July 28, 1456 (Sava River)
A native of the Abruzzo region of central Italy, John of Tagliacozzo rose through the ranks of the rigorist Observant wing of the Franciscan order and by the 1440s had become a renowned preacher. In 1454 he was assigned to a small group of companions who were to accompany John of Capistrano on his mission to preach the call to crusade in Central Europe, and was present at its launch in Frankfurt. An eyewitness to Belgrade, he is the author of the most substantial single narrative account of the battle (document 25). This letter, addressed to a fellow Franciscan in the Abruzzo region of Italy, is a crucial early witness. Here we have another hurried, often seemingly stream-of-consciousness account, this one written in Tagliacozzo’s lively Italian, as the friar was on board a ship on the Sava, at the foot of what was left of Belgrade.
Source: Trans. J. Mixson, from G.B. Festa, “Cinque lettere intorno alla vita ed alla morte di s. Giovanni da Capestrano,” Bullettino della R. Deputazione abruzzese di storia patria, ser. 3, 2 (1911): 18–58 (here 49–56).
Reverend father, by humble recommendation, though I am occupied by many things and hindered by the cares of the present moment, nevertheless I thought to write about other things which have come to pass after my last letter was sent to Your Paternity, knowing that you will pass along what I write to you to all the fathers, for their consolation. I am not beset by any desire to note every detail; rather, I have decided to select, with care, a few things from among many. And so that the unlettered may delight in what is written here, and so that the joy may be common to all, I will write in our mother tongue.1
Through the letter which I sent to Your Paternity during the most recent month of May, I advised you of all that had happened and what had then been planned. It was rumored among all of us that the Turks with all their power would come to besiege Albandander,2 or Belgrade, the farthermost city in Hungary, most famous and the key point for entering Hungary and a gateway to Serbia, situated in the middle of the two most famous and grand rivers, the Danube and the Sava. The city also has a stronghold, which we call the citadel, which is like a good Italian castle. We made our way toward the aforesaid city, our father [John of Capistrano]3 on the land, preaching and signing with the cross, and we on the Danube on a large ship that carried provisions, as well as some books. The governor of Hungary, John [Hunyadi], wrote continually to the father that he should hasten toward the city, since the Turks were approaching by land and sea, but he offered no more detail. We wrote letters to prelates, to princes and lords of the kingdom, that they should command the crusaders to come, that they should come themselves, and that they ought to carry out the command of the king (which was with common assent of all the kingdom) and that for every one hundred people there ought to be ten men-at-arms and two foot soldiers in the field against the Turks.4
We arrived in great haste with five ships full of crusaders on the second day of this month, that is on the feast of the Visitation of Our Lady, and early that morning we entered the city with great solemnity and celebration. On this day, after Mass and a sermon and then a meal, the father thought to go to the aforesaid John, who was more than ten miles toward the front with the Turks. Going by way of the Danube with three ships and a few brothers, he encountered a great storm of wind and water on the Danube. It was necessary for them to pause on land and with great fatigue, not being able to go any farther, because they could not even see one another. It was thus necessary that they turn back toward where they had left. Oh God, who does not allow your servant to perish! Had they gone but a half of an Italian mile5 farther, they would have encountered the galleys and ships of the Turks, and their army on land, and they would not have been able to escape, and would have been captured and killed. On the following morning, a Sunday, it was decided that the father should go back for reinforcements and rouse the crusaders to defense of the city. Some twenty-seven thousand had taken the cross from the father in Hungary, all of them quite ready for battle. Many others also received the cross from the legate [Carvajal] and the other preachers and prelates. After the father had left, the Turkish army began to arrive in such numbers that within three days the Great Turk had one hundred thousand troops and, between his ships and galleys, some two hundred sails. He also had nineteen cannons so large and destructive that truly nothing in human history had ever been made like them – some to destroy the walls, and some to cast great stones upon people. The length of these nineteen cannons is incredible. The larger is two ells and around five palms long.6 The stones are so large that they are some two or three palms larger than a man’s embrace. Of the smaller cannons there is no number, though it is said there were two hundred; there is no counting the arquebuses to be found on land and in the water.7 And of all the expert bombardiers in the world – and there are many – four [in the service of the sultan] are the most excellent: one a Venetian, one a German, another a Hungarian, and the fourth a Bosnian.
While the father made his way among the troops, I remained behind with the brothers and the books and the provisions in the citadel. The field was now filled nearly up to the gate with many astonishing machines, which the cannons on the ground could not harm.8 Those who could have seen what I saw would have said that everything was covered in snow, so many were the pavilions. But the common rumor was that there were one hundred thousand people gathered there. Christian refugees would often come to us, and we received them kindly. I believe fifty people of various Christian nations fled to us from their army. After three days their galleys took the Danube and blocked the passage, so that the supplies and reinforcements we were waiting for could no longer reach us. And the governor [Hunyadi] was with his army on the far side of the Danube. We were closed in and surrounded by land and by water; every day we waited for death, and the cannons knocked the walls down flat to the ground. If it had not been for the large and wide moat, the Turks would have entered at any time. We placed our only hope in our governor John [Hunyadi], who often comforted us, and came to support us. We placed our hope in the father, who did not sleep day or night. I fell seriously ill, and we had no safe place to hide from the cannons. He [Capistrano] often went along the walls, and especially to those who were ill and to those who manned the cannons.
Let no one think that I or any other friar of the Observance touched a single stone or did anything else to attack, nor that a single Turk was ever killed at our command. With a clear conscience we said, “Defend the name of Christ and the Catholic faith; repel the enemies of the cross of Christ; do not fear death, because you will be martyrs and fly to heaven,”9 and similar things. We visited the sick, we said Masses. We shared with the poor from such provisions as we had: three barrels of wine and plenty of biscuits, a barrel of flour in many sacks and a barrel of wheat, salted meat, and cheese and other things of this sort, dispensed as seemed appropriate to me. But nearly all of us were ill. Brother Ambrose argued with the father.10
We were in this circumstance for thirteen days, and the famine and death in the city were severe. Then after those thirteen days of siege, that is, on the fourteenth day of the month, there came more than two hundred ships and in them were more than three thousand people and many cannons, and on land from both sides of the Danube. These were almost all crusaders. There were on land and water around eighteen thousand people altogether, and [the army of?] the two Johns [also] sent by land. The Turkish galleys were about an Italian mile11 upriver from the city, and from the city more than forty well-armed men were set in order;12 some came upriver and others down, trapping the galleys of the Turks in the middle. The battle lasted about ten hours, and the Turkish galleys were driven back by our ships, suffering great losses. Three of them were rammed by ours, and more than a thousand Turks drowned in the Danube, with untold numbers wounded. And if it had not been for a fire on our ship that was set off from the powder of a cannon (caused by a careless bombardier), all of the galleys would have been taken. Thus it was necessary for our ship to retreat. But the fire was put out quickly and caused no damage to either our ship or our men. Some galleys went down; we suffered thirty dead in our ranks. I saw more than ten decapitated who were carried back to land. We also captured three of the Turkish ships, their crew and spoils, and recaptured the passage of the Danube and our ships anchored where the [Turkish] galleys had been, along with the army with the two Johns. And in a short time, there were more than forty thousand there, almost all of them crusaders.
The Turks worked on destroying the walls. And on the following day, the day after the victory of the ships and the galleys, the two Johns entered the citadel with more than three thousand soldiers, and one hundred Polish crossbowmen. Thereafter they went out and fought hand-to-hand with the Turks, many of whom were killed and wounded, while only three of ours died. We watched this from the walls together with the father. Also, many spoils were taken from the galleys. On this day I went with the father to the army where our ships were. The number of our troops was growing every day. And the father, now with ambassadors, now with letters, moved all the kingdom to offer support. And every day the Turk grew in anger because he could not for all of his ingenuity obtain what he desired. And I do not want to pass over in silence how when one of the sultan’s grand ships came close to the shore, a stone of the cannons of the Turk fell on it and sank it; the ship was not far from the shore, and it was quickly stripped of its goods and its weapons.
Day and night, the father did not stop. He ran through the camp; by night he brought soldiers into the camp, and by day exhorted the army to defend, to attack, and to embrace martyrdom. In truth, I can write that in fifteen days the father did not sleep eight hours, day or night. All had respect for him. He was the leader of all. They did not care for John Hunyadi. They only obeyed the father. And it was most inspiring to see the crusaders kneeling before the father: he could do more with these crusaders than the king of Hungary!
The Turks did more by night with their cannons and other malicious designs than by day. And the father was always gathering more recruits, so much that through His Paternity there came together some twelve thousand persons in all, who were like a wall and an obstacle to the enemy, since the walls were already torn to the ground. And the governor [Hunyadi] and the castellan [Michael Szilágyi] asked aid from no one else but the father and took counsel from him. I could not write all of this down, because it would take up a large volume.
The Turks sought to engage in a long and bitter battle at the walls, all of which had already fallen to the ground. On the night of the vigil of the most glorious Magdalene, the Turks offered their intolerable prayers, calling out and shouting out to the devil Muhammad. Then came the sound of an astonishing drum, and from this the governor John – who knew their customs – understood that they were about to launch their final assault. He sent for the father, asking that he come with all the troops and all the ships to the shore of the river nearest the fortress. And the father, who never slept, bearing the banner of Saint Bernardino and the cross, did what John had commanded, and when the father arrived the battle had already begun. Many thousands were also gathered within; and then he went out to set the ships in order against the galleys that had surrounded the land on all sides.
This most cruel battle lasted through the night until the third hour.13 It was fought before the walls, all across the land; but they could not fight on the water because of our ships. Oh, it was something unheard of! Three times the Turks fought their way in and were repelled. The Turks had made tunnels under the ground, so that they could enter secretly inside the moat. They had gathered together innumerable small objects and things to fill the moats, which were quite wide, and on one side there were already pine planks on the fallen walls. It is impossible to write about the multitude of dead Turks. The third time they entered, there were more than six hundred Turks. Castellans, citizens, men-at-arms drained away from the fight and abandoned the defense. Some jumped from the windows, some from the walls; some ran to the water and waded in up to the waist. Only the crusaders remained, along with certain women, who were as strong as lions, and five of our brothers, who remained in prayer and awaited death and holy martyrdom.
Then God gave to the poor crusaders such ardor and such spirit, such a strong will to die and to become martyrs, and such energy and strength, that, gritting their teeth against the Turks, with fire that was set by many bundles of reeds steeped in pitch, and with molten lead and the powder of the cannons, with the death of innumerable Turks they cast them out a third time. This was on the morning of the most holy sinner [Mary] Magdalene. Read now of a miraculous thing: when the Great Turk saw his troops driven back, and their great slaughter, he lost his treacherous nerve, set fire to his galleys and ships, and by midday they were burned up. Oh God, how quickly he was undone who schemed against your name! Many spoils were gathered from these ships by our troops. At the ninth hour, after the Turks had retreated in desperation, they began to abandon the field. Five crusaders against more than two hundred Turks. And they were driven back as if we had been a thousand horsemen. Gathering their nerve, our soldiers struck out – perhaps a thousand in all – and killed many Turks and wounded many more. The Turks were all filled with fear and ran away like madmen. The father, who was on the bank of the river with more than ten thousand soldiers, saw this and commanded the troops to come to the aid of the others, while he himself also went along. Meanwhile the governor waited with the galleys and the ships. In any case I can write that perhaps six thousand crusaders without horses stopped one hundred thousand raging Turks. This was the number, with many of them by now killed and wounded. There is no counting the women, because they had so many. And God granted so much grace to the poor crusaders that as the great multitude retreated, they were able to capture and keep the famous cannons and the many riches that the Turks could not defend. They fled like evil women; and when they stood their ground in one place, with our troops holding the position of their cannons, they suffered a great defeat: our men killed many of theirs with their own cannons. By night they all departed, and by the next morning there was not one pavilion to be seen. All of the cannons, with great fanfare, were brought into the fortress.
In this fight the father sought to be in front and to go before the others. I was very afraid that he would be killed by the famous arquebuses of the Turks; but God protected him so much that, though the arquebuses and arrows rained down, he was untouched. I, like Saint Peter, remained behind,14 to see the end. When the Great Turk saw that he could not have his way – so I learned through those who later came to me – he cursed all of his posterity should they ever presume to move against this fortress; I also learned that he began to act foolishly, and that he said, “And if these peasants can drive me away, what will real soldiers do?” And so he thought he had reached his end. His principal leaders were dead, and his vice-emperor wounded. On this night, as they departed, they buried their dead along the road. All of the men defeated in battle were dead or wounded; they carried the wounded away in 120 carts and buried the dead as they went, as is their custom. And as they went on the following day, some who followed behind stole many of the oxen and cattle they had used to carry their machines. Day and night, they fled as if they were being kicked.
Of the Christians it is thought that in all this time there were two hundred martyred by the Turks. But of the Turks there is no number, for I saw so many of them burned that they seemed like salted meat, and I saw so many of them lying in the ditches that they could not be counted; indeed, you could hardly walk over the battlefield for all of the multitude of Turks that lay dead there. By night they had gathered together the tackle and ropes and machines in one church, and with the powder of the cannons burned it all, along with the church. They are most cruel men, and on the first day they captured seven Christians; they cut off their heads and despoiled and trampled their bodies under the hooves of their horses. And always, after they had captured a Christian, they laid out the body in the form of a cross, and after many torments decapitated it for the love of the cross. And they had great hatred for our father, for they knew he had inspired all of Hungary as well as other lands against them. The power of the Turks is broken. They had gloried in their galleys and ships and sails, and their wondrous cannons, and they were confident that in a short time they would gain all of Hungary and soon make their way to Italy. Yet they have been defeated by one fortress, and by crusaders without horses!
Think now, father, that after [the day of] the glorious Magdalene, none other than our father [Capistrano], with his diligence and labor and sweat, has now defeated the Turk, and yet he still does not rest, and is not satisfied, and never tires from moving all the world against the Turks. For now, he even leaves the heretics and the schismatics be, and indeed treats them well, insofar as they wish to be against the Turks. Many religious have also joined this crusade, and priests, whom the father has not supported if they do not wish to dedicate themselves to pious works.
I have written all of this humbly and quickly, but that which I write is as clear as midday. If I have not written well it is because I write on board a ship. Of the other events that are unfolding, I will continue to advise you. I ask for the love of God that if this letter should come into your hands, you would send it to the magnificent Count of Celano, or to the magnificent Countess,15 to whom I am not able to write at present. But when I have more time, I will write them eagerly. Please recommend both the father and me to them. We look forward to seeing you, my comforting and pleasing brother (who is ready to suffer evil), and each day seems to me like an entire year. And it should not be otherwise that I recommend myself to you and to all the brothers; and also, especially, I recommend to you the old man, our saint and brother, Ambrose.16
On the river Sava at the foot of the fortress of Belgrade, on the twenty-eighth day of July, 1456.
Also, the Great Turk has fled, seriously wounded by an arrow.
1 Tagliacozzo here distinguishes between those trained in Latin and a broader public that is not, and therefore “unlettered.” This broader population was still possessed of varying degrees of vernacular literacy, however, and the letter might in any case have been read aloud. After his opening lines in Latin, Tagliacozzo from this point writes in Italian in order to allow his account to reach that wider audience.
2 Here a garbled articulation of Nandor Alba, one of several names for the city.
3 Here and throughout this letter (as well as in his later account), Tagliacozzo uses “father” as a term of deference for Capistrano.
4 The Italian of this phrase (“x homini armati et dui ad pedi”) is somewhat obscure.
5 Here and elsewhere, distances described as “miles” in the sources could vary widely by region. In this case, across the Italian peninsula, a mile was typically around 1.5–1.8 km.
6 “Ells” (for the Italian canna) and “palms” are again units that varied regionally across Tagliacozzo’s Italy, but his estimate here totals approximately five meters, or sixteen feet. The surviving Turkish cannon known as the “Dardanelles gun,” cast in 1464, is almost exactly this length.
7 Here and also in his later and longer account of Belgrade (document 25), Tagliacozzo uses a variety of terms to describe the firearms of his day. These terms are not easy to translate, above all because they had not yet settled into the more consistent patterns of use characteristic of later centuries. Here the word scopetto is translated as “arquebus,” designating a variety of early, hand-held long guns that were in widespread use across Europe by the middle of the fifteenth century. For context see Kelly DeVries and Robert Douglas Smith, Medieval Military Technology, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 145–56.
8 Another somewhat obscure phrase: “che le bommarde de la terra non le potevano offendere.”
9 These phrases in the text are in Latin, perhaps to reflect dialogue among clerics over issues of violence and martyrdom.
10 In the text calivicava, taken here as a garbled form of cavillare. The Brother Ambrose referenced here is Ambrose of Aquila, a close companion of both Capistrano and Tagliacozzo, mentioned many times in Tagliacozzo’s accounts of the events.
11 Approximately 1.5–1.8 km. See n. 5 above in this document.
12 A seemingly low number. Perhaps “forty” for “four hundred,” or in this context, perhaps forty “men” (homini) for forty “ships” (navi)?
13 That is, the third hour after sunrise, so approximately 9:00 a.m.
14 Cf. Luke 22:54–7.
15 Lionello Accrocciamuro (d. 1458) and Covella da Celano (d. 1471). See Alberto Maria Ghisalberti and Mario Carnavale, eds., Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 1 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1960).
16 Ambrose of Aquila. See n. 10 above in this document.