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The Battle of Kosovo ((セルビア語:Косовска битка), ''Kosovska bitka''; (トルコ語:Kosova Meydan Muharebesi)) took place on 15 June 1389 between the army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Murad Hüdavendigâr. The army under Prince Lazar consisted of his own troops, a contingent led by Serbian nobleman Vuk Branković, and a contingent sent from Bosnia by King Tvrtko I, commanded by Vlatko Vuković. Prince Lazar was the ruler of Moravian Serbia, and the most powerful among the Serbian regional lords of the time, while Vuk Branković ruled District of Branković located in a part of Kosovo and other areas, recognizing Lazar as his overlord. The Battle of Kosovo took place in Kosovo Polje in Branković's Serbia, in the present-day Prishtina District of Kosovo. Its site is about 5 kilometers northwest of the modern city of Prishtina. Reliable historical accounts of the battle are scarce. The bulk of both armies were wiped out in the battle; both Lazar and Murad lost their lives in it. Although Ottomans managed to annihilate the Serbian army, they also suffered high casualties which delayed their progress. Serbs were left with too few men to effectively defend their lands, while the Turks had many more troops in the east. Consequently, one after the other, the Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals became so in the following years. ==Background== Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan ''the Mighty'' (r. 1331–55) was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V (r. 1355–71) whose reign was characterized by decline of central power and rise of numerous virtually independent principalities; this period is known as the fall of the Serbian Empire. Uroš ''the Weak'' was not able to sustain the great empire created by his father nor to repulse the foreign threats and failed to limit the independence of the nobles. Uroš V died childless on 4 December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been destroyed by the Turks in the Battle of Maritsa earlier that year. Prince Lazar, ruler of Moravian Serbia, aware of the Ottoman threat, began diplomatic and military preparations for a campaign against the Ottomans. After the defeat of the Ottomans at Pločnik (1386) and Bileća (1388), Murad I, the reigning Ottoman sultan, moved his troops from Philippoupolis (Plovdiv in modern Bulgaria) in the spring of 1388 to Ihtiman. From there, the party traveled across Velbužd (Kyustendil) and Kratovo (present-day Macedonia). Though longer than the alternative route through Sofia and the Nišava Valley, this route led the Ottoman party to Kosovo, one of the most important crossroads in the Balkans. From Kosovo, Murad's party could attack the lands of either Lazar of Serbia or Vuk Branković. Having stayed in Kratovo for a time, Murad and his troops marched through Kumanovo, Preševo and Gjilan to Prishtina, where he arrived on June 14. While there is less information about Lazar's preparations, he gathered his troops near Niš, on the right bank of the South Morava River. His party likely remained there until he learned that Murad had moved to Velbužd, whereupon he moved across Prokuplje to Kosovo. This was the best place Lazar could choose as a battlefield, as it gave him control of all the routes that Murad could take.〔 Reliable historical accounts of the battle are scarce; however, a critical comparison with historically contemporaneous battles (such as Ankara or Nikopolis) enables reliable reconstruction.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Kosovo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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