THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE BATTLE OF KRBAVA (1493) AS SEEN BY ITS CONTEMPORARIES
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE BATTLE OF KRBAVA (1493) AS SEEN BY ITS CONTEMPORARIES

Summary/Abstract: The decisive defeat of the Christian army mostly composed of the knights and troops from medieval Croatia, Dalmatia and Hungary at the Krbava Field on September 9th 1493 at the hands of the Ottoman troops was one of most known events of the long-lasting anti-Ottoman defensive war. In the middle of 16th century, the friar John Tomašić described it as the first downfall of the Kingdom of Croatia (prima destructio regni Corvatie), and his attitude was on certain level accepted by historians in the subsequent centuries. Moreover, the narrative of the Krbava Field was intensively used in the 19th and 20th centuries as an important element of the strengthening of the Croatian collective identity, that is, as one of the cohesive elements of the national identity of the Croats. The author of this paper addresses how the consequences of the Battle of Krbava were seen by its contemporaries by analyzing various accounts composed after the event, those composed immediately after the battle as well as those composed with the delay of up to three decades. The focus of this research is on what was seen by the contemporaries as the main consequences of the battle, as well as on their perceptions of the long-term importance of the battle’s consequences.

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