Originally Posted by
mircea
The diplomatic situation was quite muddy, and is even harder to represent due to the limitations of the engine.
It will be quite hard to represent the complex relations between Tudor Vladimirescu's faction, the High Porte, Eteria, Russia, mainly because their relations were very fluid, from friendship to neutrality and further to hostility, and all that in less than 6 months.
Overall, Tudor Valdimirescu tried the card of neutrality, to play at more heads, attempting to gain time to organize his forces.
Tudor Valdimirescu's faction and Ottoman Empire
From start, Tudor claimed that his actions were solely against Phanariote hospodars and boyars and their wrongdoings and not against the suzerain power Turkey, and even negotiated with pashas of Vidin, Silistra and Braila. But it is highly doubtful that Tudor really believed that a favorable diplomatic solution with Ottomans was possible, at least not before a Wallachian victory on the field, and negotiation with the Porte were more of a ruse to win some time. I think that Tudor realized that his main enemy was the High Porte and two actions shed some light on his most probable plans. First, shortly before the onset of the revolution, Tudor meets with several leaders of Eteria and afterwards with will make a defensive pact with Eteria, secret organization that was in war with Ottomans. Secondly, years before the revolution, he fortifies several monasteries and prepares the defense of Oltenia, realizing that only a prolonged resistance will allow him to win back Wallachia's rights. As a matter of fact, the first clashes with Ottomans took place several days before Tudor's death(26/27 May), at Slatina on May 23, while at Zavideni, on May 26, Ioan Solomon's pandours manage to break encirclement and retreat toward Ramnicu Valcea. Hearing about the death of Tudor, Solomon will disband his unit and will run in Transylvania. As such, I think that Wallachia should be neutral toward the Ottomans, with poor relations, because as I see, the clash between Tudor and Ottomans was inevitable.