Remembering the battle of Varna in 1444

Every year this point in November with Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the 1918 Armistice focuses the thoughts of most of us on the casualties of the two World Wars of the twentieth  century, and of subsequent campaigns involving the armed forces of the Crown.

Not a little of that reflection is about the pity and the horror of war and its consequences in personal and social terms. Beyond that, it may lead to thought about the place of war not only in the history of the last century and a quarter, and in the present, but also throughout history, and in all places. Wars may well be justified, or they may be completely illegitimate, and their consequences are wide and far-reaching. Not only are troops and civilians killed and maimed, with all the attendant consequences, and maps redrawn and territories lost or gained, and we tell ourselves not just that we won, or lost, but that the right cause won, or lost. War is Original Sin and the fallen nature of humanity made manifest in all its variety and contradictions - nobility, bravery, gallantry, cruelty, savagery, misery all enmeshed and blended together. I am not a pacifist, war is sometimes, regrettably, necessary, and the best way to peace is by strong defence and vigilance, but let us make no mistake - war is terrible and terrifying.

It is with those thoughts in mind that I look now not at events since 1914 - many still raw and still difficult to process - but to an anniversary that falls today from the period in which I tend to have a particular interest. 580 years ago today the battle of Varna was fought between a central European Christian coalition and the Ottomans on the shore of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. The catastrophic defeat of the Christian forces helped shift the political parameters of the Balkans and beyond for centuries to come. Reading something about it is not just to look at distant events but in fact at ones with a continuing legacy, and in the fates of individuals find something we can empathise with.

Wikipedia sets the scene with Crusade of Varna and an account of the conflict in Battle of Varna

It also has biographies of the two commanders who did not survive the day - the Polish and Hungarian king Władysław III of Poland and Cardinal Julian Cesarini - and of one who did - in John Hunyadi

War and the consequences of war do not end when the fighting stops.

Celebrating the Transfiguration

In case you are wondering why we celebrate the Transfiguration today when it has already been commemorated by the liturgy in Lent as part of the lead up to the events of Easter (and I am sure you are) the answer lies in large part in the events of the mid-fifteenth century.

By then the Transfiguration was celebrated in various places, including Rome, on August 6th - presumably at a time of year when it was possible to reflect upon the theological truths of the feast rather than its place in the historical ascent of Our Lord to Jerusalem.

It was in 1456, on August 6th, that news reached Rome of the Hungarian defeat of the Ottomans at the battle of Belgrade on July 22nd. To understand the joy this produced requires a look back at the events of the previous sixty years.

In 1396 the last Western Crusade had ended in a disatrous defeat and in captivity or death for many of the combatants in the Nicoplois Crusade - there is an online article about it here.  In 1444 the Varna crusade led by the King of Hungary and Poland ended similarly in disaster - there are articles about it here and here. Finally in 1453 Constantinope fell to the Ottomans.

Thus in 1456 the news of the victory of the great John Hunyadi over the Ottomans at the battle of Belgrade, which is described here,  suggested that the tide was being held or turned.

Pope Callixtus III, the other Borgia Pope, made August 6th a universal celebration od the Transfiguration in thanksgiving for the victory and ordered that church bells be rung at midday to commemorate the victory. This is still remembered in the popular mind in Hungary - where July 22nd has, since 2011, been a public holiday - but elsewhere has come to be thought of as the Angelus bell.

Pope Callixtus III 1455-58
Detail from a painting by Sano di Pietro

Image: Wikipedia

For central Europe the victory at Belgrade brought a respite, and under the rule of Hunyadi's son Matthias Corvinus as King from 1457-1490 Hungary witnessed a flowering of art and culture, but in August 1526 came the disaster of the battle of Mohács .

Hunyadi's victory at Belgrade, was to prove but a temporary reverse in the advance of the Ottomans, but it is still one we commemorate on August 6th by celebrating the Tranfiguration.