The Life and Deeds of the Ever-Remembered Despot Stefan

doing anything, for God was helping him.

35. Having conquered many lands, the emperor at last went against the God-protected city of Constantine /Constantinople/. Here nothing succeeded for him, though (he had) many designs and (made) attempts, and so he resolved to go around the sea strait on the other side and attack Galata, where he labored in like manner, but neither there did he succeed.

36. When the western ruler - the king (Sigismund) - heard of (this), he crossed the Danube with all his army and attacked Nikopol.⁶⁷ The (Turkish) emperor abandoned the part of Constantinople, Galata, and went to meet (the Christians) like a blazing fire. This king had under his (command) the Hungarians - at first he was called the German emperor; having gathered as aid the Sarmatian, German, Hungarian and other armies, he came with all that enormous and unspeakable force. At the clash, at first the western (rulers) very mightily repulsed the emperor's army, but then the Thunderbolt /Bayezid/ rushed out before his regiments and began to turn (the soldiers) back with entreaties and persuasion, saying: "Whither shall we flee from these hands if today they utterly rout us? We shall be delivered (to them) to the edge of the sword, as (they were) to us a little while ago, and your children and wives (shall be) in their hands as theirs are in your hands. Is it not (then) better that today we either die or overcome them? If today we win the victory, I shall endow you with the many and unspeakable riches of their land." Gathering strength, (the emperor's army) turned back and prevailed - some (of the western soldiers) they cut down, others, together with their horses, they drowned in the Danube; some fled on ships with their king to Constantinople, and from there, by ships, by way of the islands, reached their own lands. There the Ishmaelites seized enormous (war) booty.

37. He (Bayezid) rose up again with his whole army and went against the Hungarians, carrying off into captivity an immeasurable multitude (of people). Then he also resettled the people of Mitrovica /the inhabitants of Sremska Mitrovica/ and destroyed the Earthen City /Zemun/, and plundered other regions. After all this had come to pass, and more than this, the Hungarians attacked the Serbs when this glorious one (Stefan) was not there, and took the city by the name of Borač and plundered many regions. And (the Turks) seized a great part of the Hungarian land. And who shall describe the great and small wars that (the Hungarians and the Turks) waged against each other at that time?! And this emperor called the Thunderbolt /that is, Bayezid/ took also Thessalonica, which he ruled until his death; he also built a tower above the city, which Emperor Manuel later destroyed when going into Achaia - when he was building the Hexamilion in the Morea - so that the Ishmaelites could not claim it (on the pretext) that it was theirs. And Bayezid subdued many other peoples in the east and the west. He waged much war in the east, whence also came the enraged Persians together with the Tatars (and fell) upon him.

38. Of this one must speak more fully, for this illustrious one (Stefan) here showed forth valor and virtue extraordinarily. From that time he is freed from bondage by the providence of God, as he himself says in the charter to the city (of Belgrade): "From Kosovo I was enslaved by the Ishmaelite people, (until) the emperor of the Persians and the Tatars came and defeated them, and (until) God delivered me from their hands by His mercy. From here, then, having come, I found a place from of old