Ferenc Szakály – Pál Fodor: The Battle at Kenyérmező, 13 October 1479
349Ferenc Szakály – Pál Fodor: The Battle at Kenyérmező, 13 October 1479
The battle at Kenyérmező has been treated in a row of studies but neither the background of the Ottoman Incursion nor the course of the battle can be considered as satisfyingly known. Having surveyed the contemporary international relations the authors came to the conclusion that the Ottomans partly purposed to put an end to the Hungarian influence in Wallachia with the 1497 incursion, partly wanted to take vengeance for the 1476 Hungarian assault against Serbia.
The authors of this study give a detailed picture of the organization and command of the Ottoman and Hungarian border defence system. The defence system on the Hungarian side was rearranged just during the months before the battle with establishing the function of the Captain of the Lower Parts. The effectivity of the new structure was proven first in the battle at Kenyérmező.
It has been general practice in the special literature to describe the battle according to Antonio Bonfini’s Hungarian history. The authors however, with the use of all attainable (Hungarian, European and Ottoman) sources reconstruct the events in a radically different way. Their most important statement is that Pál Kinizsi, Captain of the Lower Parts and Count of Temes was present at the battle from the very beginning and the assertion that he arrived in the last minute to turn the course of the events is false. The effectives and losses of the two armies have also been exaggerated in former researches; in the opinion of the authors the Hungarian losses could have been 3 000 and about 6 000 at the side of the Ottomans.
