Stephen III of Moldavia - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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Stephen the Great
Prince of Moldavia
Miniature from the 1473 Gospel at Humor
Monastery
Reign April 12, 1457 July 2, 1504
Romanian tefan cel Mare
Born 1433
Birthplace Borzeti(?), Moldavia
Died July 2, 1504 (aged 70-71)
Place of
death
Suceava, Moldavia
Buried Putna Monastery
Wives Evdokia Olelkovici between 1463 -
1467
Maria din Mangop between 1472 -
1477
Maria Vochia between 1478 - 1504
Royal house House of Muat
Father Bogdan II of Moldavia
Mother Lady Oltea
Stephen III of Moldavia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stephen III of Moldavia (also known as Stefan the
Great, Romanian: tefan cel Mare, pronounced [tefan
t
el mare] or tefan cel Mare i Sfnt, "Stefan the Great

and Holy"; 1433 July 2, 1504) was Prince of Moldavia
between 1457 and 1504 and the most prominent
representative of the House of Muat.
During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and
maintained its independence against the ambitions of
Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, which all
sought to subdue the land. Stephen achieved fame in
Europe for his long resistance against the Ottomans. He
was victorious in 46 of his 48 battles, and was one of the
first to gain a decisive victory over the Ottomans at the
Battle of Vaslui, after which Pope Sixtus IV deemed him
verus christianae fidei athleta (true Champion of
Christian Faith). He was a man of religion and displayed
his piety when he paid the debt of Mount Athos to the
Porte, ensuring the continuity of Athos as an autonomous
monastical community.
Contents
1 Early life and rise to power
2 Rule
3 Main battles
3.1 Battle of Baia
3.2 Battle of Vaslui
3.3 Battle of Valea Alb
3.4 Battle of the Cosmin Forest
4 Illness and death
5 Canonization
6 Legacy
6.1 Coins and banknotes
6.2 Monuments
6.3 Film
7 See also
8 References
Moldavian principality
Saint Stephen the Great
Prince of Moldavia
Honored in Romanian Orthodox Church
Canonized July 12, 1992, Bucharest, Romania
9 External links
Early life and rise to power
Stephen was born in Borzeti and was a member of the ruling House of Muat. His father Bogdan II had
ruled Moldavia for two years (1449 to 1451) before being killed in a stealthy raid led by Stephen's uncle,
Petru Aron. Bogdan II was attending a wedding of one of his boyars who apparently was in collusion with
Petru Aron and the surprise was complete. Stephen barely escaped with his life, but his father was
captured and beheaded on the spot by his stepbrother Petru Aron. Between 1451 and 1457, Moldavia was in
turmoil from the civil war between Petru Aron and Alexndrel a nephew of Alexander the Good.
Following the outbreak of the conflict, Stephen took refuge in Transylvania, seeking the protection of
military commander John Hunyadi. After that, he moved to the court of his first cousin Vlad III Dracula
and, in 1457, managed to receive 6,000 horsemen as military assistance, putting them to use in a victorious
battle against Petru Aron at Doljeti, near Roman. Following another lost battle at Orbic, Aron fled to
Poland, while Stephen was crowned Prince. Two years later, he led an incursion into Poland in search of
Aron, but was met with resistance. Instead, a treaty was signed between Moldavia and Poland, through
which Stephen recognized King Kazimierz IV Jagiellon as his suzerain, while Aron was banned from
entering Moldavia.
Rule
Menaced by powerful neighbours, he successfully
repelled an invasion by the Hungarian King Matthias
Corvinus, defeating him in the Battle of Baia (in 1467),
crushed an invading Tatar force at Lipnic and invaded
Wallachia in 1471 (the latter had by then succumbed to
Ottoman power and had become its vassal). When the
Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II launched a retaliatory attack
by Romanian Orthodox Church
Major shrine Putna Monastery
Feast July 2
on Moldavia, Stephen defeated the invaders at the Battle
of Vaslui in 1475, a victory which temporarily halted the
Turkish advance. Stephen was defeated at Rzboieni
(Battle of Valea Alb) the next year, but the Ottomans
had to retreat after they failed to take any significant
castle (see siege of Cetatea Neamului) as a plague started to spread in the Ottoman army. Stephen's search
for European assistance against the Turks met with little success, even though he had "cut off the pagan's
right hand" as he put it in a letter.
Stefan helped to oust Vlad epe's brother, Radu the Handsome who had converted to Islam and later
became the Ottoman commander of Wallachia, he then installed Laiot Basarab the Old on the throne in the
hope of bringing Wallachia back into the Christian camp. This proved to be illusory, as Laiot quickly
turned his back on Stephen, deeming that Ottoman protection would better help him consolidate his rule.
With Stephen's support, Laiot was removed from the throne in 1482 by Vlad Clugrul, brother to Vlad
Tepes, and for the remainder of the 15th century Wallachia remained relatively stable under his rule.
After 1484, when he lost the fortresses of Chilia Nou and Cetatea Alb to an Ottoman blitz invasion,
Stephen had to face not only new Turkish onslaughts which he defeated again on November 16, 1485 at
Catlabuga Lake and at cheia on the Siret River in March 1486, but also the Polish designs on Moldavian
independence. Finally on August 20, 1503
[1]
he concluded a treaty with Sultan Beyazid II that preserved
Moldavia's self-rule, at the cost of an annual tribute to the Turks.
From the 16th century on, the Principality of Moldavia would spend three hundred years as an Ottoman
vassal. In his late years, he dealt successfully with a Polish invasion, defeating the Poles at the Battle of the
Cosmin Forest.
Main battles
Battle of Baia
The Battle of Baia was fought on December 15, 1467 against the armies of Hungarian King, Matthias
Corvinus. The battle was the last Hungarian attempt to subdue the independent Moldavia, as previous
attempts had ended in failure. Corvinus invaded Moldavia due to Stephen's annexation of Chilia a
fortress and harbour at the coast of the Black Sea, which at the time was controlled by Hungarian and
Wallachian forces, though it had belonged to Moldavia centuries earlier.
The conflict ended with a bitter defeat for the Hungarians, who had an army more than three times the size
of the Moldavian force. This put an end to all Hungarian claims on Moldavia. Corvinus almost died after
being thrice wounded by arrows and barely made his escape to Transylvania.
In 1468, Stephen campaigned in Transylvania, found Aron and had him executed.
[2]
Stephen and Corvinus
would later negotiate a peace treaty and become allies; in 1475, Corvinus sent 1,800 soldiers that assisted
Stephen in his victory at the Battle of Vaslui.
Battle of Vaslui
Coat of arms of Moldavia in 1481, at
Putna Monastery.
Battle flag of Stephen the Great: Saint
George enthroned, trampling a
dragon.
The Battle of Vaslui (also referred as Battle of Podul nalt or the Battle of Racova) was fought on
January 10, 1475, against the Ottoman Beylerbeyi of Rumelia,
Hadm Suleyman Pasha. The battle took place at Podul nalt (the
High Bridge), near the town of Vaslui, in Moldavia (now part of
eastern Romania). The Ottoman troops numbered up to 120,000,
facing about 40,000 Moldavian troops, plus smaller numbers of
allied and mercenary troops.
[3]
Stephen inflicted on the Ottomans a decisive defeat that has been
described as "the greatest ever secured by the Cross against
Islam,"
[4]
with casualties, according to Venetian and Polish records,
reaching beyond 40,000 on the Ottoman side. Mara Brankovic
(Mara Hatun), who had formerly been the younger wife of Murad II,
told a Venetian envoy that the invasion had been worst ever defeat
for the Ottomans.
[5]
Stephen was later awarded the title "Athleta
Christi" (Champion of Christ) by Pope Sixtus IV, who referred to
him as "Verus christiane fidei aletha" (The true defender of the
Christian faith).
[6]
According to the Polish chronicler Jan Dugosz, Stephen did not celebrate his victory; instead, he fasted for
forty days on bread and water and forbade anyone to attribute the victory to him, insisting that credit be
given only to "The Lord".
Battle of Valea Alb
After the disaster of the Battle of Vaslui, the Sultan Mehmed II
assembled a large army and entered Moldavia in June 1476.
Meanwhile groups of Tartars from the Crimean Khanate (the
Ottomans' recent ally) were sent to attack Moldavia. Romanian
sources may state that they were repelled,.
[7]
Other sources state that
joint Ottoman and Crimean Tartar forces "occupied Bessarabia and
took Akkerman, gaining control of southern mouth of Danube.
Stephan tried to avoid open battle with the Ottomans by following a
scorched-earth policy."
[8]
In the process the Moldavians forces
ended up being dispersed throughout the country, leaving only a
small force of about 1220,000 men, led by tefan cel Mare
himself, to face the main Ottoman attack.
The battle began with the Moldavians luring the main Ottoman
forces into a forest that was set on fire, causing some casualties to
the attacking Ottoman army in the forest. According to another
battle description, the defending Moldavian forces repelled several
Ottoman attacks with steady fire from hand-guns.
[9]
The attacking
Turkish Janissaries were forced to crouch on their stomachs instead
of charging headlong into the defenders positions. Seeing the
Coat of arms of Stephen the Great
imminent defeat of his forces, Mehmed charged with his personal guard against the Moldavians, managing
to rally the Janissaries, and turning the tide of the battle. Turkish Janissaries penetrated inside the forest and
engaged the defenders in man-to-man fighting.
The Moldavian army was utterly defeated (casualties were very high on both sides), and the chronicles say
that the entire battlefield was covered with the bones of the dead, a probable source for the toponym (Valea
Alb is Romanian and Akdere Turkish for "The White Valley").
tefan cel Mare retreated into the north-western part of Moldavia or even into the Polish Kingdom
[10]
and
began forming another army. The Ottomans were unable to conquer any of the major Moldavian
strongholds (Suceava, Neam, Hotin)
[7]
and were constantly harassed by small scale Moldavians attacks.
Soon they were also confronted with starvation, a situation made worse by an outbreak of the plague, and
were driven out of the country, many of then dying while crossing the Danube river. The Sultan returned to
Istanbul without considering himself defeated, but also without conquering anything.
Battle of the Cosmin Forest
After the Moldavian loss of Chilia and Cetatea Alb, the Ottoman
threat seemed more evident. King John I Albert of Poland was
suzerain of Moldavia, and, when Stephen asked him for military
assistance, they met, in 1494 at the conference of Levoa, where
together with King Ladislaus II of Hungary and Elector Johann
Cicero of Brandenburg, they forged plans for an expedition against
the Porte. The objective was to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Alb.
However, in unexplained circumstances, tefan received reports
from Hungary that John Albert prepared to place his own brother,
the Polish prince Sigismund (later king, as Sigismund I the Old), on
the Moldavian throne. By 1497 John Albert managed to gather
80,000 men and was preparing for the expedition when tefan
invaded Galicia and pillaged it. The plans for the Ottoman invasion
were put aside and John Albert went against Moldavia instead.
The campaign started on the wrong foot, with John Albert entering
Moldavia at Hotin and despite sound advice to the contrary deciding not to take the fortress, but to go
straight for the capital city of Suceava. After the abortive siege of Suceava (September 26 October 16)
with the taking of the recently rebuilt and reinforced fortress nowhere in sight (despite having used heavy
siege artillery on its walls), and facing famine, disease, bad weather plus the prospect of coming winter
John Albert was compelled to lift the siege. After some negotiations, the Poles left Suceava on October 19.
John Albert accepted Stephen's conditions for retreat, but later decided to break the arrangement. It was a
mistake that Stephen was waiting for all along: on October 26 he ambushed the Poles while they were
marching on a narrow road passing through a thickly wooded area known as The Cosmin Forest. Thus,
John Albert was unable to deploy his forces, rendering the Polish heavy cavalry completely useless. The
several phases of battle lasted for three days, with Stephen routing the invading army, which was forced to
flee in disarray, harassed all the way by the forces of the prince. At the same time a Moldavian contingent
intercepted on October 29 a hastily assembled Polish relief force and completely annihilated it at Leneti.
However, once back in open space, the Poles were able again to take advantage of their heavy cavalry, and
The tomb of Stephen the Great and
his last wife, Maria Voichia, Putna
Monastery.
that part of the remaining troops which managed to retain a measure of order and discipline succeeded in
crossing back into Poland despite Stephen's last effort to engage the remnants of the king's army in a
battle of annihilation when they were trying to ford the Prut river at Cernui.
After the failed campaign the Poles no longer threatened Moldova for the rest of Stephen's reign.
Illness and death
In 1462, during the assault of Chilia Nou, Stephen was shot in the
leg. The wound never fully healed. In 1486, during the battle of
cheia, his horse was injured. They both fell and Stephen was
trapped under the horse. The incident aggravated his old leg injury.
Over time, he summoned to his royal court many doctors,
astrologists and other persons, who attempted to heal his wound.
Among these were Hermann, "bacalaurio in medicina", astrologist
Baptista de Vesentio, Maestro Zoano barbero from Genoa (in 1468),
Isaac Beg (in 1473), Don Antonio Branca (skilled in fixing cut
noses), Mateo Muriano from Venice (in 1502), and Hieronimo di
Cesena from Venice (in 1503).
Towards the end of his life, Stephen suffered from gout, which immobilized his hands and legs. On
November 9, 1503, Vladislav, King of Hungary wrote to the Doge of Venice: "The voivode of Moldavia is
tormented by an old illness." On June 30, 1504 Stephen's wound was cauterized by the doctors present in
Suceava (one of whom was Hieronimo di Cesena from Venice). The operation caused great pain to the old
voivode, who died two days later, on the morning of July 2, 1504. He was buried in the Monastery of Putna.
Canonization
Stephen the Great is perceived by the Romanian Orthodox Church as a defender of the faith, of the Church,
and the whole of Christianity. Stephen's opposition to the Ottoman Empire protected the entirety of Europe
from an invasion. After the Battle of Vaslui, Pope Sixtus IV named Stephen "the Champion of Christ"
(Athleta Christi). It is said that he built 44 churches and monasteries (see List of churches established by
Stephen III of Moldavia), one for each battle that he won (44 out of a total of 48). At the end of the 20th
century, the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to canonize Stephen. The canonization was enacted on
June 20, 1992 by the Synodic Council of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Stephen is called "Saint Voivode
Stephen the Great". His feast day in the Romanian Orthodox calendar is July 2, the day of his death.
Legacy
Though it was marked by continual strife, Stephen's long reign brought considerable cultural development;
many churches and monasteries were erected by Stephen himself; some of which, including Vorone, are
now part of UNESCO's World Heritage sites.
Stephen was seen as holy by many Christians, soon after his death. He has been canonized a saint by the
Romanian Orthodox Church under the name "The Right-believing Voivode Stephen the Great and the
Holy".
Stephen the Great monument by
Tudor Cataraga in Nisporeni
Stephen III on the Moldovan 1 leu
banknote.
Stephen III on the Old Romanian 20
lei coin.
Stephen the Great Monument in
Chiinu
In a 2006 Romanian national television campaign on TVR 1 (see Mari Romni), Stephen III was voted by
almost 40,000 viewers as the "Greatest Romanian" of all times.
Coins and banknotes
Stephen the Great's image was used on coins and banknotes both in Romania and Moldova.
The Romanian leu, the
currency used in Romania,
features Stephen on the coins
of 20 lei, issued in the 1990s.
These coins are no longer in
use.
The Moldovan leu,
established on November 29,
1993, following the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the
creation of the independent
republic of Moldova,
features Stephen the Great
on the front side of all the
banknotes.
Monuments
The Stephen the Great
Monument is a prominent
monument in Chiinu, opposite the main government building. A
monumental equestrian statute of Stephan the Great exists in Iai, in
the square in front of the neogothic grand Palace, while another
equestrian statue exists in Suceava, near the medieval citadel. Many
other statues and monuments dedicated to Stephan the Great feature
prominently in all the major cities in the region of Moldavia, eastern
Romania, the western part of the former Principality of Moldavia, as
well as on the site of some of the most important battles that he
fought.
Film
Stephen, and his victory at Vaslui, were the subject of a 1975 film,
tefan cel Mare Vaslui 1475, by Romanian director Mircea
Drgan.
See also
Putna Monastery
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to tefan III
cel Mare.
Voronet Monastery
Neam Monastery
Neam Citadel
Borzeti Church
House of Muat
Vlad Dracula, cousin of Stephen the Great
References
1. ^ Uliantski, Mamerualyi, p. 195
2. ^ Iorga, p. 99
3. ^ Kronika Polska mentions 40,000 Moldavian troops; Gentis Silesi Annales mentions 120,000 Ottoman troops
and "no more than" 40,000 Moldavian troops; the letter of Stephen addressed to the Christian countries, sent on
January 25, 1475, mentions 120,000 Ottoman troops; see also The Annals of Jan Dugosz, p. 588;
4. ^ The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania, Turkey
5. ^ Istoria lui tefan cel Mare, p. 133
6. ^ Saint Stephen the Great in his contemporary Europe (Respublica Christiana), p. 141
7. ^
a

b
M. Barbulescu, D. Deletant, K. Hitchins, S. Papacostea, P. Teodor, Istoria Romniei (History of Romania),
Ed. Corint, Bucharest, 2002, ISBN 973-653-215-1, p. 157
8. ^ Shaw, Stanford J. (1976) History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey Vol 1: Empire of Gazis,
Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29163-1 p.68
9. ^ (Romanian) Akademia, Rolul distinctiv al artileriei n marile oti moldoveneti
(http://www.akademia.ro/articole.php?view=26) (The special role of artillery in the larger Moldavian armies),
April 2000
10. ^ (Romanian) Jurnalul Naional, Calendar 26 iulie 2005.Moment istoric (http://old.jurnalul.ro/articol.php?
id=2790) (Anniversaries on July 26, 2005.A historical moment)
External links
Muatin family
(http://genealogy.euweb.cz/balkan/balkan18.html)
Map of Moldavia under tefan cel Mare, 1501
(http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaHistory/maps/moldavia-1501.htm)
Preceded by
Petru Aron
Prince/Voivode of Moldavia
14571504
Succeeded by
Bogdan III cel Orb
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephen_III_of_Moldavia&oldid=617813082"
Categories: Stephen III of Moldavia Rulers of Moldavia Romanian saints People from Oneti
1433 births 1504 deaths History of Moldavia (14571504) 15th-century Romanian people
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el mare] or tefan cel Mare i Sfnt, "Stefan the Great

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