Editing Mehmed II (section)

=== War with Moldavia (1475–1476) ===
[[File:Paolo Veronese (Nachfolger) - Sultan Mohammed II. (1451 - 1481) - 2247 - Bavarian State Painting Collections.jpg|thumb|Mehmed the Second, portrait by [[Paolo Veronese]]]]

In 1456, [[Peter III Aaron]] agreed to pay the Ottomans an annual tribute of 2,000 gold ducats to ensure his southern borders, thus becoming the first Moldavian ruler to accept the Turkish demands.<ref>The A to Z of Moldova, Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu, p. 273, 2010</ref> His successor [[Stephen the Great]] rejected Ottoman suzerainty and a series of fierce wars ensued.<ref>The A to Z of Moldova, Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu, p. 242, 2010</ref> Stephen tried to bring Wallachia under his sphere of influence and so supported his own choice for the Wallachian throne. This resulted in an enduring struggle between different Wallachian rulers backed by Hungarians, Ottomans, and Stephen. An Ottoman army under Hadim Pasha (governor of Rumelia) was sent in 1475 to punish Stephen for his meddling in Wallachia; however, the Ottomans suffered a great defeat at the [[Battle of Vaslui]]. Stephen inflicted a decisive defeat on the Ottomans, described as "the greatest ever secured by the Cross against Islam,"{{By whom|date=July 2020}} with casualties, according to Venetian and Polish records, reaching beyond 40,000 on the Ottoman side. Mara Brankovic (Mara Hatun), the former younger wife of Murad II, told a Venetian envoy that the invasion had been worst ever defeat for the Ottomans. Stephen was later awarded the title "Athleta Christi" (Champion of Christ) by Pope Sixtus IV, who referred to him as "verus christianae fidei athleta" ("the true defender of the Christian faith"). Mehmed II assembled a large army and entered Moldavia in June 1476. Meanwhile, groups of [[Tartars]] from the [[Crimean Khanate]] (the Ottomans' recent ally) were sent to attack Moldavia. Romanian sources may state that they were repelled.<ref name="ir">Mihai Bărbulescu, [[Dennis Deletant]], [[Keith Hitchins]], [[Șerban Papacostea]], Pompiliu Teodor, ''Istoria României (History of Romania)'', Ed. Corint, Bucharest, 2002, {{ISBN|973-653-215-1}}, p. 157 {{Dead link|date=April 2017}}</ref> Other sources state that joint Ottoman and Crimean Tartar forces "occupied Bessarabia and took Akkerman, gaining control of the southern mouth of the Danube. Stephan tried to avoid open battle with the Ottomans by following a scorched-earth policy".<ref name="shaw">{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=Stanford J |year=1976 |title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey |volume=1: Empire of Gazis |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-29163-1 |page=68 }}</ref>

Finally, Stephen faced the Ottomans in battle. The Moldavians luring the main Ottoman forces into a forest that was set on fire, causing some casualties. According to another battle description, the defending Moldavian forces repelled several Ottoman attacks with steady fire from hand-guns.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Akademia, ''[http://www.akademia.ro/articole.php?view=26 Rolul distinctiv al artileriei în marile oști moldovenești] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927092344/http://www.akademia.ro/articole.php?view=26 |date=27 September 2007 }} (The special role of artillery in the larger Moldavian armies)'', April 2000</ref> The attacking Turkish [[Janissary|Janissaries]] were forced to crouch on their stomachs instead of charging headlong into the defenders positions. Seeing the imminent defeat of his forces, Mehmed charged with his personal guard against the Moldavians, managing to rally the Janissaries, and turning the tide of the battle. Turkish Janissaries penetrated inside the forest and engaged the defenders in man-to-man fighting.

The Moldavian army was utterly defeated (casualties were very high on both sides), and the [[chronicle]]s say that the entire battlefield was covered with the bones of the dead, a probable source for the [[toponym]] (''Valea Albă'' is [[Romanian language|Romanian]] and ''Akdere'' [[Turkish language|Turkish]] for "The White Valley").

Stephen the Great retreated into the north-western part of Moldavia or even into the [[History of Poland (1385–1569)|Polish Kingdom]]<ref name="jn">{{in lang|ro}} [[Jurnalul Național]], ''[http://old.jurnalul.ro/articol.php?id=2790 Calendar 26 iulie 2005.Moment istoric]{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (Anniversaries on 26 July 2005. A historical moment)'' {{Dead link|date=April 2017}}</ref> and began forming another army.
The Ottomans were unable to conquer any of the major Moldavian strongholds ([[Suceava]], [[Neamț Citadel|Neamț]], and [[Hotin]])<ref name="ir"/> and were constantly harassed by small-scale Moldavian attacks. Soon they were also confronted with starvation, a situation made worse by an outbreak of the [[Bubonic plague|plague]], and the Ottoman army returned to Ottoman lands. The threat of Stephen to Wallachia continued for decades. That very same year Stephen helped his cousin [[Vlad the Impaler]] return to the throne of Wallachia for the third and final time. Even after Vlad's untimely death several months later Stephen continued to support, with force of arms, a variety of contenders to the Wallachian throne succeeding after Mehmet's death to instate [[Vlad Călugărul]], half brother to Vlad the Impaler, for a period of 13 years from 1482 to 1495.