Iancu Sasul

Iancu Sasul , "the Saxon", also Ioan V , (* before 1579, † September 1582 ) ruled the Principality of Moldova from November 21, 1579 to August 1582 . He was the illegitimate son of Prince Petru Rareș and the wife of Jörg Weiss from Kronstadt .

Iancu (or Hans) knew about his princely descent from childhood. Convinced that one day he would be able to ascend the Moldovan princely throne, he renounced his stepfather's inheritance and went to Istanbul . There he married a girl from the Phanariote family of the Paleologu and took up the fight against Prince Petru Șchiopul ("the lame") . With the help of a generous loan from Bartolomeu Brutti and also thanks to his influential wife, Iancu succeeded in defeating the ruling prince in 1579, making him the new ruler of Moldova.

The first months of his rule brought great disenchantment to the population: Iancu burdened the country with enormous taxes and duties, as on the one hand he had to repay immense debts, but on the other hand he wanted to gain wealth himself. The abundance of oppressive taxes found its bizarre climax in the so-called “văcărit”, the “cow tithe”; all peasants had to hand over their tenth, twentieth, etc. cow for the benefit of the prince.

In the meantime, the power of his financier Brutti rose steadily, as he, as the ruler's right-hand man, was solely responsible for all financial matters. However, this ultimately led to a break with Chiajna, who left the country bitter and now raised the mood against her brother abroad. She found support among the boyars who were dissatisfied with Iancu ; Added to this were Iancu's close, often dubious contacts with German circles, which made calls for his resignation louder and louder.

Finally, the High Porte announced his removal and ordered him to be arrested. Iancu tried now to leave the country via Poland with a total of 100 carts loaded with his possessions (40 were used exclusively as "money transporters") and to build a new existence in Transylvania . But it only got as far as Lemberg , where it came to an end in September 1582.

source

• Nicolae Iorga: History of the Romanians in the context of their state formation. Vol. I, p. 389