A History of Wallachia

Mircea the Old: Father of Wallachia, Grandfather of Dracula by A.K. Brackob
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mircea the Old

The land of Dracula has always been an area of turbulence both politically and miliatraily. The name of this land has been mistakenly called Transylvania, but it's real name was Wallachia. At times this land was called Dacia, Cumania and other names. Now it is part of Romania. The orignal inhabitants were called Vlach which may have meant shepherd. Which would make sense because most areas were small villages with wood huts and the forts were also made of wood. When invader came the inhabitatnt would hide in the forests and hide keeping them sage from dangers. Many people came through this land over the centuries. Ethnic groups like saxon, and slavs came in and blended with the locals and of course leaving their imprint. The Saxon helped and in fact built some of the first major cities like Brasov
The area also housed renegade and schismatics from other realms of Europe. Such groups woud have included political exiles, religious renegades and some of the Knights Templar. At times other Knightly groups from Europe would arrive there for various military purposes. Political exiles from Hungary would end up in Wallachia which would troubles between the two realms. A little bit later for that.
The first founder of the Basarb Dynasty was called the Black voivode. There is speculation tht he was of Turkish or Tatar in origin. The name of the Black voivode was Thocomer, his some was Basarab. It is storngly believed that the black voivode was an ousider not native to the Wallachian realm.
During this time period the Christian powers such as Hungary, Byzantium, and Transyvania were at odds with each other. The tatars or the Golden Horde arrived and they conquered lots of territory. These tatars on certain occasions converted to Christianity. They were a turkic mongolian people. A combination of them and the Slavs helped form the Nation of Bulgaria. Basarab for his part had several alliances with these Turkik people. Yet there was also a treaty with Hungary which went pretty well save that Wllachia was harboring undesirables. By an large Basarab was catholic. He married a women of French origin named Margaret. Religion to him/was for political expediency as was marriage back in those times.
Relations began to change between Hungaray and Wallachia after an illfated military venture with Bulgaria. Bulgrai attacked Serbia and the Serbians won. This left Basaab week and the Hungarians moved in. Basarab made several overtures to the Hungarian king which were rebuffed. After some nobles encouraged the Hungarian king to accept he did so. In the end as the Hungairain troops were leaving Basarab ambushed them killed them. This was the battle of Posada.
Bssarabs son Nicholas Alexander ruled alongside him for a bit. Nicholas Alexander was also Catholic. During his tenure Tatar power was in decline and the Bulgarians were weakened. Teodora Nicholas Alexander's sister was divorced from Bulgarias leader. This ended a political alliance. Nicholas Alexander realined with Hungary. While accepting Hungarian overlordship , in order to guaruntee his autonomy he made alliances with the Orthodox Church. After a revolt from a Romanian viovode , Nicholas Alexander broke away from Hungary for the rest of his reign.
vladislav was Nicholas Alexanders son who took over after he died. During Vladislav`s tenure the Ottomans gained a foothold in southern Europe. the Ottomans were intent on seizing Christian Europe. Europe at this time was very divided as their were schisms in the church. The Turks on the other hand were unified. After Nocholas's death, Hungary wanted to attack wallachia, but instead of attacking wallachia they veered to Bulagaria and made conquest there. This altered the balance of power. THe Byzantines in vain sought European support against Turkish agression. Wallachia seems to have gotten back in alignment with Hungary. Bulgrai and Turkey attacked Hungary and Wallachia proved to be a valuable ally for Hungary. Wallachia and Hungry would have religious diferences later on.
The rest of Mircea's reign was a balance of various powers agaist one another in an arena of shifting alliances. At times Mircea would side with Hungary and at other times he would side wit the Ottommans. His strategies included pacification, interfering with Ottoman politics and breaking his word and siding with the stronger in a conflcit if it benefited him. Once he helped place an Ottoman leader on the throne in a conflcit with his brother. It was a fruitful plan but ultimatley that leader would be deposed and Mircea would submit bak to the Ottoman`s rule. Once he did this his rule was quiet until the end of his days. Being a wise politician he supported the Orthodox church by funding monasteries and churches. He also suppported the Catholic church and made sure the religious leader he backed reported strictly to Rome and not hungary. Despite the fact that Christendom was under threat by the Ottoman peril, they were very disunited. France and England were at war. There were schisms in the church and the countries had their own internal issues to face.
At the end of the day Wallachia stood on it`s own. Shrewed ledership kept the area safe from attack and allowed them independence. After Mircea passed other powers would interfere with Wallachian politics by backing one or some other pretender to the throne. No room for honest politicians in this realm. Shrewed ones only.

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