Battle of Breadfield The Battle of Breadfield ( ) was the most tremendous conflict fought in Transylvania up to that time in the Hungarian - Turkish Wars taking place on October 13 , 1479 , on the Breadfield Zsibód ( Şibot ) near the Maros River . The Hungarian army was led by Pál Kinizsi , István Báthory , Vuk Branković , and Basarab Laiotă cel Bătrân . < br > The result of the battle was an important victory for the Kingdom of Hungary . Background . Turkish marauders attacked Transylvania and Vojvodina several times between 1474 and 1475 . The attacks led to the depopulation of some areas with a number of villages abandoned by their inhabitants . After the Ottoman – Venetian War ( 1463 – 79 ) in the spring of 1479 , a major Turkish army convened under Szendrő , above all Akıncı s . When King Matthias was alerted , he ordered Stephen Báthory , the Voivode of Transylvania and his general Pál Kinizsi to mobilize . The Turkish army entered Transylvania on October 9 , near Kelnek ( Câlnic ) , led by Ali Kodsha bey . The Akıncıs attacked a few villages , homesteads and market town s , taking a number of Hungarians , Vlachs and Saxons captive . On October 13 , Kodsha bey set up his camp in the Breadfield " ( Kenyérmező ) , " near Zsibót . Kodsha bey was obliged into the campaign by the insistence of Basarab cel Tânăr , a Wallachian prince , who himself brought 1 , 000 – 2 , 000 footmen to the cause . The Turks continued pillaging and taking prisoners , while Báthory and Kinizsi made preparations to set forth against the Turks . The Hungarian and the Ottoman army . The numerical strength of the Turkish army is under debate ; one estimate judged them to be a 60 , 000 , while Hungarian sources placed them closer to 30 , 000 . Jan Długosz , the famous Polish chronicler , estimated the Ottoman forces to have been 100 thousand men - at - arms , but Matthias Corvinus estimated there were 43 , 000 45 , 000 Ottoman and Wallachian soldiers in his letters . < br > A more probable number for Ottoman forces was between 6 - 20 thousand soldiers , and 1 , 000 - 2 , 000 Wallachians . The Ottoman army was almost entirely made up of Akıncıs , rumelian Spakhs and Azap s , with some Janissaries and possibly some cannon . The Turkish enterprise was not full - fledged war effort , but rather a very substantial raiding one - the largest expedition Transylvania encountered during a century ' s worth of Hungarian - Turkish conflicts . Kinizsi ' s army consisted of Hungarian , Szekler , Serbian , Transylvanian Saxon forces , and some Vlach volunteers . The latter were commanded by Basarab cel Bătrân , quondam ruler of Wallachia and archrival to cel Tânăr . Accordingly , cel Tânăr insisted on equality with cel Bătrân , with only one being tenable to the Wallachian throne . The combined Christian forces totalled approximated 12 , 000 to 15 , 000 men . In the judgement of some , Poles , Moldavians , Russians , Lithuanians , Germans and Bohemians were privy in part to the battle , but rather difficult to substantiate . The battle . Both armies were composed of three columns . The right flank of the Hungarian army was led by Kinizsi , the left was the Serbian light cavalry under Vuk Branković and Demeter Jakšić with the Saxons and Báthory ' s forces in the center . On the Ottoman side , Kodsha bey took the left flank , Isa bey the center and Malkoch Oglu the right flank . The battle commenced in the afternoon , Báthory fell from his horse and the Ottomans nearly captured him , but a valiant Antal Nagy whisked the voivode away . < br > Having joined battle , the Ottomans were in ascendancy early on , but Kinizsi charged against the Turks with the Hungarian heavy cavalry and 900 Serbs under a Jakšić assisted by " " numerous courtiers of the king " " . Ali bey was forced to retreat . Kinizsi moved laterally to vigorously smash the Turkish center and before long Isa bey also withdrew . The few Turks who survived the massacre fled into the mountains , where the majority were killed by the local population . The hero of the battle was Pál Kinizsi , the legendary Hungarian general and a man of Herculean bodily strength in the service of Matthias Corvinus ' Black Army of Hungary . Aftermath . Turkish casualties were extremely high with several thousand men killed , among them Malkoçoğlu and Isa bey along with together with two bey s and a thousand of their Wallachian allies . < br > Hungarian forces lost approximately 3 , 000 men in the battle . A few prisoners were liberated and their ransom was immense . In 1480 Kinizsi raided Serbia and several times defeated Ali Kodsha bey . The Breadfield battle was a great psychological victory for the Hungarians , and as a result the Ottoman Turks did not attack southern Hungary and Transylvania for many years thereafter .