Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
Relaţii internaţionale
The Relations of Vassalage 263 The Ottoman victory of Nicople determined as well a temporary improvement of the tense relations between Hungary and Poland. The Orthodox Patriarch from Constantinople pleaded for an agreement in a letter addressed to the Polish king in a moment when there was a serious Ottoman threat against the Byzantine capital95. In July 1397 the two kings met at Stara Wies and reached an agreement for a 16-years peace. The Polish king gave up his claims on the Hungarian crown; in his turn, Sigismund promised to mediate the conflict between the Polish and the Teutonic Knights96. Wallachia remained in the Hungarian sphere of influence97. On the other hand, new defensive plans were devised in addition to the offensive strategies. During 1397, Sigismund requested the presence of the Teutonic Knights at the southern borders of the kingdom in order to secure them against Turkish incursions. He offered them the Land of Bârsa98 99, a region the Order had previously administered in early XIIIlh century. The King was refused because the Knights were engaged in other projects. At the end of 1397, with the occasion of the diet of Timişoara, he laid the bases of a new defensive system against the Ottoman menace. The mobilization of the Hungarian army was reorganized and the obligations of all the landlords were stated clearly; at the same time, a popular army was to come to existence ". So, it was only after the dramatic defeat of Nicople that a radical change in Hungarian foreign policy towards southern regions came to be taken into account. The Ottoman success made it necessary that for the first time the two political systems, Christian and Islamic, should coexist in the Balkans. This time, the new Hungarian political and military strategy would have to became defensive and to give up the traditional offensive into the Balkans (inherited from the Angevine dynasty). The new defensive concept included an increased role played by the vassal states situated between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Thus, after the defeat at Nicople, Sigismund of Luxemburg focused on the creation of a protective chain of buffer neighbouring states, which would hold back the Ottoman incursions100. On this background, great attention was given to the relations with the Romanian State situated to the south of the Carpathians. Actually, the Wallachian voivode is the first ruler at the southern Hungarian borders to be integrated into the new system. During the first years after Nicople, the king kept a close eye to the Ottoman plans concerning Wallachia and, even if his noblemen were hardly 95 Miklosic-Müller, Acta patriarchatus, II, pp. 515-516. P. P. Panaitescu, Mircea cel Bătrân (see note 15), p. 273. 96 Zsigmondkori oklevéltár (hereafter referred to as: Zs. oki), published by E. Mályusz, I, Budapest, 1953, no. 4872, p. 537. 97 P. P. Panaitescu, Mircea cel Bătrân (see note 15), p. 274, claims that on this occasion the two sovereigns partitioned the spheres of influence in this part of Europe. 98 L. Pósán, Zsigmond és a német lovagrend, in Hadtörténelmi közlemények, 111, 1998, no. 3, p. 637. 99 N. Knauz, A: 1397-iki országgyűlés végzeménye, in Magyar Történelmi Tár, III, Pest, 1857. pp. 216-217; A. Borosy, A telekkatonaság és a parasztság szerepe a feudális magyar hadszervezetben, Budapest, 1971, pp. 131 et passim. 100 P. Engel, Magyarország és a török veszély (see note 27), pp. 274-278.
