Julian Cesarini the Elder was one of the group of brilliant cardinals created by Pope Martin V on the conclusion of the Western Schism. His intellect and diplomacy made him a powerful agent first of the Council of Basel and then, after he broke with the Conciliar movement at Basel, of papal superiority against the Conciliar movement. The French bishop Bossuet described Cesarini as the strongest bulwark that the Catholics could oppose to the Greeks in the Council of Florence.
Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini. Painting in the University of Bologne
The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in today eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman army under Sultan Murad II defeated the Crusaders commanded by King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary, John Hunyadi and Mircea II of Wallachia. It was the final battle of the unsuccessful Crusade of Varna, a last-ditch effort to prevent further Ottoman expansion into the Balkans.
The Crusaders were trapped below. Their defeat permitted the Conquest of Constantinople. Beyond the Ottoman Sultan and the Janissaries was the cradle of medieval Bulgaria.
The Hussite Wagenburg - an old sketch from the 15th century.
A scene from the Battle of Varna (1444) on the Kronika wszystkiego świata of Marcin Bielski, published in 1564.
The Memorial of the Battle in Varna, built on an ancient Thracian mound tomb, bearing the name of the fallen king.
