Case Pride and Contempt
The Battle of Nicopolis (1396) - Pride and Contempt
During the Crusades in 1396 the French Knights, led by Constable D’Eu, and their Hungarian allies led by King Sigismund were confronting the Turkish Army at Nicopolis. When King Sigismund helda council of war before the battle he wanted that the Wallachian infantry would precede the battle and clear the field of the peasant conscripts who always fought at the frontline of the Turkish Army.
From behind this screen the Christian Knights would follow and attack the Turkish main body which consisted of the lighter Turkish Cavalry. This was good military sense, gleaned from long experience with the Turkish way of warfare.
However the French reacted unreasonably to this plan, declaring that they had not come so far, and at such expense, to go into battle from behind a rabble of cowardly foot soldiers. The Constable declared ‘to take up the rear is to dishonour and expose us to the contempt of all’.
Although the French were poor tacticians, there was no denying that they were formidable fighters. Had they been properly used they would probably have won the day for Sigismund. As it was, the impact of the charge of these mounted knights, in their magnificent amour, broke the first line of the Turkish infantry but then came up against a line of sharp stakes behind which the Turkish archers stood. Faced with volleys of arrows, by sheer strength and fighting hard, the French somehow managed to break through. At this stage of the battle they could have paused and wait for the main Hungarian Army to come up and complete the victory. But whilst D’Eu believed they had broken the main force of the Turks, they had only beaten the Turkish vanguard and it was now that the foolhardy and already tired and exhausted crusaders found themselves surrounded by the full strength of the fresh Turkish Cavalry. What followed was a massacre in which the whole of the French contingent was either killed or captured.
Conclusions
The defeat of the crusaders at Nicopolis could have been avoided had the French kept to Sigismund’s plan. However, Sigismund had been unable to subdue the French pride and this led to a catastrophic defeat. Contemptuous of the Turks, the French knights had not even bothered to ascertain the strengths of the Ottoman Army. They underestimated their foe. In this case incompetence stemmed from categorizing people in terms of stereotypes.
• Never underestimate you competitor.
• Never over estimate your possibilities.
• Never neglect intelligence
• Vanity is a bad guide
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