March – May 1395
Rovine, 1395
While Bayezid is in Greece, Mircea of Wallachia raids across the Danube into Ottoman lands, and on 7 March 1395 he makes an alliance with Sigismund at Brașov. In the spring of 1395 Bayezid crosses the Danube into Wallachia with his Serbian vassals Stefan Lazarević, Marko of Prilep and Konstantin Dragaš.
The church of the monastery of Cozia, which Mircea founded in 1388Wikimedia Commons, MIHAIL, CC BY 4.0 (Mănăstirea Cozia - România (1).jpg)
Mircea avoids open battle and wears down the Ottoman army with small attacks. The two armies meet at Rovine, near the Argeș river, on 17 May 1395, while several Serbian chronicles give 10 October 1394. Wallachian archers inflict heavy losses on the first Ottoman attack, and Marko, his brother Andrijaš and Konstantin Dragaš are killed on the Ottoman side. Both armies withdraw with heavy losses, and historians disagree over which side won.
Mircea withdraws to Hungary, and the Ottomans set up Vlad I as prince of Wallachia. News of a Christian victory reaches Buda and Venice, and in July 1395 King Charles VI of France hears a Te Deum for it at Notre-Dame in Paris.
Sources
- Konstantin the Philosopher, Life of Despot Stefan Lazarević (1431).
- Michel Pintoin, Chronicle of the Monk of Saint-Denis (early 15th century).
- John V. A. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans (1987), 424.
- Dan Ioan Mureşan, Avant Nicopolis: observations sur la campagne de 1395 pour le contrôle du Bas-Danube (2004).
- Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453 (2nd ed., 1993).
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