Battle of Baia - Background - Foreign Relations

Foreign Relations

In 1462, Stephen sent a letter to his cousin, Prince Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, asking him to return Chilia back to Moldavia—a demand that was most likely refused. On 22 June, when Vlad was fighting Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, Stephen launched an attack on Chilia, with some Turkish assistance, with the objective of capturing the fortress. The Wallachians rushed to the scene with 7,000 men, and together with the Hungarian garrison, battled the Moldavians and the Turks for eight days. The Turks were defeated and Stephen was wounded by a piece of shrapnel — an injury which would hasten his death. In 1465, when Dracula was imprisoned in Hungary, Stephen again advanced towards Chilia with a large force and siege weapons; but instead of besieging the fortress, he showed the garrison, who favoured the Polish King, a letter in which the King requires them to surrender the fortress. The garrison complied with the King's demand and Stephen entered the fortress escorted by Polish troops where he found “its two captains, rather tipsy, for they have been to a wedding.” Mehmed was furious about the news and claimed Chilia as being a part of Wallachia, which now was a vassal to the Porte, and demanded Stephen relinquish ownership. However, Stephen refused and recruited an army, forcing Mehmed, who was not yet ready to wage war, to accept the situation, if only for the time being. Długosz recalls that in the beginning of his reign, Stephen reformed his army by extending rights for men to bear arms:

This Stephen's rule has been so strict and just that no crime has gone unpunished and people now obey his every order. He has insisted that not only the knights and nobility should bear arms, but that farmers and villagers do so as well, for everyone has a duty to defend his fatherland. If the Voivode learns that a farmer does not have a bow, arrows and a sword, or has mustered without a spear, the culprit is condemned to death.

In 1466, Stephen regained Khotyn from Poland in a diplomatic victory, but in the same year, Corvinus became on bad terms with King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland, which frustrated the Hungarian king further, knowing that Moldavia was a Polish fief. One year later, in 1467, the locals of Transylvania started an uprising in which Corvinus had a difficult time quelling the riots. He later found out that Stephen had supported the rioters, — probably in order to find and kill Aron. Długosz writes in his ‘’Annals’’ that in 1467, a certain "Berendeja" went to the court of Corvinus and promised to make Moldavia his vassal, if the King would in turn make him Prince of Moldavia. This was denounced by Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga, who argued that Corvinus started recruiting troops and took Aron with him to put him on the Moldavian throne. This is disputed by Długosz though, who in ‘’Historiae Polonicae’’, adds that Corvinus brought with him both Aron and Berendeja, making unknown whom the king considered more worthy of the Moldavian throne.