The Costs and Hopes of the Anti-Ottoman Warfare: The Case of Moldavia in the Second Half of 1476

Abstract The paper provides a short overview of a frequently neglected twofold question: what were the costs of anti-Ottoman crusading and what were the profits that one hoped that anti-Ottoman crusading would trigger? The documentary appendix provides some insight into these issues, based on the special case of Stephen III of Moldavia in 1475-1476. He had become the athlete of the Papacy and was to face the might of Sultan Mehmed II. Stephen survived, with (belated) support from Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, his (unwanted) suzerain.