the golden horde and the black sea 275
probably coincided not just with these internal matters, but—food for
thought—also with an embassy to the tartars, led by phynta, son of Sam-
uel de Mende, the purpose or content of which is not known.540
In his effort to settle these external relations, the hungarian king could
not afford to lose sight of the constellation of forces that had taken shape
the year before: in 1323 the recently-crowned tsar of tarnovo, Michael
Shishman, “gathering his armies and receiving not a little help from from
the ungaro-Vlachs541 and the Scythians [= tartars]”542 attacked Byzan-
tium. to this constellation we must also add Stephen, son of the cuman
count parabuh, who in 1325—according to the outraged testimony of
the church preceptor at titel in hungary—“praised Basarab across the
mountains, unfaithful to the holy crown, to the detriment of the king,
saying that the power of our lord king could not stand against the power
of Basarab.”543
the Serbian tsar Stephen Dušan included an autobiographical note in
the preface to his law code, the Zakonik, which is even more revealing
about the composition of the great coalition and the position held by
the romanian ruler: he records that the army which Michael Shishman
led against his Serbian forces at the battle of Velbujd (1330) contained,
along with Bulgarians and Byzantines, “Basarab Ivanko, tsar alexander’s544
father-in-law, black tartars that live nearby, the lord of the alans and
other rulers with them.”545
the most conclusive proof that forces in the carpathian-Balkan region
were integrated into a coherent military-political system is furnished by
the presence of ‘black tartars’ and alans in the alliance. although roma-
nian participation at Velbujd could be explained by the voyvode’s par-
ticular interest in fighting alongside the Bulgarians against the Serbs, this
argument cannot remotely be used in the case of the other two ethnic
540 cf. Iosipescu, “românii,” pp. 70–71.
541 the first time that a Byzantine source uses this term for inhabitants of the roma-
nian principality.
542 cantacuzino/FHDR, III, pp. 482–483. even with help from the romanians and tar-
tars, the Bulgarian army was unable to win the day in battle with the Byzantines near
philippi and at adrianople in 1323–1324, forcing the tsar to seek a negotiated peace with
the emperor (Vernadsky, Mongols, p. 196, Iosipescu, Românii, pp. 69–70).
543 DRH D, I, pp. 37–38.
544 Ivan alexander was at that point not yet Bulgarian tsar (ruled 1331–1371).
545 there are various recensions and readings, more or less divergent; I have chosen the
solution proposed by Mihăilă, Contibuţii, p. 274 (cf. also Dushan/radojčić, p. 84, ciocîltan,
“alanii,” p. 939, idem, “Bătălia,” pp. 28 ff.).