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“Two Ill-Fated Rulers on the Christian-Ottoman Borderline: Wallachian Prince Vlad III Ţepeş Dracula and Bosnian King Stjepan Tomašević” (Giessen - Njemačka, 25.-26.09.2014.)

In this paper, the author tried to analyze and compare the historical destinies of the Wallachian prince Vlad III Ţepeş Dracula (1448 ; 1456-62 ; 1476) and the last Bosnian king Stjepan Tomašević (1461-1463), in the conditions of Ottoman threat. Similarly to Vlad Ţepeş Dracula, Stjepan Tomašević was the ruler of a small country, tributary to both the Porte and Hungary. However, unlike him, he was a born Catholic, crowned in 1461 with the crown sent by Pope Pius II. The main events which will be taken into account are the two armed conflicts against the Ottomans fought by Vlad Ţepeş's forces in 1462 and those of Stjepan Tomašević in 1463, when two large Ottoman armies attacked Wallachia and Bosnia respectively. It can be argued that there are some similarities between the Wallachian and Bosnian cases. One of these similarities lies in the claims made in his works by Nikola Modruški, the Croatian bishop in the service of both the pope and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-1490), that some local nobles betrayed their rulers and called the Ottomans in. Moreover, there are similarities in the attitude of Corvinus, one of the key personalities who influenced the destinies of the two rulers, towards his vassals during the 1462 and 1463 military confrontations with the Ottomans. Persuaded by Pope Pius II and Venice, he promised them both military help, but he did not fulfill his duty as a suzerain. However, the outcome of the 1462 and 1463 sultan’s military campaigns was not the same. The Ottomans had to retreat from Wallachia, partly because of the resistance they encountered, but Vlad Ţepeş fled away and the sultan imposed his favourite local noble on the throne. In Bosnia the Ottomans captured and beheaded King Stjepan Tomašević, and the whole country became soon a vilayet (eyalet, pashalic). Consequently, as a conclusion, the author will try to look at the legacy of the two rulers and their time for the present-day Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as for the whole of South-East Europe.

Vlad III Ţepeş Dracula; Stjepan Tomašević; Mehmed II; Wallachia; Bosnia; Ottoman Empire; 15th century

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