Battle of Giurgiu 1595 AD - Story of Michael the Brave (Part 2/5)

 

Despite his stunning victory at Calugareni, the outnumbered Mihai retreats north, unable to stop Sinan Pasha’s advance.

 The two capitals fall just three days after the battle.

 Wallachia, which had produced so much resistance under Mihai the Brave, looks destined to become an Ottoman province.

 During centuries of Ottoman domination, Wallachia continued its’ existence as a political entity through careful management of relations with Constantinople.

 Wallachian nobility usually avoided an overly aggressive stance towards the Ottoman Empire.

 In most cases the voivoides accepted the suzerainty of the Sultan and sought good relations, by paying tribute; and bribing important officials.

 But Wallachian voivodes have equally shown that occupying their land would be met with harsh resistance.

 And since the principality lacked valuable natural resources like gold or silver, from the Ottoman perspective it was more profitable to keep Wallachia as a “tax farm” than to engage in costly wars and occupation.

 And, if not overtaxed, as was the case in the years before Mihai’s revolt, Wallachia was generally peaceful.

 And for the Wallachian nobility, the “pro-Ottoman” policies were a legitimate way to maintain their rule and keep the country free from total occupation, even if vassalized and forced to pay high tributes.

 But... over the centuries some Wallachian voivodes broke these norms and aggressively sought independence for their people.

 Mihai, was one of them.

 The Wallachian revolt he led caused a significant disruption to Ottoman lines of communication along the Danube for their main theater of war against the Holy League in Hungary.

 As a result, Constantinople moved to dismantle and annex Wallachia in order to fully secure the logistically vital Danube line.

 Unaffected by the tactical defeat at Calugareni, the Ottomans are able to replace their losses and start incorporating Wallachia into the empire.

 The initial military takeover is swift, as nearly all towns have neither castles, nor stone walls.

 By late August, Ottoman officials are already put in charge over large parts of the country.

 However, by September, Sinan’s preparations for permanent occupation are not going well.

 The akinji raiders are plundering and ravaging the country, leading to fierce local resistance and widespread instability.

 Wallachian rebels clash and defeat several groups of akinji forces, most notable of which is the massacre of 5,000 raiders near Buzau.

 Despite these setbacks, it is only a matter of time before the Ottomans have Wallachia firmly in their grip.

 Having retreated to the Bran Pass, Mihai knows that he needs a second victory to inflict enough losses on the Ottomans if he is to discourage further attacks on Wallachia and maybe seek a political compromise.

 But in the weeks following the battle of Calugareni many Wallachian peasants leave his army to defend their homes from akinji attacks.

 This significantly weakens his ranks.

 In addition, the fall of Bucharest and Targoviste is an indication to the nobility that Mihai had lost the war.

 Thus, many nobles east of the Olt river see no reason to follow him anymore, and they too withdraw their troops.

 However, he still enjoys significant support from the nobility in Oltenia, his power base.

 To make matters worse, despite being immensely wealthy, bankrolling so many mercenaries depleted his funds and he finds it increasingly difficult to pay for their services.

 Some leave his army to look for employment elsewhere, but others stay as finding well paid employment in the region isn’t that easy, because the market is flooded with cheap manpower after the destruction of the countryside and the abandonment of many towns, as well as the ending of the harvest season, left many looking for work.

 As a result of all these factors, Mihai’s army is down to 8,000 men.

 And the Transylvanian reinforcements can’t come soon enough.

 However, while Wallachia is being pillaged, Sigismund decides to get married before marching south.

 By forcing Mihai to wait until his wedding is over,

 Sigismund perhaps wants to show who’s in charge.

 But by October, the Transylvanian voivode finally arrives with his army.

 Help also comes from Moldavia.

 Stefan Răzvan - a highly competent military leader and voivode, who is very popular among his men – arrives with his contingent.

 The three voivodes waste no time.

 Their combined army numbers around 32,000 men and 100 cannons.

 It is agreed that Mihai devise a plan for a swift advance, aiming to attack Sinan’s position before he can fully organize his army.

 At this time Sinan has up to 40,000 combat troops at his disposal, while the rest are dispersed across Wallachia.

 Armies of the three voivodes advance on Targoviste.

 With 40 cannons the Ottoman garrison offers stiff resistance.

 Over the next two days much of the town is engulfed in flames during an intense artillery battle.

 The Ottoman garrison finally retreats, fearing that their storage of gunpowder could explode.

 But most are eventually killed in the burning city or taken prisoner.

 All 40 cannons, as well many supplies and weapons are taken by the advancing army.

 Ottoman soldiers that managed to escape report back in Bucharest.

 Upon learning of the approaching army Sinan decides to retreat south across the Danube and regroup.

 Not wanting to leave anything for the advancing enemy, the Ottomans sack and burn Bucharest, and blow up the wooden fortifications.

 He reasons that it would be risky to go against an army of that size, which includes a very strong contingent of heavy cavalry, professional infantry armed with arquebuses and pistols, and nearly 150 artillery pieces.

 The retreating column is hastily organized.

 Sinan places himself in the font, along with his advisers, high-ranking officers and the most valuable troops.

 The center of the column is rather mixed.

 While the akinjis, who are usually agile and fast-moving,

 form the rear due to being weighed down by plunder, and slowed by thousands of slaves that they captured over the past several weeks of raiding.

 In order to catch the fleeing Ottomans, the three Romanian voivodes pass by Bucharest, sending only a small Moldavian contingent to enter the city, and continue marching on the road to Calugareni and Giurgiu.

 The two armies finally sight each other.

 While the Ottomans are crossing the pontoon bridge over the Danube, the three Romanian voivodes appear to the north of Giurgiu.

 Even before the rest of the column has arrived the quick thinking Mihai is the first to attack.

 Seeing that the Ottomans are focused on crossing the river and haven’t formed a consistent battle formation, he seizes the initiative, and personally leads the charge, urging his men forward.

 He doesn’t want to give the enemy any time to fully form their battle line.

 The Ottomans amass their plunder and carts to form a barricade in order to slow down the Wallachian charge.

 Mihai’s contingent goes around and over the obstacles, and clashes with the Ottoman center and right flank.

 Sinan’s troops on the bridge have no room to maneuver their way back into the battle and can only keep moving forward across the river.

 Meanwhile, Transylvanian arquebus-infantrymen form up in front of the Ottoman left and begin firing at will.

 Many are immediately cut down in a hail of bullets.

 In the center, the Ottoman barricades locked Mihai in a bitter fight against the akinji cavalry.

 Nevertheless, the Wallachians slowly push towards the river.

 Further back, Transylvanian and Wallachian cannons are brought into position and they open fire on the retreating army.

 As Sinan and his most valuable troops cross to the other side, the bridge behind them catches fire.

 Engulfed in flames, many soldiers jump into the river.

 Minutes later, the damaged bridge collapses, taking with it the unfortunate soldiers, horses and pack animals.

 Most of them drown in the Danube’s strong currents.

 Across the river, the akinjis and many others are now cut off.

 Unwilling to let go of the plunder and slaves that they had captured, which are slowing them down, in the chaos some of the horsemen are still trying to retreat across the river, unaware that the bridge had collapsed.

 By now they are heavily outnumbered and quickly start suffering massive casualties.

 After hours of fighting the Ottomans lost about 3000 men, while another several thousand were wounded.

 6,000 slaves are freed.

 150 camels, as well as much of the supplies, weapons and artillery are left behind.

 Mihai got his victory.

 The battle of Giurgiu marked the end of the Ottoman ambition to transform Wallachia into an Ottoman province.

 Moreover, the battle impacted the fate of the akinjis as a military institution.

 The famous horsemen who had the mission to plunder and weaken enemy territories were already in decline by late 16th century, but after the battle of Giurgiu their operations became minimal, as the style of warfare across Europe began to change.

 But, it’s important to note that, just as the akinjis raided Christian lands during peace time, so too did Christian forces raid Ottoman lands.

 These raids did not break peace agreements and were practiced by both sides, almost every year.

 This is why the populace that lived in affected areas hated these raiders.

 And on the battlefield at Giurgiu, most of the Wallachian, Moldavian and Transylvanian troops were born and raised in areas that were ravaged by the akinjis.

 Needless to say, they hated them and therefore massacred them all, renouncing any ransom.

 Finally, after hours of fighting the bridge was cleared and some of the Ottoman troops retreated to the castle of Giurgiu, which was attacked on October 19th with 12 cannons of the Toscan artillerymen that were brought closer to the shore.

 Ottoman ships tried to intervene to stop the bombardment, but were prevented by the Wallachian and Transylvanian artillery.

 Two ships were eventually sunk.

 The Ottoman garrison in the castle made a brave last stand, staving off several assaults while under heavy bombardment.

 But after many hours of fighting their numbers dwindled, and the castle eventually fell one day later.

 After the battle Sinan began planning a general invasion of Wallachia, to massacre and displace the population as punishment for their resistance.

 From a military standpoint this was a reasonable and effective measure which was successfully implemented in other problematic regions as well.

 But Sinan never got the chance to execute his plans.

 His retreat from Wallachia was regarded as shameful.

 The man who had masterminded so many victories in Hungary against the Holy League was stripped of his position as Grand Vizier.

 Across the Danube, Sigismund fulfilled his duty of providing support to Mihai and retreated to Transylvania to avoid keeping his army in the field when the snow falls, as mercenaries and vassals demanded more payment during the winter.

 Razvan returned to Moldavia.

 But during his absence, Polish noblemen brought the pro-Ottoman pretender Ieremia Movila to the throne.

 Razvan fought to regain the throne, but was defeated.

 With Ieremia recognized by the Sultan, Mihai became threatened by a potential Moldavian military intervention.

 Conflict seemed inevitable.

 And the war with the Ottomans also continued.

 But Wallachia was mostly in ruins.

 Many peasants fled, leaving some areas depopulated.

 Towns suffered massive damage.

 This made the collection of taxes very difficult, which further worsened Mihai’s financial situation.

 In order to start rebuilding the economy, the fortress of Braila was attacked and conquered.

 As one of the most important ports on the Danube, Braila immediately alleviated some of Mihai’s financial problems thanks to the highly valuable commercial taxation.

 In addition, by controlling Braila, Mihai gained a strategically important position against Moldavia.

 He could attack and then retreat to the fortress, while Moldavia had no fortresses in the south of the country – all of them were dismantled on the orders of the Sultan.

 Ottomans responded by sending Tatar raiders into Wallachia to attack Targoviste.

 Although they had the element of surprise, the Tatars only had a narrow corridor to go through and their movement was easy to predict.

 Mihai intercepted and destroyed their army.

 Meanwhile, another operation was launched in the west to take the fortress of Vidin, while Mihai marched south to conquer the fortress of Nikopolis.

 During spring Mihai had to dismiss many of his mercenaries as he couldn’t pay them due to lack of taxes and insufficient plunder, and he began relying on Serbian and Bulgarian haiducs to bolster his ranks.

 Operations across all of northern Bulgaria continued throughout the summer of 1596, causing massive economic damage.

 Another Tatar army was ordered to pass through Wallachia and join the Ottoman army in Hungary.

 The Tatars sacked Buzau, Ghergita , and Bucharest, but were defeated and chased over the Danube into Dobrudja .

 Meanwhile, Mehmed III dealt a massive defeat to a combined Austrian and Transylvanian army in the Battle of Mezokeresztes.

 Two more Transylvanian attacks were repelled on the fortresses of Lipova and Timisoara, which were key for controlling the Banat region.

 Shaken by these defeats, Austria and Transylvania looked to negotiate a truce.

 The break in hostilities opened up a possibility for a major Ottoman invasion of Valahia, and Mihai scrambled to get more troops to prepare for a possible attack.

 To raise funds for new troops Mihai introduced dreadfully harsh measures.

 He essentially enslaved his own population by forbidding all classes of serfs from leaving the estates on which they worked.

 This gave the boyars immense power over the serfs that worked their land, and they imposed taxes higher than ever on the peasants in order to make the high payments to the voivode.

 These measures may have been a pragmatic way to defend Wallachia, but they squeezed the life out of the country’s poorest people.

 And although Mihai’s reputation was high because of his spectacular victories against the Ottomans, these measures diminished his popularity among his people.

 And in addition to heavily taxing his people, the voivode sent a delegation to Rudolf II, asking him to pay for 4,000 mercenaries from Imperial coffers to help fight the Ottomans.

 The emperor agreed, seeing this as an opportunity to take away some of the pressure from Austria, and shift the fighting into Wallachia and northern Bulgaria.

 Another hope was that Mihai would be able to push back the Ottomans and motivate Bulgarians, Serbians and Albanians to revolt.

 Mihai now had a standing army of around 13,000 fighting men and he resumed his attacks all along the Danube.

 The devastation of the countryside, roads and infrastructure was so severe that the bigger towns and cities in northern Bulgaria became completely isolated and cut off from the rest of the empire.

 Furthermore, he transported some 16,000 Christian Bulgarian peasants to Wallachia, whom he provided with land, aiming to increase his tax-base.

 But in his rear, voivode Ieremia and his nobles were planning to overthrow and replace him with a pretender by the name of Simion, Ieremia’s younger brother.

 To make matters worse, Sigismund abdicated the Transylvanian throne due to many internal and external problems.

 Mihai made another proposition to Rudolf II: the unification of Transylvania and Valahia under Mihai’s rule, in order to continue the war against the Ottomans with the help of Transylvania’s resources.

 Rudolf refused and began planning to seize Transylvania for himself.

 Surrounded on all sides, Mihai was forced to seek peace with the Ottomans.

 He took advantage of his successes on the battlefield and the mass destruction he caused in Bulgaria to gain favourable terms.

 He kept the fortresses on the Danube and was recognized by the Sultan as the ruler of Wallachia.

 The Wallachian voivode was now free to deal with his Christian enemies, in order to secure his country…