Battle of Maritsa
Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAT : Battle of Maritsa
The Battle of Maritsa or Battle of Chernomen was a battle that took place at the Maritsa River near the village of Chernomen (Çirmen, Cernomen, Crnomen) on September 26, 1371 between the forces of the Ottoman sultan Murad I's lieutenant Lala Şâhin Paşa and Serbian-Bulgarian forces numbering 70,000 men (number is probably a gross exaggeration, most likely some ~ 20,000 men) under the command of the Serbian king Vukašin (Vukašin Mrnjavčević).
The Ottoman army was much smaller, but, due to superior tactics (night raid on the Serbian camp), Şâhin Paşa was able to defeat the Christian army and kill King Vukasin.
The battle was a part of the Ottoman campaign to conquer the Balkans and was preceded by the Ottoman capturing of Sozopol and succeeded by the capture of the cities of Drama, Kavála and Seres (Serrái) in modern Greece.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.