Ladislaus III
On 10 November 1444, one of the last major battles of the Crusades in European history was fought outside the city walls. Muslims routed an army of 20,000–30,000 crusaders led by Ladislaus III of Poland (also Ulászló I of Hungary), which had assembled at the port to set sail to Constantinople. The Christian army was attacked by a superior force of 55,000 or 60,000 Ottomans led by sultan Murad II. Ladislaus III was killed in a bold attempt to capture the sultan, earning the sobriquet "Warneńczyk" ("of Varna" in Polish; he is also known as "Várnai Ulászló" in Hungarian or "Ladislaus Varnensis" in Latin). The failure of the Crusade of Varna made the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 all but inevitable, and Varna (with all of Bulgaria) was to remain under Ottoman domination for over four centuries. Today, there is a cenotaph of Ladislaus III in Varna.