The road to Kosovo

Battle of Kosovo

Everyone agrees that the assassin of Murad/Murat (The First) was a Serb whose personal name was Miloš  (turkified as Milos,) (anglicized to Milosh). But, after that, identification of the killer begins falling off the track.

One respected historical source says he was a crazed camp-follower. Another claims he was a patriotic Serb nobleman. Since he could have easily been both, we'll just say 'take your pick' -- and move on, to where a more serious argument looms. Because... when it comes to the question of the assassin's correct surname, the matter becomes more important to some.

When Stephen Dushan of Serbia died his empire passed into the hands of his young son Urosh. His vassals soon renounced their allegiance to him and set themselves up as independent princes. One of these Serb leaders, Vukashin, who ruled in Serres, combined his forces with sympathetic Serbian allies and marched northwards towards the Maritza Valley full of hope. But far from driving the Turks out of Lurope they suffered a great defeat on 26 September 1371 at the battle of Cernomen where all the Serbian leaders were killed. This battle, also known as the second battle of the Maritza, was called in the Turkish chronicles 'Sirf sindigi' (the destruction of the Serbs). Murad I was prudent after his victory and left much of Macedonia and Serbia in the hands of local chiefs as his vassals. They included a certain Lazar, who, although connected with the Dushan family did not claim the royal title.

Almost ten years went by before the Turkish advance against Serbia was renewed. In the meantime they struck at Albania and Bulgaria. So confused had been the state of Albania that its rulers were used to calling in foreign troops to aid them against internal rivals, and so it was that the lord of Durazzo called upon the Ottomans as allies in 1385. The price was vassaldom and when the fortresses of Croia and Scutari fell to Murad I he handed them over to his loyal Albanian followers. Elsewhere Thessalonica surrendered in 1387, but Murad I also sought to consolidate his position in Anatolia and took Konya from the Turkish house of Karaman that same year.

Lazar of Serbia seems to have been stung into action by the loss of Sofia in 1385, a defeat that was followed in 1386 by the occupation of the Serbian city of Nis. He was also embarrassed by the use of Serbian vassal troops in the Ottoman Army, so a combined force of Serbs and Bosnians went to war and defeated the local Turkish commander. The victorious army grew, swollen in number by hopeful contingents from Bulgaria, Wallachia, Albania and Hungary. But swift action by Murad I detached Bulgaria from the league and, as he marched north to take on Lazar, he was joined by many sympathetic Serbian nobles.

The resulting armed clash was the famous battle of Kosovo, fought in June 1389, an encounter that still has tremendous significance in Balkan politics today. Among all the legends about the battle and its aftermath three facts stand out. The Ottoman Turks were victorious; Murad I was killed by a Serb at some point, although not during the actual fighting; and Lazar of Serbia was captured and executed in revenge. His son Stephen Lazarevic succeeded him and reigned for many years as a loyal Turkish vassal.

The Serbian challenge

                                                                     Serbian Army

Ottomans

 

While the Ottomans had been expanding out of Anatolia a different force had been growing in the north to challenge the Byzantine Empire. In 1331 Stephen Dushan ascended the throne of Serbia and spent the next 20 years building up a Serbian Empire. Just like the Ottomans Dushan had taken full advantage of the Byzantine succession dispute to conquer much of Albania as well as parts of Thrace and Macedonia. In 1346 he had himself crowned 'Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks', and invited the Venetians to join him in the conquest of Constantinople. Rumours that he was interested in reuniting the Catholic and Orthodox confessions ensured Papal support for the scheme, but in 1355, just as he was about to set off on a grand crusade, Stephen Dushan died.

Dushan's Serbian Empire rapidly started to crumble after his death, but when the Ottomans occupied Philippopolis in 1363 there was sufficient glory left in the Serbian name to persuade its defeated commander to seek help from that direction. A united force of Serbs, Bosnians and Wallachians joined a Hungarian army under the Hungarian king, Louis the Great, and marched against the Turks at Edirne. But their rapid advance made the crusaders lazy. Less than two days from Edirne they made camp on the banks of the river Maritza and celebrated their progress with feasting. The local Ottoman commander led his predominately light cavalry arm in an ambush by night. The Christians fled across the Maritza, which was in spate, and thousands drowned.

In 1365 the Sultan transferred his capital from Bursa to Edirne, a move of tremendous significance. To locate one's capital on the edge of one's territory next to hostile neighbours was an act of enormous self-confidence, and it proclaimed the sultan's future intentions with profound clarity, Edirne was also a natural centre of horse-breeding and soon became the seat of the imperial stables and stud-farms for the cavalry. Long after the capture of Constantinople it remained a favourite imperial residence.

From Edirne Murad I could look out over his territory as far as the coast of the Black Sea, a stretch of land that encircled the rapidly decreasing area dependent upon Constantinople. The toehold in Europe established at Gelibolu had now been replaced by a mighty presence and a dramatic statement of intent. The Ottoman advance could now continue from a firm base. The greatest phase of the conquests was about to start.

Bran Castle, Romania.

              Cross outside main entrance to Vlad Tepes III castle, Bran, Transylvania, Romania.

A door under the mountain upon which sits Castle Bran, the home of Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula.

                                  Wall of Bran Castle - haunted by the ghost of Vlad Tepes.

                                                              Bran Castle, Romania.

Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) was allied with Bran and Brasov during his first reign (1436 – 1442) and through the start of his next reign, after the Princes of Transylvania requested that he handle the anti-Ottoman resistance at the border. During his second reign (1456 – 1462), however, his army passed through Bran in early 1459 to attack Brasov, in order to settle a conflict between the Wallachia Voivode and the Saxons, who requested higher customs taxes and supported his opponent for the throne. Vlad the Impaler burned the city’s suburbs and murdered hundreds of Saxons from Transylvania, provoking the Saxon community to seek revenge by later mentioning in reports that the Voivode were a tyrant and extremely ruthless.

Bran castle is advertised as fictional Dracula the vampire castle, not as castle of the real voivode named Vlad III Draculea, or Vlad the Impaler. As some wrote its true that voivode (duke) Vlad the Impaler had the Poenari fort which also true is in ruins today, he also had 2 or 3 other forts, one of them also ruins at Bucharest, there is only the underground more or less intact. Vlad was founder of Bucharest, as city there, can see today a small monument and the ruins and underground of his previous fortress. Poenari is considered an important fortress, its in the Carpathians on the border of historic Wallachia and Transylvania on a high peek (that's the beauty of the place that you can see on one side Transylvania and on other Wallachia), near the river Arges that is also seen in some fictional movies.

Hunyad Castle

The Hunyad Castle (Romanian: Castelul Huniazilor or Castelul Corvinestilor, Hungarian: Vajdahunyad vára) is a castle in Transylvanian Hunedoara, present-day Romania. Until 1541 it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, and after the Principality of Transylvania. Vlad the Impaler was imprisoned here for 7 years. Supposed to be extremely haunted.

Hunyad (or Corvin) Castle in Hunedoara is an amazing construction dating back to the 14th or 15th century, depending on whom you ask. Interestingly, it also has a tower named Nje Bojsia (meaning “Don’t be afraid,”) by the Serbian mercenaries who fought there. Add that to the coat of arms of the ruling family, which is a raven, and you get the perfect haunted location. And people really, really wanted it to be haunted. The crew of Most Haunted Live spent three nights here looking for Dracula, trusting the myth that says that Vlad the Impaler himself had spent seven years in the dungeons of the castle.

Although there is no proof of this being true, the castle still had its fair share of pain and torment. It is said that one of the leaders of the fortress, Iancu of Hunedoara, promised freedom to three Turkish prisoners if they would dig in the rock until they found water. The three prisoners are said to have dug for no less than 28 years before reaching their goal. Unfortunately for them, Iancu had died, and his wife didn’t care about her late husband’s promises. She ordered them to be beheaded. Before that, however, it is said that the three men managed to write, “You now have water but you don’t have heart,” together with their names, on the well wall to show the family’s lack of honor. Today, visitors can see both the well and its inscription in Turkish.

Dracula’s Armies

Mircea the Elder, grandfather of Vlad Tepes, accepted the suzerainty of Poland in 1387 and of Hungary in 1395.

Mircea’s reign strengthened the power of the state. New offices were organized, increased economic development moved ahead and trade with the merchants of Poland and Lithuania flourished. With the increase revenue, Mircea was able to flex his military power and fortify the Danube citadels. Renewal of treaties with Hungary and Poland ensured focus on the common threat, the Ottoman expansion.

Mircea’s intervention, supporting the Bulgarians, brought him in conflict with the Ottomans. Sultan Beyazid (the Thunderbolt) crossed the Danube with 40,000. With less than 10,000 troops, Mircea used guerilla warfare to maximum effect. On October 10, 1394, the armies clashed at Rovine, a forested and swamp area which inhibited the Ottomans from fully utilizing their superior numbers.

Despite a glorious victory, Mircea was forced to fall back to Hungary as Vlad Uzurpatorul had seized the throne. While exiled in Hungary, her monarch called for a Crusade against the Ottomans. Contingents from as far away as France, the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa, Venice and Bulgaria assembled and crossed the Danube. The Battle of Nicopolis ended any hope of the Crusade flourishing.

In 1397, with the help of Hungary, Mircea defeated Vlad the Usurper and stopped further Ottoman encroachment across the Danube. Further expeditions by the Ottomans met with no further success. The summer of 1402 began a period of anarchy when Sultan Beyazid met defeat by Tamerlane at Ankara.

Subsequent campaigns further strengthened Mircea’s power and toward the end of his reign, the Ottomans settled a treaty with tribute to halt any further attempts to make Wallachia a province of the Ottoman Empire.

Vlad the Impaler was a medieval Romanian prince famed for his brutal torture techniques and vicious lust for battle. His family name was Draculea, meaning ‘son of the dragon’. In legend, he is said to have turned against God after the death of his wife, becoming the evil undead. This myth lead to the modern interpretation of Count Dracula and other Vampire stories. In reality, Vlad was not a count but a prince. Whilst he was born in Transylvania, Vlad was Crown Prince of Wallachia, a country in the south of present day Romania, bordering Transylvania. He frequently made attacks on Transylvania, which was a contested region, and slaughtered many there for not accepting his authority.

Whilst Dracula is commonly associated with evil he is sometimes seen as being somewhat of a Christian hero. He was a member of the ‘order of the dragon’, an order of Hungarian knights sworn to protect Christian lands from the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Located between Christian Hungary and the huge Ottoman Empire, Wallachia was on the front line in the Ottoman expansion into Europe. Vlad’s barbarous torture techniques have earned him a place in history but they were not altogether unusual in medieval Europe. They may also have been exaggerated by his enemies. Impalement was supposedly his preferred method of execution, but this was common practice at the time. Reports that he burned entire villages to the ground are also unsurprising. In Western Europe, however, tales of Vlad’s attacks across the Balkans led to him being branded a ‘bloodthirsty’ tyrant. In Russia, on the other hand, stories of his brutality were equally rife, but most portrayed him as being a strong ruler and justified in his actions. These Russian accounts tell that he nailed hats to ambassadors’ heads.

The idea that Dracula was immortal may be derived from his own propaganda or that of the Ottomans, who found it difficult to put an end to his insurgency. When he finally was killed in battle, the Ottomans removed his head and placed it on display as proof of his death. It was impaled on a spike in a final twist of irony.

WALLACHIAN 1330 AD - 1504 AD

Rich boyars

Lesser boyars or viteji

Armoured voynuks with pole arms

Archers

curteni archers

Other rustici with spears, javelins, axes, halberds, flails, maces and scythes

Crossbowmen

Handgunners

Only Wallachians:

Moldavian allies

Hungarian allies

Ottoman allies

Wallachians after 1455 AD:

"Crusaders"

Bombards

Ditch and earth bank to protect artillery

This covers the Wallachians from their independence from Hungary in 1330 until they became vassals of the Ottomans in 1476 after the death of Dracula (Vlad Tepes, "Vlad the Impaler", 1456 - 1462 and 1476), The boyars were the nobility. Viteji were landowning peasants; many were promoted to the gentry by Dracula for bravery on the battlefield - and given the wealth of boyars he had impaled or otherwise inventively eliminated. The curteni were the standing army of cavalry and infantry. An Italian traveller of the mid-15th century described the Wallachian army as "ranking among the most valiant in the world". Wallachians sought to fight in mountain defiles, woods or marshy ground to restrict enemy cavalry. Some boyars wore partial plate armour and fought with lances, but others were of Lithuanian origin and may have fought in Lithuanian style. The Wallachians preferred a more mobile battle, launching sudden attacks from ambush and under Dracula indulging in night surprises and atrocities that established a complete morale ascendency over the Turks, who at night huddled terrified behind their camp defences. The so-called "Crusaders" were Italians and Bosnians and Croats in Italian armour and were actually paid mercenaries.