General Giorgio Basta's Campaign in Transylvania
In the discussion of Basta's campaign in the Three Worlds,
the editor had
overlooked that Basta had previously been chief of staff for Ferrante Gonzaga,
governor of High Hungary and a cousin of Vincenzo Gonzaga, the
duke of Mantua. More was to be found in Italian sources, especially in the
Venetian documents long since printed in Baron Hurmuzaki's
Documente.
The following summary is the result of further consideration.
Due to the long Turco-Venetian border stretching from the Dalmatian
coast around to the Aegean Sea, Venice was understandably interested in
the "Long War." To play any official part in that war would have run
counter to what had been Venetian policy for many years, yet it was vital to
obtain firsthand information. Through the participation of various young
and youngish latter-day condottiere, most of them apparently of good or
even noble birth, this was accomplished. One of the more useful of these for
our present-day purposes was Count Tommaso Cavriolo, otherwise practically
unknown. Cavriolo went to collect information, and Basta gave him
command of thirteen companies of infantry and 1,000 horse. In this way,
thanks to the intelligence needs of the Republic of Venice and the desire of
young John Smith to become a "gentleman," two complementary accounts
of thwarted Tatar booty raids into Transylvania have survived. Smith had
already encountered Turks in Hungary; Cavriolo was new on the scene. But
in Transylvania both of them had to deal with a tower of Babel and a remarkable
ethnic miscellany, including renegades of all sorts, mercenaries of all
breeds, and myriads of Tatars.
The "intelligencer" (here, military spy) for Venice arrived at Basta's
peripatetic headquarters in March/April 1602. On May 27 he was reporting
to the Venetian ambassador (in Prague, probably) on the lack of discipline
in the troops, the affairs of Zsigmond Báthory, and potential difficulties with
the newly "recognized" voivode of Walachia, Radul Şerban. (It appears
that Radul could have been persona grata to both the emperor and the sultan,
but failed to see it.) Then in July, when Cavriolo was for some reason
"remaining" somewhere else, word came that 140,000 Tatars were on their
way, but on September 2, back in Medias, he wrote that he was about to
take off, with 10,000 troops all told, in the opposite direction; Lippa (Lipova)
was his target, 200-odd kilometers west. A week later, however, 2,000 Tatars
attacked Radul's camp south of Brasov, 100-odd kilometers east of Medias,
defeating Radul's 8,000 and killing 2,000. They also took 800 prisoners.
Basta had already sent 3,000 Szekler infantry and 1,000 Transylvanian
horse, but now posthaste Radul dispatched "two principal gentlemen" to
Basta, asking for more troops and the personal support of Cavriolo. Cavriolo
disclaimed any knowledge of how to run an army, but went anyway (undoubtedly
the better to inform Venice). In the skirmishes of September
23–24 he apparently saved the day.
In short, on the Transylvanian side late in 1602 there was considerable
activity. Cavriolo led his men to Brasov, 100-odd kilometers east by south
and an unspecified distance beyond. There he encamped. Learning that
Radul had dug in some 40 Italian miles (c. 60 kilometers) to the south, he
next joined him there. The Tatar cavalry, then estimated on the spot at
40,000, was 60–70 Italian miles (89–103 kilometers) away. When the two
armies met, Radul's forces, augmented twice in a fortnight, faced decidedly
superior manpower. The clash took place somewhere inside Walachia, probably
between Sinaia and Campulung.
Basta's report of September 18 to the Venetian ambassador implies that
his army was sent to more than one part of Walachia "at the foot of the
mountains." We have seen where Cavriolo went. John Smith, on the other
hand, wrote that his contingent "marched along by the river Altus" (Olt
River, today) to Rebrinke (modern Ramnicu-Valcea), about 120 kilometers
south of Medias. From this point on the Olt they moved east and soon were
skirmishing with Jeremia Movila's motley soldatesca "in the plaines of
Peteske" (Pitesti), near "Argish" (Curtea-de-Arges), which is about 40
kilometers southwest of Campulung.
There were at least two engagements in the Arges area with Turkish
troops, Smith thought. But straggling Tatars "were forraging those parts
towards Moldavia," east of Campulung. Smith's commander wisely beat a
hasty retreat "towards Rottenton," which is also called by its Hungarian
name, Verestorony, in the True Travels. It was in the skirmishes during their
retreat that Smith and his companions were nearly cut to pieces, and Smith
was captured — not by the Turks, but by the Tatars. The Tatars cured his
wounds and took him to the slave market at "Axiopolis," which is now called
Cernavoda, although Smith may have been mistaken (as he often was) about
the location. Cernavoda is just down the Danube from Silistra, and Cavriolo
wrote that the Tatars he encountered were thought to be going in that
direction. It is certain, in any case, that Smith did not hear the name
"Axiopolis" from any Tatar. He found it on a map years later.
Considering the terrain, the disarray of the straggling Tatars, and the
niggardly reinforcements in men and matériel sent by Basta, there is no
reason to doubt Smith's participation in these engagements more than
Cavriolo's. Cavriolo apparently did not know Basta's basic tactics; Smith
knew nothing, though he disapproved of what he saw in the way of results.
Yet in this instance, Basta was right. He wrote to the Venetian ambassador
that he judged "this fury of Tatars will not last long." Indeed, the Tatars
quickly moved on toward their winter quarters near Belgrade, leaving Smith
and many others groaning on the battlefield.
