Matei Basarab

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Matei Basarab with his son (left) and his wife (right)

Matei Basarab ( pronunciation ? / I ; * between 1579 and 1588 in Brîncoveni; † April 19, 1654 in Târgovişte ) was Prince of Wallachia between 1632 and 1654. Audio file / audio sample

Life

In 1631 Matei Basarab tried for the first time to ascend the princely throne of Wallachia. On August 23, 1631 there was a fight between Matei Basarab and Prince Leon Tomşa for his throne at the site of today's Slobozia Church in Bucharest . However, Basarab lost the fight. In the following year, however, Matei Basarab, with Transylvanian support, succeeded in driving Prince Tomşa's successor Radu Iliaş from Bucharest and being elected prince. He maintained peace with the Sublime Porte, concluded an alliance treaty and friendship with the Prince of Transylvania, Georg I. Rákóczi , in 1635, with the Holy Roman Empire in 1636, with Poland in 1637 and with Venice in 1639.

Vasile Lupu , the neighboring Hospodar of the Principality of Moldova , tried repeatedly to gain control of Wallachia and in 1637 left Moldova with an army to break into Muntenia . By corrupting some of the high Turkish dignitaries in Rumelia and taking advantage of the external problems of the Ottoman Empire, Vasile Lupu managed to get Basarab ousted through intrigues at the Sublime Porte. In response, Basarab, for his part, was able to win over the same Ottoman dignitaries from whom he obtained the execution of the traitors who had supported the Prince of Moldova. Basarab's troops were able to beat Vasile Lupu at Focșani (November 1637) and during the next campaign at Ojogeni (December 1639) and push them back over the Prahova sector. After the compromise of 1644, both voivodes built several monasteries in the country as thanks for the peace, Basarab founded Stela in Targoviste and Soveja on the Putna.

The time of Matei Basarab was a time of cultural heyday for Muntenia, a new art school without which the later Brâncoveanu style would not have been possible. Basarab was a protector of culture and a supporter of the church, who campaigned for the unchanged preservation of the Orthodox tradition, during his term of office he built more than 45 churches and monasteries.

The organization of the army received his special attention; the army could number up to 40,000 soldiers. His favorite Diicul Buicescul was appointed commander-in-chief of the army and spatharios of the prince on January 8, 1645 . Basarab fortified the fortresses Vidin and Sistov south of the Danube and paid the fees to the High Porte , which were necessary for the continued independence of the Athos monasteries.

After renewed efforts at war by Vasile Lupu, who moved into Wallachia with the allied Cossacks under Tymofij Khmelnyzkyj , Basarab supported the uprising of the Moldovan boyars under Gheorghe Ștefan against their prince in April 1653 . Basarab also called the troops of the allied Prince George II Rákóczi into the country. Vasile Lupu was defeated in the Battle of Finta in June 1653 and lost the throne of Moldavia forever. The end was near for Basarab, on the one hand due to aging and on the other hand due to a wound that Finta had preserved. He died in Târgovişte in 1654 and was buried in 1658 in the presence of Patriarch Makarios of Antioch and his secretary Paulus of Aleppo in the Arnota monastery he founded near Bistrița in the Vâlcea district .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniel Ursprung: Legitimation of power between tradition and innovation. Representation and staging of rule in Romanian history in the pre-modern era and at Ceaușescu. Aldus Verlag, Brașov 2007, p. 54
  2. ^ Sebastian Bonifaciu, Emanuel Valeriu: Bucharest from A to Z. Pontica Handbooks, Publishing House for Tourism, Bucharest 1974, p. 14.

literature

  • Dionisie Ghermani: Basarab, Matei . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 1. Munich 1974, p. 144 f.
  • Şerban Papacostea: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe Volume 4, ed. Mathias Bernath / Karl Nehring, Munich 1981, pp. 389-390
  • Miron Costin : Cruel times in the Vltava. The Moldavian Chronicle from 1591–1661 (= Romanian historians Volume 1), Styria Verlag Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1980. ISBN 3-222-11170-7 .

Web links

Commons : Matei Basarab  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Basarab, Matei
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ruler of the Principality of Wallachia
DATE OF BIRTH between 1579 and 1588
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1654
Place of death Târgovişte