page_title: History of Kosovo
section_title: First Battle of Kosovo
hierarchical_section_title: History of Kosovo / Middle Ages / Serbian Period / First Battle of Kosovo
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting of the Battle of Kosovo, dated 1870, by Adam Stefanović. Prince Lazar is seen dying with his horse.Русский: Косовская Битва, 1389, художник - Адам Стефанович, маслоEspañol: Batalla de Kosovo de Adam Stefanovic, óleo, 1870
context_page_description: The history of Kosovo is intertwined with the histories of its neighbouring regions. The name "Kosovo" is derived from the Kosovo Plain, where the Battle of Kosovo was fought between a coalition of Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire. Kosovo's modern history can be traced to the Ottoman Sanjak of Prizren, of which parts were organised into Kosovo Vilayet in 1877. In antiquity, Dardania covered the area, which formed part of the larger Roman province of Moesia in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the region became part of the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Serbian medieval states. It was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire an exact 70 years after the Battle of Kosovo. In 1913 the Kosovo Vilayet was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia, which in 1918 formed Yugoslavia. Kosovo gained autonomy in 1963 under Josip Broz Tito's direction, an autonomy which was significantly extended by Yugoslavia's 1974 Constitution, but lost its autonomous institutions in 1990. In 1999 UNMIK stepped in.
  On 17 February 2008 Kosovo's Parliament declared independence, as the Republic of Kosovo, with partial recognition of that declaration.
context_section_description: The First Battle of Kosovo occurred on the field of Kosovo Polje on June 28, 1389, when the ruling knez (prince) of Serbia, Lazar Hrebeljanović, marshalled a coalition of Christian soldiers, made up of Serbs, but in small numbers also of Bosnians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Magyars  and a troop of Saxon mercenaries. Sultan Murad I also gathered a coalition of soldiers and volunteers from neighbouring countries in Anatolia and Rumelia. Exact numbers are difficult to come by, but most reliable historical accounts suggest that the Christian army was heavily outnumbered by the Ottomans. The combined numbers of the two armies are believed to be less than 100,000.
  The Serbian army was defeated and Lazar was slain, although Murad I was killed, according to tradition by Miloš Obilić, or Kobilić as he was always called until the 18th century; he has been variously described as a Serb, an Albanian, and a Hungarian. Although the battle has been mythologised as a great Serbian defeat, at the time opinion was divided as to whether it was a Serbian defeat, a stalemate or possibly even a Serbian victory. Serbian principalities continued their existence, usually as vassals of the Ottomans, and maintained sporadic control of Kosovo, until the final extinction of the Despotate of Serbia in 1459, following which Serbia became part of the Ottoman Empire. The fortress of Novo Brdo, important at the time due to its rich silver mines, came under siege for forty days by the Ottomans during that year, capitulating and becoming occupied by the Ottomans on June 1, 1455.
caption: Battle of Kosovo in 1389 determined the future of central Balkans and marked the beginning of the disintegration of the Serbian Empire
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