Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
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252 Marius Diaconescu 2. Mircea the Old and the Anti-Ottoman Strategy of Sigismund of Luxemburg. As it has been mentioned, the relations between Mircea and Sigismund developed in time on several coordinates such as: the intensity of Ottoman pressures on the Lower Danube, the domestic situation in Hungary and the relations between the king of Hungary with the Polish king. There was a moment when king Sigismund's ambitions of suzerain, inherited from his Angevine ancestors, went in parallel with the strategy required by the threatening Ottoman expansion. This new perspective brought about both a new approach of the Hungarian-Romanian relations and a reevaluation of the suzerain's position towards the Wallachian voivode. Therefore, this context was to diminish greatly the classical features of vassalage. Mircea the Old had the advantage of at least two things which made it possible for him to keep a certain distance from the Hungarian king and then to conduct his own foreign policy on a considerably large scale: one was the internal political crisis in Hungary34 and the other the already two decades old policy of independence led by Wallachia35. So, this legacy and the favourable military and political foreign context, helped the Romanian voivode succeed in renewing Wallachian external affairs. The first contacts between the Wallachian prince and the Hungarian king are supposed to have taken place as early as 1389. The king was present close to the Wallachian borders before and after the spring campaign in Serbia. Thus, in late February and in April, respectively, Sigismund was in theTimişoara region36 where he would come back in December 1389-January 139037, after another campaign in Serbia38. The diplomatic steps taken by the Romanian voivode towards Wladislaw Jagelló, King of Poland in the autumn of 1389 must be correlated to the moments m which Sigismund was present at the Wallachian borders. The king had bee1: ,*.^re before and after the military campaigns in Serbia. It is thus obvious that the particular context made it opportune to exchange messages with the Hungarian king; although there is no certain evidence concerning these messages, their ^.vistence is highly probable. We believe that, as a perpetuation of the Angevine tradition, these messages were meant to bring Mircea under the domination of the Hungarian crown. In 1389-1390, in order to resist Sigismund's pressures, Mircea signed a treaty of alliance with Wladislaw Jagelló, King of Poland and enemy of the 34 E. Mályusz, Zsigmond király (see note 3), pp. 27-35. 35 See 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. 25-35. 36 J. K. Hoensch (ed.), Itinerar König und Kaiser Sigismunds von Luxemburg (1386-1437) (hereafter referred to as: Itinerar), Fahlbusch Verlag, Warendorf, p. 53; P. Engel, Királyitineráriumok (1324-82; 1387-1437) (hereafter referred to as: Királyitineráriumok), kézirat (mss.), Budapest, 1995, p. 55. 37 J. K. Hoensch, (ed.), Itinerar, p. 54; P. Engel, Királyitineráriumok, p. 56. 38 P. Engel, A török-magyar háborúk első évei 1389-1392 (hereafter referred to as: A török-magyar háborúk), in Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, 111, 1998, no. 3, pp. 562-565.
