Nicholas accompanied Sigismund to a large-scale military campaign against the Ottoman Empire in 1396. The crusade ended with the Ottomans' great victory in the Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September, but Nicholas was one of the few who could flee from the battlefield. The king's defeat outraged Stephen II Lackfi, one of the noblemen whom Sigismund had appointed to rule the country during his absence. He and his nephew approached Ladislaus of Naples, who had not abdicated his claim to Hungary.