Qualla: Battle of Vaslui

Battle of Vaslui: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Viteazul at French Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Mara Brankovic, the former wife of Sultan Murad II, told a Venetian envoy that the invasion had been the worst defeat the Ottoman Empire had ever suffered. She was not exaggerating for diplomatic effect. On January 10, 1475, at a place called Podul Inalt, the High Bridge, near the town of Vaslui in eastern Moldavia, Stephen the Great destroyed an Ottoman force that outnumbered his own army by a wide margin. The victory stunned the courts of Europe, earned Stephen the title Athleta Christi from Pope Sixtus IV, and proved that the Ottoman advance into southeastern Europe was not unstoppable.

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Image: The original uploader was Viteazul at French Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Vaslui: Scorched Earth and Poisoned Wells

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gentile Bellini, Public domain. Stephen had been preparing for this fight since his victory over the Hungarians at Baia in 1467. He knew the Ottomans would come eventually. When Sultan Mehmed II dispatched Hadim Suleiman Pasha, the governor of Rumelia, with an army that sources estimate between 30,000 and 120,0...

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Image: Gentile Bellini | Public domain

Battle of Vaslui: The Trap at the High Bridge

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Alejo2083 assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. Stephen chose his ground with care. The area around Podul Inalt was marshy, hemmed in by forest, with the river crossing creating a natural bottleneck. The Moldavian army, roughly 40,000 strong and reinforced by smaller contingents of Hungarian and Polish allies, waited in concea...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Alejo2083 assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Vaslui: The Scale of the Slaughter

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Alejo2083 assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ottoman defeat was catastrophic. Venetian and Polish accounts put the Ottoman dead at between 40,000 and 100,000, figures that may include camp followers and non-combatants but nonetheless reflect an annihilation. The Crimean Khan who had joined the Ottoman campaign wrote to ...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Alejo2083 assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Vaslui: Victory's Short Half-Life

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ottoman response came eighteen months later. In July 1476, Mehmed sent a second, larger army that defeated Stephen at the Battle of Valea Alba. But even in defeat, Moldavia held. The Ottomans failed to take the fortress at Suceava or the citadel at Neamt. Stephen reassembled ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0