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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 January 2025
Returning from a four-month tour in America, the Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga (1871–1940) stopped for a few days in Switzerland, on his way home. On May 7, 1930, he gave a lecture in Bern on medieval peasants and their struggle for freedom in the 14th century. Peasants against feudal armies inspired memories from America. However, Iorga, who was at the time preoccupied with questions of world history and comparative research, did not simply associate the War of Independence with the victory of the Swiss “peasants” at Sempach against Duke Leopold III of Tyrol. He drew a parallel between the military success of the Eidgenossen of 1386 and the defeat inflicted 56 years earlier upon the king of Hungary, Charles I, by Romanian peasants. The battle, on the 600th anniversary of which Iorga delivered his lecture, was illustrated in the Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle. The Romanian historian was convinced that the illustrator had been an eyewitness or, at least, somebody informed by a participant. There is no mention of peasants in the text of the Chronicle, but on the basis of the last illuminations in the manuscript, Iorga thought he could recognize the dress of the Romanian peasants of his own time: the woolen hat (căciulă, a sort of Phrygian cap); the long, braided hair; the leather jacket doubled with wool; the leggings; and the leather sandals (opinci). The Romanians fought like peasants as well: they cut trees in the forest, which they then pushed over King Charles and his heavy cavalry. Iorga did not find this detail either in the text or in the illuminations of the Hungarian Chronicle. He got it from the Chronicle of the Prussian Land by Peter of Dusburg, although that source is not mentioned in the lecture.
1 Nicolae Iorga, Deux conférences en Suisse (Bern: no publisher, 1930), p. 8: “On trouve aussi un cas correspondant dans l'histoire américaine. La première victoire a été gagnée de cette manière par les rebelles américains contre les soldats allemands à la solde du roi d'Angleterre.” For Iorga's American tour, see Gheorghe Buzatu, “Nicolae Iorga și America,” Hierasus 3 (1980), 13–18. At that time, Iorga was working on his two-volume study of Romanians in world history; see his La place des Roumains dans l'histoire universelle (Bucharest: Editions de l'Institut d’études byzantines, 1935). In 1937, Iorga established the Institute for the Study of World History, which in 1965 became the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History in Bucharest.
2 Iorga, Deux conférences, p. 5.
3 Iorga, Deux conférences, p. 6: “A ce point de vue aussi la miniature de 1330 correspond parfaitement aux costume actuel du paysan roumain… Le paysan roumain est représenté de la façon la plus véridique, correspondant le plus à la verité.” Although the ruler of Wallachia does not appear in any of the Chronicle's illuminations, Iorga believed that even Prince Basarab must have been dressed as a peasant. He was a peasant richer than others, so he was most likely dressed up better (Iorga, Deux conférences, p. 7).
4 Iorga, Deux conférences, p. 9.
5 The indirect citation of Peter of Dusburg makes Iorga's lecture the first use of the Chronicle of the Prussian Land in the Romanian historiography. It may well be at Iorga's initiative that the young Emil Lăzărescu later published the Latin text along with the Middle German translation of Nicolaus of Jeroschin: Lăzărescu, Emil C., ”Despre lupta din 1330 a lui Basarab Voevod cu Carol-Robert,” Revista istorică 21 (1935), nos. 7–9, 241–46Google Scholar.
6 Lăzărescu, “Despre lupta din 1330,” p. 246; Cruceană, Paul Ioan, “Puncte de vedere privind localizarea Posadei,” Revista de istorie 33 (1980), no. 10, 1971–79Google Scholar, here 1975; Stoicescu, Nicolae and Tucă, Florian, “Semnificația istorică a bătăliei de la Posada,” Revista de istorie 33 (1980), no. 10, 1857–73Google Scholar, here 1864 and 1869; Rezachevici, Constantin, “Localizarea bătăliei dintre Basarab I și Carol Robert (1330): în Banatul de Severin (I),” Anuarul Institutului de Istorie și Arheologie “A. D. Xenopol” 21 (1984), 70–87Google Scholar, here 75; Rezachevici, Constantin, “Localizarea bătăliei dintre Basarab I și Carol Robert (1330): în Banatul de Severin (II),” Anuarul Institutului de Istorie și Arheologie “A. D. Xenopol” 22 (1985), 391–407Google Scholar, here 402 with n. 154. See also Rezachevici, Constantin, “Caracterul bătăliei din 1300 între Basarab I și Carol Robert: țărani neînarmați sau cavaleri de tip apusean?” Argesis 13 (2004), 167–75Google Scholar, here 167–68.
7 Rezachevici, “Caracterul bătăliei,” p. 171. See also Nicolae Edroiu, “Lupta de la Posada (nov. 1330) și implicațiile ei în istoria românilor,” Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Historia 25 (1980), no. 2, 3–7, here 6.
8 Morton, Nicholas, The Military Orders 1120–1314 (London: Taylor and Francis, 2013), 54–6Google Scholar, for the foundation of the Order.
9 Wüst, Marcus, “Peter von Dusburg: Chronik des Preußenlandes – eine programmatisch-politische Schrift für die Kurie,” Mrągowskie Studia Humanistyczne 10 (2014), 108–16Google Scholar.
10 Arno Mentzel-Reuters, “Deutschordenshistoriographie,” in Handbuch Chroniken des Mittelalters, eds. Gerhard Wolf and Norbert H. Ott (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2016), pp. 301–36, here 302. The earliest manuscript of the chronicle was copied in 1568 and is now kept in Toruń, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka III/26.
11 State Archives of Toruń, Kat. II, XIII, 1. The manuscript is dated to the 17th century. See Wenta, Jarosław, Studien über die Ordensgeschichtsschreibung am Beispiel Preußens (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2001), p. 205Google Scholar.
12 Wüst, Marcus, Studien zum Selbstverständnis des Deutschen Ordens im Mittelalter (Weimar: Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 2013), pp. 69–72Google Scholar; Leighton, Gregory, ‘Did the Teutonic Order create a sacred landscape in thirteenth-century Prussia?’ Journal of Medieval History 44 (2018), no. 4, 457–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 460. For a detailed study of the chronicle as an aide for preachers, see Wenta, Jarosław, “Kazanie i historyczne egzemplum w późnośredniowiecznym Chełmnie,” in Ecclesia et civitas. Kościół i życie religijne w mieście średniowiecznym, eds. Manikowska, Halina and Zaremska, Hanna (Warsaw: Instytut Historii PAN, 2002), pp. 473–82Google Scholar, here 478–81.
13 Johannes Voigt, Die Geschichte Preußens von den ältesten Zeit bis zum Untergange der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens, vol. 3 (Königsberg: Bornträger, 1828), p. 604; Max Töppen, Geschichte der preußischen Historiographie von P. v. Dusburg bis auf K. Schütz (Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz, 1853), pp. 1–2.
14 Marzena Pollakówna, Kronika Piotra z Dusburga (Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1968).
15 Peter von Dusburg, Chronik des Preußenlandes, edited and translated by Klaus Schulz and Deiter Wojtecki (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1984), pp. 3–30.
16 Peter of Dusburg, Chronica terrae Prussiae, eds. Jarosław Wenta and Sławomir Wysyomirski. Monumenta Poloniae Historica. Nova series. 13 (Cracow: Nakładem Polskiej Akademie Umejętnośći, 2007), p. 3 (frater Petrus de Dusburgk ejusdem sacre professionis sacerdos); English translation by Gregory Leighton. Hereafter, this source is abbreviated PD.
17 Pollakówna, Kronika, pp. 203–7. For an overview of the state of research on Dusburg and his origins, see Sławomir Wyszomirski, “Die Werkstatt Peters von Dusburg,” in Mittelalterliche Kultur und Literatur im Deutschordensstaat in Preußen, eds. Jarosław Wenta Gieslla Vollmann-Profe, and Sieglinde Hartmann (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2013), pp. 501–11, here 502–3.
18 Werner Paravicini, Die Preußenreisen des europäischen Adels, 3 vols. (Sigmaringen/Göttingen: J. Thorbecke/V&R Unipress, 1989–2020).
19 Grischa Vercamer, “Zeit in Peters von Dusburg Chronica terre Prussie (1326). Chronologische Ordnung oder Mittel zum Zweck?” Zapiski historyczne 76 (2011), no. 4, 7–23, here 8–9; Sławomir Zonenberg, „Kto był autor Epitome gestorum Prussie?” Zapiski historyczne 78 (2013), no. 4, 85–102, here 86–8.
20 For the Marian patronage of the Order, see Udo Arnold, “Maria als Patronin des Deutschen Ordens im Mittelalter,” in Terra Sanctae Mariae. Mittelalterliche Bildwerke der Marienverehrung im Deutschordensland Preußen, ed. Gerhard Eimer (Bonn: Kulturstiftung der Deutschen Vertriebenen, 2009), pp. 29–56; Gregory Leighton, Ideology and Holy Landscape in the Baltic Crusades (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2022), pp. 17–30.
21 PD, p. 4 ; the passage in question is from Daniel 3:99 (signa et mirabilia fecit apud me Deus excelsus).
22 See Gisela Vollmann-Profe, “Ein Glücksfall in der Geschichte der preußischen Ordenschronistik: Nikolaus von Jeroschin übersetzt Peter von Dusburg,” in Forschungen zur deutschen Literatur des Spätmittelalters. Festschrift für Johannes Janota, eds. Horst Brunner and Werner Williams-Krapp (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2003), pp. 125–40, here 126; Mary Fischer, “The Books of the Maccabees and the chronicles of the Teutonic Order,” Crusades 4 (2005), 59–72; Wüst, Studien, p. 67; Leighton, Ideology, pp. 7–16 and 22–3.
23 PD, pp. 11–21 (1.1–1.5).
24 PD, pp. 22–48 (2.1–2.13).
25 PD, pp. 32–45 (2.7–2.9).
26 PD, pp. 49–263 (3.1–3.362).
27 Jarosław Wenta, “Bemerkungen über die Funktion eines mittelalterlichen historiographischen Textes: die Chronik des Peter von Dusburg,” in De litteris, manuscriptis, inscriptionibus…Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Walter Koch, ed. Theo Kölzer (Vienna: Böhlau, 2007), pp. 675–85, here 676.
28 PD, pp. 268–276. For the assassination of Werner of Orseln, the last event mentioned in the chronicle, see also “Canonici Sambiensis Epitome gestorum Prussiae,” ed. Max Töppen, in Scriptores rerum Prussicarum. Die Geschichtsquellen der preußischen Vorzeit bis zum Untergange der Ordenherrschaft, eds. Theodor Hirsch, Max Töppen, and Ernst Strehlke, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1861), pp. 287–88. This source will be hereafter cited as SRP.
29 Dusburg died after 1326, but before 1330. See Wüst, “Peter von Dusburg,” p. 111.
30 PD, p. xxv. Indeed, the supplement is included in some of the earliest manuscripts of Jeroschin's chronicle, dated to the 14th century, such as Stuttgart, Landesbibliothek, Cod. HB V 95, fol. 186v-187r, dated to the second quarter of the 14th century; and Toruń, Bibliotecka Uniwersytecka, Rps 54/III (formerly Königsberg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 1547), dated to the mid- or late 14th century.
31 Manfred Hellmann, “Der Deutsche Orden und der Stadt Riga,” in Stadt und Orden. Das Verhältnis des Deutschen Ordens zu den Städten Livland, Preußen und im Deutschen Reich, ed. Udo Arnold (Marburg: N.G. Elwert, 1993), 1–33.
32 Łokietek had first requested military aid from Hungary in 1300, and he found support within the faction of Hungarian magnates who supported Charles Robert of Anjou's claim to the throne. One of those magnates, Amadeus of Kassa, provided the troops with which Łokietek returned to Poland in 1303 and regained power. Following the conquest of Gdańsk in 1308, the Teutonic Knights took over Pomerania over the next three years. When Łokietek was crowned king in 1320, his daughter, Elizabeth went to Hungary to marry Charles Robert. Łokietek received military support from Charles Robert for his campaign in Halych-Volhynia (1320–1325). Meanwhile, the Teutonic Knights allied themselves with John of Luxembourg, the king of Bohemia, who led his troops against Łokietek. Defeated in battle by his Czech and Teutonic adversaries, the Polish king again requested military assistance from Hungary (1329). The Hungarian troops sent to Poland in 1330 helped Łokietek invade the Teutonic territory. At the truce (October 18, 1330), both sides agreed to submit any future dispute to King John of Bohemia and to Charles Robert. See Paul W. Knoll, The Rise of the Polish Monarchy. Piast Poland in East Central Europe, 1320–1370 (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1972), pp. 23, 24–25, 31, 45, 54, and 55; Państwo Zakonu Krzyżackiego w Prusach: Władza I spółczeństwo, eds. Marian Biskup and Roman Czaja (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2008), 110–12; Paul Milliman, The Slippery Memory of Men. The Place of Pomerania in the Medieval Kingdom of Poland (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013), 94–139; Aleksander Pluskowski, The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade. Holy War and Colonisation, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2022), 147–52.
33 PD, p. 274 (English translation by Gregory Leighton).
34 PD, p. 274 (mala morte; English translation by Gregory Leighton).
35 Joel 2:13: “et convertimini ad Dominum Deum vestrum, quia benignus et misericors est, patiens et multae misericordiae, et praestabilis super malitia.”
36 Nahum 1:2: “Deus aemulator, et ulciscens Dominus: ulciscens Dominus, et habens furorem: ulciscens Dominus in hostes suos, et irascens ipse inimicis suis.”
37 This language is strikingly similar to some crusader calls in 13th-century Prussia. See Preußisches Urkundenbuch. Politische Abteilung, ed. August Seraphim, Vol. 1, Part 2 (Königsberg: Hartnungs Verlag, 1909), p. 28 (Nr. 33) and 303 (Nr. 473).
38 Christoph T. Maier, Crusade Propaganda and Ideology. Model Sermons for the Preaching of the Cross (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 113.
39 PD, p. 257: “Medio tempore, quo Vngari terram Colmensem destruerent, rex Vngarie cum maximo exercitu processit contra regem quondam subditum suum. Dum regnum illius invaderet, rustici illius regionis arbores sylvae, per quam oportebat Vngaros redeundeo transire, serris praesciderunt per medium, ut dum una caderet, tangendo aliam deprimeret, et sic deinceps. Unde factum est, ut dum in reditu intrassent Vngari dictam silvam et rustici praedicti moverent arbores, cecidit una super aliam, et sic cadentes omnes ex utaque parte oppresserunt magnam multitudinem Vngarorum. Ecce licet Deus natura sit bonus, placidus et misericors, patiens et multae misericordiae, tamen secundum prophetam Naum est etiam ulciscens Dominus et habens furorem, ulciscens Dominus in hostes suos et irascens ipse inimicis suis. Quomodo ergo poterat Dominus in patentia et misericordia tolerare, quod iste rex Vngariae gentem suam miserat ad destruendam terram Christi et matris suae et fratrum inibi habitantium, qui quotidie parati sunt exponere res et corpus, ut vindicent iniuriam Domini crucifixi? Utique sine ultione non poterat Dominus pertransire” (English translation by Gregory Leighton).
40 Jeroschin must have finished the translation under Grand Master Dietrich of Altenburg (1335–1341).
41 Mary Fischer, “Introduction,” in The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jeroschin. A History of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, 1190–1331, translated by Mary Fischer (London/New York: Routledge, 2016), p. 5.
42 Walther Ziesemer, Nicolaus von Jeroschin und seine Quelle (Berlin: E. Ebering, 1907), pp. 26–79.
43 The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jeroschin, pp. 292–93. For the Middle High German text, see Nicolaus von Jeroschin, Di Kronike von Pruzinlant, ed. Ernst Strehlke, in SRP 1, pp. 303–624, here p. 621.
44 See Paravicini, Preußenreisen, Vol. 2 (Sigmaringen: J. Thorbecke, 1995), pp. 91–2; Torben K. Nielsen, “Henry of Livonia on Woods and Wilderness,” in Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier: A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, eds. Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi and Carsten Selch Jensen (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 157–78.
45 This also applies to the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle (Livländische Reimchronik), written around 1290 by an anonymous author affiliated with the Order. See Alan V. Murray, “Formulaic language in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle: set phrases and discourse markers in Middle High German history writing,” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 79 (2019), 86–105.
46 János M. Bak and Ryszard Grzesik,” The text of the Chronicle of the Deeds of the Hungarians,” in Studies on the Illuminated Chronicle, eds. János M. Bak and László Veszprémy. Central European Medieval Texts, Subsidia 1 (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2018), pp. 5–24, here 6–7. For a different identification of the compiler, see László Holler, ”Ki állította össze a Képes Krónikát Egy új hipotézis,” Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények 107 (2003), nos. 2–3, 210–42.
47 Under the assumption that text and illustrations were done simultaneously, Rezachevici, “Caracterul bătăliei,” 168 wrongly assumes that the last chapter of the Chronicles was written between 1367 and 1370.
48 For the portrait of King Charles in the Illuminated Chronicle, see Tünde Wehli, “Károly Róbert ábrázolása a Képes Krónikában,” in Károly Róbert és Székesfehérvár, eds. Trézia Kerny and András Smohaly (Székesfehérvár: Székesfehérvári Egyházmegyei Múzeum, 2011), pp. 111–26.
49 Chronicle of the Deeds of the Hungarians from the Fourteenth-Century Illuminated Codex, edited and translated by János M. Bak and László Veszprémy. Central European Medieval Texts, 9 (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2018), pp. 370–71 (the enemy is explicitly identified as Basarab, the voivode of the Vlachs). Hereafter abbreviated to IC. The cause of the war between Charles and Basarab was the latter's occupation, ca. 1327, of the Banate (border province) of Severin. When attacking Basarab, Charles may have taken advantage of Basarab's losses in the battle of Velbăzhd (July 28, 1330), in which Basarab sided with Michael Shishman, who was defeated by Stephen III Uroš. See Alexandru Madgearu, ”Bătălia dintre Basarab I și Carol Robert de Anjou (9–12 noiembrie 1330),” in 100 de mari bătălii din istoria României, ed. Petru Otu (Bucharest: Orizonturi, 2009), pp. 44–47, here 44.
50 IC, pp. 372–73.
51 IC, pp. 372–73.
52 IC, pp. 372–73 (cum meis pecuniis et expensis).
53 IC, pp. 372–73 (quia si veneritis ulteriius, periculum minime evadetis).
54 IC, 372–73: Sic dicite Bazarad: ipse est pastor ovium mearum, de suis latilibus per barbas suas extraham.
55 IC, pp. 372–73.
56 IC, pp. 373–74. The pun on fides is meant to highlight both the notion of trust, in general, and the fealty of the king's vassals.
57 IC, pp. 373–374: quondam via cum toto exercitu, que via erat in circuitu et in utraque parte ripis prominentibus circumclusa et ante, unde erat dicta via patentior, indaginibus in pluribus locis fortiter fuerat circumsepta per Vlachos. What happened between Basarab's embassy to Charles and the battle transpires from a number of royal charters, and only partially from the Chronicle. The Hungarian army moved to (Curtea de) Argeș, Basarab's residence, which was put under siege. Since the royal army was starving, the king agreed to the truce mentioned in the Chronicle. However, reinforcements coming from Transylvania across the mountains under a nobleman named Bakó attacked Argeș in direct violation of the truce. That prompted Basarab to ambush the king's army on its way back to Hungary (Madgearu, “Bătălia,” p. 44).
58 IC, pp. 373–74. The exact meaning of iacula can be a matter of dispute – lances, spears, or arrows? At any rate, iaculum (the original meaning of which was “dart, javelin”) cannot be a rock or a stone.
59 IC, pp. 373–74: quasi navis stricta, ubi propter pressuram c<a>debant dextrarii fortissimi cum militibus circumquaque.
60 IC, pp. 373–74: collidebantur invicem milites electi, sicut in cunis moventur et agitantur infantes, vel sicut arundines, que vento moventur.
61 IC, pp. 376–77: arma vestesque pretiosas omnium elisorum, pecuniamque in auro et argento, in vasis pretiosis et baltheis et multa marsupia latorum grossorum et equos multos cum sellis et frenis.
62 IC, pp. 376–77: cadebant etiam in circuitu exercitus undique de canina multitudine Vlachorum quasi musce, que perdiderunt suavitatem unguenti cum Christianum populum et unctos Christi sacerdotes immisericorditer percusserunt. The mention of flies spoiling the oil is a citation from Ecclesiastes 10:1 (“Dead flies will corrupt the preparation of seasoned olive oil”). Although the chronicle's flies are not dead, the implication is that many Vlachs are killed by the king's men. On the other hand, the mention of the ointment (unguentum) is meant to signal by means of alliteration that the Vlachs attacked not only Christians, but also those anointed (uncti) to serve Christ, an indication of the presence of churchmen in the Hungarian army.
63 IC, pp. 376–77 and 379: Quorum Vlachorum numerum ibi per Hungaros occisorum subtilis solummodo infernalis conpotista collegit.
64 IC, pp. 378–79: istud tamen eis accidit, ne propter victoria<ru>m frequentiam superbirent, vel certe post superbiam precedentem corriperentur, et humilitatem discerent et docerent.
65 IC, p. 194.
66 IC, p. 195. It is perhaps important to note that according to IC, p. 377, there were many Cumans among those who died on the Hungarian side. Cumans are also mentioned in later sources, along with the Hungarian troops sent to Poland in that same year (Annalista Thorunensis, ed. Ernst Strehlke, in SRP 3, p. 68; the edition was prepared by Strehlke with a version of Detmar of Lübeck's chronicle alongside it). According to István Vásáry, Cumans and Tatars. Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 155, there must have been Cumans among those who assisted the Vlachs. Similarly, Attila Bárány, “The Hungarian Angevins and the Crusade: King Charles I (1301–342),” in Zwischen Ostsee und Adria. Ostmitteleuropa im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit. Politische-, wirtschaftliche-, religiösische- und wissenschaftliche Beziehungen, eds. Attila Bárány, Roman Czaja, and László Pósán, Memoria Hungariae, 14 (Debrecen: Universität Debrecen Forschungsgruppe “Ungarn im mittelalterlichen Europa”, 2023), 54 sees “Asian elements in the Vlachs‘ army.“ The “braided hair strands” on the back of the Vlach archers in the IC illuminations, as well as their “Mongoloid faces” are viewed as something else than “orientalising historicism” and an indication of the presence of Tatars in Basarab's army.
67 IC, pp. 56–57 (Unde Vlachis conmixti litteris ipsorum uti perhibentur).
68 IC, pp. 56–57.
69 For the relation between text and illumination in the Chronicle, see Krisztina Fügedi, “Modifications of the narrative? The message of image and text in the fourteenth-century Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle,” in The Development of Literate Mentalities in East Central Europe, eds. Anna Adamska and Marco Mostert. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 9 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 469–96.
70 A facsimile of the Chronicle manuscript (now in the National Széchény Library in Budapest) is available in a CD-ROM format at the back of IC and online at https://web.archive.org/web/20120304111134/http://konyv-e.hu/pdf/Chronica_Picta.pdf (visit of December 5, 2023).
71 Ernő Marosi, “The illuminations of the Chronicle,” in Studies on the Illuminated Chronicle, pp. 25–110, here 53. There are conspicuous similarities – the archer is shown in the same position, and so is the Vlach behind him, throwing a rock. On the other hand, in the original illustration, the self-sacrifice of Dezső Szécsi (who changed clothes with the king, to allow Charles to escape unscathed) appears in the center. The dead man wears the ostrich-feathered helmet of the king and the shield with the double cross. In the second illumination, instead of that, there is a pile of corpses shown in a foreshortening perspective, with the addition of a current of blood flowing out of the gorge.
72 Marosi, “The illuminations,” p. 53. It is worth noting that the Vlach's hat is pointier and longer in the first illumination, stretching way beyond the frame, while that frame cuts off the horses of the fleeing king's group.
73 Manuscript page 105, reproduction of the illumination at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/K%C3%A9pes_kr%C3%B3nika_-_105.oldal_-_A_csóri_vadászat.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024).
74 Matei Cazacu and Dan Ioan Mureșan, Ioan Basarab, un domn român la începuturile Țării Românești (Chișinău: Cartier, 2013), pp. 15–16 think that that Vlach was no other than Basarab. More wishful thinking than scholarly sound, this interpretation is based on the pointed hat, which is supposedly unique, as well as a power symbol.
75 There are six rocks in the first illuminations, three of which appear as falling in the valley, and another three about to be thrown by the Vlachs.
76 Unlike the first illumination, there are seven rocks in the picture, four of which are falling onto the king's men killed in the valley. Three more appear in the hands of the Vlachs.
77 Ernő Marosi, “Zur Frage des Quellenwertes mittelalterlicher Darstellungen. ’Orientalismus’ in der Ungarischen Bilderchronik,” in Alltag und materielle Kultur im mittelalterlichen Ungarn, eds. András Kubinyi and József Lászlovszky (Krems: Medium Aevum Quotidianum, 1991), pp. 74–107, here 78.
78 Manuscript page 16, reproduction of the illumination at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicon_Pictum#/media/File:Chronicon_Pictum_P016_Attila_és_Leó_pápa.JPG (visit of August 8, 2024).
79 Manuscript page 21, reproduction of the illumination at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicon_Pictum#/media/File:László_Gyula_-_Árpád_népe-page-031.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024).
80 Manuscript page 32, reproduction of the illumination at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Cumans_in_Hungary.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024). Similarly dressed women appear in the illumination at the beginning of chapter 182, which deals with the second coming of the Tatars. See manuscript page 128, reproduction of the illumination at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/MongolsInHungary1285.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024).
81 Manuscript page 50, reproduction of the illumination at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Chronicon_Pictum_P050_A_ménfői_csata.JPG (visit of August 8, 2024).
82 Manuscript page 60, reproduction of the illumination at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicon_Pictum#/media/File:Képes_krónika_-_60.oldal_-_András_király_megkoronázása.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024).
83 Manuscript page 72, reproduction of the illumination at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Képes_krónika_-_72.oldal_-_László_herceg_birokra_kél_a_leányrabló_kunnal_%284%29.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024).
84 Manuscript page 98, reproduction of the illumination at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Képes_krónika_-_98.oldal_-_A_ruténok_hűséget_fogadnak_László_királynak.jpg (visit of August 8, 2024). See also Marosi, “Zur Frage,” p. 79. According to Marosi, “The illuminations,” p. 67, it is not difficult to distinguish between “Romanians in great fur coats and Astrakhan caps” and “Ruthenians in similar costumes named in a caption.” However, no Vlachs wear fur coats and their hats can hardly be associated with Astrakhan caps.
85 Hugo Buchthal, Historia Troiana. Studies in the History of Mediaeval Secular Illustration (London/Leiden: Wasrburg Institute, 1971), p. 41. Pointed-cone-shaped hats like those of the Vlachs appear in a manuscript of the Historia destructionis Troiae of Guido delle Colonne, which is now in the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana in Geneva and may be dated ca. 1370. See Marosi, “Zur Frage,” pp. 106 fig. 19 and 107 fig. 20; Marosi, “The illuminations,” p. 66.
86 Marosi, “Zur Frage,” p. 87.
87 Rezachevici, “Localizarea bătăliei” (1985), 402 with n. 154 still believed that the only original element of the two illuminations is the dress and general aspect of the Vlachs, who look like peasants in order to match the chronicler's idea that King Charles was punished by God who allowed rustici with rocks and bows to defeat the royal army. There are no rustici in the text, and no rocks either.
88 László Veszprémy, “A ’Posadai’ csata. Károly Róbert 1330-as Havasföldi hadjárata,” in Elfeledett háborúk. Középkori csaták és várostromok (6–16. század), eds. László Posán and László Veszprémy (Budapest: Zrinyi Kiadó, 2016), pp. 232–46, here 236.
89 Relații între Țările Române (1222–1456), eds. Ştefan Pascu, Constantin Cihodaru, Konrad G. Gündisch, Damaschin Mioc, and Viorica Pervain. Documenta Romaniae Historica, seria D (Bucharest: Editura Academiei RSR, 1977), p. 48.
90 Relații, p. 53 (charter of January 2, 1333); Anjou-kori oklevéltár XVII. 1333, ed. Gyula Kristó (Budapest/Szeged: Agapé Ny, 2002), p. 9.
91 Relații, p. 57. See also Vasile Mărculeț and Ioan Mărculeț, “Considerații asupra localizării confruntării munteano-maghiare din 9–12 noiembrie 1300,” Anuarul Muzeului Marinei Române 15 (2012), 111–25, here 111. The barriers are also mentioned in another charter of December 13, 1335, for which see V. Motogna, “Iarăși lupta de la Posada,” Revista istorică 9 (1923), 81–85.
92 Maria Holban, Din cronica relațiilor româno-ungare în secolele XIII-XIV (Bucharest: Editura Academiei RSR, 1981), p. 109.
93 Mărculeț and Mărculeț, “Considerații,” p. 112; Sergiu Iosipescu, “Românii din Carpații Meridionali la Dunărea de Jos de la invazia mongolă (1241–1243) până la consolidarea domniei a toată Țara Românească. Războiul victorios purtat la 1300 împotriva cotropirii ungare,” in Constituirea statelor feudale românești, ed. Nicolae Stoicescu (Bucharest: Editura Academiei RSR, 1980), pp. 41–96, here 87.
94 Madgearu, “Bătălia,” pp. 44–45. The valley of the Cerna valley is most likely the route that the Hungarian army used to enter Wallachia, as King Charles is specifically said to have taken (Turnu) Severin.
95 Nicolae Iorga, “Carpații în luptele dintre români și unguri,” in Analele Academiei Române. Memoriile Secțiunii Istorice 38 (1915–1916), 79–106, here 85. In his Geschichte des rumänischen Volkes im Rahmen seines Staatsbildungen (Gotha: F. A. Perthes, 1905), p. 290, Iorga placed Posada in the Prahova district of early 20th-century Romania.
96 Madgearu, “Bătălia,” p. 45.
97 Madgearu, “Bătălia,” p. 46. This location was rejected by Mărculeț and Mărculeț, “Considerații,” p. 118, who instead proposed the long and narrow valley of the river Topolog. For Curtea de Argeș as Basarab's residence, see Alexandru Madgearu, “Castrum Argyas: Poenari sau Curtea de Argeș?” in Studia varia in honorem Ștefan Ștefănescu octogenarii, eds. Cristian Luca, Ionel Cândea and Vasile V. Muntean (Bucharest/Brăila: Editura Academiei Române/Istros, 2009), pp. 203–15.
98 Rezachevici, “Caracterul bătăliei,” p. 169; Madgearu, “Bătălia,” p. 46; Mărculeț and Mărculeț, “Considerații,” p. 119–20. Like all Romanian historians, those authors typically cite the text in Dusburg's Chronicle of the Land of Prussia from Lăzărescu, “Despre lupta din 1330,” and not from Strehlke's edition.
99 Rezachevici, “Localizarea bătăliei” (1984), p. 75. Iosipescu, “Românii,” p. 86 and 88 thinks that the cut trees could only inflict losses on an enemy that was trapped in a mountain gorge. Pushing the envelope, Sergiu Iosipescu, “Bătălia de la Posada (9–12 noiembrie 1330). O contribuție la critica izvoarelor istoriei de început a principatului Țării Românești, Revista istorică 19 (2008), nos. 1–2, 59–82, here 68, claims that in order for the operation of cutting trees to be effective, those trees had to be on mountain slopes.
100 PD, p. 275. See Stoicescu and Tucă, “Semnificația,” p. 1869; Rezavechici, “Caracterul bătăliei,” p. 171.
101 Anjoukori okmánytár, ed. Imre Nagy, vol. 2 (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1881), p. 517 (contra cruciferos prutenorum provincie); Anjou-kori oklevéltár XIV. 1330, eds. Tibor Almési and Tamás Kőfalvi (Budapest/Szeged: Agapé Ny, 2004), pp. 342–43.
102 Iospiescu, “Românii,” p. 77; Veszprémy, “A ’Posadai’ csata,” p. 240. A Neapolitan-born baron who came to Hungary in 1327 at the invitation of King Charles, Druget owned large properties in the northeastern parts of the kingdom, over which he ruled from the Šariš Castle (near Veľký Šariš in Slovakia). See Đura Hardi, Drugeti, povest o usponu I padu porodice pratilaca anžuskih kraljeva (Novi Sad: Filozofski fakultet, 2012), pp. 314–17; Filip Vanko, “Itinerár župana a palatína Viliama Drugeta v rokoch 1328–1342,” Kultúrne dejiny 6 (2015), no. 2, 243–55, here 244, who places William's presence in Prussia between September and October 1330.
103 For a general overview: Marian Biskup and Gerard Labuda, Dzieje Zakonu Krzyżackiego w Prusach. Gospodarka – Społczeństwo – Państwo – Ideologia (Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie, 1986), pp. 345–8. For an overview in English, see William Urban, The Samogitian Crusade (Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 1989), pp. 76–104, here 82–5.
104 Norman Housley, “King Louis the Great of Hungary and the Crusades, 1342–1382,” Slavonic and East European Review 62 (1984), no. 2, 192–208, here 194.
105 PD, p. 98.
106 PD, p. 161.
107 Paul Freedman, Images of the Medieval Peasant (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), p. 179.
108 Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Chronica, ed. P. Scheffer-Boichorst, MGH SS rer. Germ. 23 (Hannover: Hahn, 1874), p. 872.
109 Annales Ryenses, s.a. 1258, ed. Georg Waitz, MGH SS rer. Germ. 16 (Hannover: Hahn, 1859), p. 91. In the Annals of Essenbaek, King Erik VI Menved of Denmark is said to have marched in 1313 contra rusticos; see Annales Essenbecenses, s.a. 1313, ed. Georg Waitz, MGH SS rer. Germ. 29 (Hannover: Hahn, 1892), p. 228.
110 Annales Placentini Gibellini, s.a. 1267, ed. Georg Waitz, MGH SS rer. Germ. 18 (Hannover: Hahn, 1863), p. 522.
111 Chronicla de gestis principum, in Bayerische Chroniken des XIV. Jahrhunderts, ed. Georg Leidinger, MGH SS rer. Germ. 19 (Hannover/Leipzig: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1918), p. 90. The same story may also be found in Matthias of Neuenburg, Chronica, ed. Adolf Hofmeister, MGH SS rer. Germ. N. S. 4 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1940), p. 110.
112 John of Winterthur, Chronica, ed. Friedrich Baethgen. MGH SS, N. S., 3 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1924), p. 264.
113 Matthias of Neuenburg, Chronica, p. 183. Matthias was writing shortly before the middle of the 14th century.
114 Freedman, Images, p. 197.
115 For similar concerns in 12th- and 13th-century Norway, see Ian Peter Grohse, “Bonde og borgerkrig: lokalkonflikter og de norske innbyrdesstridene,” Collegium Medievale 32 (2019), no. 2, 151–70. For anxiety about armed peasants in 14th-century England, see Britton J. Harwood, “Anxious over peasants: textual disorder in Winner and Waster,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 36 (2006), no. 2, 291–319.
116 For peasant anger in the late medieval literature, see Paul Freedman, “Peasant anger in the late Middle Ages,” in Anger's Past. The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. Barbara H. Rosenwein (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), pp. 171–88.
117 Pierre Streit and Olivier Meuwly, Morgarten, entre mythe et histoire, 1315–2015 (Bière : Cabédita, 2015); Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, “Schlacht am Morgarten 1315 – aus militärhistorischer Sicht: Freiheitsschlacht oder Fehdekrieg?” Der Geschichtsfreund 168 (2015), 151–73, here 154.
118 John of Viktring, Liber certarum historiarum, ed. Fedor Schneider, vol. 2 (Hannover: Hahn, 1910), p. 70 (lapidum ictibus ab eis ab ybicibus in montibus scadentibus clare milicie populus interiit copiosus); Rudolf Gamper, “Die Schlacht von Morgarten in den chronikalischen Erzählungen,” Der Geschichtsfreund 168 (2015), 59–94, here 64.
119 John of Winterthur, Chronica, p. 79: “Prescientes autem Switenses per revelacionem comitis memorati se in illa parte aggrediendos et recognoscentes impedimentum et obstaculum eorum propter difficultatem accesus ad terram ipsorum animati et valde cordati contra eos descendunt de latilibus suis et quos quasi pisces in sagena conclusos iinvadunt et sine omni Resistencia occident” (emphasis added).
120 For the historiographic myth of the Swiss peasants defending their fatherland at Morgarten, see Roger Sablonier, Grüdungszeit ohne Eidgenossen. Politik und Gesellschaft in der Innerschweiy um 1300, 2nd edition (Baden: Hier & Jetzt, 2008), p. 17; Stefan Sonderegger, “Switzerland – a ‘peasant state’?” in Peasants, Lords, and State. Comparing Peasant Conditions in Scandinavia and the Eastern Alpine Region, 1000-1750, eds. Tore Iversen, John Ragnar Myking, and Stefan Sonderegger. The Northern World, 89 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2020), pp. 248–66.
121 Gamper, “Die Schlacht,” p. 74.