Mircea I the Great - A medieval Timeline

1402, September - Great city of Constantinople:

During the stay of Mircea in Constantinople, the Metropolitan Antim of Ungro-Wallachia died of his very old age and the Church Synod start debating who should be the next who will succeed him. After some suggestions, all agree that the best successor should be Archimandrite Nicodim of Tismana. He first declined the position but, after being requested by all members of the synod, in the virtue of the great prestige he hold in the Orthodox world, he accepted.

Related or not to the presence of the army outside of Constantinople, other important events had happened nearly in the same time:

  • Durad Brancovic was recognized by Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos as Despot of Serbia. Durad will also marry the daughter of Mircea, Anastasia who was 18 years old. Receiving the crown form the hands of the Emperor and the Patriarchs (both the ecumenical and the Serbian one were in Constantinople), was far better than to conquer it by the sword (of course, maintaining it will need the sword) and the matrimonial alliance with Mircea will also help a lot.

  • Mircea was also recognized by Manuel as Земли Влахискои Деспот (Zemli Vlahiskoi Despot), or Despot of the lands of the Vlahs, as both Moldavia and Wallahia proper were labeled by the Greeks, Turks and Slavs with name of “Wallachia”: Ungro-Vlachia for Wallachia and Mavro-Vlachia Moldavia.
Mircea and Durad promise in return to help Manuel to reconquer Thrace lost to the Ottomans.

  • In the same time, the Church Synod found a stunning solution for the Wallachian and Moldavian Metropolitans. A new Autocephaly Patriarchate of All Wallachians will be created, with the siege at Curtea de Argeș, having in jurisdiction the Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia (as primus inter pares), the Metropolitan of Severin and the Metropolitan of Moldavia (as second in prestige). The first Patriarch will be Nicodim, who will also keep the office of Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia and Exarch of Transylvanian Orthodox.

1402 – Sunday 26 September - in Hagia Sophia Cathedral, the two new Despots were crowned with great pomp. One week later, they left the City with their army heading to Edirne. Mircea wanted to recover his second son, Radu, still prisoner of the Turks.

The city of Edirne, or Adrianople, was the European capital of the Ottoman Empire and was loyal to Musa Celebi who shortly become recognised as Sultan by the European part of the Empire. The Anatolian part has recognized Issa Celebi as Sultan, who also had the treasury of the empire and the capital of Bursa. If the relations between Musa and Mircea were good before the battle, existing even negotiations of a marriage between him and the daughter of Mircea, Musa start now to blame Mircea to rescue his brothers on the field of Bursa and not sustaining his charge to rescue his father.
Cause of that, the relation between them become tense and Musa refuse to liberate Radu from captivity.
 
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I hope you don't mean to have Mircea take over Serbia as well. That's too much :D
Also what is he doing leading a corps in the Ottoman army if he's a Hungarian vassal? After Serbia recognized Ottoman suzerainty in 1390 things heated up right away between the two powers.
 
I hope you don't mean to have Mircea take over Serbia as well. That's too much :D
Also what is he doing leading a corps in the Ottoman army if he's a Hungarian vassal? After Serbia recognized Ottoman suzerainty in 1390 things heated up right away between the two powers.

Hi,

Thanks for being interested about the thread. Don't wory, I do not plan Mircea taking over Serbia.

In OTL, Wallachian's suzeranity was a double one. Hungarian king was the nominal suzerain, but the voivodes were also vasals of Ottomans.
Same ITTL.

There were many discution beetween historians if Mircea participated to battle of Ankara IOTL, and it was proven that he's not. He take advantage of it by conquering Dobrudja.

ITTL, he participate to campain because of the captivity of his son
 
Must've missed that about the son; it's all coming together now. I also like the detail and research into the religious structure.

I hope I'm not spoiling anything but let me just say: Musa, you poor damned fool... :D
 
Must've missed that about the son; it's all coming together now. I also like the detail and research into the religious structure.

I hope I'm not spoiling anything but let me just say: Musa, you poor damned fool... :D

Hi!

The religion back time was far more important than nationality, ethnicity and even skin color. The Church was very related to the state and, in the Eastern Europe, the princes held a loot of power over the Orthodox Church (in some countries, they nominate the Metropolitan and/or the Patriarch). The monasteries were the only places of culture in the majority Balkan countries.

That is the reason I had changes on Religious administration domain. ;)
 
The Ottoman Empire - 1400

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPKgM3QK8SQ

Ottoman_Empire_1400_aegis03florin_map.png
 
1402 - October:

After the death of Baized, the Ottoman Empire split in two. The European part recognize Musa Celebi as sultan and the Anatolian one have recognize Isa Celebi, as it was previously nominated by his father as the governor of Anatolia and hold the city of Bursa.

Fearing for his life, the third son of Baized present in battle, Mustafa, had taken refuge to the Emirate of the White Sheep Turkomans (or Ak Koyunlu), how received from Timur the lands of their enemies, the Emirate of the Black Sheep Turkomans (or Kara Koyunlu).

Isa was respected by the most Beyliks but his authority was far from complete or even sure. Several beys had joined the Karamanids, the big absents from the Bursa field and recognize Mehmed Bey II of Karaman as their suzerain. If Isa had more manpower and more resources than Musa, he had to fear about the increased thread of Karaman and the rebellious lords. The Timurid invasion was tremendous brutal and the devastation was huge. After Timur death, practically all Beyliks were de facto independent. Mehmed Bey laid siege to Antalya and start negotiations with the others Beyliks still loyal to Isa, especially with Aydin.

On European threat, Musa lead the Rumelia and other vassal regions but also had problems to impose his authority. Serbia, Bosnia and Moldo-Wallachia were practically independents. Makedonian lords were not yet integrated in the Empire and rebelled as soon as the news of death of Baized reach them. Thessaly was not integrated either but for now was calm, as well as the three Bulgarians provinces.

Edirne, the European capital of Ottoman Empire was not as big or rich as Bursa, but was very important from strategically point of view and the center of power of Musa. After the death of Grand Vizier Ali Pasha at Bursa, the position was assumed by Lala Şahin (or Shahin) Pasha, an old and experimented general who conquered Edirne decades ago. Now he guarded the city with 2 000 veterans, while Musa campaign in Makedonia. When he hear that a 14 000 strong army of dubious loyalty are heading to Edirne, he start to gather troops and resources. He also sent a message to Musa, asking for troops in the event that the Mircea and Durad proves hostiles. The younger boy of Mircea, named Radu, was kept hostage and, if before he had a privileged regime as prince and “guest” of the Sultan, now he was imprisoned under close guard.

The Christian army moved slower from Constantinople to Edirne and, despising the efforts of his commander to limit plunder, the troops (some of the Serbs do not even recognized the authority of Durad, as well as the Bosnians sent by their king, Stephen Ostoja of Bosnia) pillage everything in their path. All were very frustrated by the long campaign and the fact that they had no booty.

In the moment of arriving at Edirne, they found the city guarded by near 5 000 troops (3 000 being low quality militias and azaps). Mircea requested to Lala Şahin to have his son released but he was refused. The city seems to be safe as the Christians do not intended to attack and Musa had sent the message that he will come with 10 000 men.
 
The Sack of Edirne

The fate, the greed, the bad luck and the stupidity will doom the city.

Lala Şahin died from old age in the night after the Christians arrived. The command was assumed by Khidr-shah, the son of Evrenos Bey, a men who had large estates in the region devastated by the intruders. Khidr suffer of “great, celebre and successful father syndrome” and now he was decided to show everybody that he was a competent commander and a great warrior.

He sent two messengers with an ultimatum:[FONT=&quot] “Leave the Ottoman lands or you will all die!” [/FONT]

The arrogant message infuriated some Serbian knights who takes the messengers and impaled them in the front of the gates, ignoring the orders from Durand and Mircea to leave the messengers alone. In retaliation,Khidr decapitate some Christian prisoners, including Radu, the Prince of Wallachia. He throw the heads in the Serbian and Wallachian camp. When he see the head of his son, Mircea cracked.

In that night, a deserter come to Serbian camp and offer them a way to enter in the city. He was a Greek who had a personal feud with Khidr and wanted revenge. The Serbian noble who spoke with him, named Jovan Mladic, do not bother to inform Durad about this, and took his men and follow the deserter. The knights and men-at arms (less than a hundred) snaked near the river and entered in the city via a sewer. There, they start to set fire and to attack the sentinels. The noise weak up everybody and the militia start to panic fearing that all the Christian army was in town. Outside of the gates, the Serbians and Wallachians think that the Turks are slaughtering among themselves and start to attack the walls. A gate was open by several knights inside of the city and the Christian troops poured inside.

The chaos was total and, on both sides, the commanders had no authority and no control on their troops. What happened was a bloodbath. The Christians killed everybody, regardless of the age or confession or if they were civil or soldiers. They pillage everything they founded or escaped from the flames. But the Turks do not give themselves without a fiercely opposition. More than 2500 attackers lost their lives or were severely crippled during the fighting.
The sack lasted two days and nearly all population was killed or enslaved (mostly women).

Now, Mircea and Durad were in the control of a ruined town and do not know what to do. Surely, Musa is headed to them with a strong army… They were in the middle of the enemy lands, far from their base...
 
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