Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
Relaţii internaţionale
The Relations of Vassalage 265 Mircea's fears became real only in the autumn of 1400, when a Turkish contingent undertook a plundering incursion. According to a Venetian letter, the Turks had actually undertaken this incursion in Hungary and, on their way back, they were attacked and defeated by "a certain Mircio the Wallachian"'0*. The Wallachian voivode took back the loot and killed a great number of soldiers, probably some place near the Danube109. During the spring of 1402, supported by a Hungarian contingent and the Tartars, Mircea took advantage of Bâyezîd I's presence in Anatolia, and took over Dobrudja110. This was the last encounter before Bâyezîd I's terrible defeat by Timur Lenk at Ankara, in 1402. Bâyezîd I's prisonership and the subsequent struggle for succession to the throne meant a decrease in the Ottoman pressure and a period of relaxation for the peoples on the Lower Danube. The Hungarian king’s new strategic concept was extended after 1402111. Sigismund had no intention of taking advantage of Bâyezîd I's capturing at Ankara. He preferred to consolidate the Hungarian southern borders and bring under his suzerainty the princes of the states situated between his kingdom and the Ottoman Empire. The Serbian despot, Steven Lazarevic, had been the sultan's vassal until the latter's defeat at Ankara. Nevertheless, it was in early 1404 at the latest that he accepted King Sigismund's suzerainty. In exchange for his fealty and for yielding post mortem a Serbian region and Belgrade, the Serbian despot was given vast domains in Hungary. He became one of the most important barons of the kingdom and would remain in the union with Hungary until his death112. The inclusion of Bosnia in this defensive system was not achieved without difficulties. It took five military campaigns (from 1404 to 1410) to attain this goal113. On the other hand, Wallachia was an exemplary buffer state after 1397. During the first two decades of the XVth century, Sigismund was to apply his new strategy globally to all the riverside states. After 1402, the relations between Sigismund and Mircea were to be under the influence of the same elements as in the first stage of his rule: the intensity of the Ottoman pressures, the Hungarian internal crisis and the Hungarian-Polish N. Iorga, Acte şi fragmente cu privire la istoria Românilor (hereafter referred to as: Acte şi fragmente), III, Bucureşti, 1897, pp. 4-5. 1(19 Turkish chronicles - Leunclavius and Nesri - mentioned only briefly Mircea's defeat by Bâyezîd I: P. P. Panaitescu, Mircea cel Bătrân (see note 15), p. 282-283. 110 "Milcus autem Vlachus et Ungari et Tartari a partibus occidentalibus veniunt contra dictum Bayasitum er carpserunt transitus et itinera parcium Vlahie pro veniendo versus partes et loca Bayasith-bey”, N. Iorga, Documents concernant les Grecs et les affaires d"Orient tirés des registres des notaires de Crete, Paris, 1937, p. 6, apud Ş. Papacostea, La Valachie et la crise de structure de TEmpire ottoman (1402-1413) (hereafter referred to as: La Valachie), in RRH, 1986, 1-2, p. 25, note 9. 111 Hungarian military historians suggestively call this period "the waste of possibilities" (“Eltékozolt lehetőségek”): Gy. Rázsó, op. cit. (see note 28), p. 425. 112 P. Engel, Magyarország és a török veszély (see note 27), p. 279. 113 Ibidem, pp. 279-280.
