The rounding off of the Ottoman Empire, a process by which the vassal states were absorbed, put an end to the internal movements against centralized rule, and enabled the Sultan to work out his policy of systematic aggression in the regions to the north. After the year 1470 Turkish armies ravaged Southern Hungary, Croatia, Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola; Belgrade, on account of its strong defensive position, was respected. In 1479 the Turks made an expedition in force into Transylvania, where, in the neighborhood of Hermannstadt, they burnt 200 villages. When they were on the point of withdrawing with their booty they were attacked on the Cornfields (Kenyermezo, October 13), and suffered severe losses. Not more successful were the acts of aggression on Hungarian territory in the following year; but the Hungarian King, Matthias, was satisfied with repulsing his enemies; he had no desire to prosecute the war against the Turks on a large scale, for he had none of the ambition or enthusiasm of his famous father, Hunyadi.
In the Greek islands the activity of the Turkish fleet produced positive and permanent results; Lesbos was taken in 1462, and to the list of Turkish successes in these years were soon added Lemnos, Imbros, Samothrace. Much more valiant defenders of their island were the Knights of Rhodes, whom the Sultan was especially desirous of punishing for the part they had taken in the already mentioned Venetian expedition against Asia Minor. In 1480 a large Ottoman fleet of about one hundred ships appeared in sight of the island, and a bombardment was begun, but the fortifications proved too strong for the Turkish guns to make any impression, though the siege lasted from early in May till the end of August, in which time, despite the assaults made on the citadel, only one tower was taken. The Grand Master, Pierre d’Aubusson, and his brother, had prepared most intelligently for the crisis by collecting from all provinces of the Order money, which they used in providing weapons, especially cannon. They had been furnished also by the Pope, just before the siege began, with a large store of food and provisions. Finally, after a heroic defense of eighty-nine days, two Neapolitan ships forced their way into the harbor and broke up the blockade.
In the Wallachian lands the Ottomans met a redoubtable warrior, who, in the annals of the Roumanian people, takes such a high place as a champion against the Turks that the record of his deeds gives him a rank alongside Hunyadi and Scanderbeg. Vlad, the Prince of Wallachia, 1456-1462, called by the Hungarians the Devil, and with equal significance spoken of by the Turks as the Impaler, had a reputation for violence even among his own people. He repressed the internal troubles of his vassals with an iron hand; for after Mircea’s death the country had gone through the same period of divisions and intrigues that is found with such frequency in all the Balkan lands, making them, as we have seen, an easy prey for the Ottoman.
It is told how Vlad brought Wallachia to a peaceful state by the execution of 20,000 men, and how, afterwards, in the same drastic style, he resolved to put an end to the annual tribute of 500 children demanded by his overlord the Sultan. Looking for allies in carrying on the resistance to Mohammed, he helped Stephen IV to secure the throne of Moldavia, and married a relative of Matthias, King of Hungary. Mohammed resolved to nip in the bud the independent movements of his dangerous vassal, and sent a renegade Greek official, Catabolinus, with a corps of 2000 Turks to depose Vlad and to replace him by his brother, Radu. Vlad, having surprised this small force, impaled all the prisoners he took; to the pasha who led them was accorded the honor of being impaled on the longest stake. After this outrage the Sultan sent three ambassadors to reinforce his demands; but, when the Moslem delegates refused to remove their turbans in his presence, Vlad ordered their headgear to be nailed to their heads.
This picturesque barbarity appealed to the imagination of the Turkish ruler, who, as an artist in cruelty, conceded that Vlad belonged to a class above him. When the Turkish sovereign made a punitive expedition to Bucharest, he found the approach to the town, half a mile long, lined with stakes, on which were rotting the bodies of 2000 dead Turks. “How,” Mohammed said, “can we despoil of his estates a man who is not afraid to defend it by such means as these?” Vlad hung on the invading army, always inflicting losses, without showing himself long enough to be attacked in a formal battle. Using his familiarity with the Turkish language, he penetrated with some companions into the midst of the Turkish camp, and would have succeeded in murdering Mohammed himself, had not a mistake been made in selecting the tent. Instead of the Sultan one of the pashas was killed. Though there are conflicting accounts as to the details of Vlad’s versatility in defense, we know that Mohammed gave up his plan of aggression against Wallachia and returned to his capital, Adrianople.
Vlad’s career was cut short by the enmity of his neighbor the Moldavian King, Stephen, who, afraid of his influence, drove him from his throne, although he had relied on Vlad to promote his own interests when the Moldavian succession was in dispute. This was, of course, a gross error in statesmanship, for the only possibility of resisting Turkish aggression in these extreme Eastern lands of Europe depended on the close coöperation of Moldavia and Wallachia. If Wallachia were once occupied by the Turks, Moldavia’s invasion was certain to be the next step. After Vlad’s expulsion, he took refuge at the court of Matthias of Hungary.
His successor, Radu, was entirely devoted to Turkish interests; and soon after this change of rule in Wallachia, Stephen of Moldavia was able to seize the seaport town of Kilia, whose inhabitants were not unwilling to accept an overlord of better reputation than Radu, whose close relations with the Sultan had made him an object of contempt (1465). In the hostilities that followed between Matthias of Hungary and Stephen of Moldavia, the Hungarian King, who had taken up Vlad’s cause, was beaten at the battle of Baia. Stephen then invaded Transylvania, captured Peter Aron, the pretender to the throne of Moldavia, and put him to death. Peace was restored with the Hungarians on terms that were advantageous to Stephen, who received two fortresses.
Not long after this Hungarian incident, which, like so many others, weakened the power of resistance to Turkish arms, Stephen invaded Wallachia with the intention of dethroning the Sultan’s favorite, Radu. The Moldavian prince prepared for war against the Turks by entering into negotiations with the Venetians, who, as we have seen, were indefatigable in organizing a general league against Mohammed. An ambassador, who had been sent by the republic to secure the coöperation of the Persian King, Louzoun Hassan, visited Stephen, and proposed him as leader in organizing a holy league against the Ottomans, “in order,” as he said, “that we may not be left alone to keep up the struggle against them.” But before the Venetian envoy had passed beyond the Balkan lands, Mohammed’s army, in great force, was already swarming over Moldavia. To meet them Stephen had only some 50,000 men, mostly of his own nation. With these and a few Hungarians he won a brilliant victory over 120,000 Turks at Rakova in 1475, where he killed 20,000 men, took 100 standards, and many prisoners, including four pashas. Pursuing the defeated army, he massacred a large part of them. A church was built to celebrate the battle, and a solemn fast was initiated, followed by the impaling of many Turkish prisoners. This success of Stephen was celebrated as a unique feat of arms in Western Europe, and deservedly so, for the trained troops of Mohammed had been hewn down by a peasantry armed only with pikes, scythes, and axes.
Stephen asked help from the Pope and from Venice to carry on the struggle; but he got no aid, for the Venetians were worn out with the long war against their Eastern foes, and the Pope explained that all money for defense had been turned over to Matthias of Hungary, the overlord of the Moldavian King. Matthias, however, proposed to spend the money at home, as he dreaded the inevitable increase of Stephen’s power if he were to inflict another decisive defeat on a Turkish army. When the Turks appeared again, the help of the peasant population could not be secured because they were simultaneously alarmed at the news of a Tartar invasion, said to have been timed to coincide with the passage of the Danube by the Turks.
The Moldavian nobles, however, and their men-at-arms, made an heroic stand against Mohammed’s army; their cannon did such execution that the Janitschars threw themselves on the ground to escape the rain of projectiles. The Sultan was forced to lead his men in person to save the day. So stout was the stand the Christians made that the combat lasted far into the night. When most of his nobles had been slaughtered Stephen withdrew from this battle, which was fought at Razboieni, July 24, 1476. After he had been pursued to the forest country in the north of Moldavia, he was finally forced to withdraw to the inaccessible mountain regions. Here, with characteristic enterprise, he gathered together a second army, and the Turks, who already were exhausted by the strenuous campaign in a country ill provided with food, and ravaged as they were by disease, were easily driven back across the Danube. After this success Wallachia was invaded the same year by the Moldavian Boyars, who were joined by the Transylvanians under their new leader, Bathory. The pro-Turkish prince of the country was dethroned, and Vlad, the mighty hammerer of the Turks, now again an ally of Stephen, was replaced by the latter on the throne; but the veteran leader did not long survive his restoration. He died in December, 1477, near Bucharest, in a fight with the Turks, who attacked him as soon as Stephen had withdrawn to Moldavia. He was buried in a monastery founded by him at Snagov, but no inscription marked the resting place of the Christian champion.