Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
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202 Tamás Pálosfalvi time of the Ottoman invasion, would have taken at least a month, which would have been more than enough for Mezid to leave Transylvania with his booty. Moreover, Wladislaw’s charter of 1443 is explicit in saying that the Ottomans suffered serious losses in the first encounter, which must have prompted them to leave Transylvania as quickly as possible. It is also highly improbable that after the second battle Hunyadi risked an incursion into Wallachia at the head of an army which had been set up in a hurry within a few days' time. It seems to me, then, that we should follow another path in reconstructing the course of events. Our hipothesis is as follows: In the first months of 1442 Hunyadi was staying in our around Belgrade at the head of his Transylvanian and other troops, preparing himself to thwart the expected Ottoman attack. In his absence the defence of Transylvania may have been entrusted to the episcopal contingent (and perhaps the Szeklers, if we can believe Bonfini, which is far from sure). When he was informed that the invaders had unexpectedly entered Transylvania, the voivode rode at full tilt to Alba Iulia, possibly at the head of a small selection of soldiers, and ordered the bulk of his army to follow him, Having arrived to Transylvania, he may have decided not to wait for his army but try to surprise the Ottomans with his immediate following and the episcopal troops. In this he may have followed bishop Lépes's advice70, though a surprise attack of this kind would by no means be incompatible with Hunyadi's principles of warfare. But the first encounter, fought in the vicinity of Alba Iulia, turned out badly, and the bishop himself remained dead on the battlefield71. The victorious Ottomans, who also suffered considerable losses, withdrew towards the Transylvanian Vaskapu (Poarta de Fier a Transilvaniei), wanting to return home through the Danubian Vaskapu (Porţile de Fier). As for the voivode, he sent an envoy to his approaching army and ordered it to block the enemy's way at the pass between Haţeg and Caransebeş, while he reorganized the rest of the episcopal troops and followed in the heel of the Ottomans. Five days later Mezid's army was surprised and defeated in the Transylvanian pass of Poarta de Fier, where even the Ottoman commander lost his life. The first battle is generally thought to have taken place on 18 March, an opinion that is based on the testimony of bishop Lépes’s epitaph, complemented by the information of some other, foreign, sources72. It is with regard to this date that the second, victorious battle is placed on 23 March, in accordance with Wladislaw’s frequently cited charter. 7(1 A distant echo of this would then be Thuróczy's remark about the bishop as a man "in rebus ... rite agendis vehemens". 71 We have no reason to doubt 18 March as the date of the battle. See the evidence collected by O. Székely, op. cit. (see the note 46), p. 10. On 12 May bishop Lépes is mentioned as killed "per sevis simos Tureos hoc regnum devastantes"'. Zs. Jakó, op. cit. (see note 28), p. 304. 72 The sources are collected in O. Szekély, op. cit. (see note 46), p. 10 and notes.
