On 10 January 1475 Stephen III of Moldavia, remembered as Stephen the Great, defeated an Ottoman army under Hadım Suleiman Pasha, the governor of Rumelia, at Podul Înalt, the High Bridge, near the town of Vaslui in what is now eastern Romania. It was one of the heaviest defeats an Ottoman army suffered in the 15th century, but the size of both armies and the scale of the losses are among the most disputed figures of the period.
A punitive campaign
Moldavia was a small principality wedged between Hungary, Poland and the Ottoman Empire. Stephen had ruled it since 1457. When Sultan Mehmed II launched a punitive campaign against him, the invading army was led by Hadım Suleiman Pasha, the beylerbey of Rumelia.1
Stephen did not try to stop the invaders at the border. He fell back toward Vaslui and chose his ground where the hills around the floodplain of the Bârlad river close in. Newsweek România describes it as a valley ringed by forests, where the Ottomans could not get around the Moldavian positions. A few days before the battle the weather had turned warmer, melting snow had turned the floodplain to mud, and on the morning of the battle fog lay over the valley.2
The battle in the fog
The fog is the detail every account shares. Warhistory.org writes that the Ottomans were confused by a cold January fog when the Moldavians opened fire with guns, handguns and bows and then sent in their cavalry. The Vaslui county museum, which displays a large diorama of the battle, likewise stresses the fog that chroniclers said helped Stephen's men.3
The traditional account, retold by Newsweek România, adds a ruse. Stephen ordered villagers on the hills ahead to make as much noise as they could with trumpets, drums and horns. Believing they were about to be attacked from that side, the Ottomans turned to meet the threat, and Stephen's main army then fell on their rear. The Ottoman army broke, and the survivors fled toward the Danube.4
Stephen did not fight alone. Warhistory.org, in a passage on Hungarian policy, notes that King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary sent him auxiliary troops under Blaise Magyar, the voivode of Transylvania.5
Disputed numbers and the date
The numbers are disputed, and no reliable count of either army was found in the sources used here. Newsweek România, drawing on the Orthodox portal doxologia.ro, writes that reports of the time from Buda, Kraków, Constantinople and Venice put the Ottoman force at about 120,000 men, joined by some 12,000 Wallachians sent by Basarab Laiotă.6
Ottoman losses are just as uncertain. Newsweek România cites Ottoman chronicles for 40,000 janissaries and sipahis killed. Figures like these are contemporary claims, not counts, and they should be read with caution.7
The date 10 January 1475 is a Julian calendar date, since the Gregorian calendar was introduced only in 1582. The sources used here do not convert the date, and neither does this article.
Champion of Christ
Stephen sent captured standards and prisoners to Poland, Hungary and the Pope, with letters asking for help against the expected Ottoman revenge. Help did not come. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary even presented the victory as his own. Pope Sixtus IV gave Stephen praise instead of troops, calling him verus christianae fidei athleta, the true champion of the Christian faith, as the New World Encyclopedia and Newsweek România record.8
Mehmed II led the next campaign in person. In 1476 he defeated Stephen at Valea Albă, also called Războieni, but according to the New World Encyclopedia the Ottomans had to withdraw after failing to take any major fortress. Moldavia survived as a separate state. For the wider story of the sultans' wars, see our guide to the greatest Ottoman battles.9 › Battle of Valea Albă, 1476
Also on this day
- 1422: Battle of Německý Brod. Hussite forces led by Jan Žižka besieged a Catholic crusader army in the Bohemian town of Německý Brod during the Hussite Wars.
