Political and Military Knowledge on the Eastern Danube-Carpathian Region in the 15th Century: The Ottomanisation of the Danube Principalities in the View of Central and Western European Diplomats

Albert Weber

The study aims at collecting quantitative data from diplomatic correspondences in order to determine at which stage the Central and Western European states became aware that Wallachia and Moldova changed sides to the Ottomans politically and militarily. This “Ottomanisation” meant that the Danube Principalities became Ottoman vassal states and that their elites were integrated into the Ottoman ruling system in South Eastern Europe. During the first half of the 15th century there existed a double, Hungarian-Ottoman vassalage of Wallachia and during the second half a Polish-Ottoman, while Moldova was a Hungarian vassal. The power relations within the region especially changed after the 1460s following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia (1459) and Bosnia (1463). Hungary withstood Ottoman expansion (Belgrade 1456, Bosnia 1476, Transylvania 1479) but did not have the financial and military means to shield the Principalities against growing Ottoman influence. The Wallachian and Moldovan elites therefore had to negotiate their positions towards the Ottomans and accepted the Hungarian or Polish suzerainty only symbolically. The study will investigate the strategies applied by the voivodes, the Wallachian and Moldovan rulers, to maintain their diplomatic access to their Catholic neighbours and their elite networks. It will also investigate the level of knowledge the latter states had about the situation in the Principalities.