the golden horde and the black sea 273
when compared to the more fundamental enmity of romanians from
both sides of the mountains, whose solidarity was based on religious and
even on national factors. In 1319 the pope wrote of a dangerous conspir-
acy, pointing out its causes and warning of plots laid against the crown of
St Stephen.530 In 1334 the pontiff again urged charles I to go to war against
the “schismatics and tartars,” seeing this as the only way to uproot the
evil. his call went unheeded, but in 1335 “the tartars entered the Burzen-
land [Ţara Bârsei] three times and were in transylvania for many years,
where they caused great damage.”531 It seems that the king’s only victory
during this period came in 1326, when he is implausibly recorded as hav-
ing slain 30,000 invading tartars: even if there is any truth to the report,
it did not change the underlying problem.532
the advice arriving from the papacy was much more fervent than it was
realistic, and blithely ignored the actual balance of power in the region.
the earliest indication here is the hungarian kingdom’s notably feeble
attempts—as reported in the sources already mentioned—to deal with
several aggressive neighbouring powers which surrounded it, with united
strength, from the the South and east.
concrete documentary evidence in the matter begins with charles I’s
diploma of 1317; John, the son of the ban theodore Voytech, had revolted
in Mehadia, which the document describes as a hungarian stronghold: he
had support from the Despot Michael Shishman, but was stopped in his
tracks by the royal agents to whom the diploma was addressed.533 the
fortress commanded the timis-cerna corridor, thus controlling access
between the kingdom and Severin or Vidin, and remained in hungarian
possession under the leadership of the royal steward and castellan Diony-
sius Szécsi,534 entrusted with the mission of defending the border “against
the Bulgarians, against Basarab the voyvode over the [carpathian] Moun-
tains, against the schismatic king of Serbia and also against the tartars
who constantly invade.”535 a document of 1329 rewarded the castellan’s
services in defending the border, and also recorded an offensive operation:
530 pascu, Contribuţiuni, p. 18: Regnum Ungarie et quedam partes adiecentes [.. .] scis-
maticis [.. .] in clandestina machinamenta conglutinent in perniciem animarum.
531 codex/Kretzulescu, p. 53.
532 the unlikely news is taken from the prussian chronicle, and can be found at Minea,
“războiul,” p. 328, and Iosipescu, “românii,” p. 72.
533 holban, “raporturile,” p. 40: cum potentia domini dezpoth de Budinio.
534 recorded (ibid. p. 41) in 1322 as Dyonisius de Sydowar et de Myhald [= modern-day
Jdioara and Mehadia, in romania], p. 41.
535 DRH D, I, p. 41; further details at holban, “raporturile,” p. 40.