Battle of Miraslau 1600 AD - Dominion Struggles - Story of Michael the Brave (Part 4/5)

 

It’s a warm September morning.

 The town of Miraslau is abuzz, as Mihai’s soldiers haggle and barter for provisions at the local market.

 But the flurry of activity is interrupted when scouts return with news that a more numerous and better equipped army is just a few kilometers east.

 On a hill just outside the town, the new King of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia stands confidently as his troops get into position.

 The battle that’s about to take place will decide the fate of his kingdom… By first securing Wallachia’s safety against the Ottomans and then incorporating Transylvania and Moldavia into his new kingdom, Mihai proved he was a quick-thinking general who mastered all of the basics of 16th century warfare.

 He understood the advantages of speed and flanking, attacking an enemy formation from two sides, and he knew how to use the terrain to his advantage.

 The kingdom Mihai founded did not yet have a national agenda and still wasn’t based on ethnical unity.

 Rather, by unifying Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia, it is likely that he wanted to establish a new Wallachian monarchy with himself as king, and his dynasty, the Wallachian nobility from his powerbase in Oltenia, and Wallachian Orthodox clerics, as the ruling elite.

 And while it is somewhat unclear what the name of this new kingdom would’ve been, it is clear that this was a project of Wallachian elites to expand their power over the neighboring principalities.

 But straight away, Mihai’s ambitious plans were met with external and internal threats.

 Externally, the interests of the three neighboring great powers were damaged by Mihai's unification.

 The Habsburg Monarchy wanted control over Transylvania's resources and rich economy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth wanted Moldavia as their buffer state.

 While the Ottoman Empire wanted to restore their control over all three principalities.

 This placed Mihai’s kingdom under great threat of foreign intervention, which was amplified by the fact that Wallachia and Moldavia had almost no fortifications or castles, since the Ottomans previously forbade their construction in order to weaken their rulers.

 In the event of a defeat on the battlefield there would be no well-fortified cities that could delay an invading army for weeks or even months.

 Instead, an attacking enemy could quickly penetrate deep into Moldavia and Wallachia in a matter of days.

 To make matters worse, Mihai's relationship with Rudolf became strained.

 Although he acknowledged Habsburg overlordship, Mihai began calling himself "king" and continued to negotiate his official position in Transylvania.

 Namely, he wanted direct rule instead of being governor in Rudolf's name, and equally claimed the Partium region as the "rightful" part of his new kingdom.

 This damaged Mihai's diplomatic reputation and, seeing that he virtually lost the support of his only major ally, all three great powers quietly began preparing military interventions against his young realm.

 Internally, Mihai knew that if he could stabilize the country by integrating the elites of Transylvania and Moldavia, the monarchy would have disposed of considerable economic and military resources, and could become a new powerful player in the region, capable of resisting Austrian, Polish and Ottoman interventions.

 But domestically he faced yet more problems.

 He partially merged the Wallachian and Transylvanian councils, although the two governments remained separate, as Mihai did not want to disrupt the successful model of Transylvania’s system of government.

 Moreover, he invited Szekely and other Transylvanian Hungarians to assist in the administration of Wallachia, intending to incorporate Transylvania’s far more advanced feudal system.

 Measures like forbidding drudgery for Orthodox priests shows that Mihai aimed at winning over the elites.

 In addition, he forced the Transylvanian Diet to relieve Orthodox priests of feudal obligations, much to the Diet’s dismay, and gave the Orthodox Church from Wallachia official authority over the Romanian population living in Transylvania, which took more power away from the Diet, causing further frustration.

 Adding to the tension, in Alba Iulia he founded a new Orthodox Metropolis and built a church there.

 It is very likely that he wanted to gain support of the Orthodox church hierarchy and maybe also their financial help.

 However, he never tried to improve the situation of the Romanian population in Transylvania, which were mostly peasants, many of whom were serfs, as it was fiscally advantageous to continue the present situation in order to help fill the state’s coffers.

 Moreover, Mihai even supported the Hungarian nobility in crushing any and all uprisings that would threaten the tax income of the kingdom.

 The struggling peasants sent numerous delegations to his court, asking for the revocation of some of the harsh measures, but taxation was nevertheless increased more than 500% virtually overnight, from a fixed 3 florins per family before his reign to 16 florins + obligatory food deliveries for the army.

 Unable to pay, many desperate peasants entered into Mihai’s service as mercenaries or simply fled the lands of their lords, which frustrated Hungarian nobles who lost significant tax revenue.

 Meanwhile, the Szekelys got back their privileges, but the Saxon townspeople were displeased with being forced to provide their ruler with considerable financial loans.

 Situation in Moldavia was far worse, where local nobles and peasants grew increasingly unhappy as some of Mihai’s unpaid mercenaries plundered the land with impunity.

 With the conquest of Transylvania and Moldavia complete, Mihai’s mercenary army again became an unsustainable financial burden, as there were no new military campaigns to be had that could yield the plunder needed to pay the troops.

 And although the kingdom possessed enough manpower to field a 60,000-strong army, Mihai could currently mobilize only around 15,000 troops due to the unstable economy and taxation system in these early stages of his reign.

 Therefore, to protect the kingdom he had to rely heavily on mercenaries which he could no longer afford.

 He attempted to solve the problem by awarding several seized Transylvanian castles and important political positions to mercenary commanders with whom he developed close relationships, as compensation for not being able to pay them and their troops.

 These commanders and their troops were mostly from Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania and they essentially became mercenary warlords who freely oppressed sections of the local nobility and peasantry.

 Widespread corruption and extortion flourished under their local rule, sowing the seeds of resistance across Transylvania and Moldavia.

 The Hungarian nobility undertook a revolt to overthrow Mihai with the support from the Habsburg army commanded by an Italian General Giorgio Basta.

 The rebel army marched on the Transylvanian capital but was soon intercepted… Although the political situation in Transylvania deteriorated significantly over the last several months, the nobles retained most of their power and were content to accept Mihai as their ruler.

 But what sparked the revolt were widespread false rumors that Mihai planned to nullify the status of Transylvanian noblemen and turn their estates over to the Wallachian nobility.

 Due to these rumors, any negotiations were out of the question, and now Mihai watched as the enemy column entered the valley north of the Muresh river.

 General Basta led the Imperial troops, supported by the Hungarian nobility of Transylvania, as well as Austrian and Saxon troops, Flemish knights, as well as contingents of Walloons, French musketeers, artillery and mercenaries.

 With around 20,000 troops under his command, Basta had both a substantial numerical advantage and the element of surprise.

 The sudden and unexpected revolt didn’t allow Mihai enough time to assemble his army.

 Most of his mercenaries were late for the battle, with only Starina Novak appearing with a small portion of his Serbian cavalry, along with a contingent of Cossacks and Szekelys.

 With only 12,000 troops and without his best units Mihai knew that the quality of his troops was inferior to those under Basta’s command and he tried to offset his numerical inferiority by forming a defensive line between the Muresh river and the hills, fortified with ditches and barricades.

 The Italian general moved into position where his artillery would have range and he positioned his best cavalry in the second line, planning to unleash them as soon as cannon fire softened the enemy line.

 Artillery opened the engagement.

 For a time the bombardment was equally effective on both sides.

 But then, Mihai gave the signal, and a thundering roar echoed from the hills above.

 Basta seemed stunned as enemy cannons rained down on his position.

 Hungarian troops closest to the hillside and his artillery contingent immediately took heavy losses.

 The cavalry in the front apparently began wavering and Basta ordered them to pull back, realizing he would not be able to dislodge the defenders.

 With victory seemingly within grasp Mihai charged after the enemy.

 Subsequently, the rest of Basta’s army began retreating.

 The cavalry slowly began overtaking the infantry, wanting to get out of range of cannon fire.

 In battles during this period most of the casualties were inflicted during the pursuit of the fleeing army.

 Needless to say, Mihai’s men went on an extensive pursuit, sensing the weakness of Basta’s troops.

 But after getting well out of range of the Wallachian artillery, Basta abruptly stopped.

 A flurry of orders and signals were sent out.

 His cavalry wheeled about and the infantry took up a defensive formation.

 What first seemed like a rout turned out to be a feigned retreat.

 Mihai was in trouble.

 With his infantry lagging behind he was caught in the middle of the open valley.

 The more numerous, better equipped and more experienced enemy cavalry bore down on his flanks, while the Italian led a frontal infantry charge.

 The cohesion of the Cossacks on the right was quickly broken by the charge of Basta’s heavy cavalry, and they began fleeing the field.

 Mihai stood defiantly in the face of enemy musket fire, but it was not enough to turn the tide and the collapse of his right flank eventually caused a complete rout.

 Szekely soldiers surrendered after being assured that they will be set free.

 However, Basta would later have them all killed.

 The defeat was catastrophic.

 4,000 of Mihai’s troops perished and he himself escaped on his horse, swimming across the Muresh river.

 It is not fully clear why did such a proven commander fall into the trap of a feigned retreat.

 Over-confidence is often suggested as the reason why Mihai gambled away his winning position at Miraslau.

 Another possibility is that, because his kingdom was threatened on all sides, he understood that he needed to inflict as many losses on the enemy and achieve a quick victory in order to deal with threats arising elsewhere.

 Whatever the case, the fallout of this defeat would soon cause panic within Mihai’s regime.

 But despite being forced to retreat into the mountains, the cunning Wallachian would live to fight another day…