Night Attack at Târgovişte

The Night Attack

The Battle With Torches – painting by Theodor Aman

Date	June 17, 1462
Location	unknown; on the road from Nikopol to Târgovişte, present-day Romania
Result	Tactical Wallachian victory (Wallachian failure to assassinate Mehmed II)

Belligerents

Wallachia

Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders

Vlad III Ţepeş

Mehmed II

Strength

up to 30,000-35.000

100.000-120.000 (According to the most chronicles of the time)

90.000 (According to a single Venetian Chronicle)

Casualties and losses

5,000

15,000

100.000-120.000 (According to the most chronicles of the time)

The Night Attack of Târgovişte (Romanian: Atacul de noapte de la Târgovişte, Turkish: Tirgovişte Baskını) was a battle fought between forces of Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia and Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire on Thursday, June 17, 1462.

The conflict initially started with Vlad's refusal to pay the jizya (tax on non-Muslims) to the Sultan and intensified when Vlad Ţepeş invaded Bulgaria and impaled over 23,000 Turks. Mehmed then raised a great army with the objective to conquer Wallachia and annex it to his empire. The two leaders fought a series of skirmishes, the most notable one being the Night Attack where Vlad Ţepeş attacked the Turkish camp in the night in an attempt to kill Mehmed.

The assassination attempt failed, and Mehmed marched to the Wallachian capital of Târgovişte, where he discovered another some 20,000 impaled Turks. The Sultan and his troops then sailed to Brăila and burned it to the ground before retreating to Adrianople. Both sides would claim victory: while Pope Pius II proclaimed Vlad Ţepeş' campaign a victory for Christianity, Mehmed II's forces returned home with many captured slaves, horses and cattle.

After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Mehmed set his target on other campaigns. In Anatolia, the Greek Trebizond was still resisting the Ottomans, and to the East the White Sheep Turkomans of Uzun Hasan, together with other smaller states, threatened the Ottomans. In the West, Skanderbeg in Albania continued to trouble the Sultan, while Bosnia was sometimes reluctant in paying the Jizya (tax on non-Muslims). Wallachia controlled her side of the Danube and Mehmed wanted to have control over the river, as naval attacks could be launched against his empire all the way from the Holy Roman Empire. On September 26, 1459, Pope Pius II called for a new crusade against the Ottomans and on January 14, 1460, at the Congress of Mantua, the Pope proclaimed the official crusade that was to last for three years. His plan, however, failed and the only European leader that showed enthusiasm for the crusade was Vlad Ţepeş, whom the Pope held in high regard. Because of a lack of enthusiasm shown by Europeans for the crusade, Mehmed took the opportunity to take an offensive stand. Later that same year (1460), he captured the last independent Serbian city, Smederevo, and in 1461, he convinced the Greek despot of Morea to give up his stronghold; soon thereafter, its capital, Mistra, and Corinth followed suit and surrendered themselves without struggle.

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Wikipedia