Battle of Baia
The Battle of Baia ( Romanian Bătălia de la Baia , Hungarian Moldvabányai csata ) took place on December 15, 1467 between the army of the Principality of Moldova , led by Prince Ștefan III. cel Mare , and that of the King of Hungary , Matthias Corvinus . It ended in a bitter defeat for the Hungarians.
history
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background
After his accession to the throne in 1457, Stefan cel Mare improved the previously tense relationship with Poland , the principality's northern neighbor. Expression of the new direction was the Treaty of Overchelăuți on the Dniester on April 4, 1459, in which Stefan recognized to be a vassal of the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiello (1427-1492), he also left the fortress Hotin to the Poles. For this he received the guarantee of the preservation of the Moldovan borders and the expulsion of the former ruler Petru Aron from the country. The contract was renewed on March 2, 1462 under the same conditions, but Stefan got the Hotin fortress back. Such a gesture aroused displeasure with the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus. Tensions increased after Aron fled to Transylvania in 1460 and found shelter there.
The biggest problem, however, was the dispute over the city of Chilia , which had been left to the Hungarians by the voivod Petru II. Through a quick winter attack, Stefan managed to get the strategically and economically important port for the Vltava under his control after only one day of siege and to appoint his brother-in-law Isaia as governor. Then he tried to prevent a quick reaction of the Hungarian kingdom by supporting the uprising of the nobility and the cities in Transylvania against the Hungarian crown in the summer of 1467 , in order to tie up its military forces. The uprising was put down, however, and Matthias decided to start a campaign east of the Carpathian Mountains with the aim of overthrowing Stefan, reinstalling the loyal Petru Aron as ruler and thus bringing the Vltava under his sphere of influence.
prehistory
In order to prove his qualities as a general and as a demonstration of his military superiority, Corvinus set out in the beginning of winter, regardless of the bad weather and the almost impassable roads, and decided to invade the Vltava and conquer the capital Suceava , with the intention of capturing Stefan take and reinstate his predecessor, Petru Aron, who was expelled from him, as voivod .
The reunification of the royal army took place in the Brașov region in late October and early November. The information about the number of personnel in the army differs depending on the source used. Polish chronicler Jan Dlugosz reported over 40,000 people, which seems excessive, while other sources put the figure at 25,000. In return, Stefan only had 12,000 comrades-in-arms, a number that most historians assume.
Matthias decided to invade the country over the Oituz Pass to follow the valley of the Sereth and occupy the capital Suceava. Anticipating this strategy, Stefan blocked all passes and harassed the invasion troops with constant small attacks.
On November 19, 1467, after a week of violent clashes at the Oituz Pass, the Hungarians achieved the breakthrough, whereupon they moved to Târgul Trotușului . After the city was burned down, the forces of Matthias Corvinus, accompanied by Prince-to-be Petru Aron, turned against Bacau , then towards Roman , where they arrived on November 29th. In order to gain time, Stefan initiated discussions with his opponent, which remained without result. The Hungarian troops stayed in Roman until December 7th, after which the king marched against Baia, the former capital of Moldova.
course
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At that time Baia was a prosperous city with a Catholic cathedral and a colony of Saxons, so relatively optimal conditions for the Hungarian army to take quarters there without knowing what their opponent was up to. Stefan had decided to fight the decisive battle there, because he did not want to let the king pause and did not want to give him the opportunity to organize the siege of Suceava. The Moldovan also knew that the invading army had strong artillery.
On the night of December 14th to 15th, 1467, Stefan's attack began. First of all, he set fire to the wooden palisades that were used to protect the city. The rapidly spreading fire surprised the enemy soldiers and caused great confusion. Almost half of them were killed on their haphazard escape, and Matthias was seriously injured by three arrows and a stab of a lance. Efforts were made to get him to Hungary as quickly as possible. On their retreat via Moineşti , the Hungarians buried 500 cannons and other treasures so that the enemy could not get hold of them. Although the Moldovan instructed his brother-in-law Isaia to cut off the king's retreat, the latter managed to escape because Stephan Báthory von Ecsed and his men stood by him on the one hand and, according to Jan Długosz, because of the hesitation of Grand Chancellor Crasnăş, one of the commanders of the three Moldovan soldiers, on the other Army Corps. He is said to have been later executed by Stefan for high treason for this reason.
epilogue
Matthias Corvin's campaign against the Principality of Moldova, which ended in a fiasco, also represented the last major attempt to achieve the sovereignty of the Hungarian crown over the Moldova by military means. In 1468, Stefan tried unsuccessfully to end the conflict with the Hungarian king through the mediation of King Casimir IV of Poland. That is why Stefan let the Moldovan army invade the Szekelerland under the leadership of the great sword bearer Philip Pop in 1469, in retaliation for the exile granted to Petru Aron. During this campaign, however, he was captured and executed.
The common front against the Ottomans and the commercial privileges granted to the Kronstadt merchants by Stefan on January 3, 1472 finally relaxed relations between the two states. In 1473 they even coordinated the measures to overthrow the Wallachian voivods Radu Cel Frumos (Radu the Fair) and Laiotă Basarab, who were loyal to the Turks . At the end of 1474, King Matthias sent 5,000 Szekler and 1,800 Hungarian soldiers to support Stefans in the battle of Vaslui , which ended with the historic victory of the allied Christians.
Through the Treaty of Buda on August 15, 1475, King Matthias undertook to support Stefan against the Ottomans and made the fortress Ciceu and the citadel Cetatea de Baltă (Kokelburg) in Transylvania available to him as places of refuge .
literature
- Constantin C. Giurescu : Istoria României în date . Editura Enciclopedică Română, Bucharest 1971.
- Willi Kosiul: The Bukowina and their beech country Germans: From the emergence of the Moldovan Bukowina in 1343 to the end of their Austrian rule in 1918 , Volume 1. Reimo-Verlag, Oberding 2011.
- Victor Spinei: Moldova în secolele XI – XIV . Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, Bucharest 1986.
- Hans Uebersberger : Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe , 1981, ISSN 0021-4019 , p. 352.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.academia.edu/4374854/Istorie
- ↑ a b http://www.historia.ro/exclusiv_web/general/articol/cum-l-invins-stefan-cel-mare-matia-corvin-baia
- ↑ a b I. Confa: "Strategia lui Ștefan cel Mare in bătălia de la Baia (1467)" ("The strategy of Stephen the Great in the Battle of Baia 1467"), studii, 1967, no. 6, p. 1127– 1144
- ↑ Jörg K. Hoensch: "Matthias Corvinus: Diplomat, Feldherr und Patron", Verlag Styria, 1998, p. 93
- ↑ a b c Petre P. Panaitescu: "Istoria Românilor", București 1990, p. 119 ff.
- ↑ Nicolae Iorga: "History of the Ottoman Empire", 2nd volume to 1538, European History Publishing House, Paderborn 2011, p. 169
- ↑ Constantin C. Giurescu: "Istoria României în date", Editura Enciclopedică Română, București 1971, p. 102 ff.
