter, around 1416, from the name of the Hunedoara Castle he had designed and built, returning from Paris' route.
The Janissary is composed mostly of Christians who were forced to fight for the Ottoman. They started their training as young as 10 years old after they were forcibly removed from their families.
13:49 @Pike & Shot Channel great video! But the Ottoman standing army wasn’t the first in Europe. The Byzantines has a standing army as well for most of their history. They weren’t really feudal. Their armies also had a lot of influence from the Turks as well as vice versa.
The Byzantine stopped the standing army in the XIth century. Hence Alexis I asking the pope for mercrenaries in the 1090s, triggering what would become the first crusade
Yes you can make that point... But in this Late Medieval/Renaissance period the Ottomans were really the first. I don't know what the state of things were with the Byzantines, but even if they had a standing army, it would have been so insignificant, that it can't really be counted.
Paul Fournet The Pronoia system wasn’t feudal. The land grants (Pronoia) were all held by the Emperor and leased to various aristocrats who acted as military commanders and got a portion of its revenues. The titles weren’t hereditary until the Palaiologoi, and even then the lands weren’t considered private property but more as public domain. Equating the pronoia system with contemporary feudalism is a misnomer.
@@pikeshotBattles Many states had small standing armies at one point or another. I mean King Alfred the Great had one in the 9th century. While history books say that Oliver Cromwell started it that's because the army stayed a standing army from that time but it was far from the first in England or Europe. You can't say the size doesn't matter... That's just giving excuses for getting it wrong. I mean even the most basic source check says they were one of the first since Rome...
Jesus Christ, very first sentences are dead wrong. Kosovo was a clear military and political victory for Bosnian-Serbian kingdom, not defeat. Turkish Sultan got killed, army suffered heavy casualties, rebellions erupted in Anadolia because of it, and entire conquest of remnants of Serbian empire and kingdom of Bosnia was cancelled. In fact even the prince Lazars widow, Milica refused Turkish requests for submission, at least until late 1389. when opportunistic Hungarian campaign into her weakened territories prompted her to accept Turkish suzerainty to save her holdings. If such fundamental misunderstanding of period events is in the very opening, what else lies in wait?
@@laszlopalasti8056 Lazar was magnate (and a kingmaker) of a Bosnian-Serbian king Tvrtko, who had complicated and rather antagonistic relationship with Angevin dynasty. So Lazar-Hungarian relationship has to be viewed in that light. Those border skirmishing weren't serious warfare, and were in essence business of the day for the epoch. In any case, Hungarian crown showed persistent strategic shortsightedness, not understanding that relatively stable border states like Bosnia, Moravian Serbia and Wallachia would be of significant importance as buffer areas between Hungary and Turks, while they wouldn't be strong enough to pose a serious threat to Hungary itself. Instead they got Turks right on their Danubian border with constant raiding's by akinjis.
Respect from an Albanian from Kosovo, massive props to Hunyadi, he is truely a hero. As we know the vassal Serbian Brankovic blocked and sabotage our lord and saviour Skenderbeu and Hunyadi to come together and smash the Ottomans.
I would like to comment on your last statement in the video. The war did not move from Christian to heathen lands. The war moved from catholic to orthodox lands. Despite the local people being of big help to the Crusader and Hungarian armies that passed through Bulgaria, little came in return from the catholics, who cared little for what would happen to the local people after they left. That is if the crusader army didn’t murder and pillage everyone beforehand. And although Hunyadi is known as the hero of the Varna crusade in Bulgaria I wouldn’t say he deserves us to grant him such title.
They didn't care any more than previous crusaders coming through these lands cared. The point being made was that while not Catholic they were still Christians who formed the majority of the civilian population being raided not any variety of heathen. The veneer of religious legitimacy given to these raids by claiming they were heathen is the only sense in which they would care.
I'd wager they would have been conquered by Hungary/Austria or Russia. Being a medium sized state is always dangerous, since you are big enough to be a target, but not strong enough to defend yourself from a prolonged assault.
Some of your information regarding the army are wrong. 1. Hussars at that time were Serbian irregulars, and were not at all like Sipahis. Siphai = Knight, Hussar = Deli cavalry. The gear was totally random, the more organized version was created by Matia . 2. The Janissaries were not light infantry, the Janissaries were elite guards, not at all light. 3. Szekely were not all light horse archers, they could use heavy infantry too and other arms too, they were very similar to Romanians in many war aspects. 4. You created the most stereotypical units I ever seen. Full plate, just bow and sabre it didn't worked like this at all.
This is as controversial as Columbus's origins. Romanians would claim that indeed Hunyadi's father, Voik was Romanian (or Vlach). Hungarians would claim that he was Cuman. Wallachia was founded by Cuman nobility who ruled over the native Vlachs. Almost nothing is known about his mother other that she came from a noble family from Hungary. (This in part fueled the Sigismund's bastard conspiracy) Janos Hunyadi himself was born in Transylvania. His wife was of Hungarian baronial extraction, so Matthias is unanimously accepted as Hungarian.
I am a romanian myself, and we where all teach that he was Romanian, but this was after the revolutionary nationalism and the communist propaganda(where everything was sacred dacian or wallachian at roots) but even here we got many historians now getting more proof that most of the early rules of the romanian principalities where most likely cuman turks at origins who adopted orthodoxy and merged with the romanian(wallach) major ethnical group(even if this theory has a lot of enemies because would imply that we where ruled by invading nomad elite class). So he is most likely a mixture of wallachian, cumanic, and hungarian like many early romanian nobles, but that is the case for most balkan rulers, since mixing nationalities and dynastic unions between local rulers of different ethnicity was very common.Only the revolutionary 19 century created that idea of single nationality origins.Consider the army composition and reduce it to a family structure and you can get an idea of how nobles where around that time in the balkans.Also most of the sultans had many european wives so they also have alot of christian blood in them
It is also a good point to make, that nationality wasn't the same back then, in the Kingdom of Hungary there were no other nobles than Hungarian nobles (except Croats of course). So if someone was a noble, then he was a Hungarian noble. I actually think this is a nice way of uniting all origins. The term of Hungarian in today's meaning can be debated, but at that time he would've called himself a Hungarian (nobleman).
One army get destroyed and run way and other take over the field , by the way they couldn't talk the body of their king so tell me who won ! The kings die it doesn't matter as Long as the prince in battle.
Not right Ottomans won... Murad 1 was assassinated after he won the battle.. And his son Bayezid continued his military expansion in Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Nicopolis
He didn't get a lot of help from the Poles. In this time the Ottoman threat was still far away, so most nobles considered the crusade a Hungarian affair.
After battle at Kossovo ,Servians become the best and most loyal vassals to the Ottomans they fought alongside Ottomans at the battle at Rovine against Wallahians lead by Mircea the Elder in 1395. Against crusaders at Nicopolis 1396.Servian knights under the command of Stefan Lazarević proved critical to lost of that battle.At the battle of Ankara 1402 again supported Bayazid. In 1444 Servs did not send support to Janos Hunyadi and Vladislav on the crusade which ended in Varna 1444. Though a year earlier they were freed by Hunyady. It will be not a mistake to write that the Ottomans become such power with the Servian military assistance. Google the battles.
@@181ld7 Hahahahaha! You converted to islam and fought against Europe. Brainwashed Albo! As dr Olsi Jazexhi would say you have no hero, all of yours great people were those that attacked Europe. Turks supporzed Kosovo separatists against Serbia, lol!
@@hopeindarktimes9535 Yes, we converted.. so what? You ever heard of Gjërgi Kastrioti Skanderbeg? Also, Serbian kings literally sold their daughters to the Ottomans, and some of their kings even made an alliance with Ottoman forces.
@@181ld7 Yes, we albos betrayed, so what? Yet, we speak about those christian that they are traitors! Hipocrasy! We were selling no one to Ottomans, alb propaganda! Skenderbeg was more serbian than albo. Albs forgot him during Ottoman reign.
This video is incorrect since they don't mention Scanderbeg or the battle of Kosovo Serbian left the battle and the Sultan was killed by an Albanian warrior named Millosh.
