Though some may live by brigandage, they cannot all be tarred with the same brush, nor can they be blamed for not helping King Sigismund against the Turks, because they had gone with the Poles to the given rendez-vous on the Danube and got there on time, yet had to waste two months waiting there, and then return home.

[6]After the death of Alexander I, the country was thrown into civil strife, in which the two claimants, Peter Aron III and Bogdan II, in order to gain the throne, pledged loyalty to either the Hungarian or the Polish king.

The political turmoil lasted until 1457, when Stephen, son of Bogdan, having fled to Hungary and later Wallachia, with Wallachian help, gained the throne and ousted the boyars loyal to Aron.

[citation needed] On 22 June 1462, when Prince Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia was fighting Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, Stephen launched an attack on Chilia (which was under Hungarian rule[8]), with some Turkish assistance, with the objective of capturing the fortress.

The garrison complied with the King's demand and Stephen entered the fortress escorted by Polish troops where he found "its two captains rather tipsy, for they have been to a wedding".

[11] This theory was denounced by Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga, who argued that Corvinus started recruiting troops and took Aron with him to put him on the Moldavian throne.

[13] This is disputed by Długosz though, who in Historiae Polonicae, adds that Corvinus brought with him both Aron and Berendeja,[4] making unknown whom the king considered more worthy of the Moldavian throne.

[15] The Moldavians, being fewer in number and seeing that the Hungarians were determined to wage war, started to evacuate the population close to the border and blockade routes with felled trees.

[14] On 19 November,[14] the Hungarians arrived at the Trotuș River where they met some Moldavian resistance, but Corvinus, to ensure the "loyalty of his troops, avoids a pitched battle and limits his efforts to surprise attacks and ambushes, yet is himself prevented from foraging or doing further damage".

[4] After three days of marching and more pillaging, they reached Baia where Corvinus met with a Hungarian nobleman by the name of Sythotus, who revealed to him the Moldavian position, their numbers (12,000), and their plan to attack before dusk.

[11] For Moldavians, it was a victory because they could retreat, leaving only 14 of their battleflags in the hands of the Hungarian army, and Stephen was able to write a letter to the Polish king, stating that he won the battle.

The captured Moldavian battleflags were suspended in the Boldogasszony church of Buda, as sign of victory over the vassal, the Hungarian bishop of Pécs, Janus Pannonius, and pot dedicating three epigrammas to them.

[11] Upon his return to Brassó on Christmas day, Corvinus took revenge on the people who had rebelled against him; thereafter he collected a war tax of 400,000 florins, which they had to pay immediately, in gold.