University of Virginia Library

The Background of Smith's Military Adventures

After, and because of, this defeat at Giurgiu, the grand vizier persuaded the
sultan to lead his troops personally to victory, and in the heart of Hungary.
In October 1596 Mehmet, aided by the Crimean khan, roundly trounced
Archduke Maximilian, the emperor's younger brother, and Zsigmond
Báthory. But Mehmet preferred life in Istanbul, and little happened. In 1599

peace overtures were made. Abortive though they were, Smith's statement
about rumors "of a generall peace" is substantially correct.

By then, however, in far-off France Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine,
the duke of Mercoeur and of Brittany, had volunteered to lead the imperial
armies of Rudolph II, Holy Roman emperor, to victory over the imperial
armies of Mehmet III, sultan of Turkey.

Furthermore, after the loss of
Nagykanizsa, mentioned above, Pope Clement VIII issued a call to arms in
Italy. Ferrante Gonzaga, cousin of Vincenzo, duke of Mantua, was already
on the scene. Vincenzo quickly assembled a regiment or two and galloped
to the front. The Gonzagas' historical reports are invaluable, and their
actions certainly won laurels; but their overall effect was negligible. Still,
John Smith seems to have had some contact with an Italian regiment or
company. His works contain half a dozen Italian words seldom found in
print (even in Italian), and he refers to the language as being useful in talking
to Charatza Trabigzanda (see below).

At this point, after taking part in repelling the akinci attack on Lendava,
Smith was sent to Körmend, where he was promoted to captain by his
colonel, one "Meldritch." From there he was transferred with his regiment
to Komarom (Komarno, Czechoslovakia, today), to be incorporated in the
army commanded by the duke of Mercoeur, by then Archduke Matthias's
lieutenant. Mercoeur suddenly planned and executed a "diversion," a surprise
attack on Szekesfehervar (Latin, Alba Regia), the ancient Hungarian
royal city known in Viennese circles as Stuhlweissenburg that had been held
by the Turks for half a century. With an army of 18,000, including Smith,
he marched 50 km. (30-odd mi.) in three days and encamped in the northern
suburbs.

Two weeks later, on September 20, the city was freed. John Smith
described his small part in the siege, and some historical accounts mention
the weapons he used. Of course, Smith's name is missing in these.

After a secondary engagement nearby, with winter setting in, Mercoeur
left for Vienna and France, planning to recruit more troops, but he died on
the way in February 1602. By then, Meldritch and Smith were detailed to
serve under Giorgio Basta. The choice of Basta for commanding general was

a strategical as well as a diplomatic mistake. Basta's cut-and-dried military
mind was unsuited for operations in a region of unusual political, social, and
religious involvement.

Be that as it may, Meldritch and Smith arrived at Basta's headquarters
in Bistrita (Hungarian, Beszterce) in March 1602. At almost the same
moment, Basta returned to Hungary. Less than 200 km. (125 mi.) away,
Zsigmond Báthory was enjoying a state of typical indecision in Brasov (Hungarian,
Brassó; German, Kronstadt) and was again at odds with Basta. The
upshot of these developments was that Meldritch, according to Smith, wrote
to Zsigmond offering to change sides. His offer was accepted.

Austrian documentary sources indicate that Zsigmond was in AlbaIulia
(Hungarian, Gyulafehérvár; German, Karlsburg, formerly Weissenburg)
on or about April 1, 1602.

Sometime before that, Smith's corps moved
south from Bistrita toward "the Land of Zarkain," which seems to correspond
with the ancient county of Zarand, west of Alba-Iulia and broadly
locatable on a modern map by the resort town of Brad, at the east end of the
Zarandului Mountains. The region is rugged and would be a natural hiding
place for the people described in the Purchas version (II, 1365). Somewhere
there, Meldritch and Smith encamped on "the Plaines of Regall." This
name is the absurd result of a mistake based on the text of Smith's grant of
arms, which is not included in the Purchas version (see the True Travels,
15–18). The Latin original of this refers to "ad Urbem Regalem," which
someone mistranslated as "before the towne of Regall," instead of "toward,
or on the way to, the royal city." That was Alba-Iulia, where the Transylvanian
princes had long had their residence. The specific site of the "Plaines"
is unknown, though the troops of 1602 could have followed one of several
routes, all of them leading past settlements or castles (small forts) in the foothills.

In spite of the lack of any historical record of John Smith's own adventures
in Transylvania, his account is historically and geographically substantiated,
including the dueling habits that prompted his own participation.

Thus, the towns Smith mentions exist in modern names: "Varatzo, Solmos,
and Kuprouka" are Vărădia, Şoimuş, and Kăpruţa, along the Mures River
(Hungarian, Maros), downstream from Alba-Iulia. "Esenberge" is merely
a mistake for Weissenburg, mentioned above. Weissenburg (or Alba-Iulia)
was taken by Basta on July 2, 1602, giving us a terminus ante quem for
Smith's reception by Zsigmond.

Within a matter of months after the duels on the road to Alba-Iulia,
John Smith was wounded and captured by Tatars who had straggled up
toward Transylvania. The chief if not the only surviving document bearing
on this battle is a letter dated October 1, 1602, from Count Tommaso
Cavriolo to the Venetian ambassador to the Holy Roman emperor in
Prague.

Cavriolo had been sent to aid General Basta c. early March and
had been placed in command of a relief force sent to "encourage and help"
Radul Şerban, voivode of Walachia, against whom the Sublime Porte had
set up an anti-voivode. Arriving at Radul's camp "beyond Corona [Brasov]
at one of the passes to Wallachia" on September 20, Cavriolo tried to instill
some order, but Radul's multi-tribal soldiery (Walachians, Hungarians,
Moldavians, and Rascians from Serbia) was unruly. When assaulted on
September 23 by an estimated 40,000 Tatars they disobeyed orders, and
Cavriolo's total of ten cavalry companies plus three late arrivals (1,000 horse
in all) barely prevented a disaster. Radul's soldatesca had been stricken with
terror ten days before Cavriolo's arrival (i.e., c. September 10) when 2,000
Tatars had routed 8,000 of themselves, with 2,000 dead and 800 prisoners.
Nevertheless, Cavriolo restored discipline and with a wily stratagem sent the
Tatars back over the pass on September 24.

That the skirmish of September 23–24 was the battle in which Smith
was wounded has been rightly questioned by various specialists, but he could
well have been caught in the previous clash, or one similar to both elsewhere
in the neighborhood. The Tatars numbered all told "more than 140,000."

Although the number appears highly unlikely, certainly there were enough
to swarm over more than one pass. Cavriolo's report reinforces Smith's
credibility: "I have never seen so much cavalry in action at once, never
heard such shouts, [never seen] such a way of fighting."