Battle of Kosovo The Battle of Kosovo , also known as the Battle of Kosovo Field or the Battle of Blackbird ' s Field ( ; ) , took place on St . Vitus ' Day , June 15 , 1389 , between the army led by Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović , and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I . The army under Prince Lazar consisted of his own troops , a contingent led by Serbian nobleman Vuk Branković , and a contingent sent from Bosnia by King Tvrtko I , commanded by Vlatko Vuković . Prince Lazar was the ruler of Moravian Serbia , and the most powerful among the Serbian regional lords of the time , while Vuk Branković ruled a part of Kosovo and other areas , recognizing Lazar as his overlord . The Battle of Kosovo took place in the Kosovo Polje , about 5 kilometers northwest of modern - day Pristina . Reliable historical accounts of the battle are scarce ; however , a critical comparison with historically contemporaneous battles ( such as Angora or Nikopolis ) enables reliable reconstruction . The bulk of both armies was wiped out in the battle ; both Lazar and Murad lost their lives in it . Although Ottomans managed to annihilate the Serbian army , they also suffered high casualties which delayed their progress . Serbs were left with too few men to effectively defend their lands , while the Turks had many more troops in the east . Consequently , the Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals , one after the other became so in the following years . The Battle of Kosovo is particularly important to Serbian history , tradition , and national identity . Background . Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan " the Mighty " ( r . 1331 - 1355 ) was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V ( r . 1355 - 1371 ) whose reign was characterized by decline of central power and rise of numerous virtually independent principalities ; this period is known as the fall of the Serbian Empire . Uroš " the Weak " was not able to sustain the great empire created by his father nor to repulse the foreign threats and failed to limit the independence of the nobles . Uroš V died childless on 4 December 1371 , after much of the Serbian nobility had been destroyed by the Turks in the Battle of Maritsa earlier that year . Prince Lazar , ruler of Moravian Serbia , aware of the Ottoman threat , began diplomatic and military preparations for a campaign against the Ottomans . Preparations . Army movement . After the defeat of the Ottomans at Pločnik ( 1386 ) and Bileća ( 1388 ) , Murad I , the reigning Ottoman sultan , moved his troops from Philippoupolis ( Plovdiv in modern Bulgaria ) in the spring of 1389 to Ihtiman . From there , the party traveled across Velbužd ( Kyustendil ) and Kratovo ( present - day Macedonia ) . Though longer than the alternative route through Sofia and the Nišava Valley , this route led the Ottoman party to Kosovo , one of the most important crossroads in the Balkans . From Kosovo , Murad ' s party could attack the lands of either Lazar of Serbia or Vuk Branković . Having stayed in Kratovo for a time , Murad and his troops marched through Kumanovo , Preševo and Gnjilane to Pristina , where he arrived on June 14 . While there is less information about Lazar ' s preparations , he gathered his troops near Niš , on the right bank of the South Morava River . His party likely remained there until he learned that Murad had moved to Velbužd , whereupon he moved across Prokuplje to Kosovo . This was the best place Lazar could choose as a battlefield , as it gave him control of all the routes that Murad could take . Army composition . Murad ' s army numbered from 27 , 000 to 40 , 000 fighters . These 40 , 000 included no more than 2 , 000 Janissaries , 2 , 500 of Murad ' s cavalry guard , 6 , 000 sipahi s , 20 , 000 azap s and akinci s , and 8 , 000 troops from his vassals . Marko and Dragaš , although Ottoman vassals , did not participate in the battle . Lazar ' s army numbered from 12 , 000 to 30 , 000 . Out of approximately 30 , 000 fighters present , 12 , 000 to 15 , 000 were under Lazar ' s command , with 5 , 000 to 10 , 000 under Vuk Branković , a Serbian nobleman from Kosovo , and just as many under nobleman Vlatko Vuković . The latter troops were sent by Bosnian king Tvrtko I Kotromanic . Mixed with Vuković ' s army was a contingent of Knights Hospitaller s , whom the Croatian knight John of Palisna had led from Vrana in Croatia . Several thousand were cavalry . Furthermore , there has been several anachronistical accounts which have mentioned that the " Christian army " of Lazar was far greater , and that it also included contingents of other nations , although these cannot be verified . Battle . Troop Deployment . The armies met at Kosovo Field . Murad headed the Ottoman army , with his sons Bayezid on his right and Yakub on his left . Around 1 , 000 archers were in the front line in the wings , backed up by azap and akinci ; in the front center were janissaries , behind whom was Murad , surrounded by his cavalry guard ; finally , the supply train at the rear was guarded by a small number of troops . One of the Ottoman commanders was Pasha Yiğit Bey . The Serbian army had Prince Lazar at its center , Vuk on the right and Vlatko on the left . At the front of the Serbian army were the heavy cavalry and archer cavalry on the flanks , with the infantry to the rear . While parallel , the dispositions of the armies were not symmetrical , as the Serbian center had a broader front than the Ottoman center . Start . Serbian and Turkish accounts of the battle differ , making it difficult to reconstruct the course of events . It is believed that the battle commenced with Ottoman archers shooting at Serbian cavalry , who then made for the attack . After positioning in a V - shaped formation , the Serbian cavalry managed to break through the Ottoman left wing , but were not as successful against the center and the right wing . Ottoman counterattack . The Serbs had the initial advantage after their first charge , which significantly damaged the Turkish wing commanded by Yakub Celebi . When the knights ' charge was finished , light Ottoman cavalry and light infantry counter - attacked and the Serbian heavy armour became a disadvantage . In the center , Serbian fighters managed to push back Ottoman forces , except for Bayezid ' s wing , which barely held off the forces commanded by Vlatko Vuković . Vuković thus inflicted disproportionately heavy losses on the Turks . The Ottomans , in a ferocious counter - attack led by Bayezid , pushed the Serbian forces back and then prevailed later in the day , routing the Serbian infantry . Both flanks still held , with Vuković ' s drifting toward the center to compensate for the heavy losses inflicted on the Serbian infantry . Historic facts say that Vuk Branković had seen that there was no hope for victory , and fled to save as many men as he could . He fled after Lazar was captured , but in songs , it is said that he betrayed Lazar , and left him to death in middle of battle rather than after Lazar was captured and the center massacred . Sometime after Branković ' s retreat from the battle , the remaining Bosnian and Serb forces yielded the field , believing that a victory was no longer possible . Murad ' s death . As the battle turned against the Serbs , one of their noblemen , a knight named Miloš Obilić , pretended to desert to the Turkish forces . When he was brought before Murad , Obilić pulled out a hidden dagger and killed the Sultan by slashing him from belly to neck . The Sultan ' s bodyguards immediately hacked Miloš Obilić to pieces . The earliest preserved record , a letter from the Florentine senate to King Tvrtko I of Bosnia dated 20 October 1389 , says that Murad was killed during the battle . The killer is not named , but it was one of 12 Serbian noblemen who managed to break through the Ottoman lines : Another Italian account , Mignanelli ' s 1416 work , asserted that it was Lazar who killed Ottoman sultan . Succession of the Ottoman throne . Murad ' s son , Bayezid , was informed of the sultan ' s death before his older brother Yakub . Bayezid sent Yakub a false message , stating that their father had some new orders for them . When Yakub arrived , he was strangled to death , leaving Bayezid as the sole heir to the Ottoman throne . Aftermath and legacy . The bulk of both armies were wiped out in the battle ; both Lazar and Murad lost their lives , and the remnants of their armies eventually retreated from the battlefield . The Serbs were left with too few men to defend their lands effectively , while the Turks had many more troops in the east . Consequently , the Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals , one after the other became so in the following years . Furthermore , in response to Turkish pressure , some Serbian noblemen wed their daughters , including the daughter of Prince Lazar , to Bayezid . In the wake of these marriages , Stefan Lazarević became a loyal ally of Bayezid , going on to contribute significant forces to many of Bayezid ' s future military engagements , including the Battle of Nicopolis . Eventually , the Serbian Despotate would , on numerous occasions , attempt to defeat the Ottomans in conjunction with the Hungarians until its final defeat in 1459 and again in 1540 . The Battle of Kosovo came to be seen as a symbol of Serbian patriotism and desire for independence in the 19th century rise of nationalism under Ottoman rule , including the Kosovo curse , and its significance for Serbian nationalism returned to prominence during the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo War when Slobodan Milošević invoked it during an important speech .