Nicopolis 1396: The Last Crusade (Praeger Illustrated Military History)

_Nicopolis 1396_ offers very solid analysis not only of the battle and the preceeding campaign but also of the late-medieval political and social climate that led to this crusade and the political aftermath of its defeat. The historical background and battle order of the Hungarian and Wallachian allies read more dry than those of the Franco-Burgundians, but Nicolle presents a thorough narrative of the campaign and battle, always labeling his speculation as such and providing evidence to support it. His discussion fails to place the success of the Ottoman archers against the Franco-Burgundian knights within the tactical context of previous and subsequent archer-vs-knight clashes such as Crecy and Agincourt, but his focus on the political causes and results of this crusade is equally as interesting.

But not in this work. The title of this review is a quotation of the French Admiral de Vienne who uttered it at the sight of the over hastily advancing French and Burgundian knights."When truth and reason cannot be heard,than must arrogance rule".Thus giving a perfect one-sentence description of the battle. What are the good points in this book: -The description of the crusading spirit of the nobel-classes in France and Burgundy. -Showing the arrogance of the French knighthood when it comes to the use of lower-class or mercenary infantry which they won`t have on their nobel crusade(resulting in a total lack of siege capacity and equipment). -Showing the lack of willingness by these knights to consider tactics and terrain as notable factors for the outcome of the battle at least when these would restrict their quest for glory and showing of personal bravery.(Thus they discarded the advise of their mostly Hungarian (there are practicaly no Austrians in this story) and Wallachian allies to wait with their attack until their army contingents had time to group. -The book has a good breakdown of Ottoman army organisation which has astonishingly many parallels to the European fashion. -Shows well the similarities and differences in habit when it comes to bravery of the (infantry) fighting man and cultural ethic. -Many typical Nicolle photographs of the landscape and pieces of armor.(Must have photographed every picture ,statuette and effigy containing a piece of armor from Skandinavia to the Sahara). -Dry, scholary and unbiased style of writing, the author really cares about his intellectural integrity (God behold him so). -It is really interesting to see the Christian Serbs crushing the last attempt of the Christian army to turn the battle.(And this 7 years after the battle of the "Amselfeld"). All in all an interesting book on an interesting battle with good pictures and maps.P.S.:Now I wait for Mohacs.

This book clearly laid out the last part of the Crusades fought with sticks-and-swords. The place was far remove from Jerusalem, but the competing powers each rested on a long heritage of crusading history. The argument relied on the traditional assumption that the Austrians had over calculated their Balkan allies' fighting will. Their pompous mounted knights waited for and listed to no one. This very attitude cost them the whole campaign, although started successfully, when they reached the outskirts of Nicopolis (Bulgaria).For once, history mentioned some goodness for the 'Serbs' when they finished off the last remaining Austrian's knights for the Ottomans. Only the wide river of Danube saved the Christian Coalition Army from total destruction.You won't find any fancy strategy devised by the Ottoman on this battle, but everything seemed went wrong for the Christian army. Several colored pictures nicely decorate this piece of work.Another fine effort pulled by the team at Osprey Publishing, it's where you relied on when speaking about military history.

Nothing fancy about this book - just another very solid history lesson from Dr.Nicolle.