The "bulwark of Christianity" and other slogans put forward by the papal envoy Giuliano Cesarini, together with much more reasonable but only verbal promises of Venetian and papal fleets blockading the Dardanelles Straits, along with an enticing vision of a promise of victory in the Crusade of Varna against the Muslims, persuaded Władysław to engage his freshly victorious forces for another season of war, thus breaching the ten-year truce with the aggressive and still powerful Ottoman Empire. Despite their alleged forthcoming help, the Venetian fleet carried the Muslim army from Asia into Europe but failed to sail to Varna, a surprising move that Władysław and his most senior military commander John Hunyadi failed to anticipate. The Venetian treachery placed the huge Muslim army (60,000) under sultan Murad II in close proximity to the unsuspecting crusaders (20,000). As a result, when the Battle of Varna began on 10 November 1444, the Polish king and his multi-ethnic subjects did not sense that this would be for many of them their final fight. Facing the desperate circumstance the king, seeing the experienced Hunyadi fight and break the Sipahi cavalry, decided to gamble and directly attack the sultan, who was protected by the guard cavalry and formidable Janissary infantry. The young king was killed while personally leading his own 500-strong royal Polish heavy cavalry company, his charge losing impetus and coming to a standstill amongst the unyielding Janissaries protecting the sultan. The Janissaries killed the king's bodyguard and beheaded Władysław, displaying his head on a pole. Disheartened by the death of their king, the Hungarian army fled the battlefield. Neither the king's body nor his armor were ever found.