Murad II Defeats the Crusade of Varna

On November 10, 1444, a coalition of Christian armies confronted the Ottoman Empire near the coastal city of Varna in modern eastern Bulgaria. The engagement was the climax of an ambitious campaign led by King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary alongside the military commander John Hunyadi. The venture aimed to check Ottoman advances across the Balkan peninsula after years of fighting. Despite a ten-year truce concluded earlier in 1444, papal legate Julian Cesarini convinced the Christian leadership to resume the conflict, arguing that an oath given to an unbeliever need not be kept.

The renewal of hostilities prompted Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha to summon the former sultan Murad II back to active military leadership. Murad had stepped down in favor of his twelve-year-old son, Mehmed II, in the summer of 1444, after the ten-year truce with Hungary. According to some accounts, the young Mehmed judged himself too inexperienced and asked his father to take charge, and Murad reassumed command of the Ottoman armed forces. A naval blockade established by papal, Venetian, and Burgundian ships failed to stop Murad, who moved his army from Asia across the Bosphorus in the autumn, reportedly using transport ships supplied by the Genoese colony at Constantinople.