Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
Relaţii internaţionale
Relaţii internaţionale Marius T)iaconescu 1. Introduction A distinctive feature of the Middle Ages was the relations between suzerains and vassals. The contract of vassalage lay at the very foundation of the relations established among people of different ranks and social status, as well as between communities, political entities, etc. Thus, relations between lesser and bigger states were established on the basis of a similar contract of vassalage in which the state was identified to the suzerain. The relation of subordination between political entities, with all its inherent attributes, i.e. tribute, homage, etc, characterized not only Western medieval ages* 1 but also the Byzantine2 Middle Ages. The relations of the Romanian countries, Wallachia and Moldavia, with the powerful neighboring states - Hungary, Poland and the Ottoman Empire - followed the same pattern of vassalage. In the evolution of the relations between Wallachia and the Hungarian kingdom, the period representing Mircea the Old's reign (1386-1418) and more than half of Sigismund of Luxemburg's (1387-1437) constitutes a turning point which undoubtedly was determined by the international context. What was this political context in the region of the Lower Danube at the boundary of the XIVth and the XVth centuries? In the Balkans, the Ottoman State was in full ascent. One by one, most of the states situated south of the Danube had been occupied and had no other alternative than to pay their tax or to lose their autonomy. Sultan Bâyezîd I, who had been enthroned immediately after Murád I's death in the battle on the Plane of Kossovo, carried on his predecessor's aggressive and expansionist politics. His ambitions aimed at bringing under domination not only the Christians at the mouth of the Danube but also the Muslim principalities in Anatolia. His defeat at Ankara in 1402 by Timur Lenk started a period of about ten years of lesser Ottoman pressure on the Christian states, which was also due to the struggle for succession among the Sultan's heirs. Initially, after Mehmed I conquered the power in 1413, his authority inside the Empire grew more centralized; at the same time, negotiations of peace with the Christians were taking place. However, the Christians' involvement in the struggle for succession was sanctioned by the Sultan immediately after the state of domestic affairs of the Empire had become stable. The Relations of Vassalage between Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary, and Mircea the Old, Voivode of Wallachia* * This study is the second part in a series on the relations between Wallachia and Hungary in the Middle Ages. First part: M. Diaconescu, The Political Relations between Wallachia and the Hungarian Kingdom during the Reign of the Anjou Kings, in Mediaevalia Transilvanica, tom II, 1998, no. 1, pp. 5-42. 1 F. L. Ganhof, Histoire des relations internationales, I, Le Moyen Âge, Paris, 1953, pp. 49, 135, 285. ' L. Bréhier, Le Monde byzantin. II. Les institutions de l’empire byzantin (L'évolution de l’humanité, no. 32 bis), Paris, 1949, pp. 286-300. Mediaevalia Transilvanica, tom II, 1998, nr. 2.
