Schiltberger joined the suite of Lienhart Richartinger in 1394, and he then went to fight under Sigismund, King of Hungary (afterwards emperor), against the Ottoman Empire on the Hungarian frontier. At the Battle of Nicopolis on 28 September 1396, he was wounded and taken prisoner; when Schiltberger had recovered the use of his feet, Sultan Bayezid I (Yıldırım) took him into his service as a runner (1396–1402). During this time he seems to have accompanied Ottoman troops to certain parts of Asia Minor and to Egypt.