Battle of Zlatitsa
The impatience of the King of Poland and the severity of the winter then compelled John Hunyadi to return home in February 1444, but not before he had utterly broken the Sultan's power in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania.This was the first time that a European army defeated such a large Ottoman force, composed not only of raiders, but of the provincial cavalry led by their own sanjak beys (governors) and accompanied by the formidable janissaries.[10] After the Ottoman defeat, the retreating forces of Kasım Pasha and Turahan Beg burned all of the villages between Niš and Sofia to hinder the crusaders in finding provisions.[13] The Ottoman Sultan Murad II, who had been occupied with a war against the Karamanids, rushed to his European possessions in order to establish defenses on the crusader path to prevent them from reaching his capital Edirne.[15] At Zlatitsa, the crusaders met a major and well-fortified Ottoman army for the first time, as they had only clashed against local garrisons and hastily mobilized irregular troops along their route towards Edirne so far.[25] After an indecisive clash on the 24th of December near Melstica, the Sultan entrusted the task of pursuing the enemy to Kasım Pasha and Turakhan Beg and went back to the recently recaptured Sofia.[25][26] Soon after this, the crusaders ambushed and defeated a pursuing Turkish force in the Battle of Kunovica, where Mahmud Bey, son-in-law of the Sultan and brother of the Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha, was taken prisoner.