s, so far obtained the ascendency over
the country as to acquire permanent rights of suzerainty.

[Footnote 128: For the details of this controversy the reader is
referred to the recently published pages of Roesler and Pic, the first
an Austrian and the second a Slav writer.]

III.

Mircea, one of the heroes of Roumanian history, not only secured the
independent sovereignty, and called himself Voivode of Wallachia 'by
the grace of God,' but in 1389 he formed an alliance with Poland, and
assumed other titles by the right of conquest.[129] This alliance was
offensive and defensive with Vladislav Jagello, the reigning king, and
had for its objects the extension of his dominions, as well as
protection against Hungary on the one hand, and the Ottoman power on the
other; for the Turks, who during the fourteenth century had been waging
war with varying success against the Eastern Empire, were now rapidly
approaching Wallachian territory. Although Constantinople did not come
into their possession until the following century, Adrianople had
already fallen, the Turkish armies had overrun Bulgaria, and about the
year 1391 they first made their appearance north of the Danube.

At first the bravery of Mircea was successful in stemming the tide of
invasion. The reigning Sultan was Amaruth II., who sent an army against
him under the command of Sisman, Prince of Bulgaria, a renegade who had
married the daughter of the Sultan, and had taken the offensive against
the Christians; but he was signally defeated, and for a brief period
Wallachia continued to enjoy her independence. A year or two afterwards
Bajazet II., the successor of Amaruth, resumed the offensive, and this
time, finding himself between two powerful enemies, the King of Hungary
and the Sultan, Mircea elected to form an alliance with the latter, and
concluded a treaty with him at Nicopolis (1393), known as the 'First
Capitulation,' by which Wallachia retained its autonomy, but agreed to
pay an annual tribute and to acknowledge the suzerainty of the
Sultan.[130] This treaty is dated 1392; but according to several
historians Mircea did not adhere to it long, for he is said to have been
in command of a contingent in the army of the crusaders, and to have
been present at the battle of Nicopolis (1396), in which the flower of
the French nobility fell, and, when he found their cause to be hopeless,
once more to have deserted them and joined the victorious arms of
Bajazet.