From a psychological point of view, knowing of the impressionable Turkish mentality, Dracula's deliberate use of terror on the Danube to frighten the Turks had in essence been successful. At Constantinople itself there was an atmosphere of consternation, gloom, and fear. Some of the Turkish leaders, haunted by the awesome reputation of the Lord Impaler (“Kazîglu Bey”), as they began to call him, were apparently contemplating flight across the Bosporus into Asia Minor.
However, as a realist Dracula now anticipated the full furor of the sultan's revenge. His immediate aim was to revive the idea of a crusade, which the pope had proclaimed at Mantua, since he knew that at best he alone could only delay a Turkish invasion. He made the usual appeal to the Christian powers in both the east and west, as well as to the Muslim enemies of the sultan. “Your Majesty must know that I have broken the peace with them not for our sake, but for the sake of the honor of Your Highness.… The Holy Cross, and for guarding all of Christianity and strengthening the Catholic law.” Messages such as these were ultimately intended to reach the pope, whom he knew to have a vested interest. The Greek historian Laonicus Chalcondyles, later citing Dracula's words, in his history Historiarum demonstrationes… accentuated the urgency of Dracula's appeal:
You know that our land is a neighbor to your land.… You also may have heard that the sultan has set up a huge army against us. If this land of ours is subjugated, please realize that they will not stay content with our land but will immediately make war on you, and the inhabitants of your land will suffer great misfortunes at their hands. So now is the time: by helping us, you really help yourself by stopping their army far from your own land and by not allowing them to destroy our land and harm and oppress us.
In order to secure a hard-and-fast military alliance with the Hungarians, Dracula expressed his readiness to conclude a marriage with a member of Corvinus's royal family. This meant that he would have to abandon his Orthodox Christianity and become a Roman Catholic. But, since the church council of Florence had formally reunited the two churches in 1439 this did not represent any serious problems of a theological or religious nature. In those days, changes of religion for marital purposes were quite common, especially among the ruling families. Dracula also informed the king that if Matthias and his own troops were unable to fight, then at least he should “send aid from the Szeklers and Saxons,” his old political enemies. The Wallachian prince warned that the aid must be forthcoming by April 23, 1462, the feast of Saint George, an ominous date in Romanian folklore, since Saint George is also the slayer of dragons, a possible reference to his commitment to the ideals of the Dragon Order. Other diplomatic envoys went scurrying about in search of help to such remote locations as the capital of Armenia and Georgia, which was at war with the sultan. More realistically, he appealed on May 17 to the khan of the Tatars in the Crimea and to the Genoese of Caffa, who were equally threatened by Mehmed.
In essence, Dracula was reverting to the traditional Romanian view of his small country as an advanced bastion of Christianity defending the frontiers of Europe against the barbarism of the Orient. In an uncanny and prophetic way he foresaw the inevitable Turkish expansion should the king not respond to his urgent plea. “If, God forbid, we should fail, the consequences of such a Turkish victory would be severe for all Christianity,” he wrote. Sixty-four years later, in 1526, following the disastrous battle of Mohácz, Matthias's successor, Louis II, and the flower of the Hungarian nobility perished at the hands of another ambitious sultan, Süleyman the Magnificent, as most of Hungary was subsequently transformed into a Turkish province.
The expected help from the Hungarian king failed to materialize, since Matthias preferred to keep his army in reserve, pending the solution of the conflict with Emperor Frederick III, who continued to hold the crown of St. Stephen, which alone could give legal sanction to Matthias's rule at Wiener Neustadt. In a sense the Hungarian king looked upon Dracula's vassal army as the first line of defense of Hungarian territory. The small Hungarian garrison stationed at the fortress of Chilia was given instructions to collaborate with the Wallachian leader, should it be attacked by the Turks. For the time being, though, this was the extent of Hungary's commitment to the crusade. (It provided some justification for use of papal and crusading funds.)
In the meantime, Sultan Mehmed concluded his successful campaign in Asia. The empire of Trebizond, a last Christian enclave in Anatolia, had fallen, the sultan signed a truce with the Moslem prince of Karaman and had also conquered Sinop. He was thus free to use the full brunt of his forces to punish Vlad's temerity. On May 17, 1462, Mehmed the Conqueror finally set out with the bulk of his army from Constantinople in person, thus emphasizing the importance he attributed to this campaign. The sultan's aim was not merely to punish his unfaithful vassal for his amazing effrontery, but to transform Wallachia into a Turkish province. The Greek historian Chalcondyles speaks of “the largest Turkish force that had been assembled since the conquest of Constantinople” (a force certainly larger than that which attacked Belgrade in 1456). He estimated the total strength of the Turkish army at 250,000 men. Tursun Bey, the Turkish historian, mentions 300,000. The Venetian envoy at Buda, Tommasi, was probably more accurate than either. He gauged a total regular force of 60,000, excluding some 20,000 to 30,000 irregulars from various subjugated provinces.
The official Turkish court historian, Enveri, has left us a vivid picture of this vast array of soldiers who had assembled in what is now Plovdiv late in May, to receive words of encouragement from the sultan himself. The sultan inspired enthusiasm in his elite contingents by appealing to the spirit of the holy war and sharpening their desire for revenge for the inhuman acts committed against fellow Ottomans by the infidel “Kazîglu Bey.” In the fore were of course the fearsome janissaries, pedestrian soldiers, the chosen praetorian guard, always close to their master, the sultan's bodyguards, with their long, black mustaches, exotic headgear of feathers and white beaks that fluttered in the wind, wearing chain mail under long mantles lined with calfskin and fastened with costly belts. Behind them came the sipâhis, the feudal cavalry force and perhaps the most colorful arm, wearing elaborate high white turbans and riding on swift Arabian stallions with rich harnesses; these men had been recruited from among the landed Ottoman gentry throughout the Balkans. The advance guard was composed of slave soldiers—the saiales or the sacrificial troops—who could buy their freedom should they perchance survive. Protecting the flanks were the silahdârs, custodians of the sultan's weapons. The azabs, wearing long robes of green and reddish hue, struck terror in their enemies because of the use of their long spears, particularly deadly in pursuit. The acings were the archers, who also wielded pikes; the beshlis handled firearms. At the center of the sultan's assembled army stood the famed Turkish artillery, 120 cannons in all, manned by the cannoneers, not all of whom were Turks. The latter had turned the scales of battle against the Byzantines at the siege of Constantinople. Because of the virtually unpassable roads, the marshy conditions of the countryside, and the thickly forested belt, they were to prove far less effective in Wallachia, and in fact delayed the progress of the army, because they had to be pulled by slow-moving oxen, bison, or black buffaloes. More important to the smooth functioning of the sultan's armed forces were the ceausi, or ushers, considered “the eyes and ears of the sultan.” They watched over the regular progress of each unit, ready to use the whip or even behead anyone guilty of hesitation or cowardice. On the left and right flanks marched the allied contingents from Europe and Asia, each force under its individual governor, or beylerbeyi. In addition there were the engineers, who built roads and pontoon bridges; those responsible for setting up the camps at night; and the artisans and workers, such as wheelmakers, ironmongers, tailors, cobblers, musicians, cooks, and other camp followers without any specific function. One should add the women reserved for the night pleasures of the men. A particularly important role was played by the priests (ulema) of Islam and the muezzin, who, in the absence of minarets,
called the troops to prayer with a clarion call at sundown. There were court astrologers, for Mehmed consulted his horoscope in making important military decisions. For transportation purposes, oxen, buffalo, bison, and horses were used, but particularly dromedaries (one-humped camels) from Africa, because of their resistance to heat and ability to go long distances without water. Since Dracula had destroyed all the ports on both sides of the Danube River, the sultan's navy, consisting of 150 ships, never succeeded in playing a major part in the war and mainly confined its activity to attacking Brila and Chilia and, in the end, evacuating the troops. The army was under the personal command of the sultan, who had assembled the most tried military leaders of the Empire: Grand Vizier Mahmud, the beys Turahanolu Omer, Mihalolu Ali, Evrenos Beiolu Ali, Deliolu Umur of Janina, Mihalolu “Iskender,” Nesuh of Albania, plus Radu the Handsome, whose role in the sultan's headquarters became increasingly significant as the campaign progressed. Another unlikely ally whose betrayal will be explained was Steven the Great, who directed the attack on Chilia. The official historians, whose accounts are invaluable in following the progress of the Turkish forces, also formed part of the immediate entourage. Among them were Enveri, Hodja Husein, Asîk Pasha Zade, and Constantin Mihailovi, known to us simply as the “Janissary of Ostrovitza” evidently of Serbian origin, who has left us an eyewitness account of the more important operations.
Dracula's army paled in comparison with the mighty Ottoman forces. As always happened in times when the survival of the country was in jeopardy, Wallachia experienced virtually a mass levy of all able-bodied citizens, which entailed the mobilization not only of men of military age, but also of women and of children from the age of twelve up, and included gypsy slave contingents. There are various estimates of the strength of Dracula's army: the Russian narrative gives us a total of 30,900 men; Domenico Balbi, the Venetian ambassador, mentions 30,000; Pietro Tommasi 24,000, a figure also accepted by Modrussa, the papal legate. We tend to accept the figure of the Russian ambassador of roughly 30,000, divided between 22,000 foot soldiers and the balance a fast-moving cavalry force. Dracula's newly elected boyars and their retinue, fighting under their individual standards, formed a very small proportion of the army. The majority of the older families of the land stood aloof and kept hidden in their mountain hideouts or had fled to Transylvania. The bulk of Dracula's army was composed of peasants and officers raised to their rank by virtue of their military abilities alone. They wore their long white tunics or shirts, tied at the waist by broad, heavy belts, often along with vests lined with sheep's wool or of thick animal skins to ward off the blows from the Turkish soldiers. They carried axes, scythes, hammers, or scimitars, as well as swords, bows, and arrows. The boyars on horseback wore armor under their long Byzantine robes and were equipped with lance, sword, and dagger, much in the manner of the feudal cavalry in the west. The townsmen had no distinctive uniform beyond the colors of their respective guilds, which paid for their inadequate firearms and helped finance the bombards, a small, unsafe bronze artillery piece that had to be loaded from the front, and the few small cannon they could afford. In addition Dracula had a personal guard of his own, composed of mercenaries from many lands; it included a small retinue of gypsies, who were pardoned of crimes for as long as they served him. His system of scouts was very efficient and kept him regularly informed of the progress of the Turkish forces and camp locations. The scouts were invariably local people intimately familiar with every topographical detail of the terrain to which they were assigned. They acted very much as a partisan force would, collaborating with the local population. Very effective was Dracula's cavalry, which was responsible for swift hit-and-run attacks either into the Turkish camps or against stragglers who were cut off from the main body of the Turkish army.
Morale among the Wallachians was extremely high, particularly at the beginning of the campaign, since the peasants were fighting in defense of their homelands. Like Napoleon, Dracula had a talent for inspiring enthusiasm in his men; he exhorted them to glorious and sometimes sacrificial action. “It would be better,” he told his men at the beginning of the campaign, “that those who think of death should not follow me.” Chalcondyles records that during one of the battles, the sultan captured one of Dracula's soldiers, who was brought before the sultan for questioning. Mehmed II promised the man all sorts of rewards, including the granting of a noble title, if he would reveal Dracula's battle plans or his secret hiding place. But the soldier remained silent and refused to answer any questions. So the sultan used threats. He told the soldier that he would break him on the wheel, skin him, or bury him alive, but all to no avail. The peasant stood his ground, and finally, sensing his end was near, he told the sultan, “I realize that my life is in your hands and that you will order me to be killed, but you will find out nothing from me about my master Dracula. I want to die for my country and not betray him.” The sultan was angry at first but, upon reflection, he told the man, “If your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world!” Conversely, Dracula was severe against those who did not live up to these high standards. The Russian narrative relates that after a battle Dracula would examine the wounds of his men. Those who were wounded in the front parts of their bodies were rewarded, but those who were wounded in the back were impaled, with the reproach “You are not a man but a woman,” because they had been cowards and had fled the scene of battle.
Keenly aware of the disparity of numbers, Dracula kept close watch on the Danube as his scouts reported the advance of the main Turkish force from Plovdiv to Vidin (one of the few ports that had not been destroyed the previous winter), where an initial attempt at disembarkation was made. Volleys of well-aimed arrows drove the Turks back to their ships. Finally, during the first week of June 1462, an advance contingent of the Turkish army attempted its first major landing on the Romanian bank at Turnu, a port that had been badly damaged by Dracula but was still usable. The sultan's intention was to sail up the Olt river and strike at Dracula's capital city of Tîrgovite. In fact, when the elite corps of janissaries crossed the Danube under cover of darkness, on Friday, June 4, using seventy barges commandeered from local fishermen, some miles away from Dracula's main camp, the Wallachian prince was caught by surprise.
An eyewitness, the Serbian-born janissary Constantin of Ostrovitza, has left us a graphic description of the Turkish disembarkation:
When night began to fall, we climbed into our boats and floated down the Danube and crossed over to the other side several miles below the place where Dracula's army was stationed. There we dug ourselves trenches, so that cavalry could not harm us. After that we crossed back over to the other side and transported other janissaries over the Danube, and when the entire infantry had crossed over, then we prepared and set out gradually against Dracula's army, together with the artillery and other equipment that we had brought with us. Having halted, we set up the cannon, but not in time to stop three hundred janissaries from being killed. The sultan was very upset by this set of circumstances, as he witnessed the great battle from the other side of the Danube and was unable to come over himself. He was afraid that all the janissaries might be killed.… Seeing that our side was greatly weakening, we defended ourselves with the 120 guns which we had brought over and fired so often that we repelled the prince's army and greatly strengthened our position.… And Dracula, seeing that he could not prevent the crossing, withdrew. After that the emperor crossed the Danube with his entire army and gave us 30,000 coins to be distributed among us.”
The janissaries landed first, followed by the azabs, the Asiatic troops from Anatolia, and the bulk of the sipâhis from Rumelia. The sultan, together with Dracula's brother Radu, who was in charge of 4,000 horsemen of his own, figured prominently at the vanguard of the Turkish force.
From this point onward, Dracula resorted to what is known as “strategic retreat,” the device invariably used by an outnumbered army. The idea was to draw the superior enemy force deep into
his own territory. The Romanians depended on the physical varieties of their terrain for defense: the marshy soil near the Danube, the dense Vlasia forest extending deep into the plain, and the impenetrable mountains. According to Romanian tradition, the forest and the mountains were the cradle that ensured the survival of the Romanian people through the ages. Another tactic used by Dracula in wearing down his enemies was “scorched earth,” creating a vast desert in the path of the invading army. As Dracula's army withdrew northward, abandoning territory to the Turks, they depopulated the area, burned their own villages, and set fire to the cities, which were reduced to ghost towns. Boyars, peasants, and townspeople alike, together with their families, accompanied the retreating armies, unless they could find shelter in isolated mountain hideouts or inaccessible island monasteries such as Snagov, where many of the wealthy had sought refuge. In addition, Dracula ordered the crops systematically burned, poisoned all the wells, and destroyed the cattle and all other domestic animals that could not be herded away. Dracula even ordered dams to be built to divert the waters of small rivers to create marshes that might impede the progress of the Turkish cannon by miring them down. His people also dug huge pits and covered them with timber and leaves with the purpose of trapping men, camels, and horses. Contemporary sources confirm this scenario of desolation that greeted the Turkish armies. The Greek historian Michael Ducas stated, “Dracula removed his entire population to the mountains and forest regions, and he left the fields deserted. He had all beasts of burden herded up the mountains. Thus, after having crossed the Danube and advanced for seven days, Mohammed II found no man, nor any significant animal, and nothing to eat or drink.” His compatriot, Chalcondyles added, “Dracula had hidden the women and children in a very marshy area, protected by natural defenses, covered with dense oak forest. And he ordered his men to hide themselves in this forest, which was difficult for any newcomer to penetrate.” On the Turkish side, the comments are very much the same. Hodja Husein, a veteran of the campaign, complained that “the best azabs of the Turks could find no springs… no… drinkable water.” Mahmud Pasha (the vizier who had earlier attacked Brila), who was sent ahead of the main army with a small contingent of men, thought that he had finally found a place to rest. “But even here,” Hodja Husein wrote, “for a distance of six leagues there was not a drop of water to be found. The intensity of the heat caused by the scorching sun was so great that the armor of the janissaries melted like a lighted candle. In this parched plain, the lips of the fighters for Islam dried up. Even the Africans and Asians, used to desert conditions, used their shields to roast meat.” Certainly a contributing factor to the sufferings and death endured by the Turkish army was the fact that the summer of 1462 by all accounts was one of the hottest on record.
Dracula, Prince of Many Faces Page 20