From Dragula to Cypelles: Wallachia in the Late 1470s

Alexandru Simon*

Abstract: For Pope Pius II, Vlad was John Dragula and his cruelty completed the lamented fate of
the Wallachians, Rome’s Eastern forgotten children, still capable of finding recovery and
redemption, Vlad included, under the authority of Matthias, the king of Hungary and of Dacia
(according to the same pope). Basarab IV, Cypelles for Beatrice of Aragon, that is either “Little
Impaller” or “Little Shoemaker”, seems to have been quite the opposite, though otherwise his and
Vlad’s “career choices” were quite similar: Vlad went from pro-Ottoman to pro-Hungarian,
“chosing” West over East, and Basarab turned from pro-Hungarian to pro-Ottoman, inheriting also
Mara Branković’s “medial” stand between West and East, that favoured a pro-Ottoman status-quo
at the borders of divided Christendom. Their short “joint-rule” over Wallachia, turned into
Christendom’s trench by King Matthias, Christendom’s hope, and Stephen of Moldavia, the athlete
of Christendom, is eloquent for the bi-polar survival of a divided state that gradually came to a –
temporary – end once both Ţepeş and Ţepeluş were gone. This occurred under the rules of Vlad IV
Călugărul, a former monk, Vlad’s half-brother, and of his son, Radu IV the Great, an “agent” of
Venice and of the Porte. At that time, the Greek rite Brankovićs were still barons of the realm of
Saint Stephen, as well as “registered voters” at the royal Hungarian elections of 1490, the year that
stands for both the end of Matthias’ plans and hopes for his son’s monarchic survival and in fact –
in early modern Wallachian chronicles – for the end of Stephen III’s 16/ 17 years of rule over
Wallachia.
Keywords: Vlad III Ţepeş (Dragula), Basarab IV Ţepeluş (Cypelles), Matthias Corvinus, Beatrice
of Aragon, Wallachia, Hungary, Ottoman Empire, churches, lands.

In March 1476 a letter reached Rome.1 It was deemed noteworthy enough to be

copied for the Sforza in Milan2 and for the Gonzaga in Mantua.3 The letter was sent to
Pope Sixtus IV4 by the former bishop of Transylvania, Gabriele Rangoni, recently

* Romanian Academy, Centre for Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca. E-mail:

[email protected].
1
For an overview: Al. Simon, “De Dragule crudelitate: ultima domnie a lui Vlad al III-lea Ţepeş pe
pământurile Valahiei Mari”, Revista Istorică, NS, XXIX (2018), 5-6 [2020], pp. 517-540.
2
Archivio di Stato di Milano, Milan (ASM), Archivio Ducale Sforzesco (A.D.S.), Potenze Estere, Ungheria,
cart. 650. 1452-1489, fasc. 22. 1476, nn. Published in Codex diplomaticus Partium Regno Hungariae
adnexarum (=Monumenta Hungariae Historica, I, 31, 33, 36, 40), II. Magyarország és Szerbia közti
összeköttetések oklevéltára. 1198-1526, edited by Lajos Thallóczy, Antal Áldásy (Budapest, 1907), no. 369,
pp. 265-268 (Szerbia); cf. Nicolae Iorga, “Lucruri nouă despre Vlad Ţepeş şi Ştefan cel Mare”, Convorbiri
Literare, XXXV, 1901, 2, 149-161, at pp. 160-161).
3
Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Mantua, Archivio Gonzaga, E. Affari esteri, V. Ungheria, busta 533. 1395-
1692, nn. For Mantua: Al. Simon, Naşterea şi moartea unui anti-erou: Nicolae de Modruš, Francesco
Gonzaga, Rodrigo Borgia şi cele 21 660 de victime ale lui Vlad al III-lea Ţepeş, in Relaţii interetnice în
Transilvania: interferenţe istorice, culturale şi religioase, edited by Ioan-Marian Ţiplic, Maria Crîngaci Ţiplic,
Nicolae Teşculă (Sibiu, 2019), 209-234.
4
Benjamin Weber, Lutter contre les Turcs: les formes nouvelles de la croisade pontificale au XVe siècle
(=Collection de l'École Française de Rome, CDLXXII) (Rome, 2013),
Acta Terrae Septemcastrensis, XX, 2021, 153-168
DOI: 10.2478/actatr-2021-0005
From Dragula ito Cypelles

appointed bishop of Eger.5 The lengthily report focused on the anti-Ottoman exploits of
King Matthias Corvinus6 and – foremost – of his captains: <former>voivode Vlad III of
Wallachia (the magnificent Ladislas, named Dragula according to Rangoni)7 and despot
Vuk Branković.8 Their campaign in the Ottoman parts of Serbia and Bosnia9 had been a
complete success, both militarily and financially.10 Rangoni was however utterly
disgusted by the massacres and the cruelties of Vlad, in particular, and Vuk.11 The prelate
went on and recalled the “private” acts of cruelty of Vlad, the new husband of Justine
Szilágyi,12 Matthias’ maternal cousin.13 Yet, at no point, did Gabriele Rangoni call either
Vlad III or Vuk schismatics;14 nor did he connect their violence to their unquestionable
Greek rite background.15
The same was true – in Vlad’s case – in the writings of Pope Pius II (c. 1463)16
and – most importantly – in the folios of bishop Nicholas of Modruś (c. 1473).17 As the

5
Petr Hlaváček, Im Dienst der Christenheit: Der Franziskaner und Diplomat Gabriel Rangoni von Verona †
1486) und seine Wirkung in Italien und Ostmitteleuropa, in Hofkultur der Jagiellonendynastie und verwandter
Fürstenhäuser, edited by Urszula Borkowska, Markus Hörsch, Evelin Wetter (Ostfildern, 2010), 107-118.
6
John V.A. Fine, A Tale of Three Fortresses. Controversies Surrounding the Turkish Conquest of Smederevo,
of an Unnamed Fortress at the Junction of the Sava and Bosna, and of Bobovac, in Peace and War in
Byzantium. Essays in Honor of George T. Dennis, S.J., edited by Timothy S. Miller, John Nesbitt
(Washington, DC, 1995), 181-196.
7
See Ştefan Andreescu, L’action de Vlad Ţepeş dans le sud-est de l’Europe en 1476, in Revue des Études
Sud-Est Européennes, XV (1977), 2, 259-272.
8
On him, see also Davor Salihović, An Interesting Episode: Nicholas of Ilok's Kingship in Bosnia, 1471-1477
[MA thesis (CEU)] (Budapest, 2016), 53-54.
9
On these “peculiar” border-areas, see also Emir O. Filipović, The Key to the Gate of Christendom? The
Strategic Importance of Bosnia in the Struggle against the Ottomans, in The Crusade in the Fifteenth Century:
Converging and Competing Cultures, edited by Norman Housley (New York, 2017), 151-168.
10
See recently Albert Weber, Adrian Gheorghe, Noi descoperiri în arhivele Italiei și Austriei cu privire la
ultimul an din viața lui Vlad Țepeș 1476), Muzeul Naţional, XXXI (2019), 27-46.
11
For comments on the letter, see also Corpus Draculianum: documentele şi cronicile relative la viaţa şi
domnia voievodului Vlad Ţepeş 1437-1650), general-editors Thomas M. Bohn, A. Gheorghe, Christof
Paulus, A. Weber, I. Scrisori şi documente de cancelarie, 2. Cancelarii externe, edited by A. Weber, A.
Gheorghe, Ştefan Marinca, Alexandru Ştefan Anca (Bucharest-Brăila, 2020), no. 89, 115-123.
12
The marriage was probably concluded before the start of the matrimonial negotiations between Matthias
and Ferdinand of Aragon, king of Naples, in early 1474 (see also Elisabetta Scarton, “Tra dualicità et
tradimenti: La politica (matrimoniale) di Ferrante d’Aragona nei primi anni Settanta del Quattrocentoletta
attraverso i dispacci sforzeschi da Napoli”, eHumanista, XXXVIII (2018), 186-200, at 189).
13
Tamás Fedeles, “Drakwlyahza”, in Fons, skepsis, lex. Ünnepi tanulmányok a 70 esztendős Makk Ferenc
tiszteletére, edited by Tibor Almási, Éva Révész, György Szabados (Szeged, 2010), 107-114.
14
See already Mihailo Popović, The Order of the Dragon and the Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarević, in
Emperor Sigismund and the Orthodox World (=Denkschriften der Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, CDIX), edited by Ekaterini Mitsiou, M. Popović, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Al. Simon
(Vienna, 2010), 103-106.
15
We have attempted to address this question in our – to be published – lecture Mass Murders, but not
Schismatics? Two Latin Rite Bishops on the Deeds of Vlad III the Impaller and Vuk Branković, at Conflict
after Compromise: Regulating Tensions in Multi-Confessional Societies in the Fifteenth Century (Charles
University, Centre for Medieval Studies, Prague), Prague (November 11-12 2021: November 11, 2021).
16
Al. Simon, A Humanist's Pontifical Playground: Pius II and Transylvania in the Days of John Dragula,
Transylvanian Review, XXIX, 2020, suppl. 2 [2021], 35-70; Idem, The Pope, the Hunyadis and the
Wallachians: The Curious Case of Pius II, in Banatica, XXX, 2020, 2, 59-108.
17
Luka Spoliarijć, Nicholas of Modruš, The Glory of Illyria: Humanist Patriotism and Self-Fashioning in
Renaissance Rome [PhD Thesis (CEU)] (Budapest, 2013), 293; Idem, Nicholas of Modruš and his De Bellis

154
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issue of Vlad’s conversion to the Latin rite (unrecorded in Vuk’s case),18 forbidden under
the provisions of the “notes and complements” of the Union of Florence (1439),19
appeared only in a particular German story on Vlad20 and in the Russian tale21 on
Dracula’s deeds (both written ten years at least after Vlad’s death, at the end of 1476),22
a twofold question emerges: (1) was the Union of Florence still considered valid in the
Kingdom of Hungary and at its borders23 and (2) were massacres justified as long as they
served the higher purposes of Holy War?24 The latter point is particularly important
because: (1) Vlad’s and Vuk’s (the Drachendespot’s, for he – too? – was a member of
the Order of the Dragon25) actions impacted not only Turks, but also Christians (Greek
rite)26 and led also to what can arguably call the first massacre of Srebrenica.27 (2) Both

Gothorum: Politics and National History in the Fifteenth-Century Adriatic, in Renaissance Quarterly, LXXII,
2019, 2, 457-491, at 472-474.
18
It should – however – be added that Vuk, like the other Branković in Hungary, was omitted from the
Athonite testaments of Mara Branković, Murad II’s widow (Ru a Čuk, Povelja carice Mare manastirima
Hilandar i Sv. Pavlu, Istorijski Časopis, XXIV (1977), 103-116; Aleksandar Fotić, Sveta Gora i Hilandar u
Osmanskom carstvu (XV-XVII vek), Belgrade (2000), 194-203, 247-248.
19
E.g. Odorico Rinaldi, Annales ecclesiastici ab anno MCXCVIII ubi desinit Cardinalis Baronibus auctore
Odorico Raynaldo accedunt, XVIII, Rome, 1693, Ad annum 1448, no. 10, 359. Stephen III of Moldavia also
opposed changing rites (Ioan Bogdan, Documentele lui Ştefan cel Mare, II (Bucharest, 1913), no. 176, 411;
no. 180, 451).
20
See most recently Gabriele Annas, Ch. Paulus, Geschichte und Geschichten. Studien zu den Deutschen
Berichten über Vlad III. Drăculea (=Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Studien und Text, LXVII)
(Wiesbaden, 2020); Jan Niklas Meier, Der Woiwode als Monster: Vlad III. bei Michael Beheim und in der
Geschichte dracole waide (Baden-Baden, 2021).
21
Grigore Nandriş, The Historical Dracula: The Theme of his Legend in the Western and in the Eastern
Literatures of Europe, in Comperative Literature Studies, III (1966), 4, 367-396, especially 386.
22
For the context, see also Daniel Ursprung, Propaganda şi popularizare. Povestirile tipărite despre Vlad
Ţepeş în contextul anului 1488, in Analele Putnei, XIV (2018), 1, 45-60, in particular 47-48.
23
Recent case-studies seem to indicate that the union was still valid (Ioan-Aurel Pop, Daniela Marcu Istrate,
Tudor Sălăgean, Al. Simon, De vertice montis: Feleacul, Clujul şi Transilvania în Evul Mediu (=Minerva, I,
15) (Cluj-Napoca, 2017), 124-128; see also Ana Dumitran, The Chronology of the Murals in the Râmeț
Monastic Church (Alba County, Romania) Based on a Reevaluation of the Dating of the Narthex Inscription,
in Museikon, IV, 2020, 109-162, at 156-159).
24
See also N. Housley, Crusading and the Ottoman Threat. 1453-1505 (Oxford, 2012), 100-106.
25
For the well-informed Jakob Unrest, Vuk certainly was the Drachendespot (Österreichische Chronik
(=Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, NS, XI), edited by Karl Grossman,
(Weimar, 1957; reprint Munich, 1968), 68, 108, for the years 1476 and 1479). It may go without saying that
Vlad III was the son of Vlad II Dracul, himself a member of the Order of Dragon, created by Sigismund of
Luxemburg (see also Al. Simon, At the Turn of the Fourteenth Century: Notes on Sigismund of Luxemburg
and the Wallachian Princely Stars of the Fifteenth Century, in Acta Terrae Septemcastrensis, XIX (2020),
135-155, at 141, notes 32 and 34).
26
See the report on his recent anti-Ottoman campaign sent by Vlad to Matthias in February 1462, last
published in Corpus Draculianum, I. Scrisori şi documente de cancelarie, 1. Cancelarii valahe, edited by A.
Gheorghe, A. Weber, Al. Şt. Anca, Ginel Lazăr, Jürgen Fuchsbauer (Bucharest-Brăila, 2019), no. 23, 103-
130.
27
For the highly tense – ethnical and confessional – context in <former> Serbia, Bosnia, as well as Bulgaria,
during the combats of 1475-1476, see also Antoine-Emile Tachiaos, Nouvelles considerations sur l'œuvre
littéraire de Démétrius Cantacuzène, in Cyrillomethodianum, I, 1971, 131-182, at 139; Ivan Biliarsky, Dva
narŭchnika za pitakia ot kŭsnoto srednovekovie, in Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Institut, XXIX-XXX 1991,
233-300, at 248, 258; Ljubinka D idrova, Crusaders in the Central Balkans, in The Crusades and Military
Orders: Expanding the Borders of Medieval Latin Christianity, edited by Zsolt Hunyadi, József Laszlovszky
(Budapest, 2000), 187-211, at 194.

155
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Vlad and Vuk28 had spent time in active Ottoman (Muslim)29 service before (re)turning –
for good – to the Christian side.30
Churches and Patrons. Vlad III certainly had an “eye” for the (Greek rite)
Church. Half of the “domestic charters” preserved from him were pious deeds.32
31

Their timing was very precise.33 In March 1458, some six weeks after Matthias’
election as king of Hungary and three weeks after the son of John Hunyadi had entered
Buda,34 Vlad, recently designated his loyal prince by Matthias,35 extended his grace
over the Tismana Monastery,36 the foundation of the Serbian Saint Nicodimus,37 the
trustee of both Mircea I of Wallachia and of Sigismund of Luxemburg.38 A year
earlier, in April 1457,39 a month after the beheading of Ladislas Hunyadi and the
imprisonment of his younger brother Matthias,40 Vlad, the sworn enemy of the late

28
Katarina Mitrović, Vuk Grgurević između Mehmeda II. i Matije Korvina 1458-1465), in Braničevski
Glasnik, II, 2003, 19-33. For an overview: Aleksandar Krstić, ”Which realm will you opt for?” The Serbian
nobility between the Ottomans and the Hungarians in the 15th century”, in State and Society in the Balkans
Before and After Establishment of Ottoman Rule, edited by Srdan Rudić, Selim Aslantaş (Belgrade, 2017),
129–163.
29
Yet, both Vlad and Vuk served under Murad II and Mehmed II, quite “different” in religious matters in
comparison to the devout Bayezid II and to the latter’s successors (Cemal Kafadar, Between Two Worlds: The
Construction of the Ottoman State (Berkeley, CA, 1995), 56-59, 62-67).
30
The best known return was – naturally – that of Skanderbeg (still valuable Fan Stylian Noli, George
Castrioti Scanderbeg (1405-1468) [PhD Thesis (Boston University)] (Boston, 1945), 104-109).
31
Al. Simon, Imperator et dux: On the Churches and the Fortresses of Dracula, in Studia Antiqua et
Archaeologica, XXVII, 2021, suppl., pp. 31-60. For Vlad and the Church(es), see Constantin Rezachevici,
Vlad Ţepeş şi Biserica, in Izvoare istorice, arta, cultura şi societate: în memoria lui Constantin Bălan 1928-
2005), edited by C. Rezachevici (Bucureşti, 2010), 115-128; Ramona Neacşa, De la Mircea cel Bătrân la
Neagoe Basarab. Raporturile dintre domnie şi biserică în Ţara Românească (Târgovişte, 2014), 100-111; Şt.
Andreescu, Vlad the Impaler and the Bible, in Vlad derPfähler-Dracula: Tyrann oder Volkstribun?, edited by
Th. M. Bonn, Rayk Einax, Stefan Rohdewald (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017), 189-196.
32
Cf. already Al. Simon, Ştefan cel Mare şi Matia Corvin. O coexistenţă medievală (Cluj-Napoca, 2007),
522-527.
33
The destruction of princely and private archives prevents us however from expanding the “statistical
observations”. In general, the Church better – and rightfully – defended her documented interests.
34
Pál Engel, The Realm of St. Stephen. A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526 (London, 2001), pp. 298-
299.
35
Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, VI, 1458-1473, edited by Gustav Gündisch,
Herta Gündisch, Gernot Nussbächer, Konrad Gündisch (Bucharest, 1981), no. 3108, p. 7.
36
Documenta Romaniae Historica (DRH), B. Ţara Românească, I. 1247-1500, edited by P.P. Panaitescu,
Damaschin Mioc (Bucharest, 1966), no. 117, 202. Republished in Corpus Draculianum, I-1, no. 9, 50-51.
37
Đurađ Sp. Radojičić, Bulgaroalbanitoblahos et Serboalbanitobulgaroblahos: deux caractéristiques
ethniques du Sud-Est Européen du XIVe et XVe siècle. Nicodème de Tismana et Grégoire Camblak,
Romanoslavica, XIII (1966), 77-79.
38
I.-A. Pop, Al. Simon, Misiunile Sfântului Nicodim în contextul politicilor bisericeşti ale Veneţiei şi
Ungariei, in Mitropolia Olteniei, LVIII (2006), 9-12, 234-252.
39
At the time of the Moldavian enthronement of Stephen III, with support from Vlad III, but also with the
“blessing” of Mehmed II (Ovidiu Cristea, The Friend of My Friend and the Enemy of My Enemy: Romanian
Participation in Ottoman Campaigns, in The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, edited by Gábor Kármán, Lovro Kunčević (Leiden-Boston-Cologne,
2013), 253-274, at 272-273).
40
György Szekély, “Hunyadi László kivégzése: struktúraváltozások a magyar állam és fováros
kormányzásában”, in Tanulmányok Budapest Multjabol, XXII (1988), 61-102.

156
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Ladislas,41 had issued his first preserved domestic charter, for the Cozia Monastery,42
the necropolis of Mircea I, deemed later – alike Sigismund43 – “the true father” of John
Hunyadi44 (in the latter case, by the entourage of John Corvinus, duke of Croatia and
citizen of Venice, the illegitimate son of Matthias45). Vlad’s next “set of donations”,
including a grant for the Philotheou Monastery (listed as an Albanian one), on Mount
Athos,46 came in the second half of 1461,47 when the Albanian (-Serbian)48 Skanderbeg
was leaving on his Italian condotta49 and Mehmed II was preparing to take Trebizond,
“the last Byzantine Empire”50 (then, in early 1462, with Skanderbeg on his Adriatic way
back to the West-Balkans, Vlad launched his (in)famous attack along the Danube on
Mehmed’s subjects51).
Matthias, in his turn, showed grace to the Greek rite monks in Wallachia,52
following in the footsteps of Sigismund of Luxemburg (during the anti-Ottoman
combats of 1419 and 1428)53 and John Hunyadi (in 1444, before he left on the crusade
of Varna).54 However, as far as we know, it was neither Tismana, nor Vodiţa, the
foundations of Nicodimus, that benefitted from Matthias, but Cozia, the necropolis of

41
DRH, D. Relaţiile între Ţările Române, I. 1222-1456, edited by Ştefan Pascu, Constantin Cihodaru, K.G.
Gündisch, D. Mioc, Viorica Pervain (Bucharest, 1977), no. 341, 461-462.
42
Vlad III’s first preserved domestic charter: DRH, B, I, no. 115, 199-200; Corpus Draculianum, I-1, no. 7, 41-
43.
43
Radu Lupescu, Matthias Hunyadi: from the Family Origins to the Threshold of Power, in Matthias
Corvinus, the King: Tradition and Renewal in the Hungarian Royal Court 1458-1490, edited by Péter
Farbaky, Enikő Spekner, Katalin Szende, András Végh (Budapest, 2008), 35-49, at 35-36.
44
I.-A. Pop, Al. Simon, Hungaria, Polonia, Dacia et Crouatia: Veneţia, Casa de Habsburg şi Moldova la
sfârşitul secolului al XV-lea, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie A.D. Xenopol, LII (2015), suppl. [2016)], 43-
89, at 77-78.
45
Iván Nagy, Corvin János velenczei nemességéről, in Új Magyar Múzeum, III, 1853, 1, 655-656.
46
B. de Khitrowo [Sofiia Petrovna Khitrovo], Itinéraires russes en Orient (Geneva, 1889), 289-294 (1492);
Heath W. Lowry, A Note on the Population and Status of the Athonite Monasteries under Ottoman Rule (ca.
1520), in Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, LXXIII (1981), 115-135, at 126 (c. 1520).
47
DRH, B, I, no. 119, 205. Omitted from Corpus Draculianum, I-1.
48
After the nefarious “Schmitt incident” of 2009-2010, the subject should be revisited in balanced scholarly
manner.
49
Oliver-Jens Schmitt, Skanderbeg: noul Alexandru din Balcani (Cluj-Napoca, 2014), 207-211, 214-219.
50
Rustam Shukurov, The Byzantine Turks, 1204-1461 (Leiden-Boston, 2016), 258-259.
51
Radu Lungu, À propos de la campagne anti-ottomane de Vlad l' Empaleur au sud du Danube (Hiver 1461-
1462), in Revue Roumaine d' Histoire, XXII (1983), 2, 147-158. For Skanderbeg’s location: Schmitt,
Skanderbeg, 218.
52
1458 also stands for Matthias’ reconstruction of the Saint Nicholas – apparently Vlad’s favourite patron saint
– church in Hunedoara, destroyed by John Capestran’s “zealots” (Zeno Karl Pinter, Ioan Marian Ţiplic,
Cercetări arheologice la Biserica Sf. Nicolae – Hunedoara, in Buletinul Comisiei Monumentelor Istorice, NS,
X (1999), 1-4, 60-67).
53
DRH, D, I, no. 125, 204-205; nos. 128-129, 210-212; no. 169, 266-268. For the context: Tamás Pálosfalvi,
From Nicopolis to Mohács: A History of Hungarian-Ottoman Warfare. 1389-1526 (Leiden-Boston, 2018),
173, 194. Prior to Mircea’s death (1418), only Ştefan Lazarević, Drachendespot (he was a “founding
member” of the Order of the Dragon) issued a privilege for the foundations of Nicodimus, the relative of the
Serbian despot.
54
DRH, D, I, no. 276, pp. 384-387. For the events of 1444 and the crown of Bulgaria promised to Hunyadi in
exchange for breaking the “Peace of Szeged-Oradea” and resuming the war against Murad II, see P. Engel,
János Hunyadi and the Peace of Szeged 1444), in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae,
XLVII (1994), 2, 241-257.

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Mircea.55 At that time (June 29, 1473), on one hand, Mehmed II, accompanied by Vlad
III’s unwanted successor and brother, Radu III the Handsome,56 but also by the soldiers
of Stephen III the Great of Moldavia,57 fought in Asia Minor against the Turkmen khan,
Usun Hassan, Christendom’s great hope;58 on the other, Matthias, whose – only – son
John had just been born (on April 2, 1473, in Buda),59 battled for his royal survival in
Bohemia,60 as well as at the Adriatic border of the Balkans.61 Less than half a year later,
Ragusa informed Venice that Stephen, through his campaign in Wallachia, was paving
the way for Vlad’s return to power.62
Manifold curiosities embrace the modern – but also late medieval – portrayal of
those shifting years.63 No ruler of Wallachia (or of Moldavia) was “blacklisted” in the
Hungarian realm (and by its representatives) as schismatic in the second half of the 15th
century,64 after the fall of Byzantium (1453)65 and the miracle of Belgrade (1456).66
Then, even the previously pro-Ottoman voivodes Wladislaw II and Peter Aaron sided
with John Hunyadi, betrayed – in return – by both Vlad III and future Stephen III.67 The

55
DRH, B, I, no. 144, 240-241. Unlike the deeds of Sigismund and John, Matthias’ charter for Cozia was
never – wrongfully – deemed a forgery from the time of the Austrian administration (1716-1739) of Oltenia/
Lesser or Western Wallachia (P.P. Panaitescu, Mircea cel Bătrân, edited by Gheorghe Lazăr (Bucharest,
2001), 421-423).
56
O. Cristea, Nagy Pienaru, Ţara Românească şi bătălia de la Başkent, in Analele Putnei, VIII (2012), 1, 17-
36.
57
Al. Simon, Habsburgs, Jagiellonians and Crusading: The Wallachian Case in the 1470s, in The
Jagiellonians in Europe: Dynastic Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, edited by Attila Bárány (Debrecen,
2016), 53-68.
58
Małgorzata Dąbrowska, Uzun Hassan's Project of Alliance with the Polish King, in Eadem, Hidden Secrets:
Late Byzantium in the Western and Polish Context (Łódź, 2017), 211-232.
59
Gyula Schönherr, Hunyadi Corvin János. 1473-1504 (Budapest, 1894), 18-19. The deed for Cozia was
issued by the Buda chancery, while Matthias was – since before John’s birth – in the north, in Brno at that
time (Richárd Horváth, Itineraria regis Matthiae Corvini et reginae Beatricis de Aragonia (1458-1476-1490)
(Budapest, 2011), 98).
60
A. Bárány, Matthias Corvinus and Charles the Bold, in Chronica, XII (2012), 69-88, at 76-77.
61
Luka Spoljarić, Nicholas of Modruš and his De Bellis Gothorum: Politics and National History in the
Fifteenth-Century Adriatic, in Renaissance Quarterly, LXXII, 2019, 2, 457-491, at 476-481.
62
I.-A. Pop, Atletul Ştefan şi românii ca protagonişti la Marea Neagră în epistole semnate de Papa Sixt al IV-
lea şi de umanistul Francesco Filelfo 1475-1476), in Spre pământul făgăduinţei, între Balcani şi Bugeac.
Omagiu Doamnei Profesoare Elena Siupiur la împlinirea vârstei de 80 de ani, edited by Daniel Cain, Aneta
Mihaylova, Roumiana L. Stantcheva, Andrei Timotin (Brăila, 2020), 17-34, Appendix, no. 2, 30-31.
63
See, in comparison, Marian Coman, O. Cristea, Istorii paralele, istorii convergente. Moldova şi Ţara
Românească în 1457 şi 1476, in Analele Putnei, XI (2015), 1, 99-120.
64
See the edited and unedited sources collected in the database http://siebenbuergenurkundenbuch.uni-
trier.de/. The statement above is quite surprising. Yet we could not find evidence to contradict it. We hope to
find such evidence, because it would be significantly “easier” to deal with schismatic voivodes that with “non-
schismatic” voivodes.
65
For the –Pontifical – Wallachian changes triggered by the year 1453, see I.-A. Pop, Al. Simon, The
Hunyadis and Dacia: From the Fall of Constantinople to the Peace of Wiener-Neustadt, in Banatica, XXX
(2020), 2, 35-57.
66
For an overview: Al. Simon, Lasting Conquests and Wishful Recoveries: Crusading in the Black Sea Area
after the Fall of Constantinople, in Imago Temporis Medium Aevum, V, 2012, 301-315; Anastasija Ropa,
Imagining the 1456 Siege of Belgrade in Capystranus, in The Hungarian Historical Review, IV (2015), 2,
255-282
67
Al. Simon, John Hunyadi between Belgrade and Cetatea Albă in the 1450s’, in Banatica, XIX (2009), 25-
38.

158
 Simon

long and predominantly tolerant reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437)68 had

certainly altered the “so-to-say” Angevine rhetoric of the 1300s.69 Still, the documentary
(at least) change, in favour of the Greek rite Wallachians,70 appears quite dramatic,71 as
there was otherwise72 no “Hungarian” shortage of enraged words73 to describe the
treacherous stands of the voivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia.74 Moreover, the same

68
See, in this case, chiefly Adrian Magina, Răufăcători sau… schismatici? Statutul ortodocşilor bănăţeni în
jurul anului 1400, in Românii în Europa medievală între Orientul bizantin şi Occidentul latin). Studii în
onoarea Profesorului Victor Spinei, edited by Dumitru Ţeicu, Ionel Cândea (Brăila, 2008), 283-294.
69
This rhetoric should also be revisited (cf. already Sima Cirković, O jednoj srpsko-ugarskoj alijansi”,
Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, XLIV (2007), 2, 411-421.). Louis I “based” his anti-schismatic
decisions of 1366 also on the statements of the Athonite suite of Emperor John V Palaeologus (Dyonisius
Lasić, “Fr. Bartholomaei de Alverna, Vicarii Bosnae 1367-1407, quaedam scripta hucusque inedita”,
Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, LV (1962), 59-81, at 74-75). The same king supported Greek rite rulers,
as well as hierarchs loyal to him (Adrian Ioniţă, Beatrice Kelemen, Al. Simon, AL WA: prinţul negru al
Vlahiei şi vremurile sale (Cluj-Napoca, 2017), 165-166).
70
Because of the “Moldavian-Transylvanian” provisions of Pope Eugenius IV from 1436 (Acta Eugenii PP
IV(1431-1447) (=Fontes, III, 15), edited by Georgio Fedalto (Rome, 1990), no. 421, pp. 229-230).), his
response to the unionist “double-dealings” of both Byzantium and Sigismund (Pop-Marcu-Sălăgean-Simon,
De vertice montis, 121-122), the initial change may predate the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1437-1439).
Anyhow, in 1439-1440, Lazar, the son of George Branković, despot of Serbia was seriously considered as a
candidate for the royal crown of Hungary, after the death of Albert of Habsburg, Sigismund’s son-in-law (see
also Pálosfalvi, From Nicopolis to Mohács, 85, note 40).
71
An additional note is perhaps needed. Moldavia (with her rulers) was – occasionally – labeled schismatic in
Poland, but by association with Moscow, due to the conflict over Kyiv (Materialy do dziejów dyplomacji
polskiej z lat 1486-1516 (Kodeks zagrzebski), edited by Jószef Garbacik (Wrocław-Warsaw-Krakow, 1966), no.
43, 128), and the Ruthenians, because of disputed Podolia (Petro B.T. Bilaniuk, The Fifth Lateran Council
(1512-1517) and the Eastern Churches (Toronto, 1975), 88-89). In comparison, Hungary (i.e. Hungarian
secular and spiritual authorities) seems to have been – directly and indirectly – much more tolerant than Poland
(i.e. Polish secular and spiritual authorities) in these matters.
72
A certain “reciprocity” seems to have been operational since the 1450s (Al. Simon, Gibt es eine orthodoxe
Form von Terra Christianorum? Über die Orthodoxen in Ungarn und die Katholiken in der Moldau in der
zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts, in Corviniana, XIV (2021), 29-46; perhaps noteworthy enough, in 1481,
the Hungarian Diet explicitly listed only the Serbians as schismatics, but not the Wallachians, when exempting
them for the payment of the dime).
73
The Chronicle of John Thuróczy (prior to 1488) and the Decades of Antonio Bonfini (after 1486) are worth
a closer inspection. Wallachian voivodes were violently attacked for their – so-called – treacheries, but not for
their faith (the case of Stephen III is eloquent; Al. Simon, “Antonio Bonfini’s Valachorum regulus”,in
Between Worlds, I. Stephen the Great, Matthias Corvinus and their Time (=Mélanges d’Histoire Générale,
NS, I, 1), edited by László Koszta, Ovidiu Mureşan, Al. Simon (Cluj-Napoca, 2007), 207-226). We must also
bear in mind that, if Florin Curta’s assumption is correct (Oblivion and Invention: Charlemagne and Wars
with the Avars, in Frühmittelalterliche Studien, LV (2021), 1, 61-88, at p. 84, note 106), the vast majority of
Bonfini’s work, from Book IX of the First Decade onwards (where the Italian humanist ascribed the attribute
divus to the king), was written after Matthias’ death (1490), under the rule of his unwanted successor,
Wladislaw II Jagiello, also Matthias’ co- king of – heretic – Bohemia, or schismatic, according to Matthias’
Papal correspondence (e.g. Antonin Kalous, The Legation of Angelo Pecchinoli at the Court of the King of
Hungary (1488-1490) (=Collectanea Vaticana Hungariae, II, 8) (Budapest-Rome, 2021), no. 9, 22).
74
E.g. O. Cristea, Puterea cuvintelor. Ştiri şi război în secolele XV-XVI (Târgovişte, 2014), 85-99. The most
eloquent example is probably the stand of Matthias towards Stephen III after the king’s – largely ill-fated –
Moldavian campaign at the end of 1467 (Al. Simon, Valahii la Baia.Regatul Ungariei, Domnia Moldovei şi
Imperiul Otoman în 1467, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie A.D. Xenopol, XLVI (2009), 125-150, at 142-
144).

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voivodes remained pious donors on Mount Athos75 and even loyal to the pro-Ottoman
(post 1453) Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinopole,76 at least nominally (according
to Bayezid II’s berat from 1483 for patriarch Simeon I),77 not to mention the numerous
Ottoman/crusader double-dealings of the voivodes.78
In fact, the most schismatic of all post 1400 Wallachian rulers was Vlad III, if
we trust German tales – and only them – on his deeds,79 and not any other type of coeval
records (official papers included).80 Yet, he easily married into the Hunyadi family on
two occasions: in – foremost – 1462 (after his Danubian massacres)81 and around 1473-
1474 (after his “Hungarian confinement”).82 “Other” issues – seemingly – took
precedence over the matters of the true – Christian – beliefs.83
Lands and Masters. The political framework of these pious deeds emphasizes
the complex structure of Wallachia84 in the second half of the 15th century (placed at the
crossroads between Hungary, the Ottoman Empire but also rising Moldavia85), and
draws attention to a report on Vlad’s eventual death.86

[...] Per altre mie del di 27 del passato [January 27, 1477] a Vostra
Illustrissima Signoria [Bona of Savoy87] furono advisata, como per la via de
Albania se haveva nova, che'l Turco [Mehmed II] haveva expugnato uno bastione, il

75
See in this context Boško I. Bojović, P.Ş. Năsturel, Les fondations dynastiques du Mont-Athos: des
dynasties serbes et de la sultane Mara aux princes roumains, in Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes, LXI
(2003), 1-4, 149-176.
76
In relation to the subsequently cited sources, see Al. Simon, The Relations between the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople and Venice in a Venetian Document of 1480, in Românii în Europa
medievală, 587-600.
77
Georgios Salakides, Sultansurkunden des Athos-Klosters Vatopedi aus der Zeit Bayezid II. und Selim I.
Kritische Edition und wissenschaftlicher Kommentar (Thessaloniki, 1995), no. 13, 73.
78
We recall that the schismatic Wallachians were among the main “culprits” after the crusader disaster of Varna
in 1444 (Kiril Petkov, From Schismatic to Fellow Christians: East Central European Religious Attitudes
Towards the Orthodox Balkans (1354-1572), in Mediaevistik, VIII (1995), 171-192, at 176-181, John
Jefferson, The Holy Wars of King Wladislas and Sultan Murad: The Ottoman-Christian Conflict from 1438-
1444 (Leiden-Boston, 2012), 46-47).
79
Unsurprisingly in fact, this aspect eluded the attention of Matei Cazacu in his Dracula (Leiden-Boston,
2017).
80
For an overview, see the entries (chiefly those posterior to 1462) in Corpus Draculianum, I-1 and – in
particular – I-2.
81
Cf. already Ioan Bianu, Ştefan cel Mare. Câteva documente din arhivul de stat de la Milano, Columna lui
Traian IV (1883), 1-2, 30-47, at no. 1, 34-35.
82
Cf. already A. Kubinyi, Matthias Corvinus: The King and the Man, in Between Worlds, I, 17-36, at 21-22.
83
In relation to the case of Vlad, see the benevolent attitude of Thomas Ebendorf (who authored a violent
portrait of the cruel ruler) towards Greek rite Christians, attitude analyzed by Petkov, From Schismatic to
Fellow Christians, 182.
84
See also M. Coman, The Reign of a Defrocked Monk: A Late Fifteenth Century Case Study in the
Wallachian Political Language, in Religious Rhetoric of Power in Byzantium and South-Eastern Europe,
edited by I. Biliarsky, Mihail Mitrea, A. Timotin (Brăila, 2021), 189-221.
85
Ştefan S. Gorovei, Maria-Magdalena Székely, Princeps omni laude maior: o istorie a lui Ştefan cel Mare
(Putna, 2005), 100-101.
86
Al. Simon, Mehmed II's Return to Moldovia in 1476 and the Death of the King of Dacia, in Transylvanian
Review, XXIX (2020), suppl. 1, 53-64.
87
Daniel M. Bueno De Mesquita, Bona de Savoia, in Dizionario Bibliografico degli Italiani, XI (1969), sub
voce.

160
 Simon

quale el Re de Ungaria [Matthias Corvinus] haveva facto fare per tutela de

Belgrado et per obsidione de Semedro [Smederevo]. Hora significo alla Vestra
Signoria como dicta nova per la via d'Ungheria se e verificata, et quod maius est. El
praefato Re advisa questa Signoria, como ultra l'expugnatione del dicto bastione li
Turchi sono etiam corsi nella Valachia Maggiore, et di novo le hanno riacquistata
tutta et hanno tagliato ad pezzi Draculia [Vlad III (Ţepeş)], capitaneo del dicto Re,
con circa quattro mille persone, et similiter hanno morto Bozarab [Basarab IV
(Ţepeluş)], Signore della dicta Valachia, la quale novella e riputata qua molto
sinistra et pernitiosa per li Christiani, et maximamente che pare, che'l prelibato Re
de Ungaria con li sui soliti modi accenni non poteva resistere ad tanti impeti, sol e
non adiutato [...] (Venice, February 1, 1477).88

The report sent to Duchess Bona of Savoy by Leonardo Botta, Milan’s seasoned
representative in Venice,89 provides the only truly coeval information on Vlad’s demise.90
The data on Dracula’s death is otherwise either posterior by a couple of months (e.g. the
speech delivered in May 1477, in Venice,91 Matthias’ “strange ally”92 and Stephen of
Moldavia’s protector93, by John Tzamplakon, Stephen’s envoy)94 or was preserved in
chronicles and tales from the 1480s and chiefly 1490s,95 yet less in Western ones (this
also “led” to Vlad’s – Venetian – victory of 1486 over Bayezid II).96
According to Botta’s Venetian sources, Vlad had been only Matthias’ captain
(“viceroy”) in Wallachia.97 Until at the end of 1476 Mehmed II’s intervention collapsed

88
ASM, A.D.S. Potenze Estere, Venezia, cart. 364. 1477, fasc. 2. Febbrario, nn. Already published in I. Nagy,
Albert Nyáry, Magyar diplomacziai emlékek. Mátyás király korából 1458-1490 (=Monumenta Hungariae
Historica, IV, 1-4), II. [1466-1480] (Budapest, 1876), no. 234, 339-340 (MDE).
89
Roberto Zapperini, “Leonardo Botta”, Dizionario Bibliografico degli Italiani, XIII (1971), sub voce; Giulia
Calabrò, “Siati per le mille fiate el ben venuto…: la prassi dell’arrivo e dell’accoglienza di un ambasciatore
(Napoli 1471-Venezia 1473)”, I Quaderni del Mediae Aetatis Sodalicum, XVIII (2018), 205-222.
90
This fact was – apparently – never emphasized, though we cannot state that it was never – properly –
noticed.
91
We must emphasize, under these circumstances, that Venice was not known for tolerant stands towards
neither Greek rite Christians, nor Jews (see also Al. Simon, Jewish Merchants between Cross and Crescent:
The Greek Rite Case of Moldavia, in Social and Political Elites in Eastern and Central Europe (15th-18th
Centuries) (=Studies in Russia and Eastern Europe, XIII), edited by Cristian Luca, Laurenţiu Rădvan
(London, 2015), 25-34).
92
Gyula Rázsó, Una strana alleanza. Alcuni pensieri sulla storia militaria e politica dell’allleanza contro i
turchi (1440-1464), in Venezia e Ungheria nel Rinascimento, edited by Vittore Branca (Florence 1973), 79-
100.
93
Al. Simon, Să nu ucizi o pasăre cântătoare: soarta unui fortissimus rei Christiane athleta în ochii Veneţiei,
in Pe urmele trecutului. Profesorului Nicolae Edroiu la 70 de ani, edited by I.-A. Pop, Susana Andea, Al.
Simon (Cluj-Napoca, 2009), 159-169.
94
Documentele lui Ştefan cel Mare, II, no. 154, 344-345.
95
C. Rezachevici, Cronologia critică a domnilor din Ţara Românească şi Moldova a. 1324-1881), I.
Secolele XIV-XVI (Bucharest, 2001), 117. Neither in the 1480s, nor in the 1490s did the German stories record
Vlad’s death.
96
For Marino Sanudo’s entry, from the days of the new Ottoman-Venetian war (1499-1503), see Al. Simon,
In the World of Vlad: The Lives and Times of a Warlord (=Forum: Rumänien, XLIII) (Berlin, 2013), 273-280.
97
Voivode at that time was used also to designate an Ottoman pasha, otherwise named bassa (e.g. MDE, II,
no. 236, 342-343). Anyhow, the rank of royal captain was consistent with Vlad’s military actions at the
beginning of 1476.

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Matthias’ forts on the Drava, the Sava and on the Danube,98 the true lord (ruler) of –
Great(er) – Wallachia had been Basarab IV.99 The latter had risen in the shadow of
“reactivated” Vlad (1474-1475),100 as Matthias’ and then Stephen’s favorite, after all
Hungarian and/ or Moldavian arrangements with Basarab III Laiotă (Stephen’s initial
choice for the Transalpine Wallachian throne in 1473101) proved futile.102
Vlad III’s implicit and explicit pairing with both Basarabs (III and IV) stood for
a partition of power that – almost103 – echoed the double suzerainty exercised by
Matthias Corvinus and – his nonetheless vassal – Stephen of Moldavia over Wallachia
(proper).104 Newer and older divisions (Wallachia,105 like Moldavia106 was a composite
structure) were unavoidable in the mid 1470s. The distinct – stately – existence of a
Great(er) Wallachia, different from both Moldavia107 and from Wallachia proper
(Transalpine land/ kingdom for the Hungarian royal chancery)108 had been underlined
already by Rangoni at the end of his quoted report on the deeds of Vlad and Vuk.109

[…] Spero in Dei bonitate quod Serviam maxima in parte prius quam
Turchus occurrere possit devastabit. Tandem cum aque excreverint quemadmodum

98
Fine, A Tale of Three Fortresses, 190-191.
99
The issue may date back to the first two decades of the 15th century, to the days of Mircea I of Wallachia
and – of his vassal – Alexander I of Moldavia (see also Ş. Papacostea, Byzance et la croisade au Bas-Danube
à la fin du XIVe siècle, Revue Roumaine d’Histoire, XXX (1991), 1-2, 3-21).
100
Cf. already Al. Simon, În jurul bătăliei de la Vaslui 1474-1475). Consideraţii asupra relaţiilor dintre
Moldova, Ţara Românească şi Regatul Ungariei, in Studia Universitatis Babeş Bolyai. Historia, XLIX
(2004), 2, 3-26, at 8-11.
101
If the Ottoman intelligence conveyed by Ragusa to Venice in early 1474 was completely accurate, Basarab
III too was in fact Vlad III’s princely “understudy”. How Basarab III and Vlad III were to coexist once Vlad
returned to Wallachia remains – largely – an open question. A partial answer may be found in the cited report
sent by Botta.
102
E.g. the truce concluded between King Matthias and Basarab III in view of the Serbian campaign, led in
fact by Vlad III and Vuk (Eudoxiu de Hurmuzaki, Documente privitoare la istoria românilor, XV-1. Acte şi
scrisori din arhivele oraşelor ardelene Bistriţa, Braşov, Sibiiu, 1358-1600, edited by N. Iorga (Bucharest,
1911), no. 149, 87).
103
We use “almost” in order to avoid potential exaggerations, such as the ones in Matei Cazacu’s “Marche
frontalière ou État dans l’État? L’Oltenie aux XIVe-XVe siècles”, in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond
them. Studies in Honor of Victor Spinei on his 70th Birthday, edited by Florin Curta, Bogdan-Petru Maleon
(Iaşi, 2013), 697-742.
104
The misguided and biased comments of Ştefan S. Gorovei (Informaţie, propagandă, mistificare:
scrisoarea din 25 ianuarie 1475, Analele Putnei, III (2007), 2, 21-26) can prove relevant if placed in a correct
documented context.
105
See also O. Cristea, M. Coman, O scrisoare pierdută. Ştefan cel Mare şi boierii de margine ai Ţării
Româneşti, in Analele Putnei, IX (2013), 1, 23-52.
106
Cf. already Ş. Papacostea, Un episode de la rivalité polono-hongroise au XVe siècle: l’expedition de Matia
Corvin en Moldavie 1467) à la lumière d’une nouvelle source, in Revue Roumaine d’Histoire, VIII (1969), 6,
967-969.
107
M. Coman, Terminologia statală medievală şi rivalitatea moldo-munteană secolele XV-XVI), in Vocaţia
istoriei. Prinos profesorului Şerban Papacostea, edited by O. Cristea, Gh. Lazăr, Brăila, 2008, 407-422.
108
Adolf Armbruster, Terminologia politico-geografică şi etnică a Ţărilor Române în epoca constituirii
statale, in Constituirea statelor feudale româneşti, edited by Nicolae Stoicescu (Bucharest, 1980), 251-259.
109
Andreescu noticed this distinction in 1976, but passed it under silence in 1977 (L’action de Vlad Ţepeş,
266).

162
 Simon

prius conceperat in Regnum Transalpinum cum Moldavis et ipsius Vualachie

Maioris exercitu convenire intendit […].110

Not even a year later, in early January 1477, when inquiring in a letter – sent to
the Transylvanian Saxons of Braşov111 – about the fate of his brother Vlad (de facto
Magnifici Ladi fratre nostro in Magna Walahya contingit)112.Stephen of Moldavia too,
who claimed the “Wallachian supremacy” for himself (as the Great Wallachian),113 had
acknowledged the existence of such a Great(er) Wallachia (without, however, naming
Vlad III the voivode of that “Major” Wallachia)114 In fact, even Stephen’s great –
according to all standards – campaign against Radu III (November 1473) had been
recorded by Ragusa as an intervention in Vlachia Maior in the favour of Vlad III.115
Matthias’ new – Neapolitan – wife, Beatrice, wed by John Hunyadi’s son on the
eve of Vlad’s death,116 also focused on that Great(er) Wallachia. Between the Ottoman
sieges of Rhodes117 and Otranto, the harbour of her father, Ferdinand of Aragon, king of
Naples,118 Beatrice wrote in early July 1480 to her sister, Eleanor, and to her brother-in-
law, Ercole d’Este, duke of Modena.119 She sent word of the recent anti-Ottoman
exploits in Wallachia (late May-mid-June 1480), and then in Bulgaria, of the captains of

110
Szerbia, no. 369, 267.
111
For an overview of the very tense relations between Vlad and the Transylvanian Saxons: G. Gündisch, Vlad
Ţepeş und die sächsischen Selbstverwaltungsgebiete Siebenbürgens, in Revue Roumaine d'Histoire, VIII,
(1969), 6, 981-992.
112
Direcţia Judeţeană a Arhivelor Naţionale-Braşov, Braşov, Archiv der Stadt Kronstadt, Familiennachläße,
Fronius, I, no. 332 (photocopy: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár, Országos Levéltár, Budapest, Antemohácsiana,
Diplomatikai Fényképgyűjtemény, [no.] 278448; first published in Hurmuzaki, XV-1, no. 169). This
Moldavian princely letter too was written by an “Italian hand” (cf. Iorga’s note in Hurmuzaki, XV-1, 9,
however, not in relation to this message).
113
In spite of the fact that Moldavia was usually named Lesser Wallachia (Ş. Papacostea, Politica externă a
lui Ştefan cel Mare: opţiunea polonă 1459-1472), in Studii şi Materiale de Istorie Medie, XV (2007), 13-28,
at 20-22).
114
Probably, Stephen too thought of Vlad III as his prefect in that Wallachia. This is certainly how Długosz
designated Basarab IV Ţepeluş after he was enthroned by Stephen a year later, in November 1477 (Annales
seu cronici incliti Regni Poloniae (=Jan Dlugosii Senioris Canonici Cracoviensis Opera omnia, XI-XIV),
ediţie Alexander Przezdziecki, IV, Kraków, 1887, 665). Basarab IV, not Vlad III, had been Stephen III’s first
Transalpine choice in 1475-1476.
115
For further details, see in this issue the notes and comments in I.-A. Pop, Al. Simon, The Asian and Balkan
Background of Dracula's Wallachian Restoration (1473-1474).
116
The wedding was celebrated on December 22, 1476 (Szabolcs de Vajay, Un ambassadeur bien choisi:
Bernardinus de Frangipanus et sa mission à Naples, en 1476, in The man of many devices, who wandered full
many ways: Festschrift in Honour of János M. Bak, edited by Balazs Nagy, Márcell Sebők (Budapest, 1999),
550-557).
117
The siege of the Hospitaller centre began on May 23, 1480 (Nicolas Vatin, L'Ordre de Saint-Jean-de
Jérusalem, l'Empire ottoman et la Méditerranée orientale entre les deux sièges de Rhodes (Paris-Leuven,
1994), 148).
118
The Ottoman fleet appeared in front of the Apulian harbour on July 28, 1480 (on the famous siege, fall and
recovery: La conquista turca di Otranto (1480) tra storia e mito, edited byHubert Houben, I-II (Galatina,
2008), passim).
119
They probably received the identical letters of Beatrice (sent on July 9, 1480) at the same time with the
news of the siege of Otranto. The letters were first published in MDE, II, nos. 288-289, 436-440. Beatrice’s
letter to Eleanor was reprinted by Endre Veress in Acta et epistolae relationum Transylvaniae Hungariaeque
cum Moldavie et Valachia (=Fontes Rerum Transylvaniacrum, IV, VI), I. 1468-1540 (Budapest, 1914), no.
32, 34-35.

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her husband,120 supported by the Magnificent Stephen of Moldavia, with whom Matthias
had recently concluded peace,121 accepting the voivode as his vassal, still according to
the queen.122. More important than the military information (exaggerated beyond doubt)
in Beatrice’s letters was the “geography of power” depicted by the still childless queen of
Hungary.123 Transylvania was a distinct entity in relation to the – proper – Kingdom of
Hungary. Greater Wallachia, controlled by the Turk, was a part of Transylvania. That
Transylvania touched the (Lower) Danube.124 After the very recent victory of King
Matthias’ captains, the Wallachians <in Great(er) Wallachia>, deprived of their
fortresses, had sworn loyalty to the Hungarians.125 The ruler of those Wallachians,
Cypelles (that is Basarab IV),126 had lost and fled to the Turks.127
Rulers and Subjects. Beatrice despised Basarab IV, the former “associate” of
Vlad III.128 It would have been very easy to call him also a schismatic, for Basarab IV
was the – Athonite moreover – favourite of Mara Branković,129 the widow of Murad II

120
Beatrice voluntarily omitted the name of Stephen Báthory, voivode of Transylvania (R. Horváth, Tibor
Neumann, Ecsedi Bátori István. Egy katonabáró életpályája 1458-1493) (Budapest, 2012), 52-55).
121
A similar peace between them was then recorded by Antonio Bonfini for the next year, 1481 (Rerum
Ungaricarum Decades, edited by József Fógel, László Juhász, Béla Iványi, IV, (Leipzig, 1941 [Budapest,
1944]), 112).
122
Two days after the queen’s letters, on July 11, 1480, and with significantly fewer details, Matthias
appended basically the same news as post-scriptum to his messages sent to the cities of Augsburg and
Nürnberg, nominally under the authority of Matthias’ arch-enemy, Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg. Less
than a month earlier, already informed about the siege of Rhodes, Matthias had warned his father-in-law about
the imminent Ottoman attack on the Kingdom of Naples and urged him to reach an agreement with the sultan.
Not too long ago, Matthias had also allowed Ottoman riders to raid the ‘Austrian lands’ of Frederick III. A
question therefore arises: were the messages sent by Matthias and Beatrice ‘fake-news’ aimed at covering
Hungarian-Ottoman arrangements at a time when Christendom was besieged by the Turks? (for further
details: Al. Simon, Scrisori pierdute din vara anului 1480, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie A.D. Xenopol
(Iaşi), LVIII (2021), in print).
123
This aspect was particularly important in the summer of 1480. In late October 1479, Beatrice had been
compelled to acknowledge the princely existence of John, Matthias’ illegitimate son (see I.-A. Pop, Al. Simon,
Documents on the Prequels and the Aftermath of the Battle of Câmpul Pâinii Kenyérmezö, Brotfeld), in
Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, CXXIV (2011), 1, 229-238, in the Appendix, at 237).
124
Iidem, Transilvania de la Dunăre: scrisorile de la Modena ale reginei Beatrice de Aragon din vara anului
1480, in Analele Academiei Române. Memoriile Secţiunii Istorice, 5th series, XXXVI (2021), in print.
125
This leads to the natural question: which fortresses? The major fortresses of Transalpine Wallachia, such as
Severin or Giurgiu, were already held either by the Hungarians or by the Ottomans (see also Gheorghe I.
Cantacuzino, Cetăţi medievale din Ţara Românească în secolele XIII–XVI (Bucharest, 20012), 11, fig 1).
126
In Romanian, Ţepeluş means the “Little Impaller”. In Hungarian, Cypelles would stand for “little
shoemaker” (I.-A. Pop, Al. Simon, Ungaria et Valachia: promisiunile valahe ale Republicii Sfântului Marcu
din anii 1470, in Revista Istorică, NS, XXVI (2015), 1-2 [2016], 3-66, at 39, note 138; Simon, “De Dragule
crudelitate”, 534, note 109).
127
See also Dan Pleşia, Neagoe Basarab. Originea, familia şi o scurtă privirea asupra politicii Ţării
Româneşti la începutul veacului al XVI-lea (I), in Valachica, I (1969), 45-60, at 53.
128
The letters sent to Modena speak for themselves. In return, we have no evidence on the “feelings” of
Beatrice towards Vlad. Her wedding, celebrated with quite some difficulties, had after all coincided with the
latter’s death.
129
See alos Radu G. Păun, Mount Athos and the Byzantine Slavic Tradition in Wallachia and Moldavia after
the Fall of Constantinople, in The Balkans and the Byzantine World before and after the Captures of
Constantinople, 1204 and 1453, edited by Vlada Stanković (Lanham, MD, 2016), 117-164, especially 152,
note 82.

164
 Simon

and Mehmed II’s influential advisor130, as well as one of the main mortal enemies of the
Hunyadis (and of Stephen III).131 Matthias too had refrained from attacking Basarab IV
as a schismatic, when heralding the Transylvanian victory of his captains over the
Ottoman army, spearheaded by the said Basarab in October 1479. 132 In fact, Matthias
had been more preoccupied by emphasizing the Wallachian blood bond between him
and Mehmed.133
Rulers however should not be equated with subjects (or vice-versa), not even in
the Middle Ages.134 The Wallachian cases of Vlad III in 1462 (defeated not by the sultan,
but by his own)135 or Stephen III (abandoned by at least a third of his host in front of the
renewed Ottoman attack)136 speak for themselves.137 In Wallachia, the internal divisions,
political and or territorial had become virtually self-evident.138 Between 1456 and 1476,
the population of Wallachia had decreased by a third.139 In the neighbourhood, Serbia,
Serbia and even earlier Bulgaria had been turned into waste lands by (anti-) Ottoman
warfare.140 Latin rite support, blessed by the Papacy, had been occasional (at best) and
costly (in general), the betrayal of the true (Orthodox) faith included.141 A series of
questions almost naturally come to the modern mind in the search of – partial – medieval

130
M. Popović, The Holy Mountain of Athos as Contact Zone between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in the
15th Century, in Imperium Bulgariae. Studia in honorem annorum LX Georgii N. Nikolov, edited by Angel N.
Nikolov (Sofia, 2018), 774-783.
131
Al. Simon, În vara anului 1466: ridicarea athonită a lui Ştefan al III-lea cel Mare şi prăbuşirea otomană a
atletului Gheorghe Castriota Skanderbeg, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie A.D. Xenopol, LVII (2020), 45-64.
132
Ioan Drăgan, Câmpul Pâinii 1479): o luptă de români contra românilor, in Naţiune şi europenitate: Studii
istorice. In Honorem Magistri Camilli Mureşanu, edited by N. Edroiu, S. Andea, Şerban Turcuş (Bucharest,
2007), 76-82.
133
Al. Simon, La parentéle ottomane du roi Mathias Corvin, in Matthias Corvinus und seine Zeit: Europa am
Übergang vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit zwischen Wien und Konstantinopel (=Denkschriften der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, CDX), edited byChristian Gastgeber, E. Mitsiou, I.-A. Pop,
M. Popovic, J. Preiser Kapeller, Al. Simon (Vienna, 2011), 25-33
134
E.g. in this context: the Ottoman attack on Oradea in February 1474 (Chronicon Dubnicense, in Historiae
Hungariae Fontes Domestici, III, edited by M[átyás] Florián (Leipzig [-Pécs], 1884), 1-204, at. 198-199).
135
For a very vivid account of the events, see The Itineraries of William de Wey, Fellow of Eton College, to
Jerusalem A.D. 1458 and A.D. 1462, and to Saint James of Compostella A.D. 1456 [, edited by Bulkeley
Bandinel, George Williams] (London, 1857), 99-100.
136
As Stephen’s envoy, Tzamplakon, was forced to admit in Venice in May 1477, before turning to the case
of Vlad, to his enthronement (by Stephen) and to his death (in spite of the personal guard left to Vlad by the
same Stephen). The succession of events in Tzamplakon’s speech is quite eloquent (Documentele lui Ştefan
cel Mare, II, no. 154, 344)
137
To these cases, we could add the “Transylvanian non-combat” of 1476 and 1484, when Matthias had to
bring troops from Hungary proper and even from Croatia for the support of Stephen, attacked by the Ottomans
(see also Al, Simon, “The Ottoman-Hungarian Crisis of 1484: Diplomacy and Warfare in Matthias Corvinus'
Local and Regional Politics”, in Matthias and his Legacy. Cultural and Political Encounters between East
and West, edited by A. Bárány, Attila Györkös (Debrecen, 2009), 401-436, at 420, 423, 435).
138
M. Coman, Putere şi teritoriu. Ţara Românească medievală secolele XIV-XVI) (Iaşi, 2013), 111-119, 142-
146.
139
Ş. Papacostea, Populaţie şi fiscalitate în Ţara Românească în secolul al XV-lea: un nou izvor, in Revista de
Istorie, XXXIII (1980), 9, 1779-1786.
140
For more recent perspectives see the studies in State and Society in the Balkans and in Medieval Bosnia
and South-East European Relations: Political, Religious, and Cultural Life at the Adriatic Crossroads, edited
by Dzenan Dautovic, E. Filipovic, Neven Isailovic (Amsterdam, 2019).
141
We focus on the largely unjust perspective because it was the one who benefited the Ottoman power
(before it serviced modern historiographies).

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answers (answers that on a “heretical” level must factor-in the words written in early 1471
by Gregory of Heimburg, the trustee of the king of Bohemia, George Podiebrad († March
1471): der Ungarische kunig ist gut Turck als sein vater was, do er den Turck liesse
Constantinople zwingen [...]).142
What did the subjects of the voivodes think of “all these”?143 What were the
(counter-) actions of the – Ottoman controlled – Greek rite churchly authorities (of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate in particular)?144 What was the regional impact of the peculiar
Latin status of the Wallachians?145
Some responses may come, as so often, from the borders.146 In spring 1480 or in
spring 1481 (for Basarab IV managed to recover his throne after the campaign celebrated
by Beatrice),147 the boyars along the border with Moldavia (in the counties of Brăila,
Râmnic and Buzău)148 violently rebuked the Wallachian claims of Stephen and
adamantly professed their loyalty to Basarab IV.149 Since before the official beginning of
Stephen’s anti-Ottoman combats in autumn 1473 (when all the Moldavian hierarchs
exited the princely council)150, Stephen had been constantly attacking Wallachia (ruled at
first by Vlad’s brother, Radu III).151 Mehmed had to levy the siege of Venetian Scutari in
Albania (Matthias was then handsomely rewarded by the republic for this retreat)152 and
gather his European troops for the campaign against Stephen (November 1474-January

142
Felix Priebatsch, Politische Correspondenz des Kurfürsten Albrecht Achilles, 1470-1486 (=Publikationen
aus den Königlichen Preußischen Staatsarchiven, LIX), I. 1470-1474 (Leipzig, 1894), no. 137, 216.
143
Liviu Pilat, Biserică şi putere în Moldova în a doua jumătate a secolului XV, in Analele Putnei, I (2005), 1,
133-150. The history Moldavia is far better documented than that of Wallachia in the second half of the 15th
century.
144
Dan <Ioan> Mureşan, Patriarhia Ecumenică şi Ştefan cel Mare. Drumul sinuos de la surse la interpretare,
in În memoria lui Alexandru Elian, edited by Vasile V. Muntean (Timişoara, 2008), 87-180.
145
Maybe, needless to mention the tales about the expulsion of the Wallachians (of the Vlachs) from Bulgaria
in the 13th century, because the Wallachians/ the Vlachs/ the Romanians (chiefly in later political contexts)
were of Latin origins and loyal to the pope (Vintilă Mihăilescu, Imagini ale celuilalt. O perspectivă
antropologică, in Reflecţii asupra diferenţei, edited by Irina Culic, István Horváth, Cristian Stan (Cluj-
Napoca, 1999), 93-116, at 106).
146
This is altogether normal in the context, considering that Vlad’s fame was first acquired through the means
of this campaign along the Lower Danube (for that peculiar area, see also I.-A. Pop, A 1499 Italian Source on
the Ottoman-Polish-Moldavian Rapports, in Laudator Temporis Acti. Studia in Memoriam Ioannis A. Božilov,
edited by Ivan Biliarsky, I. Religio-Historia (Sofia, 2018),. 391-401).
147
See also the still valuable study of Alexandru Lapedatu, Vlad-Vodă Călugărul, 1482-1496 (offprint
Convorbiri Literare, XXXVIII) (Bucharest, 1903), 25-26.
148
M. Coman, Boierii de margine şi puterea domnească în Ţara Românească medieval, in Aut viam
inveniam, aut faciam. In honorem Ştefan Andreescu, edited by O. Cristea, Petronel Zahariuc, Gh. Lazăr (Iaşi,
2012), 35-58.
149
Grigore G. Tocilescu, 534 documente istorice slavo-române din Ţara Românească şi Moldova privitoare
la legăturile cu Ardealul 1346-1603 (Bucharest, 1931 [i.e. 1905]), nos. 397-398, 399-400; nos. 492-493, 511-
513.
150
Cf. already Ioan Ursu, Ştefan cel Mare (Bucharest, 1925), 290. The hierarchs returned only in 1499 to
confirm the peace treaty of Hârlău between Moldavia, Hungary and Poland.
151
O. Cristea, Nagy Pienaru, Ţara Românească şi bătălia de la Başkent, in Analele Putnei, VIII (2012), 1, 17-
36.
152
I libri commemoriali della Republica di Venezia. Regesti (=Monumenti Storici Publicati dalla Deputazione
Veneta di Storia Patria, I, 1-6), [edited by Riccardo Predelli,] V. [Registri XIV-XVII] (Venice, 1901), no. XVI-
65, 213.

166
 Simon

1475).153 The Ottoman host was accompanied at least into Bulgaria by the ecumenical
patriarch, the same Simeon I.154 The Ottoman campaign was a disaster155 and so was
Mehmed’s later attempt to take at least Stephen’s harbours in the following summer.156
The Ottoman response was also visual: the Saint Mary church of the Dragalevci
Monastery near Sofia was repainted (between Mehmed’s Moldavian Pontic failure and
his new campaign against Moldavia in the summer of 1476)157. Saints George, Demetrius
and Mercurius crushed the traitorous John Kaloyan (Caloiannes),158 crowned king of the
Bulgarians and of the Vlachs by Pope Innocent III because of his Roman roots.159 For
contemporary Turks, the Wallachians were people of the north, fanaticised by the pope in
Rome.160
For Pope Pius II,161 Vlad was John Dragula and his cruelty completed the
lamented fate of the Wallachians, Rome’s Eastern forgotten children, still capable of
finding recovery and redemption, Vlad included,162 under the authority of Matthias, the
king of Hungary and of Dacia (according to the same pope).163 Basarab IV, Cypelles for
Beatrice of Aragon, that is either “Little Impaller” or “Little Shoemaker”, seems to have
been quite the opposite, though otherwise his and Vlad’s “career choices” were quite
similar: Vlad went from pro-Ottoman to pro-Hungarian, “chosing” West over East,164 and
Basarab turned from pro-Hungarian to pro-Ottoman, inheriting also Mara Branković’s

153
L. Pilat, O. Cristea, The Ottoman Threat and Crusading on the Eastern Border of Christendom during the
15th Century East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, XLVIII (Leiden-Boston, 2017),
149-152.
154
Vitalien Laurent, Les premiers patriarches de Constantinople sous la domination turque (1454-1476),
Revue des Études Byzantines, XXVI (1968), 229-264, at 258.
155
I.-A. Pop, The Romanians from Moldavia at the Jubilee in Rome (1475), Il Mar Nero, X (2019-2020), 163-
170.
156
Andrei Pippidi, 1475: atacul otoman asupra Cetății Albe, in Analele Putnei, VII (2011), 1, 29-36.
157
The Byzantine year of the painting was 6984: September 1, 1475-August 31, 1476 (see also Christo
Andreev, “Новоразкрити надписи от 1475/1476 година в олтарното пространство на църквата в
Драгалевския манастир”, Palaeobulgarica, XL (2007), 4, 47-86; several “inscriptions” indicate a high
activity in the year/years 1475-1476).
158
Cf. already F. Curta’s study How to do Things with Saints: On the Iconography of St. Mercurius’ Legend, in
Revue Roumaine d’Histoire, XXXIV (1995), 1-2, 109-129, at 125-126 (but without noticing the political
context).
159
Alexandru Madgearu, The Asanids: The Political and Military History of the Second Bulgarian Empire
(1185-1280) (=East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, XLI) (Leiden-Boston,
2016),119-137.
160
Firdevsî-Rumî, Kuth-nâme [Polar Book], edited by Ibrahim Olgum, Ismet Parmakizoglu (Ankara 1980);
cf. Mihail Guboglu, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie şi Arheologie A.D. Xenopol, XXII (1985), 2, 849-852.
See also Stéphane Yerasimos, “Enquête sur un heros: Yanko bin Madyan, le fondateur mythique de
Constantinople”, in Mélanges offerts à Louis Bazin par ses disciples, collegues et amis, edited by Jean-Louis
Bacque-Grammont, Rémy Dor (Paris, 1992), 213-217.
161
Pius II provided the only copy of the “letter of treason” sent by Vlad III to Mehmed II in November 1462.
The only known copies of the “genocide report” sent by Vlad III to Matthias Corvinus in February 1462 were
preserved in Piccolominian miscellanea (Corpus Draculianum, I-1, no. 23, 103-104; no. 61, 194-195).
162
See also the translation in The Commentaries of Pius II, [V.] Books X-XIII, edited by Florence A. Gragg,
Leona C. Gabel (Northampton, MA, 1957), 738-740.
163
I.-A. Pop, Matthias Corvinus, Re de Ungaria, de Dacia etc., in 1462, in Transylvanian Review, XXIX
(2020), suppl. 1, 41-52.
164
See also A. Weber, Diplomatia Draculiana. Loyalitätsbeweise und Imagepflege Vlad des Pfählers, in Vlad
der Pfähler-Dracula, 133-158

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“medial” stand between West and East, that favoured a pro-Ottoman status-quo at the
borders of divided Christendom.165 Their short “joint-rule” over Wallachia, turned into
Christendom’s trench by King Matthias, Christendom’s hope, and Stephen of Moldavia,
the athlete of Christendom,166 is eloquent for the bi-polar survival of a divided state that
gradually came to a – temporary – end once both Ţepeş and Ţepeluş were gone.167 This
occurred under the rules of Vlad IV Călugărul, a former monk, Vlad’s half-brother,168
and of his son, Radu IV the Great, an “agent” of Venice and of the Porte.169 At that time,
the Greek rite Brankovićs were still barons of the realm of Saint Stephen, as well as
“registered voters” at the royal Hungarian elections of 1490,170 the year that stands for
both the end of Matthias’ plans and hopes for his son’s monarchic survival171 and in fact –
in early modern Wallachian chronicles – for the end of Stephen III’s 16/ 17 years of rule
over Wallachia.172

165
Tellingly, the only study devoted in recent decades to Basarab IV is Daniela Monica Mitea, Relaţiile Ţării
Româneşti cu Transilvania în timpul domniilor lui Basarab IV cel Tânăr Ţepeluş), in Anuarul Institutului de
Istorie George Bariţiu, XLVI (2007), 285-302.
166
Al. Simon, The Walls of Christendom’s Gate. Hungary’s Mathias Corvinus and Moldavia’s Stephen the
Great Politics in the Late 1400s, in Quaderni della Casa Romena, III (2004), 205-224.
167
Liviu Marius Ilie, În viaţa domniei mele ...: o veche formulă de cancelarie a Ţării Româneşti din veacul al
XV-lea, in Revista Istorică, NS, XXIX (2018), 5-6 [2020], 475-516; Idem, Vlad Călugărul şi Radu cel Mare:
relaţii de familie şi relaţii politice în vremea Sfârşitului lumii, in Cercul puterii. Oameni, reţele, strategii
(secolele XV-XVII), edited by Ramona Neacşa (Târgovişte, 2021), 19-27.
168
R. Neacşa, Radu the Great of Wallachia: The Challenges of a Portrait, in Transylvanian Review, XX
(2020), suppl. 2 [2021], 71-84; Eadem, Anatomia cercurilor de putere: martorii lui Radu cel Mare, in Cercul
puterii, 31-53.
169
Al. Simon, Valahii şi domnii lor în războiul veneto-otoman (1499-1503), in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie
A.D. Xenopol, L (2013), 39-52.
170
Initially favourable to John Corvinus’ candidacy, they shifted their allegiance to Maximilian I of Habsburg,
but not to any of the Jagiellonian brothers, Jan Albert and the eventual winner Wladislaw II (Friedrich
Firnhaber, Beiträge zur Geschichte Ungarns unter der Regierung der Könige Wladislaus II. und Ludwig II.
(1490-1526), in Archiv für Kunde Österreichischer Geschichtsquellen, II (1849), 2, 375-552, la no. 28, 423-
424).
171
T. Neumann, Békekötés Pozsonyban-országgyűlés Budán. A Jagelló-Habsburg kapcsolatok egy fejezete
(1490-1492) (I-II), in Századok, CLXIV (2010), 3, 335–372; CXLV (2011), 3, 293-347.
172
Istoria Ţării Româneşti. 1290-1690, edited by Constantin Greceanu, Dan Simionescu (Bucharest,
1960), pp. 2-5. Stephen III’s reign came between those of Basarab IV and Radu IV, whose father, Vlad
IV, was omitted from the list. Vlad IV had wed Mary, the widow of Basarab IV, taken prisoner after
her husband’s failed attack of 1479 and then placed under the personal protection of Stephen Báthory,
voivode of Transylvania.

168
 List of abbreviations

ActaMP - Acta Musei Porolissensis, Muzeul Zalău

AB(SN) - Analele Banatului srie nouă), Muzeul Național al Banatului, Timișoara
ActaTS - Acta Terrae Septemcastrensis, Universitatea „Lucian Blaga”, Sibiu
AICSU - Anuarul Institutului de Cercetări Socio-Umane, Sibiu
Apulum - Apulum, Acta Musei Apulensis, Muzeul Național al Unirii, Alba Iulia
AVSL - Archivs des Vereins für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde, Sibiu.
BB - Bibliotheca Brukenthal, Muzeul Naţional Brukenthal, Sibiu
BrukAM - Brukenthal. Acta Musei, Muzeul Național Brukenthal, Sibiu
BMA - Bibliotheca Musei Apulensis, Muzeul Național al Unirii, Alba Iulia
BMN - Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis, Muzeul Național de Istorie a
Transilvaniei, Cluj-Napoca
BS - Bibliotheca Septemcastrensis, Universitatea „Lucian Blaga”, Sibiu.
DocPrae - Documenta Praehistorica, Ljubljana
CCA - Cronica Cercetărilor Arheologice din România, București
ForVL - Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, Institutul de cercetări Socio-
Umane, Academia Română, Sibiu
MCA - Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice, București
Monografii - Muzeul Național de Istorie a României, București
Sargetia - Sargetia, Acta Musei Devensis, Muzeul Civilizației Dacice și Romane,
Deva.
Sargetia (SN) Sargetia, Acta Musei Devensis serie nouă), Muzeul Civilizației Dacice și
Romane, Deva.
StComBruk - Muzeul Brukenthal. Studii și comunicări arheologie-istorie), Muzeul
Brukenthal (Muzeul Național Brukenthal), Sibiu
StudPre - Studii de Preistorie, București
SUC.SH - Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis. Series Historica, Universitatea „Lucian
Blaga”, Sibiu
TS - Terra Sebus. Acta Musei Sabeniensis, Muzeul Sebeș
Ziridava - Ziridava. Studia Archaeologica, Muzeul Arad