Battle of Baia - Battle

Battle

The Hungarians departed in the middle of October and reached the realm of Moldavia at the beginning of November, using a passage near Bacău. On 19 November, the Hungarians arrived at the Trotuş River where they met some Moldavian resistance, but Corvinus, to ensure the "loyalty of his troops, avoids a pitched battle and limits his efforts to surprise attacks and ambushes, yet is himself prevented from foraging or doing further damage."

The town was destroyed and the Hungarians headed for Bacău, which they also burned down; then they continued to Roman and stayed there between 29 November and 7 December. According to a chronicle, Stephen sent envoys to negotiate a peace treaty, but the two factions could not agree and the war continued. Roman was put to flames and the Hungarians killed everyone they encountered, “without considering their sex, age, or looks.” After three days of marching and more pillaging, they reached Baia where Corvinus met with a Hungarian by the name of Sythotus, who revealed to him the Moldavian position, their numbers (12,000), and their plan to attack before dusk. The Moldavians were encamped further north, between Moldova River and Şomuz creek. Corvinus ordered the city to be fortified with “ramparts, ditches and a ring of wagons,” as the men were told to be prepared for battle and guards were sent to guard strategic points.

A peculiar report mentions that Stephen himself was captured by the Hungarians on 14 December, but that he managed to trick them into releasing him. On 15 December, when dusk was approaching, Stephen sent smaller detachments that set the town on fire from three different places: thereafter, noise and confusion set in. Stephen ordered his men to dismount and soon after they launched their attack and made battle until dawn. Descriptions of the battle say that the fire made the night equally light as the day and that many Hungarians were consumed by the flames. The two armies started to butcher each other at the gate of the city; then the fighting continued onto the streets "with such a wrath, that nothing could be seen as more horrible than this." The Moldavians got the upper hand of the battle and launched another attack against the royal guard, which consisted of 200 heavily armed knights, the aristocrats and Corvinus. Many Moldavians were killed in the tumult that followed, as Báthory and the rest of the knights tried to defend the entrance to the market. Corvinus was wounded by three arrows in the back and had to be “carried from the battlefield on a stretcher, to avoid him falling into the hands of the enemy.”

The retreating Hungarian army, on its way to Transylvania, was stopped by a blockade; there they decided to bury the 500 cannons and other treasures, so the Moldavians would not be able to capture them. According to Długosz, Corvinus escaped the Moldavians due to the assistance of another Vlach (Romanian), whom Stephen found and had executed because of treachery. The Moldavian-German Chronicles say that someone named Isaia failed to launch the cavalry attack which would have blocked the path for the Hungarian retreat; for this, he and others were later executed. Around 10,000 Hungarians were said to have been killed; most of the barons escaped with their king. A Hungarian chronicle mentions 7,000 casualties for the Moldavians. This chronicle is disputed though, due to it being the only one mentioning the Moldavian casualites in numbers; and because the Hungarians did not have the opportunity to calculate the numbers of their fallen enemy. The entire conflict, with the Hungarian invasion and retreat, took around forty days.