The Last Crusaders: East, West, and the Battle for the Center of the World

The Crusades were the bridge between medieval and modern history, between feudalism and colonialism. In many ways, the little explored later Crusades were the most significant of them all, for they made the crisis truly global. The Last Crusaders is about the period?s last great conflict between East and West, and the titanic contest between Habsburg-led Christendom and the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. From the great naval campaigns and the ferocious struggle to dominate the North African shore, the conflict spread out along trade routes, consuming nations and cultures, 

Nicopolis 1396 - The Last Crusade

By the second half of the 14th century, the once mighty Byzantine Empire had been reduced to little more than the city of Constantinople. In 1391, the Ottoman ruler Sultan Bayazid I 'The Lightning' besieged the city. Pope Boniface IX preached a crusade and a French-led army of 10,000 marched east. At Nicopolis they met the Ottoman army in battle. Ignoring the advice of their Hungarian and Transylvanian allies, the Crusaders charged the Turks and were in turn smashed by the Ottoman heavy cavalry. The last Crusade ended on the banks of the Danube as the Crusaders desperately sought to escape from the pursuing Turks.