Mihai Racoviță

Mihai Racoviță

Mihai Racoviță († 1744 ) was ruler of Moldova from September 1703 to February 23, 1705, from July 31, 1707 to October 28, 1709, from January 5, 1716 to October 1726 and finally from 1741 to 1744 . Between his third and fourth reigns, he held two rulers in the other Danube principality, Wallachia . Through his mother he was related to the Cantacuzino family of Phanariotes and married a daughter of the Moldovan prince Constantin Cantemir .

Domestically, Racoviță soon had to fight with the rival boyar parties , and from outside the threat of several aspirants to the throne threatened. He obtained the funds he needed from new duties and taxes and a constant increase in the old ones. In 1705 he was finally followed by Antioh Cantemir . During Mihai Racoviță's second rule, the Sublime Porte learned of contacts between the Prince and Peter I of Russia. He was then removed from his position and immediately exiled to Istanbul . His successor was Nicolae Mavrocordat .

Because of the opinion of the Turks that Racoviță was anti-Austrian, he came back to the top of the state in the Austro-Turkish war of 1716/18. In Iasi the were using Tartars defeated the Austrians, their general Ferentz was beheaded (what today the Ferentzkreuz recalls). Likewise, many Moldovans who made pacts with the Imperialists were killed. At the request of the Turks, Racoviță was to advance to Transylvania in order to support the rebellion of Prince Rákóczi against the Viennese central power. The Moldovan armies only got as far as Bistrița . The resistance there was so great that they withdrew again beyond the Eastern Carpathians.

Since Mihai Racoviță could not pay the Tatars, he allowed them to plunder the boyars' possessions. Another catastrophe was the invasion of Hungarian troops under General Esterházy , the Magyar armies devastated the country lastingly. Mihai Racoviță meanwhile avoided any direct confrontation with Esterházy, but tormented the autochthonous population more and more with taxes. At that time his court was populated by numerous Greeks and Ottomans, who enriched each other side by side with Mihai Racoviță.

Mihai Racovițăs fight with Nicolae Mavrocordat for the Wallachian throne ended in Mavrocordat's favor. Mihai Racoviță was defeated, was also deposed in the Moldavia (successor: Grigore II. Ghica ) and even ended up in prison. Not until 1730 could he take power in Bucharest. But in the following year he lost power in Wallachia again. By far the worst rule was that from 1741 to 1744, when, like the Phanariotic rulers (who were ethnic Greeks, Albanians, etc., but not Romanians), he was only concerned with personal enrichment, so that the Romanian historians' image of this ruler is a very negative one.

source

• Alexandru Xenopol, Virgil Mihăilescu-Bîrliba: Istoria românilor din Dacia Traiană . Volume 4: Istoria modernă de la Matei Basarab și Vasile Lupu pînă la Fanarioți, 1633 - 1821. Ed. Șt. și Enciclopedică, Bucharest 1993, ISBN 973-45-0016-3 , p. 476.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ioan Buhus	Prince of Moldavia 1703 - 1705	Antioh Cantemir

predecessor	Office	successor
Antioh Cantemir	Prince of Moldavia 1707 - 1709	Ioan Buhus

predecessor	Office	successor
Nicolae Mavrocordat	Prince of Moldavia 1716 - 1726	Grigore II. Ghica

predecessor	Office	successor
Constantin Mavrocordat	Prince of Wallachia 1730 - 1731	Constantin Mavrocordat

predecessor	Office	successor
Constantin Mavrocordat	Prince of Wallachia 1741 - 1744	Constantin Mavrocordat