The first act of Bajesid’s accession was the murder of his younger brother, whom he summoned to his presence and caused to be strangled. This deed left Bajesid the sole representative of the house of Osman; there was no rival now for him to fear. He wished to stand alone as creator of his own statecraft, for he refused to respect any of the arrangements or conventions made by Murad. His own ideal was foreign to the loose feudalized system previously established; he desired to clear away all the dependent dynasties, and to substitute for them officers of his own, directly controlled by him. The first important military operation of the new reign was directed against Mircea, a Roumanian lord, who had seized and occupied Nicopolis, lately surrendered to Ali-Pascha, Murad’s vizier, by Schischman, before the battle of Kossovo. All the vassals were called under arms to follow the Sultan, who crossed the Danube to where Mircea was awaiting his attack in a position difficult of access on account of roads and swamps. No details of the fight are given, but Bajesid was the victor. (October 10, 1394.) Mircea fled to the Carpathians. As one result of their victory the Turks left Bucharest in the hands of an Ottoman garrison under the direction of a Roumanian Boyar Vlad, who was appointed to take the place of Mircea, because of the latter’s failure to perform the obligations of a faithful vassal, though he had met with generous treatment from Bajesid after the battle of Kossovo. He was not present at the battle itself, but rendered himself liable to punishment by sending armed contingents of his own men to help the Christian cause. He had been captured and exiled to Broussa; but he was released on condition of paying a small tribute, and retained his right of sovereignty over his subjects. More remarkable still, Bajesid had undertaken not to permit any Turks to establish themselves in Wallachia, or to found mosques in Mircea’s country. By presuming on this favorable and exceptional treatment, Mircea again had brought himself into the status of an exile. Sigismund of Hungary saw the necessity of helping his unfortunate neighbor Mircea with the Turks so close at hand. Moreover, the Hungarian ruler’s relations with Western Europe, through his connection with the house of Luxembourg, and his inheritance from Prince Louis of Anjou, placed him in a good position to appeal to the warlike lords and knights of France to aid him against infidel aggression. He turned also to the Republic of Venice as a partner in the undertaking, but the prudent merchants of that commonwealth showed no immediate interest in the projected crusade.