The Field of Black Birds 1389.

The Field of Black Birds -

The Battle of Kosovo Polje, St Vitus Day 1389.

Posting 12 - 12 0- 2006.

Antur Ysbryd Cofiwn: gethin.apgruffydd@ntlworld.com

THE BATTLE OF THE FIELD OF BLACKBIRDS 1389.

In 1389, a Serbian leader, Lazar, raised an army to drive the Turks from the Balkans. Lazar raised contingents from Serbia (included forces led by his son-in-law, Vuk Brankovic), Bosnia, Wallachia, Albania, and Hungary. This Christian force met the Turks at Kosovo Field (Kosovo Polje), the Field of Blackbirds, on St. Vitus's Day, 1389. The battle and its aftermath: The Kosovo battle resulted in heavy losses on both sides, but was a devastating loss for the Serbs. Most of the Christian leaders and nobility were killed or driven into exile. Sultan Murad was assassinated behind his lines by a Serbian knight, Milos Obilic, and Lazar was captured and beheaded by the Turks. Search for Battle of the Field of Blackbirds 1389 on Gooogle and stacks of stuff will come up on the menus as placed by the Serbian Unity Congress and other, also the Scots Patriot Society 'Siol Nan Gadael' has some thing to say on this subject in an article called THE KOSOVO QUESTION: A CELTIC NATIONALIST PERSPECTIVE from which I quote below:

.Bannockburn in the hands of a majority Dutch population (for the sake of argument) engineered, underwritten and latterly policed by our perennial enemy England....how would we react? The New World Order would like us not to give a damn about these so-called “atavistic” concerns, so long as we watch Disney, drink Coke, surf the net and shop in malls. The sad reality is that this comfortable, bite-size, easily digestible “philosophy” is in many ways a sinister forewarning of our descent into idiotic a-cultural, identity-less consumerism.

The Siol Nan Gadael article poses an interesting question and I have heard a number of Welsh Patriots express similar concerns regards Cilmeri, if Powys became a ''Saxon Kossovo''. This is not a discussion or debate I particularly want to get in to here and now but might at another time else where, my concern at moment is with regards to fact that the Battle Site of Kosovo Polje is threatened by building work, not least because the Cilmeri cenotaph it seems year by year becomes threatened by the encroachment of private housing. This does concern me as apart from much else I also am running a struggle to save Welsh Battle fields from similar threats'' , this campaign goes on on my platform of I'R GAD WELSH BATTLE FIELD CAMPAIGN - further Information available on request.

It is with the above in mind I place before you information in this posting on news of the threat to the site of The Battle of the Field of Blackbirds - The Battle of Kosovo Polje from KiM Info Newsletter 03-10-06 Sacrilege near the Memorial of the Kosovo Battle Knights, Digging up Gazimestan hill* According to information obtained by journalists of KIM Radio from Caglavica, major construction work has been going on for the past few weeks near the monument to Kosovo heroes in Gazimestan near Pristina. According to eyewitness testimony, the work, which is being done by a Kosovo Albanian company, has arrived to almost one hundred meters from the memorial, next to which stands a KFOR security checkpoint. A UN official from Pristina who wished to remain anonymous stated that Albanian businessmen want to take advantage of the period until the status of protected zones around Serbian cultural and historical buildings is defined in order to illegally build industrial and other facilities near those monuments, and privatize existing Serb- or socially-owned property* Kosovo field - or literally the Field of Blackbirds - is a famous medieval battlefield in the Serbia's southern province of Kosovo. It stretches from the provincial capital of Pristina to Mitrovica in the north. On June 28, 1389, St. Vitus Day, a coalition of Christian forces led by the Serbian Prince Lazar and his knights fought on this field the invading Ottoman army of Sultan Murad and his vassals. Both the Prince and the Sultan died in the battle. The Serbs consider the battle as one of the most important events in their national history and the Church venerates Prince Lazar as a Martyr Saint. The location where the final battles were fought is called Gazimestan . On the Gazimestan hill a Memorial tower of Kosovo Battle Knights was constructed in memory of the fallen heroes. The entire area is considered as the most sacred Christian Orthodox site.

Of course any study of Serbian/Balkans subject matter easly found on the web will be condusive to all the more informing you on the subject of nationalism as well perhaps the many ''Myths of History'' but it's up to yourselves to decide who you come down on the side of regards the hotly contested issue of the Battle of the Field of Blackbirds. For my part I just wish the Welsh were aware of Aberedw, Cilmeri and the Massacre of Irfon Bridge as the Serbs are of the Battle of Kosovo Polje 1389.

Gethin.