Abstract
Very little known to Romanian historiography, the Campaign Diary of the Teutonic Knights, written in 1497 by Liborius Nacker, the main secretary of the Order, reveals important data concerning the political and military relations between Moldavia and Poland, in the years 1485–1497. Besides the events involving the Teutonic army during its campaign in Poland and Moldavia, Liborius Nacker recorded precious data about the origin of the Moldavian-Polish conflict of the year 1497. According to the Teutonic Campaign Diary, despite the fact that the Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great was a vassal of the Polish King Cazimir IV, he did not receive enough military support from his suzerain to stand against the Ottoman threat. Thus, the Moldavian Prince had to submit to the Sublime Porte (1486), considering his former suzerain responsible for his disaster. That is why he hired the Ruthenian mercenary Mucha, and his horde of outlaws and Tatars, to pillage the Polish border provinces, in order to gain resources for the payment of the Turkish tribute. Liborius Nacker records interesting accounts about the Ruthenian mercenary Mucha and about the consequences of his raids on the South-Eastern provinces of Poland, all of which are confirmed by other narrative sources of the time.
Keywords
Liborius Nacker, Moldavia, Poland, Stephen the Great, Teutonic Knights
