Albanian mercenaries in the Wallachian army (16th-17th centuries)

In the middle of the 16th century, more and more foreign mercenaries came to Wallachia and Moldavia. They were in the service of some pretenders to the thrones of the two Romanian countries, such as Radu-Ilie, Iacob Heraclid Despot, Petru Cercel and Ioan Armeanul. However, the number of these adventurous warriors would increase in the last decade of the same century, with the start of the great anti-Ottoman uprising in the autumn of 1594, initiated by Mihai Viteazul, in close cooperation with István Báthory, prince of Transylvania, and Aron Tiranul, prince of Moldavia. Shortly after the battle of Călugăreni (August 13th-23rd, 1595), many Western mercenaries, especially Balkans, joined Mihai Viteazul in the subsequent battles fought against the Ottoman army that had occupied Wallachia. The present paper makes reference to the Albanian mercenaries in the Wallachian army, confirmed by the internal and external historical sources in the 16th-17th centuries.