Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
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On the Political History of Transylvania in 1440-1443 199 great Ottoman attack of 143854. Yet if we accept the hypothesis that the voivode was camping with his troops outside Transylvania, it becomes understandable that the defensive forces stationed in the passes of the Carpathes were unable to stop the invading Ottoman army. What happened after the Ottomans had successfully broken through one of the passes has generally been explained by combining the evidence furnished by contemporary and later chroniclers and the testimony of a handful of charters. Yet it seems to me that undeserved credit has so far been attributed to some of the narrative sources and also to charters whose original never emerged and the content of which clearly contradict the information to be gained from indisputably authentic documents55. It is obvious that any reconstruction of the events should before all be based on the analysis of still existing charters of undisputed authenticity, and only after we succeeded in fixing some of the "cornerstones" of our narrative are we allowed to complete the picture with the information filtered from the chronicles. We firmly believe that one of these "cornerstones" is constituted by the battle of Vaskapu. We still have at least three original charters which mention Hunyadi’s victory at a place called Vaskapu in Transylvania56. As early as 1921 Ottokár Székely identified this place with the Vaskapu between Haţeg and Caransebeş57, and we have no reason to question his proposition58. Vaskapu in the county of Hunedoara is the only place in Transylvania which corresponds to the 54 On this attack see F. Szakály, op. cit. (see note 46), p. 3L 55 The most outstanding example is that of L. Elekes, op. cit. (see note 35), who simply discredits the affirmations of still existing original charters in favour of "documents" which were never examined by any scholar and whose existence is more than dubious. 56 14 April 1443: DF 255.163 (Archives of the Suky family, Cluj). The charter mentions the services of Benedek and Mihály Suki "in certis conflictibus, quos prefatus Johannes wayvoda, dominus ipsorum, cum sevis Turcis, crucis Christi inimicis, de eisdem victoriose primo in partibus Transsilvanis prope locum Waskapw, secundo in partibus Transalpinis post sese de ingenti semper ipsorum Tureorum caterva triumphando, victoriose transegit... ".12 October 1447: DI. 29.792: Hunyadi grants a possession belonging to the royal castle of Cetatea de Baltă (Küküllővár) to two burghers of Torda in return for their services "in quamplurimum exercituum nostrorum contra sevos Tureos crucis Christi persecutores tam in Waskapw ac in Transalpinis partibus ... habitis victoriosis conflictibus ... motoium...". 18 December 1462: King Matthias narrates the services which János Kendefi rendered when Hunyadi "Turcis sevissimis, qui partes Transsilvanas regni nostri solita flagicia ac hominum et rerum predam acturi subintraram, in loco Vaskapu vocato strenuo congressu occurrisset..." Károly Magyar, Regesták Alsófehérmegye levéltárából, in Történelmi Tár, 1907, pp. 94-95. We can also accept as authentic the charter mentioned by Károly Szabó, A Kendefiek a XIV. és XV.-dik században, in Századok, 1868, p. 29, dated 16 April 1443, in which king Wladislaw grants two villages in the county of Hunedoara to the Kendefi brothers, although the original charter seems to have been lost. The services mentioned here are identical to those related in DF 255.163. Cf. D. Csánki, op. cit. (see note 18), p. 191. 57 O. Székely, op. cit. (see the note 46), p. 15. 58 In a charter issued in 1456 Ladislaus Posthumus mentions "pontem in loco Waskapw appellato, in comitatu de Hwnyad et metis seu confiniis pardum nostrarumTranssilvanarum existentem”. D. Csánki, op. cit. (see note 18), p. 191.
