Battle of Niš At the Battle of Niš ( " Battle of Nissa " ) ( early November , 1443 ) , crusaders led by John Hunyadi , captured Ottoman stronghold Niš and defeated three armies of the Ottoman Empire . The Battle of Niš was part of Hunyadi ' s expedition known as the " long campaign " . Hunyadi , at the head of the vanguard , crossed the Balkans through the Gate of Trajan , captured Niš , defeated three Turkish pasha s , and , after taking Sofia , united with the royal army and defeated Sultan Murad II at Snaim ( Kustinitza ) . The impatience of the king and the severity of the winter then compelled him ( February 1444 ) to return home , but not before he had utterly broken the Sultan ' s power in Bosnia , Herzegovina , Serbia , Bulgaria , and Albania . Background . In 1440 John Hunyadi became the trusted adviser and most highly - regarded soldier of the king Władysław III of Poland . Hunyadi was rewarded with the captaincy of the fortress of Belgrade and was put in charge of military operations against the Ottomans . The king Władysław recognized Hunyadi ' s merits by granting him estates in Eastern Hungary . Hunyadi soon showed and displayed extraordinary capacity in marshalling its defenses with the limited resources at his disposal . He was victorious in Semendria over Isak - Beg in 1441 , not far from Nagyszeben in Transylvania he annihilated an Ottoman force and recovered for Hungary the suzerainty of Wallachia . In July 1442 at the Iron Gates he defeated a massed Ottoman formation of 80 . 000 led by Sehabbedin . These victories made Hunyadi a prominent enemy of the Ottomans and renowned throughout Christendom , and was a prime motivator to undertake in 1443 , along with King Władysław , the famous expedition known as the " long campaign " with Battle of Niš as one of the battles of this campaign . Hunyadi was accompanied by Giuliano Cesarini during this campaign . Battle . There was no one major battle for Niš but five different battles . The first was a battle against a small garrison in Niš and the capture of the town , then three different battles against three different Ottoman armies advancing on Niš and last , they fought against the remnants of all three of them . The battle took place in the plain between Bolvani and Niš on November 3 , 1443 . Ottoman forces were led by Kasim Pasha , the beglerbeg of Rumelia , Turakhan Beg and Isak - Beg . After Ottoman defeat retreating forces of Kasim Pasha and Turakhan Beg burned all villages between Niš and Sofia . The Ottoman sources justify an Ottoman defeat by lack of cooperation between the Ottoman armies led by different commanders . Aftermath . According to Chalcocondyles , " Weary after Hunyadi forced the Ottomans to retreat in the Balkans in 1443 , the old lords hurried on all sides to regain possession of their fathers ' fields " . One of them was George Kastrioti Skanderbeg who deserted the Ottoman army along with his nephew Hamza Kastrioti and 300 loyal Albanians and after capturing Krujë started a twenty - five year long struggle against the Ottoman Empire . Murad II signed a treaty for ten years , and abdicated in favor of his son Mehmed II . When the peace was broken the next year , Murad returned to the Balkans and won the Battle of Varna in November 1444 .