Battle of Baia

The Battle of Baia (Romanian: Bătălia de la Baia; Hungarian: moldvabányai csata) was fought on December 15, 1467, between Moldavian prince Stephen the Great and the Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus. Corvinus invaded Moldavia as a consequence of Stephen's annexation of Chilia—a fortress and harbour on the coast of the Black Sea—from Hungarian and Wallachian forces. It had belonged to Moldavia centuries earlier.

Both sides claimed victory, but it was a de facto Moldavian victory since they managed to halt the Hungarian advance by injuring Matthias.

In 1359, Bogdan I of Moldavia rebelled against the King of Hungary and founded an independent Moldavia. However, the Hungarian attempts to seize control over Moldavia did not end there, and in 1429, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, and also King of Hungary, met with Władysław Jagiełło, King of Poland to try to persuade him to launch a common attack on Moldavia and divide the country in two equal parts—Polish and Hungarian. Sigismund argued that the Moldavian nation did not "owe allegiance to anyone, is accustomed to live by theft and brigandage and so is everyone's enemy." He also complained about not receiving any help for his struggle against the Turks. In the Annals  [pl] of Jan Długosz, the Polish chronicler wrote the following on Władysław's reply to Sigismund:

Wladislaw replies that it would not be right to wage war on the Moldavians, who confess the Christian faith and have given him and his kingdom obedience and submission; indeed, to do this would be an act of savagery. Though some may live by brigandage, they cannot all be tarred with the same brush, nor can they be blamed for not helping King Sigismund against the Turks, because they had gone with the Poles to the given rendez-vous on the Danube and got there on time, yet had to waste two months waiting there, and then return home. Rather does the blame for this attach to King Sigismund, who failed to turn up at the appointed time. The squabbling continues for several days, at the end of which Wladyslaw stubbornness compels Sigismund to abandon the plan and seek other ventures.

After the death of Alexander I, the country was thrown into civil strife, in which the two claimants, Peter Aron III and Bogdan II, in order to gain the throne, pledged loyalty to either the Hungarian or the Polish king. The political turmoil lasted until 1457, when Stephen, son of Bogdan, having fled to Hungary and later Wallachia, with Wallachian help, gained the throne and ousted the boyars loyal to Aron. The latter fled to Poland, but was later forced to seek asylum in Hungary, after Moldavia and Poland concluded a new treaty. Stephen's objective was to regain the region of Budjak with the castles of Chilia and Cetatea Albă. The region had previously belonged to Wallachia, but had been incorporated into Moldavia in the late 14th century. Due to the decline of Moldavia during the civil war, the region reverted to Wallachia, with Chilia being co-ruled by Hungary and Wallachia.^{[citation needed]}

On 22 June 1462, when Prince Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia was fighting Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, Stephen launched an attack on Chilia (which was under Hungarian rule), with some Turkish assistance, with the objective of capturing the fortress. The Wallachians rushed to the help 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 Vlad was 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 required 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, Transylvanian locals started an uprising which Corvinus had a difficult time quelling. 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 theory 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.^{[citation needed]}