The Emergence of the Romanian States (10-14th Centuries)
     With the conclusion of the formative process of the Romanian people, Romanian feudal society began to be built up and the first political bodies emerged. Feudal institutions on the territory inhabited by the Romanians were naturally influenced by those of the neighbouring states where feudal relations were more advanced: the Byzantine Empire, the Second Bulgarian Empire (at the close of the twelfth century), and the Hungarian kingdom. The successive waves of Turanian invaders - Pechenegs, Udi, Cumans and Tatars - and the devastation and dislocation of the population they caused, slowed down the evolution of Romanian society; their political domination was like a pall over the people on the banks of the Lower Danube, accounting for the sporadic and sparse information Byzantine and Western records of that period provide about the Romanians. At the close of the thirteenth century and early in the fourteenth century, the decline of the Golden Horde, the unrest in the Bulgarian state and the struggle for the Hungarian crown caused the influence of the three states which disputed the supremacy east and south of the Carpathians to ebb away. And then, with the coming to fruition of the domestic process of feudal relationships, the Romanian states emerged in a chain along the Carpathians. The anti-Mongolian struggle and the endeavors to free themselves of the Hungarian king's suzerainty made it easier for such princes as Basarab and Bogdan to unify the country, and ultimately two Romanian states - Wallachia and Moldavia - appeared in the political geography of southeast Europe, alongside the older Transylvanian principality.

1. Social and Economic Prerequisites of the Emergence of Romanian Feudal States

     Although written information about the Romanians in the ninth and tenth centuries is sporadic, archaeological excavations enable us to form a picture of their way of life and social structure. The Romanians of that period lived in villages or even in groups of villages, the Romano-Byzantine strongholds along the Danube offering the only examples of urban life.
    Farming, stock-breeding, and some crafts were their main pursuits, the most widespread of the crafts being pottery-making.The many imported articles found here, the most frequent being Byzantine amphorae, are to be accounted for by trade with the strongholds along the Danube and the more important Byzantine centres in the Balkan peninsula.
     The social structure of the Romanian population relied on a territorial or village community. The members of a community owned a certain area, which was parceled out into holdings, and used the grass land, pasture land, forests, and streams in common. The leading bodies of territorial communities were the general assembly, the council of the aged - "people good and old" - and the military chieftain (Jude or Cneaz) whose authority, at first limited to periods of emergency, became permanent with time.
     Taking advantage of their position, the leaders of the communities compelled the common people to work for them in a variety of ways and to give them part of the products of their work. Usurping the titles of ownership of the community, the chieftains gradually became a landed aristocracy and enslaved part of the peasantry under their jurisdiction.
     The emergence of feudal states against the background of the territorial communities that spread over the Carpatho-Danubian area was the result of a lengthy process of development of local economic forces, which made it possible for an aristocracy to be fashioned. The aristocracy relied upon the exploitation of the free rural communities at first, and later upon the enslaved peasantry. Although information concerning the economic life in Romanian territory from the tenth to the fourteenth century is but scanty, it reveals a progress in production and trade and points to the decisive part played by economic and demographic factors in the genesis of Romanian feudal society.
     The records available on the Lower Danube regions show that in the latter half of the tenth century this was a densely populated area carrying on busy trade. A Tale of Past Times, also known as Nestor's Chronicle, reports that Sviatoslav, Prince of Kiev, during his first expedition into the Balkan peninsula in 968, was amazed at the large number of products traded in at the Danube mouths and wished to move his place of residence to those parts. In a letter to his mother, he wrote: "In Pereiaslavetz (Dobrudja) all the riches are gathered: gold, fine fabrics, wine, and various fruits coming from Greece, silver and horses from Bohemia and Hungary, furs, wax, honey, and slaves from Russia. "From the same source we hear of the existence of 80 "gorods" - fortified settlements of farmers, stock-breeders, fishermen, and craftsmen. A few decades later, Fragments of the Greek Toparch speak of the same economic prosperity and dense population, from the ranks of which a section of local chieftains emerged, showing the tendency to shake off the Byzantine rule. During the eleventh century the title of the heads of Paradunavon - the Byzantine district which included Dobrudja - also mentions the Danube towns, while the chieftains' uprising under the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Parapinakes, makes it plain that they were a political and military power with a sound economic background.
     In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the presence of Genoese traders at the Danube mouths around Vicina and Chilia (old time Lycostomo) is proof of the wealth of the local chieftains, who bought Italian cloth, offering grain, wax, and honey in exchange.
     The districts at the foot of the mountains in Oltenia and Muntenia, as described in the diploma of the Knights of St. John in 1247 also appear to have made notable economic progress; many flour mills and natural fish ponds alongside fields and grass-land, point to a mixed economy, including the products of husbandmen and stock-breeders, which provided the incomes of the land-owning class (majores terrae) and of the Hungarian crown. In 1330, Basarab I offered King Charles Robert 7,000 marks in payment for peace. This shows the economic power of the country over which the Romanian prince ruled. The considerable monetary funds of the country resulted also from custom duties paid along the trading routes that crossed the country. There was an intensive movement of goods along the "Moldavian Road" which connected the Genoese settlements at Cetatea Alba (then Moncastro), Chilia, and Vicinato Lvov. And this also accounts for the large number of settlements mentioned in the cartography of the age along this road.
     Turanian invasions checked the economic development of the Romanians, but the rise in production and productivity brought about by technical progress and demographic growth, made it possible for the country to overcome its vicissitudes, and intensified social differences in the communities. The heads of the communities strengthened their economic power and political authority and insisted on the privileged position they had reached. The most important means of reaching that goal was the state, and consequently a state was created.

2. The First Romanian Political Organizations in Transylvania, Dobrudja, Wallachia, and
Moldavia

     During the ninth and tenth centuries the native population of Transylvania and Banat practiced agriculture and stock-breeding as well as a number of crafts and mining. Economic development brought about the emergence of an aristocracy (nobiles) - landowners possessing large flocks and herds exercising their authority upon the people living on their domains. It is against this socio-economic background that the first Romanian political formations were organized in this area. The results of the latest archaeological research added to written records give a clear image of those political organizations. Between the rivers Somes and Mures in Crisana, there was the dukedom (Voivodship) of Menumorut, with the citadel of Biharea as its center; another dukedom was to be found between the Mures and the Danube. The latter was headed by Glad, whose residence seems to have been the citadel of Cuvin between the Timis and the Danube. On the Transylvanian plateau between the Gates of the Meses and the sources of the Somes, was the dukedom of Gelu whose residential city was Dobica, where a strongly fortified citadel has been found with many imported articles and Byzantine coins.
     In the first half of the tenth century, these dukedoms strongly opposed the attempts made by the Hungarians in the Pannonian plain to conquer Transylvania. The battles, and the determination shown by the local people in their defense, are described in the chronicle of King Bella's Anonymous Notary - Gesta Hungarorum - compiled towards the close of the twelfth century on the basis of written records that have been lost and of oral tradition. Only after thirteen days' fighting was the citadel of Biharea conquered from the Romanian prince Menumorut. On the Transylvanian plateau, after prince Gelu had fallen in battle the magyars had to come to an understanding with the heads of the local population, which is proof of the power of this political body.
     Apart from the principality mentioned in the chronicle of the Anonymous Notary, archaeological research proves conclusively the existence of other political formations with powerful centers, as, for example, the principality in the Middle Mures district with Teligrad and Balgrad as its centers, as well as the political formations in the Birsa, Fagaras (Terra Blachorum), Amlas, Hateg, Ouas and Maramures country. These do not appear in the aforementioned chronicle, as Hungarian expansion had not yet made contact with them.
     After the first wave of Hungarian penetration into Romanian territory, the political formations here continued to develop and to be consolidated. Gelu's principality, now under the leadership of his successor Gyla (Jula), is described as "a very extensive and very rich country" (Regnum latissimum et opulentissimum). Gyla's refusal to submit to the authority of Stephen, the Hungarian king, and to turn Catholic, brought about an armed conflict, as a result of which Gyla was taken to Hungary in captivity together with his family and his treasure store.
     In their struggle for independence during the tenth century the local leaders sought help from foreign powers interested in supporting them in this endeavour. We might conclude from The Legend of Saint Gerhard that Ahtum, Glad's successor and ruler of the territory between Orsova and Mures, maintained connections with Byzantium via Vidin early in the eleventh century. Having a powerful army at his command, Ahtum opposed the Hungarian king in the matter of levying duty on the salt transported by raft on the Mures to the Pannonian plain.
     Political organizations similar to those in Transylvania also existed in other parts of the country in the tenth century. An inscription discovered in the village of Mircea Voda in Dobrudja attests the existence in 943 of a chieftain, one Jupan Dimitre. During Sviatoslav's second expedition to Bulgaria in 969, the ruling figures left of the Danube joined those in Dobrudja siding with the Kiev prince and continuing to support Sviatoslav even when his army was besieged by the Byzantines at Silistra in 971. In order to compel the citadel to surrender and to cut off all connection between the Muntenian plain and the besieged, the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes sent a fleet to the Danube and raided the district left of the river. As a result some of the rulers went over to Byzantium. Messengers were sent to the emperor by some of the fortresses promising submission.
     All these political developments were obliterated by Hungarian expansion and by the new wave of Turanian peoples who invaded Romanian territory in the period from the eleventh to the thirteenth century.
     Coming into contact with the Romanian population, some of the Pechenegs, Udi and Cumans abandoned their nomadic way of life and in the course of time were assimilated. Infiltrating into the ruling class, they contributed to the consolidation of the local political organizations by using their power and their connections among the conquerors.
     In Transylvania, despite the victories won by King Stephen I, Hungarian rule over West Transylvania and Banat suffered fluctuations and this was further accentuated by the Pecheneg attacks and the crisis which the Hungarian kingdom underwent. For half a century Romanian political organizations developed outside the authority of the Hungarian crown, and this accounts for the name given to the district: Ultrasilvana, Transilvana, Erdeelu (country beyond the forests).
     During the latter half of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth century the conquest of Transylvania by the Magyar feudal kingdom was complete. The extension of Magyar rule to Transylvania brought about certain changes in the ranks of the ruling class as well as among the peasantry: certain local chiefs entered the ranks of the ruling elite of the conqueror's society and the process of dispossessing and making serfs of the peasant communities was intensified.
     The districts along the Lower Danube, where Byzantine influence was stronger than elsewhere in Romanian territory, were of exceptional political and economic importance during the eleventh century despite the adverse conditions created by the invading peoples. Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius of Byzantium, when writing about her father's struggle against the Pechenegs in the Danube area, mentioned the existence of small political organizations in Dobrudja, whose established civilization is described with enough clarity to preclude confusion with the nomadic populations. These organizations were sufficiently powerful to try to draw away from Byzantine authority. Their struggle against Byzantium from 1074 to 1088 is part of the domestic unrest that shook the Empire after the Macedonian dynasty had become extinct. Byzantium ultimately defeated them by dint of great efforts, with the assistance of the Cumans. A similar process, though perhaps of lesser amplitude, took place in the Danube plain. There is a strange coincidence to be noted between the disturbances in Dobrudja mentioned above and the moment when written records began to emphasize the political role of the native population north of the Danube. The Getae on the left bank of the Danube, whom Anna Comnena and Michael Psellos speak of as allies of the Sauromats (Pechenegs) against Byzantium, were Romanians, also mentioned by Kinnamos on the occasion of the Byzantine expedition of 1166 against the Hungarians. They are said to be "old colonists from Italy".
     In Moldavia also a number of documents of the eleventh century and of a later date illustrate the important role played by Romanian political organizations on certain occasions. For example, the Polish sources on which Dlugosz's Chronicle relies point out that in 1070 the "Wallachians" fought alongside the Ruthenians and the Pechenegs in support of Vyacheslav of Polotsk and against Boleslav, king of Poland.
     The policy of expansion of the Hungarian kingdom south and east of the Carpathians was inaugurated by King Andrew II (1205-1235) when he called upon the Teutonic Knights to become the instruments of his policy. The expansion of the authority of the Hungarian crown and the attendant Catholic proselytism were a threat to the Romanian political organizations built up in the shadow of Cuman domination or through Romanian-Cuman cooperation.The response of the native population was in line with the reaction of the Orthodox world against the political and religious offensive of the Hungarian kingdom. Thus, an alliance was formed between the Romano-Bulgarian state and the Nicaea Empire. The conflict between the Bulgars and the Magyars in 1230 was along the same line. It ended with the victory of the Hungarian kingdom, following which the Severin Banat was set up on the northwestern border of the Bulgarian Empire. This was assigned the task of guarding the frontier. It included the eastern part of the Timisan Banat, which preserved the name and also transmitted it to the present-day Caras-Severin county. The Severin Banat also included a strip of Oltenia, which accounts for Oltenia being sometimes called the Severin county.
     With the Magyar kingdom and the Bulgarian Empire at rivalry, the Romanian leaders, first those east of the river Olt and subsequently those of Oltenia, acknowledged the suzerainty of the Hungarian king in order to safeguard their privileges.
     The process whereby Hungarian suzerainty was being consolidated was interrupted by the great Tatar invasion which was followed by a comparatively long Mongolian rule over a considerable part of our territories (Muntenia and Moldavia). The rate of economic development was thus slowed down but never interrupted altogether. The diploma whereby Bela IV, king of Hungary, bestowed the Severin county and the "whole of Cumania" upon the Knights of St. John in 1247 is of considerable importance as a measure of the development level reached in the territory between the Carpathians and the Danube in the mid-thirteenth century.
     The diploma shows that the main branches of the economy were farming, stock-breeding and fishing. Large estates had been formed and social differentiation into distinct classes was in process of consolidation. The phrase majores terrae describes the dominant class while the term rustici is used for the peasantry taxed by the feudal lords and performing labour service for them. The diploma also shows that there were close trade connections between lands south of the Carpathians, Transylvania and the Balkan peninsula. Foreign and transit trade as well as inland trade resulted in intensive monetary circulation bringing in great incomes, half of which the king was to reserve for himself, as expressly stated in the diploma. The information about the monetary circulation is confirmed by the discovery of thirteenth-century hoards on Oltenia's territory: coins minted after the model of Viennese dinari at Turnu-Severin, a large number of pfennig coins from Friasch, Carinthia and Cologne found in the vicinity of Craiova, and silver dirhems of the Golden Horde at Caloparu.
     Politically, the country was organized into principalities. Along the Olt were the principalities of Ioan and Farcas and also Litovoi's principality, which included the Hateg country, while on the left bank of the Olt Seneslau's principality was to be found. Though they were dependent on the kingdom of Hungary, the principalities enjoyed certain autonomy which the Knights of St. John were to observe.
     Economic connections, facilitated by the development of boroughs and the emergence of a number of towns drawn into the international trade circuit thanks to the trade routes, supported the unification process of Romanian political organizations.
     During the latter half of the thirteenth century an inclination to sweep aside Magyar suzerainty became manifest south of the Carpathians, assuming the form of armed struggle. A first attempt was made by Prince Litovoi, most probably in 1279. Litovoi died on the battlefield and his brother, Barbat, was taken prisoner and ransomed on payment of a large sum of money. The military and economic power of the Romanian principalities, which were not far removed from independence, is proved by the struggle they waged against a powerful state and by the payment of a considerable ransom for a leader.
     As early as the thirteenth century, the Hungarian kings endeavored to extend their sway east of the Carpathians. The Cuman's Catholic bishopric set up in southwest Moldavia in 1227 with the aim of converting the Cumans and the Brodniks to Catholicism, was only an outpost for Hungarian expansion eastward. The diplomas issued by the Royal Hungarian Chancellery and by the Papal Chancellery for the Cuman's bishopric provide information about the presence of the Romanians (Wallachs) in the bishopric, about their advanced religious organization, which included bishops, and about their refusal to turn Catholic as well as about the influence exercised by their religious organization on the faithful in the Hungarian kingdom, many of whom were adopting their religion.
     The Tatar Empire's critical state at the close of the thirteenth century favoured the political leaders on Moldavian territory inasmuch as they were able to stabilize their power. As in the case of the other Romanian principalities, this was a sign that the various political bodies were about to unite.
     In order to make better use of Transylvania's natural resources and to strengthen their domination over that principality, the Hungarian kings encouraged the immigration of Magyar, Szekler and Saxon colonists who were able to settle in the principality alongside the native Romanian population. The Saxons came from Flanders, Luxembourg and Saxony. For a short period, the order of the Teutonic Knights was also brought to Transylvania. The settlement of other peoples side by side with Romanians created a certain solidarity among the masses producing material goods, irrespective of their ethnic origin and led to mutual influences and to economic development in Transylvania. A number of strongholds were erected to defend the principality and around the stronghold the counties - administrative units - were built up. The Hungarian kings gave the Saxon colonists economic and administrative privileges so that they were able to carry on a lively political and economic activity and to organize themselves in administrative units of their own, which they called sedes (seats).
     When Transylvania was reduced to subordination by theMagyar state the process whereby the peasantry was brought into serfdom was intensified. The communities of free peasants were taken over largely by the king and the aristocracy around him, the Catholic clergy, and those natives that had rallied round the royal power. Large landed estates were formed and the obligations of the peasantry towards the land-owners increased. With large incomes came political power so that the nobility obtained considerable privileges from the kings, and the privileges were laid down in the Golden Bull of 1222, which was confirmed in 1231. Large-scale grants of immunities, particularly at moments when the central power underwent a crisis, accentuated the process of feudal fragmentation. In order to keep the great nobility within bounds, the kings sought the support of the lesser nobility into whose ranks members of the lower strata were raised. Gradually two categories emerged in the nobility, with different socio-juridical status and different interests: the great nobility termed potentes or iobagiones regis (a word which in time came to be applied to the peasantry dependent on the landowners) and the gentry: the servientes or familiares.
     Among the peasantry there were three categories in the thirteenth century: the free peasants, the dependent peasants and the slaves. The free peasants lived in village communities located mostly in the peripheral districts of Transylvania where no large estates could be formed and where the nobility's attempts to enslave the peasantry met with much resistance. These peasants sought to preserve their freedom by assuming military obligations.
     Among the dependent peasantry there were three categories with a different economic and legal status: a) the dependent peasants proper, who came to be called serfs, and who had the use of a plot of land (termed sesie) which they tilled, and for which they contributed labour service and money payment; these peasants could bequeath their own homestead; b) the jeleri, free landless peasants; c) the servants engaged in work around the landowner's home.
     The lowest social category were the slaves, entirely at the mercy of the landowners.
     In the thirteenth century the process of separating the crafts from agriculture and the setting up of towns was moderately advanced. The towns of Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Cluj, Oradea and Rodnaare mentioned in the first half of the thirteenth century. They were mostly destroyed by the Tatar invasion; they were rebuilt in the latter half of the thirteenth century and grew in the following century.
     Mining went ahead in the thirteenth century. As well as the natives, the colonists - foreign "guests" who enjoyed great privileges - also worked in the metal and salt mines.
     The constant tendency of the landowners to extend their estates by taking over the land of free peasants' communities, and the increased obligations of the peasantry towards the state and the noblemen, and, for the Catholics also towards the Roman Catholic Church, no less than the exactions of officialdom, caused the peasantry to rise in revolt, their revolt often assuming the form of flight and outlawry.
     The peasants' struggle to keep their ancient liberty and the deep-rooted traditions of the native organizations, set their seal on the evolution of feudal relationships in Transylvania, which showed a tendency towards a specific form of organization, a regnum Transylvaniae distinct from Hungary. Certain leaders of Transylvania such as Stephen, son of King Bela IV, and the princes Roland Borsa and Ladislau Kan, assumed royal prerogatives and endeavoured to carry on an independent policy.

3. The Romanian States - Wallachia, Moldavia and Dobrudja - Are Organized

     Internal developments and a number of changes in the international situation enabled the Romanian leaders south of the Carpathians to found an independent state at the turn of the thirteenth century. The critical events that the Tatar Empire went through after the death of Nogai Khan and the disturbances that broke out in Hungary with the extinction of the Arpad dynasty, caused the feudal landowners south of the Carpathians to rally round Basarab, a prince of the Arges district, whom they elected as Grand Voivode and Prince (1317-1352). Under circumstances which are as yet insufficiently known, Basarab unified the territory between the Carpathians and the Danube, thus being the founder of Wallachia, which under him played an important part in Southeast Europe. At the request of Michael Shishman, the Bulgarian tsar, he took part in the battles fought in the Balkan peninsula when the Byzantine Empire was on the downgrade. In 1323 Basarab assisted the Bulgarian tsar against Byzantium, and in 1325-1328 he won several victories against the Tatars, thereby extending his authority eastward up to the vicinity of Chilia. The district north of the Danube mouths, which Basarab incorporated in Wallachia, kept that prince's name. In 1333 Basarab again supported the Bulgarian tsar, but this time in the latter's struggle against the Serbian prince Stephen Uros III, with Byzantium as an ally. The allied army was defeated at Velbujd (Kustendil). In an effort to check Magyar expansion over his country, Basarab formed matrimonial and political ties with the Bulgarian and Serbian rulers.
     He occupied part of the Severin Banat, which was one of the main directions of Magyar expansion. The campaign undertaken by Hungary in the autumn of 1330 was intended to subordinate Romanian political bodies to Saint Stephen's crown and to suppress their autonomy. The Hungarian king, Charles Robert of Anjou, organized an expedition to Wallachia "in order to recover the confines of the kingdom, which Basarab ruled over without any right." At Posada (November 9-12) Basarab won a brilliant victory against his former suzerain, causing the expedition to fail of its purpose.
     Basarab's victory made Wallachia independent and favoured its development. The unity and stability of state life were enhanced and Wallachia entered upon a period of prosperity, the population becoming more dense and the trade more active. Favourable socio-economic conditions promoted the development of art. It was during the reign of Basarab that the erection began of the Princely Church at Curtea de Arges - a splendid monument of Romanian medieval art.
     Basarab well deserved to be called "the Great" for he achieved great things: he liberated the territory of Wallachia from Tatar domination, shook off the suzerainty of the Hungarian crown, organized the state, and created a dynasty which was to ensure the stability of this new political order.
     Basarab's son and successor, Nicholas Alexander (1352-1364), continued his father's policy and succeeded in strengthening the political position of Wallachia and at the same time his dynasty. He maintained friendly relations with the neighbouring rulers and married one of his daughters to Strachimir, the Bulgarian tsar at Vidin, another to Stephen Urosh, the Serbian prince, and yet another to Duke Ladislau of Oppeln, Hungary's Palatine. Fighting alongside Louis of Anjou, the Hungarian king, against the Tatars, he completed the work of his predecessor, liberating new territories from under their sway. With the approval of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas Alexander, in 1359 founded the first Metropolitan Church of Wallachia at Curtea de Arges, thus laying the foundations of church organization in his country. The church became a great supporter of the dynasty. Jachint, former Metropolitan of Vicina, was the first Metropolitan "of all Ungro-Vlachia." Subsequently, the Metropolitan of Wallachia was granted the power of jurisdiction over the Romanians in the Hungarian kingdom with the title of "Exarch of the Highlands."
     Nicholas Alexander also continued his father's work in the erection of churches. During his reign the Princely Church at Curtea de Arges was completed and the old church of the Ca^mpulung Monastery was erected. It is there that his grave was found.The inscription on the gravestone calls him: "The great and only ruler, Prince Nicholas Alexander, son of Prince Basarab the Great."
     It was Nicholas Alexander who initiated the policy of the Romanian princes of supporting the Orthodox Church in the Balkan peninsula by means of gifts, particularly landed estates. Nicholas Alexander himself endowed the Cutlumuz Monastery on Mount Athos.
     Nicholas Alexander's successor, Vladislav Vlaicu (1364-1377), further organized the country and promoted trade and the cultural life, endeavouring at the same time to curb the centrifugal tendencies of the boyars (the feudal landholding nobility). For the first time Romanian coins - made of silver - were minted, with a Latin inscription. On January 20, 1368, the prince issued a diploma written in Latin to confirm the ancient trade privileges that the citizens of Brasov had been granted in Wallachia. The prosperity of the country and the increase in population induced him to demand that the Constantinople Patriarchate set up a second Metropolitan church at Severin (the first was at Arges). His request was granted by the synodical act of October, 1370. Religious life became more vigorous through the introduction of monasticism by Nicodim, a monk from Serbia, who founded the Vodita Monastery. The oldest document extant concerned with internal affairs (1374) is that whereby the prince endowed the monastery. Following the example of his father, Vladislav also endowed the monasteries on Mount Athos. For the Catholics in Wallachia and for those in the territories under his rule on the other side of the Carpathians, a bishopric was founded with its seat at Arges, where the ruins of an old Catholic Church - Sin Nicoara - are still to be seen.
     During the last years of his reign, Vladislav fought against Hungary and died fighting against that kingdom. His successors, Radu I and Dan I, continued the struggle against Hungary. By tradition Radu I known as Radu the Black and was for long considered as the founder of the country.
     The second Romanian independent state, Moldavia, was formed east of the Carpathians by the union of the existing political organizations, as Wallachia had also been formed. An important part was played by the Romanians who came down from Maramures. Increased domestic trade favoured by the emergence of towns, big and small, as well as intensive transit trade, helped to build up the economic unity of Moldavia. A deed issued by the Papal Chancellery on October 4, 1332, mentions a local leader who had usurped the rights created by the Hungarian kings for what had been the Cuman's bishopric. It stated that "the estates, property and rights of the Milcovia Bishopric" had been taken over by "the powerful people of these parts" (a potentibus illarum partium).
     The participation in 1325 of a Romanian army recruited on Moldavia's territory, together with Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian armies, in hostilities against the Margrave of Brandenburg, is another indication that the power of the leaders east of the Carpathians had been strengthened.
     The unification of the political bodies on Moldavian territory was brought about by their struggle against foreign invaders, particularly the Tatars. The victories won by Basarab against the Tatars from 1325 to 1328 strengthened the desire of the Romanian leaders in Moldavia to free themselves of Mongol rule. And when in the fifties of the fourteenth century the Hungarian king Louis of Anjou set out on an expedition designed to remove the Mongol pressure from the boundaries of his kingdom, he found full support among the Romanian population.
     Following the victories won, a march (a fortified border district) was founded in Moldavia in 1352-1353, which subsequently was to develop into an independent Moldavian state. Dragos, Voivode of Maramures, who had distinguished himself in the battles fought against the Tatars, was appointed as head of that state. The ties between Transylvania and Moldavia, and specially between Maramures and the northwestern part of Moldavia, whose ethnical and cultural unity was of long duration, were thereby strengthened.
     The dependent of Dragos and his successors on the Hungarian crown, much against the local political trends towards independence, caused dissatisfaction among the native rulers, who decided to overthrow both Dragos's dynasty and Hungarian suzerainty. As in the struggle against the Tatars, the Romanian population of Moldavia was supported by the political leaders of Maramures who opposed the policy of the Hungarian kings whose aim was to suppress self-governing states and form countries under the Hungarian adminstration. Heading the Maramures resistance was Voivode Bogdan; he was described as an infidel in the Hungarian records of 1343.
     Defeated in his attempt to end the subjection of Maramures to the Hungarian crown, Bogdan joined the movement in Moldavia, and was elected by the Moldavian boyars as leader of the local forces opposed to Hungarian policy. Taking advantage of the fact that Louis of Anjou, king of Hungary, was engaged in a war against Venice and was moreover concerned with the problems raised in the Balkans by the death of tsar Stephen Dushan (1355), Bogdan removed from the Moldavian throne Dragos's successor, Balc, son of Sas, and in 1359 laid the foundations of an independent Moldavian state. The Hungarian kings' attempts to reduce to obedience "the Vlach rebels who had diverged from the path of fidelity" were brought to nought by the latter's resistance. King Louis was forced to give up his plan of subjecting Moldavia to the Hungarian crown and to be content with confiscating Bogdan's property in Maramures which he bestowed on Voivode Balc who had been driven out of Moldavia.
     Under Bogdan, Moldavia extended its territories, incorporating other political orders east of the Carpathians, and the Hungarian kings ultimately accepted the situation.
     The independence of Moldavia won under Bogdan as well as its development and unifying process under the princes of his dynasty induced the following generations to ascribe to Bogdan the foundation of the Moldavian state.
     It was also in the fourteenth century that Dobrudja became a state playing an important political part in the Balkan peninsula. The nucleus of the Dobrudjan state was the "Cavarna Country" mentioned in a diploma Tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria granted to the people of Ragusa. Tsar Constantine Tich formed an appanage for Prince Smiltza out of this socio-political unit. Halfway through the fourteenth century the unrest prevailing in Byzantium as a result of the struggle for the throne made it possible for Dobrudja to strengthen its autonomy.
     In 1346, Balica, its leader, fought in Byzantium and was awarded the title of Despot. After his death Dobrotich succeeded to the throne of the Cavarna country, first as a vassal of Byzantium and later as an autonomous ruler recognized by Emperor John V Paleologus against whom he had fought for the territory south of Varna.
     Dobrotich extending his authority to the Danube, Dobrudja was drawn into along war against the Genoese who had created factories at Vicina and Lycostomo and wished to make sure of a trade monopoly in that region. In order to cope with the resistance of the Genoese traders who had the Ottoman Empire for allies, Dobrotich strengthened his political organization which became one of the most important factors in the Balkan peninsula after 1371.
     It is not known under what circumstances the Dobrudjan state passed from Dobrotich to his son Ivanko, mentioned in historical records with the title of Despot, like his father. Ivanko minted his own coins, which were made of copper and inscribed in Greek. This is a sign that he was an independent ruler. In 1386 he made peace with the Ottoman Empire and the following year he concluded at Pera a peace and trade treaty with the Genoese. In 1388 a great Turkish expedition headed by Vizir Ali Pasha threatened to turn the territory between the Danube and the sea into a pashalik. The energetic intervention of Mircea the Old, the Wallachian prince, removed the threat and Dobrudja was united with Wallachia.
     Shortly before the Battle of Nicopolis, Dobrudja was subjected to Turkish rule but was again conquered by Mircea the Old in 1404. There are few historical records available for the period between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries but, nevertheless, it is known that certain political formations played a decisive part in the development of the Romanian people who gradually assumed a historical identity; their political organization developed and they themselves asserted their own identity and originality after having led an anonymous life as a result of the superposition of foreign rule on autochthonous political realities.


THE ROMANIAN COUNTRIES IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES

     The establishment of Wallachia and Moldavia as feudal states was of decisive importance for the Romanian people, who, being organized in independent states, were safe from the danger of incorporation by the neighbouring powers or the migratory peoples, and could follow their own path of development, asserting their creative talents. Demographic and economic development as well as social and military organization ensued. The new state organization strengthened internal unity and enabled the two countries to resist the permanent tendencies of the great neighbouring states towards expansion. Unlike the south-Danubian states, which collapsed under the Ottoman conquerors, the Romanian countries resisted their offensive and retained their political entity. A number of outstanding figures embodied this resistance and ably coped with the problems of the Romanian people.

1. Economic Life

     The economic features characteristic of feudalism were a natural economy, each state endeavouring to produce everything required, and a low technical level. When the productive forces developed and the social division of labour intensified, the towns assumed ever greater significance as centers for the advancement of the crafts and of trade.
     The main resources of the people in the Romanian countries in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were derived from agriculture, the growing of the vine, animal husbandry, bee-keeping, fishing, forestry and the wealth of the subsoil. Agriculture, the main production branch, was practiced particularly along the river valleys and on the hillsides, where the population was more dense. The Danube plain, frequently laid waste by the nomadic peoples, was mostly forested and the population sparse. Agricultural implements were primitive and did not allow widespread crops and a large output. The most important technical progress made at the time was the use of the iron plowshare that turned the furrow, in place of the wooden one, which merely scratched the earth. As most of the country's territory was wooded, the land had constantly to be cleared. Fire was often used for the purpose as were also picks, spades, and plows, to prepare the soil for crops of millet, wheat, rye and oats. The first crop after the clearing was usually fairly abundant, the crop of the second year medium, while the third-year crop was poor, so that the peasants were compelled to sow the seed on newly-cleared land after the third year.
     Apart from this agricultural technique and permanent insecurity resulted in the agricultural output being only sufficient to satisfy domestic consumption, with a small surplus for export. For this reason years of drought and the devastations of war in one region or another caused famine.
     Vine-growing had been practiced widely in the country time out of mind. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it brought considerable incomes to the feudal lords and to the adminstration, and a number of taxes were levied to it, one of which, the perper, so-called from the Byzantine coin hyperperon, was the first tax in cash known to have been paid in Wallachia. Wine was one of the Romanian products that was being exported in those days.
     The breeding of cattle, horses, sheep and pigs was a main source of income in the Romanian countries. Foreign observers who had the occasion to visit these parts were impressed by the number and quality of the livestock. One of the first trading privileges granted to the towns of Brasov and Lvov by the ruling princes of Wallachia and Moldavia showed livestock to be a main export article.
     Bee-keeping, like fishing, which was mostly practiced in the Danube backwaters rich in fish, no less than the forests with the products and game they yielded, were sources of food for the population and brought in considerable incomes. Honey and wax, fish and forest game were important export articles.
     The riches of the subsoil were being exploited mostly in Transylvania. Salt, gold, silver, and iron were mined in large quantities. In Wallachia and Moldavia salt mining was practiced on a large scale for home consumption and for export to the whole of the Balkan peninsula as well as to Poland and the Ukraine. In Wallachia salt was obtained from Ocnele Mari, and copper was mined at Bratilov not far from Baia de Arama during the reign of Mircea the Old.
    The crafts were unequally developed over the Romanian territory during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Transylvania, less exposed to devastating Turkish and Tatar inroads, the crafts and towns reached a higher level of development than in other parts. In most Transylvanian towns, though not in Wallachia and Moldavia, the craftsmen were already organized in guilds in the fourteenth century. There was a busy trade in craftware which went from Transylvania to the territories east and south of the Carpathians.
     During the latter half of the fifteenth century, the number of craftsmen in the towns of Wallachia and Moldavia increased and the adminstration began to pay attention to the interests of the towns people, craftsmen as well as traders.
     Unlike the towns of Transylvania - Brasov, Bistrita,Cluj, and Sibiu - the towns of Wallachia and Moldavia long preserved the basic elements of a rural economy, being primarily trading centers and not craftware producers.
     During the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth century, domestic trade was poorly organized. It had a periodic character, being carried on at weekly or annual fairs.
     The towns of Brasov, Sibiu, and Bistrita, three Transylvania trading and craftware centers along the border, were the places where Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia came in touch commercially. While Sibiu mostly traded with Wallachia, and Bistrita almost exclusively with Moldavia, Brasov, owing to its position, was the trading center of all three Romanian countries.
     As town life developed south and east of the Carpathians and the number of local traders increased, the ruling princes of Wallachia and Moldavia realized what advantages could be derived from the prosperity of the towns, which were actually directly subordinated to them. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, the international treaties concluded by Moldavia and Wallachia show that the administration took note of the demands of the townspeople. After 1485 special clauses provided protection for traders.
     Owing to their geographic position, the Romanian countries benefited as a result of transit dues. It was through Transylvania and Wallachia that the trade routes linking Western and Central Europe to the Pontic shores and the Balkan peninsula passes, while the routes linking the Baltic to the Black Sea went through Moldavia. The Romanian territory being now integrated in the circuit of medieval trade, the towns of Chilia and Cetatea Alba played a most important part in the development of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania.
     Traders from the Levant and from Transylvania sold overseas goods and spices south and east of the Carpathians while from Western and Central Europe came cloth, linen, weapons, and farming implements. Foreign traders bought cattle, horses, hides and skins, wax, salt, fish, and other goods from Wallachia and Moldavia.
     Like domestic trade, transit traffic was subjected to numerous taxes levied at the border or inside the country. The proceeds went to the ruling princes, to the monasteries or to the boyars.
     Monetary circulation was considerable in the Romanian countries during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a result of domestic and foreign trade and of transit traffic. Romanian silver coins (aspri) circulated apart from foreign ones: perpers, ducats, florins, groschen and zlotys. Romanian coins were first issued in Wallachia under Vladislav Vlaicu (1364-1377) to be continued up to the time of the rule of Radu the Handsome (1462-1475), while in Moldavia they were minted for the first time under Petru Musat (1375-1391) to be continued up to the reign of Stefanita (1517-1527).

2. Social Structure

     The salient feature of feudal production relations is the fact that the main means of production - land - belonged to the landowners, whether laymen or churchmen. The peasants only held the lots received from the feudal landowners, tilling them with their own equipment; in exchange for the land the peasants worked or paid in cash (labour services, the tithe, and taxes paid in cash).
     Feudal society was consequently based on antagonistic classes and therefore the history of feudalism is characterized by a sharp class struggle between landowners and the actual producers.
     Documents of the thirteenth century show the hierarchical nature of land ownership. On the same estate the dependent peasants exercised their right to use the land, the vassals the right to usufruct, and the landowner the right of ownership. From the fourteenth century on, when the ruling princes made their appearance, the ruling prince was added to the other categories. The ruling prince had a higher title of ownership to the land of the whole country (dominum eminens). This structure which expressed the manner in which the rent was distributed among the ruling classes, offered means of compulsion over the dependent peasants and made up the military hierarchy.
     The boyars' landownership, which exited before the independent Romanian states emerged, was termed ocina or bastina. It could only be confiscated by the ruling prince in the event of betrayal or disinheritance.
     When the ruling princes made their appearance, conditional landownership was also created, resulting from the princes' donations for "right and faithful service."
     In their turn the great boyars were also entitled to make a gift of lands, thus creating vassals (servants) who made up their military hosts.
     The estates of the monasteries originated in the gifts of the ruling princes and were subsequently extended by donations, purchases, and usurpation until the monasteries ranked among the greatest feudal landowners of the country.
     It was the landowners' aim to extend their estates and, at the same time, to increase the number of dependent peasants who were to till them. The enserfed peasants owed labour to the landowners as well as payment in produce. In order to compel the peasants to carry out their obligations, the landowners had servants who saw that their tasks were carried out.
     The owners of large estates enjoyed the privilege of feudal immunity so that no state bodies could infringe upon their estates. The princes' prerogatives consequently passed on to the landowners, who were entitled to levy taxes, administer justice, and convene their vassals in the event of war. Starting from the latter half of the fifteenth century, the princes' administration sought to restrict immunity privileges.A feudal estate was made up of three parts: seigniorial land, which belonged to the landowner and which the dependent peasants had to till by performing labour service; the plots tilled by the peasants, in exchange for which they paid a tithe; and the common land (grassland and forests). During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and even later, the peasants' holdings made up the largest part of the feudal estate in Wallachia and Moldavia. The seigniorial land was very small compared with the area taken up by the peasants' holdings.
     On the feudal estates there was a considerable number of Gipsy slaves in Wallachia and of Gipsy and Tatar slaves in Moldavia. They were used for different jobs. Many of them were craftsmen, especially smiths, while others were servants working outdoors or indoors. Some were used to enforce the landowners will. The slaves were an integral part of the estate of the boyars and the monasteries. They could be bequeathed like chattels, -they were at the disposal of the landowners who could sell them, make a gift of them, or exchange them.
     Landowners derived considerable incomes as they alone were entitled to possess flour mills, wine presses, spinning mills and fulling mills, and they also had a monopoly of spirits and levied customs duties on the territory of their estates.
     In the early years after the organization of Romanian feudal states, the dependent peasants were called by names of a general character (liudi, siraci, siromahi, horani), names which were applied to all the unprivileged. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the dependent peasants were being increasingly named vecini in Wallachia and later in the sixteenth century ruma^ni. As from the mid-sixteenth century the term vecini was used in Moldavia and in Slav documents also sused.
     From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, and possibly also before that period, there was close connection between the dependent peasant and the land he was entitled to use. Provided he fulfilled the obligations incumbent upon him, the peasant could not be driven from it. With the passage of time, with the landowners systematically usurping the age-old rights of the peasants, the connection between peasant and land was loosened and personal connection with the landowner was tightened. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century the dependent peasants still enjoyed the right to leave the estate.
     A considerable part of the rural population in Wallachia and Moldavia still lived in free villages, which mostly lay in the Carpathian foothills, though there were also many in the plain. In Transylvania there was a free peasantry, especially on the royal land, where Saxons had been settled, and in the outlying districts: Hateg, Fagaras, Maramures, and elsewhere. The existence of a free peasantry and the fact that in Wallachia and Moldavia there was still limited exploitation of the enserfed villages in those days, account for the great victories the Romanian people won over foreign invaders.
     The free villages had a collective leadership made up of "good and aged people". And it was these people who decided when farming work was to begin and what crops were to be sown in various parts of the village land. They judged the less important suits arising in the village, decided the taxes each villager had to pay in order to make up the ruling prince's due, and saw to it that the taxes were levied.
     The inhabitants of the towns, whether big or small, made up an important social category whose weight in economic and political life increased in Wallachia and Moldavia in the fifteenth century. In Transylvania it had increased even earlier. Most of the townspeople in Wallachia and Moldavia were Romanians. In the Transylvanian towns, however, the Romanians were less numerous for they were held to be socially inferior and interdictions were laid upon them.
     The peasants' obligations towards the landowner and the ruling prince consisted in tithes (in Transylvania - terragium), statute labour, or services. Occasionally taxes had also to be paid.
     Tithes were usually levied on all the products of a peasant homestead, the most frequently recorded being the tithe on grain, sheep, pigs, wine, honey and wax, fruit and fish.
     Services included transport and everything needed in transport such as guides, watches, etc., as well as various services around the boyar's or the prince's manor. The general term of angarii was also used to designate them. The peasants also had to mow the landowner's hay and to transport it so that fodder would be available in the wintertime. It was also the peasant's obligation to fell trees for the landowner, to fulfill his military obligations and to accommodate the messengers and officials of the prince, who had been entrusted various missions in the district.
     The peasants were also obliged to pay taxes and to do military service. Documents frequently speak of taxes (biruri),which the ruling prince hardly ever ceded to the boyars. With the passage of time these became the greatest burden. In the sixteenth century, particularly in the latter half, the word biruri was used for all taxes and cash contributions levied by the ruling prince.

4. Political Organization

    The structure of feudal society determined the forms of political organization. On the upper rung of the hierarchical ladder was the ruling prince or Grand Voivode in Wallachia and Moldavia and theVoivode of Transylvania, followed by the great boyars or noblemen. Considered as the supreme master of the whole country, the prince possessed all public power: executive, judicial, legislative, and military. He exercised his power through the agency of his officials, who did not yet have any definitive attributes, for they also fulfilled judicial, administrative and fiscal duties.
      Succession to the throne of Moldavia and of Wallachia was hereditary, though not in the order of primogeniture, for the boyars could elect any member of the ruling family to succeed the late ruler. The system enabled the boyars to contest the prince's authority and made it possible for foreign powers to interfere in internal affairs.
     The prince's power was supported and controlled by the Prince's Council, made up of the great landowners, whether they held any office in the state or not. At first they were recruited from among the familiares in the prince's immediate environment, who fulfilled personal functions, as the High Steward and the Cupbearer. All important deeds - the donation of estates and whatever concerned foreign relations - were discussed by the Council and confirmed by the Council members.
     In the course of time public offices were defined and domestic duties were separated from the public ones. The number of offices then increased and the attributions were limited.
     The most important court officials were: the vornic (palatinus - Court Marshal), the leading official of the prince's court; the logofa^t (cancellarius - Chancellor), the most important officer in the prince's chancellery; the vistier (thesaurarius - Treasurer), who kept the accounts of the prince's incomes; then followed the spatar (gladifer - Swordbearer), bearer of the prince's sword during ceremonies; the stolnic (dapifer - High Steward), who had the prince's table and his guests in his care; the paharnic or ceasnic (pincerna - Cupbearer), who procured wine for the court; the comis (comes stabuli - Equerry), who looked after the prince's stables and equipages; the postelnic or stratornic (cubicularius - Chamberlain), who had the care of the prince's private apartment. During the first stage of organization of the prince's court, these officials were to be found in the Prince's Council beside the great boyars who held no offices, and side by side with the territorial officials: the pircalab (castelanus) and the starost (capitane). The ban was one of the territorial officials of great importance in the history of Wallachia. He is first mentioned as a member of the Prince's Council in the reign of Mircea the Old.
     In fifteenth century documents other officials who held various functions at the prince's court are mentioned as members of the Council besides the great officials. Among them was the clucer, who held the keys of the provisions storehouse; the sluger, who saw that the court was supplied with meat; the pivnicer, who supervised the prince's cellars; the camaras, who was in charge of the mint and later of the personal estate of the prince (camara); the medelnicer, who looked after the prince's table services and laundry.
     During the latter half of the fifteenth century, while the central power was being strengthened, the office of armas was set up, the armas being the executor of punishments decreed by the prince. During Stephen the Great's reign, a most important official was the Suceava Gatekeeper (portar), who headed the army.

     For their services the dignitaries received part of the taxes and fines levied by them for the account of the ruling prince.
     Transylvania preserved its status as a principality (voivodeship) even after it had merged with the Hungarian kingdom. A prince (voivode) with supreme administrative, judicial, and military duties was at the head of Transylvania until it fell under Turkish suzerainty in the sixteenth century.
     In the course of time the power of the voivode varied according to the ratio of forces between him and the king of Hungary. When the central power underwent a crisis there was a tendency for the Transylvanian princes to free themselves from regal authority and to look towards the creation of a dynasty: from 1344 to 1376, with short intermissions, six members of the Lackfy family held the dignity of voivode and between 1415 and1437 there were two members of the Csaky family.
     Appointed and revoked by the king, the voivode was entitled to choose his subordinates - from the vice-voivode and comites to the notaries - from among the familiares in his personal service. From the beginning of the fifteenth century, the voivodes often spent long periods outside the boundaries of Transylvania, mostly residing at the royal court. When this occurred, they left the leadership of the country to the vice-voivodes. Vice-voivode Lorand Lepes ruled Transylvania for over twenty years (1415-1438). From the middle of the fifteenth century on the voivodes entrusted the administration of public affairs to governors during their absence and the latter were entitled to choose vice-governors in their turn.
     General assemblies (general congregations) were usually of a juridical nature in Transylvania, and seldom tackled economic or administrative problems. They were usually convened by the voivode, though the king, and occasionally the vice-voivode, were also entitled to convene them. Like all similar assemblies in the Middle Ages, they had a pronounced class character and the enserfed peasantry was never represented. Although the Romanians made up the majority of the population, they generally did not participate in the assembly, for most of them were serfs. And even Romanian gentry and other free men were rarely mentioned at the assemblies of 1291 and 1355.
     In Wallachia and Moldavia the ruling princes exercised their control of free villages and of the estates of the lesser boyars through the agency of the county bodies. On becoming administrative units, the counties were headed by sudeti or pircalabi in Wallachia and by pircalabi, starosti, and sudeti in Moldavia.
     The towns, whether big or small, were comparatively autonomous, being administrated by elected bodies: the soltuz or voit in Moldavia and the judet in Wallachia, assisted by a council made up of twelve councilors (pirgari). A more comprehensive council was the Council of Good and Aged People. The prince's dignitaries - the vornici, and in Moldavia the ureabnici from the sixteenth century on - imposed their authority on these elected bodies. Free villages were headed by a cneaz or a jude, also called vataman in Moldavia. These were also assisted by a Council of Good and Aged People in the exercise of their duties.
     The enserfed villages were headed by the representative of the landowner, whether boyar or monastery, named pircalab in Wallachia and vataman in Moldavia.
     The territory of Transylvania was divided into counties headed by comites, who were at first appointed by the voivodes. By the close of the fourteenth century the counties, also the administrative centers, such as the Romanian districts and the Szekler and Saxon sedes, were already well organized. Romanian districts were organized according to their age-old laws (jus Valachicum) which the Magyar rule was compelled to observe.
     In Wallachia and Moldavia the supreme judge was the ruling prince, who was alone entitled to pronounce capital punishment and to decide the suits between landowners. The boyars and monasteries, holding the privilege of immunity, exercised the right of judging labour conflicts. The free peasants were judged by the representatives of the community or, like the townspeople, by the prince's dignitaries.
     As far as penal law was concerned, vestiges of the ancient clan customs were preserved for long: relatives were entitled to avenge a member of the family, and on the other side the head of this one could be ransomed from the relatives.
     An old legal practice mentioned in documents was the use of witnesses under oath, especially in peasant suits, such evidence being decisive. As the feudal regime consolidated, the right to bear witness was held  only by free people and by landowners.
     A suit was judged on the basis of common law termed "the custom of the land". As the Romanian feudal states improved their organization, written laws came to be used apart from the unwritten law. The former were originally made up of the decisions issued by the ruling prince as laid down in the charters issued by the prince's chancellery. In the mid-fifteenth century some collections of Byzantine laws were copied at the bidding of the ruling princes for their guidance in legal matters. A Zakonik (collection of laws) copied at Tirgoviste dates from 1451, and in Moldavia the copy of Matei Vlastares' Syntagma dates from 1472. The Syntagma comprises Byzantine penal and civil laws. In principle the prince's sentence was final for the term of his reign. The case could only be reopened under a new prince. In order to prevent the suits from being reopened, a heavy fee (zavesca, later termed feriie) had to be paid. The fee is mentioned in fifteenth century records.
     The army was made up of prince's men and of the men of the great boyars, who recruited them from their estates, as well as of other peasants and of townspeople. The men of the prince and of the boyars formed the bulk of the army.
     In Transylvania Romanian gentry and voivodes played a most important part in the battles waged against the Turks at the close of the fourteenth century and in the fifteenth century. The towns had to recruit men for the army, though from the end of the fifteenth century a sum of money could be paid instead.
     In the event of a great threat such as Turkish invasions, the "great army" was convened by the prince. This amounted to mass recruitment, a system applied especially by Iancu of Hunedoara, Vlad the Impaler, and Stephen the Great.
     The equipment and armament varied with social position.The boyars and great noblemen were equipped like the western knights in mail shirts and armour and carried shields. They fought on horseback with swords and spears. Foot soldiers mostly fought with bows and sometimes with spears and swords; the peasants called upon to enlist fought with scythes and picks. To besiege strongholds catapults were used which discharged stones against walls and their defenders. Halfway through the fifteenth century firearms began to be used: mortars made of cast-iron or copper with bombs of stone or iron. The Transylvanian towns, especially Brasov and Sibiu, were important producers of mortars.
     The defensive system relied to a great extent on strongholds, whether those inside the country (Neamt, Suceava, Poienari, Ungurasi, Ineu, Cetatea de Balta, Deva, etc.) or those along the borders (Hotin, Soroca, Chilia, Cetatea Alba, Tighina, Severin, Giurgiu, Turnu, Bran, etc.). The strongholds were built of large stone blocks, with ramparts and bastions.

5. Struggle Against Ottoman Expansion

     During the reign of Mircea the Old (1386-1418) the Ottoman Empire, now including most of the Balkan peninsula, reached the Danube line, thus threatening Wallachia. Mircea the Old was the first of the Romanian princes who, by their struggle and sacrifices, even in defeat, saved the Romanian countries from sharing the fate of the other Balkan states which the conquerors turned into pashaliks. The example set by these princes nurtured the flame of independence which inspired the struggle and policy of the Romanian people through the ages. From the beginning of his reign, Mircea the Old established good relations with Moldavia: he intervened in the struggle for the throne of Moldavia and brought about the assent of Alexander the Good. The political disturbances in the Hungarian kingdom enabled him to extend his authority in Transylvania, where he enlarged the fiefs of his forerunners. He also incorporated Dobrudja, Wallachia thus reaching its greatest extension ever. In 1404-1406, Mircea titled himself "I Mircea, Grand Voivode and Prince of all Ungro-Vlachia Land and of the parts beyond the mountains and towards the Tatar territories, theAmlas and Fagaras, Duke and Prince of the Severin Banat and on either side over the whole Podunavia and also as far as the Great Sea, and master of the Dirstor citadel."
     Mircea strengthened the power of the state and organized the different high offices, promoted economic development, increased the state's revenue, and minted silver money that enjoyed wide circulation not only inside the country but also in the neighbouring countries. He gave the merchants of Poland and Lithuania trade privileges and renewed those his predecessors had given to the people of Brasov. Mircea the Old could thus afford to increase his military power. He fortified the Danube citadels and strengthened "the great army" made up of townspeople and of free and dependent peasants. He also proved a great supporter of the Church. He raised the splendid church of Cozia after the model of the Krusevac Church in Serbia and endowed it generously, as he also did other churches and monasteries.
     While organizing the country, he also took good care to form a system of lasting alliances that might enable him to defend the independence of the country. Through the intermediary of Petru Musat, ruling prince of Moldavia, he concluded in 1389 a treaty of alliance with Vladislav Iagello, king of Poland. The treaty was renewed in 1404 and 1410. He maintained close relations with Sigismund of Luxembourg, the king of Hungary, relying on their common interest in the struggle against Ottoman expansion.
     His interventions in support of the Christian peoples south of the Danube who were fighting against the Turks, brought him into conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Mircea the Old was repeatedly victorious in the battles he fought against the Turks: at Rovine on the river Arges in 1394 and later in 1397 and 1400. He was a master of military tactics and showed great gallantry, which inspired his troops. He can be considered to rank among the great army commanders of his time. As a result of his victories against the Turks, the position of Wallachia was assured and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Central Europe was temporarily checked. The German historian Leunclavius described him as "the bravest and ablest of the Christian princes."
     The defeat of Sultan Bayazid Ilderim by Timur Lenk (Tamerlane) at Ankara in 1402 opened a period of anarchy in the Ottoman Empire and Mircea took advantage of it to organize together with the Hungarian king, a campaign against the Turks. In 1404 Mircea was thus able to impose his rule on Dobrudja again. He moreover took part in the struggles for the throne of the Ottoman Empire and enabled Musa to ascend that throne. It was at this time that the prince reached the height of his power.
     From 1414 to 1417 the Ottoman Empire resumed its attempts to expand north of the Danube. Mircea the Old facing by himself an enemy that possessed forces greatly superior to his own, decided to pay the Ottoman Porte a tribute to regain peace, though without any vassalage.
    In the first decades of its existence as a state, Moldavia had to face Hungary's repeated attempts to reestablish her suzerainty over the territories east of the Carpathians. The ruling princes of Moldavia endeavoured to parry the threat with Poland's support.
     Latcu (1365-1374) succeeded to the throne after Bogdan, the creator of the Moldavian independent state. In 1370 he had to cope with the joint Polish-Hungarian threat as Louis I, king of Hungary, was elected king of Poland as well. In order to weaken the pressure of Hungary, Latcu turned Catholic and came into touch with the Pope. It was a purely political move and consequently the Catholic religion in Moldavia did not survive Latcu's reign. Latcu himself was buried in the Orthodox Church at Radauti.
     Latcu's successor, Petru Musat (1374-1391), taking advantage of the deterioration of the Polish-Hungarian union following the death of King Louis in 1382, tried to shake off Hungarian pressure by creating friendly relations with Poland. TheTreaty of Lvov concluded with Poland in 1387 offered Moldavia support against the Hungarian threat.
     Petru Musat attached great importance to economic, administrative, and religious organization. He was the first to mint Moldavian silver coins and during his reign the country's revenues increased considerably thanks to domestic trade and transit tolls. In 1388 the Moldavian prince lent the king of Poland 3,000 silver rubles, for which he was given the Halicium territory (Pokutia) as security. He founded the Moldavian Metropolitan Church and placed his relative Iosif at the head of it. Although it was canonically recognized by the Constantinople Patriarchate only much later, the Moldavian Metropolitan Church helped to strengthen the power of the ruling princes.
     The reign of Roman I (1391-1394) and of Stephen I (1394-1399), though of short duration covered two important moments in Moldavia's history. Under Roman I Moldavia's boundaries reached "the sea shore", while under Stephen I Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary, was defeated at Hindau and his attempts to reduce Moldavia to subjection came to nought.
     Brought to the throne with the support of Mircea the Old, Alexander the Good (1400-1432) gave Moldavia a long period of economic prosperity while his feudal state was consolidated and its international prestige enhanced.
     From the very first years of his reign, Alexander the Good realized that it was in the interest of the Moldavian state to continue the policy of cooperation with Poland. The Moldavian armies repeatedly fought alongside those of the Polish and the Lithuanian ones against the Teutonic Knights, gaining distinction at Grunewald in 1410 and at Marienburg in 1422.
     His economic and military power enabled him to evade the consequences of the Treaty of Lublin concluded by Poland and Hungary in 1412, which stipulated that Moldavia was to be divided if Alexander the Good did not provide the Hungarian king with military assistance against the Turks. Subsequent attempts on the part of Sigismund to reestablish Hungarian suzerainty over Moldavia failed.
     Alexander the Good took interest in the political situation of Wallachia and succeeded in helping certain princes to the throne: Prince Aldea, for example, added to his name that of his protector and called himself Alexander Aldea. His policy was followed by all the great Moldavian princes who tried to make leaders of Wallachia devoted allies in the struggle against the Turks.
     Like Wallachia after Mircea the Old, Moldavia went through a period of internal struggles at the death of Alexander the Good. The country's capacity of resistance was thus weakened and this paved the way for foreign intervention.
     When Ottoman pressure increased in the fifties of the fifteenth century, it was Transylvania under the leadership of Iancu of Hunedoara (1441-1456) that played an important part in the struggle of the Romanian countries against the Turks, with a military confederation of the three countries ensuing as a result. In 1438 Iancu of Hunedoara was Ban of Severin; by 1441 he had become Voivode of Transylvania and Comes of Timisoara, as well as a tried fighter against the Turks, whom he had defeated repeatedly. From 1442 on Iancu of Hunedoara intervened in the internal policy of the two Romanian countries, placing princes on their throne in order to ensure that Moldavia and Wallachia would assist him in his anti-Ottoman struggle. In 1448 he was ceded the citadel of Chilia, one of the key positions of the anti-Ottoman front, in exchange for the support he had given Peter II to gain the throne of Moldavia. Master of Chilia, Iancu of Hunedoara could control political developments in the territories of Moldavia and Wallachia.
     With an eye to the innovations in military tactics and techniques, Iancu of Hunedoara created a fighting system underwhich the bulk of the army was made up of popular elements; he introduced the Hussite tactics of the camp built up of linked wagons, and created a wide system of alliances with the neighbouring countries in the struggle against the Turks.
     After having defeated a number of Turkish plundering hordes, Iancu of Hunedoara tried to liberate the Balkan peninsula from the Ottoman yoke. In 1443 he organized a great expedition against the Turks, the so-called "long campaign," and succeeded in crossing the Balkans and reaching Sofia. The crusade organized the following year (1444) was insufficiently prepared, however, and led to the Varna disaster when the king of Hungary met his death. In 1446, using forces from all the Romanian countries, Iancu of Hunedoara, now governor of Hungary after King Vladislav's death again tried to strike at the Turkish possessions south of the Danube. The decisive battle was fought at Kossovo where the Turks were victorious.

 
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