Archduke Stefan
The reference book used to write this article:
A Concise History of Romania (Cambridge Concise Histories)
Press: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: April 2014
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In the mid-1970s, Long Film Studio translated the Romanian film "Prince Stefan", about the 15th century, the Principality of Moldova The deeds of the Prince Stefan against the Ottoman Turks. The film focuses on the Battle of Takahashi that took place in Moldova in 1475. Stefan led a Moldovan army of more than 40,000 men and used the swamp terrain to defeat more than 100,000 horses from the Ottoman Empire led by Sulaiman Pasha. Stefan, the prince of the Principality of Moldova, was honored as the Grand Duke in Romanian history.
The Principality of Moldova is one of the two principalities of the Danube and one of the three principalities of Romania. Founded in 1359, the first prince was Bogdan I. From 1359 to 1620, three families ruled Moldova, that is, three dynasties. Then, other different families took turns to rule and became princes until 1859, when they united with the Principality of Wallachia to form Romania. The history of the Principality of Moldova is five hundred years old.
successively ruled the three major families of Moldova. Among them, the Musa family was the longest. They established the Musa Dynasty from 1359 to 1574, which lasted for more than two hundred years. The first prince of
was Bogdan I of the Musa family. The original territory of the Principality was located between the Carpathians and the Prut River. During the reign of Bogdan I, the territory expanded, pushing the eastern boundary to the line of the Transnistria. The throne of the
prince has been passed down from generation to generation in the Musa family. In 1400, Alexandru I came to the throne. He reigned from 1400 to 1432. He reigned for thirty-two years.
He has four wives and a total of twelve children. Among them, Iliya, Stefan II, Peter III, Peter Aron, Bogdan II, these five sons, after his death, Successively succeeded as the prince of Moldova. The five sons are divided into two factions, the eldest son and the fourth son are one faction, and the two, three and five sons are the other faction. Poland and Hungary, the two major powers of Eastern Europe at the time, both wanted to compete for and control Moldova. Therefore, each supported one faction, causing these brothers to fight against each other. They were not the same mother, so they competed for the throne of the prince.
1432 After the death of Alexandru I in 1432, his eldest son Iliya succeeded first, but soon the second son, Stefan II, rose up to fight. As a result, the two brothers divided Moldova from north to south. . Finally, in 1444, Stefan II killed Iliya, and he invited his third brother Peter III to join him to divide Moldova.
Although Illiyah passed away, but the lingering sound is not there. He is a brother-in-law with King Władysław II, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a generation of heroes of Megatron Eastern Europe at that time. Their wives are Lithuanian female noble sisters Hua, therefore, after Iliya was killed, his wife took two sons, Roman and Alexandru, fled to her family, Poland, to seek refuge in the powerful Polish royal family.
With the support of Poland, Roman led the Polish army and returned to Moldova. He killed his father’s enemy and his second uncle Stefan II, who became the prince of Moldova. After the death of
Roman, his brother Alexandru succeeded to the throne as Prince of Moldova, and his uncle Peter Aron divided Moldova.
The fifth uncle of the other faction, Bogdan II, fled to the Principality of Transylvania in the Kingdom of Hungary, and was supported by the Hungarian King Hunyati Janos, led the Hungarian army, returned to Moldova, and became Moldova. Prince. Alessandro and his fourth uncle Peter Aron had to escape to Poland again.
The Polish army was sent out again to help Alexandru, regain the throne of the prince, and kill Bogdan II. The son of Bogdan II, who was later Archduke Stefan, fled in chaos and also fled to his grandma's house, the Principality of Wallachia.
The prince of Wallachia at this time is the famous piercing father Vlad III in history. He supported Stefan to fight back. In 1457, Stefan led six thousand troops to return to Moldova and defeated Peter Aron. YoyaAlexandru, they fled to Poland, and Stefan came to the throne as Prince of Moldova, as Stefan III.
Stefan III should chase the poor, and immediately sent troops to seize the border castle in Poland and put pressure on him to ask for the fugitive Peter Aron, the king of Poland at this time, was the son of Jagievo’s Kasimish The fourth king, he is also a generation of heroes in Polish history, but at this time he needs to face the aggressive offensive of the Ottoman Turks and does not want to entangle with Moldova. However, he is not willing to hand over Peter Aron on this, so , Let him run away.
Peter Aron fled to the Kingdom of Hungary. At this time, the reigning Hungarian king was Hunyati Matthias son of Hunyati Janos. He still had ambitions for Moldova, so in 1467, Forty thousand troops, with Peter Aron, helped him return to Moldova to seize the throne.
Stefan III used his usual trick to stiff the walls and clear the country. The Hungarian army killed all the way to the Moldovan capital of Suceava. However, it became more and more difficult to obtain food and grass all the way. Stefan III led the 12,000 Moldovan army. , Took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, the two sides fought, the Hungarian army was caught off guard and defeated. Matthias was injured by an arrow and returned to Hungary, leaving some people behind to continue fighting guerrillas in Moldova with Peter Aron. In 1469, Stefan III's army finally sacked Peter Aron, and Stefan III finally got rid of his heartache.
At this time, Vlad III of the Principality of Wallachia had been overthrown by the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire supported the Prince Radu and controlled Wallachia. In order to deal with the aggressive offensive of the Turks, Stefan III organized an army of forty thousand people to consolidate the military and greatly strengthened Moldova's military power. The country is poor and backward. Many people in this army use farm tools as weapons.
In 1470, the Great Horde of Tatars along the Volga River sent troops to attack the Principality of Moldova, the counterpart of the Great Horde, the Crimean Khanate of Tatars, quickly notified Stefan III, Stefan The III was so free to use the Great Horde's army to cross the Transnistria and launch an assault to defeat it.
In 1472, Stefan III sent troops to defeat the Prince Radu of the Principality of Wallachia and seized his wife and daughter. Radu fled to the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire sent troops to regain control of Wallachia.
The Ottoman Empire issued an order to Stefan III, ordering him to surrender to the Ottoman Empire, and Stefan III sneered. In 1475, Sudan Mohammed II of the Ottoman Empire sent Pasha to the barbarians quickly and led an army of 120,000 to march to Moldova. Stefan III still used the same trick to stiff the walls and clear the fields. Then, using the terrain, with 40,000 troops, he broke the Ottoman army in the Vaslui Marsh and quickly came to Man Pasha to be captured. The film "Duke Stefan" describes this battle.
In 1476, Sudan Mohammed II, the imperial conquest, led an army of 140,000, conquered Moldova, Stefan III led an army of 12,000 to fight, the Battle of White Valley, Stefan III was defeated, but the Hungarian King Hunya Ti Matthias, King Kahimish IV of Poland, at the same time sent a large army to come for reinforcements. The Ottoman army was difficult to resist and had to withdraw.
In 1481, Mohammed II died and his son succeeded to the throne as Bayezite II. In 1484, Bayesett II sent out two armies of land and water, more than 100,000 people, and once again set off to Moldova, it is bound to win. After all, the Principality of Moldova is not strong enough, and the continuous combat is even more exhausting. This time, the Ottoman army continuously seized the main land of the Principality of Moldova. Stefan III had to ask Poland and Hungary for help. However, the Polish army was attacked by the Ottoman Empire’s vassal country Tatar Crimean Khanate. Kahimish IV could only defend the east with all his strength, unable to support Moldova; while the Hungarian King Hunyati Matthias, this Shizheng went to war with the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III of the Habsburg family and seized the imperial capital Vienna, and had no intention of taking care of such trivial matters as Moldova.
So, Stefan III could only fight alone, and Moldova was already exhausted at this time and could not fight anymore. He had to surrender to the Ottoman Empire in 1489 and sent his son Alexandru to Istanbul as a hostage. Since then, Moldova and Wallachia have become autonomous principalities in the Ottoman Empire. Although there are princes, they are all under Ottoman Sudan. This situation continued until 1859, when the two principalities became independent and formed Romania.
Stefan III, born in 1433, died in 1504,Lived to be 71 years old and reigned for 47 years.
