Sigismund of Luxembourg, hereditary elector of Brandenburg…

Sigismund of Luxembourg, hereditary elector of Brandenburg and King of Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia through his 1387 marriage to Hungarian princess Maria, responds to the appeal from Constantinople by organizing a major European crusade against the Ottomans, who had taken advantage of the temporary helplessness of Hungary to extend their dominion to the banks of the Danube.

This crusade, preached by Pope Boniface IX, is very popular in Hungary.

More than ninety thousand men respond, gathering at Buda under Sigismund's banner in July 1396, the thousands of noble respondents reinforced by volunteers from nearly every part of Europe, the most important contingent being that of the French led by John, duke of Nevers, son of Philip II, duke of Burgundy.

Reinforced by a flotilla of seventy galleys, nights from France, Burgundy, England, Germany, and the Netherlands set out first to evict the Turks from the Balkans and then to march through Anatolia and Syria to Jerusalem.