The Rise of Wallachia 1419-1810

Vlad Dracul was succeeded first by Dan III, whose reign lasted only a month before he was succeeded in turn by Vladislav II, who renewed the campaign the following summer, moving south into Greece to capture Athens. Fighting continued in the Morea, but in October 1448 the Hungarians and Transylvanians stabbed the alliance in the back by attacking Moldavia. Forced back into his homeland to fight, Vladislav was unable to lift the Hungarian siege of his capital. Moldavia signed a peace favourable to its attackers. With renewed vigour in 1450, the Wallachian army returned to Greece and conquered the whole country from the Ottomans. Only Bulgaria remained. Over the next 2 years, incessant raiding defeated the Turkish garrison there, and the Bulgarian capital was besieged. It fell in May 1454.

Vlad Dracul's son, the notorious Vlad Tepes "the Impaler" succeeded Vladislav in 1456 and spent some time ruthlessly subjugating the newly conquered territory; in August of that year he finally forced the Ottoman Empire to accept peace on his terms, claiming Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia and forcing them to cede Dobrudja to Moldavia and evacuate and restore the independence of the Empire of Trebizond. However, the ferocity which had served Vlad Tepes on the battlefield was less of an asset in the throne room. Throughout his reign, Vlad Tepes' brutal excesses made him unpopular and there were revolts in Dobrudja and Bulgaria against him. In 1462 he was forced to abdicate the throne by the nobles of Wallachia in favour of his brother Radu II cel Frumos "the handsome" but he was allowed to remain in the country as commander of the royal army; he spent the rest of his life enthusiastically stamping out any armed opposition to the Wallachian throne.

Radu II was not a fighting man like his brother. He concentrated on making the realm wealthy after the long and costly wars against the Ottomans. His reign was, however characterised by unrest particularly in Bulgaria and by scandals at court. There was a brief war with Serbia and Moldavia found itself alone against the Ottoman Turks and forced to cede back Dobrudja. Radu also antagonised the clergy. When he died, after an abortive attmept by Vlad Tepes to reclaim the throne, he was succeeded by Basarab Laiota. After the instability of Radu II, the new king made a determined effort to bring Wallachia under stable central authority and to expand trade abroad. He died in 1477, after a reign of only two years.

Under his successor, Basarab II cel Tinar the policy was continued until 1481, when Wallachia's Albanian allies found themselves at war with the Ottoman Empire. Basarab took the opportunity to send an army to reconquer Dobrudja, but this meant he could not support Moldavia when they in turn appealed for protection against an invasion from Transylvania. During the war Basarab II died, succeeded by Vlad IV Calugarul "the Monk". Invading Greece again, he forced the Turks to cede back Dobrudja - this time to Wallachia. In August 1485 Moldavia was forced to sign a humiliating peace with their invaders and cede the Bujak region. On Wallachia's other frontier, Serbia was annexed to the Hungarian crown. Moldavia was attacked again and forced to pay gold to both Hungary and Lithuania in 1492. On the pretext that the Moldavian ruler Stefan had gone mad, Vlad marched a force into Moldavia and meeting no resistance, besieged Stefan in his castle, captured him, had the ruined monarch locked away and declared himself by the will of God and according to the proclamation of the Patriarch of Constantinople, ruler of both Wallachia and Moldavia in union. The event was to have serious repercussions before Vlad's death in 1495.

I'm afraid it's all going to be much sketchier and plain than your Moldavian AAR - it's next to impossible for me - being in England - to glean any details of Wallachian history (looking on the net just gives about 1000 "Ooh - Dracula!" sites) that might make things interesting. My Romanian isn't good enough to read actual historical stuff in the original language and that nice online Romanian dictionary site has been taken away by some American engineering firm.

The game is actually finished, and I'm posting what I already had written - history took some interesing twists, as you will see, partly because of the knock-on effects of my own actions.

If there was any declaration by the Patriarch, it was soon revoked and Radu IV cel Mare inherited a country at war with both Byzantium and the Siebenburgen of Transylvania and facing rebellious armies all over the country. With some difficulty he overcame the rebels and ejected the Transylvanian invaders, but in spite of his success on the battlefield, the state was by now exhausted and its coffers empty. Radu could not afford to continue the war and had to settle for peace with a token sum paid to his neighbours as the price. With the rebels and external foes defeated, he sought to placate the Bulgars in the south by creating a new self-governing Voivodate bound in military alliance to Wallachia and paying a modest tribute to Bucharest. The arrangement was a successful one; Bulgaria would remain faithful to the crown until 1810, although the creation of a Bulgarian state earned the hostility of Byzantium which remained an enemy until its conquest by the Turks and it was with their encouragement that a force of German, Italian and Danish troops sailed into the Black Sea and landed in Eastern Rumelia, forcing Radu to once again take to the field. Fighting the Danes, the king was mortally wounded, dying a month later in April 1508. The invaders had to be paid indemnities to persuade them to leave.

Radu's successor was Neagoie Basarab, whose talents stood in contrast to his predecessor. His chief concerns were strengthening central government, land reclamation in Dobrudja and increasing foreign trade. 1517 saw the Hungarian crown formally annex Transylvania, including the Bujak region the Siebenburgen had seized from Moldavia, but apart from the usual clashes with Byzantium, the country remained at peace throughout his reign. Wallachia at this time still did not have ruling dynasties; instead the ruler was chosen for life by the nobles who still remained to a large degree autonomous in their own lands. Neagoie Basarab sought to limit the power of nobility in king-making, restricting them to having a veto over the reigning monarch's nominated successor. He also enshrined the rights of the peasants, ensuring that there would be no drift towards the serfdom that characterised other neighbouring lands. The loyalty of the ordinary farmer to the crown was a weapon which would prove useful in countering the power of the nobility in the coming years in a country which was still largely bereft of large towns.

Radu V of Afumati ascended the throne in September 1521, and his reign was to be one of the most significant. Throughout neighbouring Hungary, rebellions errupted as many Hungarians rejected the Roman Catholic church and turned to Protestantism. Chief among them were the German-speaking burghers of the Transylvanian towns and many of the Magyar nobility there as well. In the Spring of 1523, King Radu seized upon this Hungarian weakness, and Wallachia and its Bulgarian vassals, along with their Albanian ally invaded Hungary. Despite strong resistance initially, Wallachian armies took control of the Banat, Bujak and Ruthenia. Bulgarian successes in Serbia opened up the Magyar heartland to invasion. In the midst of the war, the Transylvanians and then the Bosnians renounced their allegiance to Hungary and declared independence; appeals from Hungary to the Pope appeared to fall on deaf ears, but the Florentines and again the Danes rallied to the cause and declared war on Wallachia. Perhaps fearing a Wallachian Orthodox yoke might otherwise be substituted for a Catholic Hungarian one, the Siebenburghers declared war on Wallachia and appealed to the invaders for aid. Events were further complicated when on the death of King Lajos, the Hungarian nobles offered the crown to the Transylvanian Johan Zapolya, an act which was disputed by the Austrian Habsburgs, who having recently received the crown of Bohemia, contested the claim. As war with Austria loomed and Wallachian forces besieged and captured the towns of the Siebenburgen one by one, it seemed that Hungary might be on the verge of total collapse. However in September 1526, a force of well trained and well equipped soldiers arrived from Tuscany and landed in Eastern Rumelia, defeating the Wallachians in two separate battles at Sliven and Carnobat. A peace was signed with Hungary under which only Bujak was ceded and indemnities paid to Wallachia and Bulgaria. The Siebenburgen were not saved by their allies, however. Transylvania was annexed to the Wallachian crown; the Protestant faith of the German burghers was to be tolerated and the peasants to enjoy the same rights as those in the rest of Wallachia in an arrangement which worked to the advantage of the German towns and Vlach peasantry at the expense of the predominantly Catholic Magyar landowning class. All the Romanian speaking peoples were now united under a single crown. The problem of the Danish and Florentine intervention remained, however, and despite the Wallachian fleet defeating the Danish fleet, it was only by the payment of a substantial sum of gold that the invaders could be removed, and they had brought with them a plague which briefly swept through the country in January 1529.

The Balkans in 1530
Radu's success had also aroused the jealousy of Poland, and the following year at the head of an alliance including a reviving Hungary, Poland declared war, and despite a bold offensive in Podolia and Galicia, Radu could not prevent a great army of Poles invading and laying siege to both his own capital and that of his Bulgarian allies. Further sums had to be paid to Poland in a humiliating peace. Naturally enough, the Byzantines had sought to take advantage by declaring war on Bulgaria, but this time it was to their cost. Bulgarian and Wallachian forces layed siege to Constantinople, captured it and sacked the city. The Emperor was forced to accept Bulgarian troops occupying Constantinople for the rest of its independent existence, which as events transpired was not to be very long; the city fell to the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman on the 16th of November 1537. For several months afterward there was encamped on Radu's frontier a great army of some 80 000 Turks and Tartars, but if it had been Suleyman's plan to turn his attentions North, he was soon distracted by events elsewhere, and the threat was lifted. Domestic events were soon to occupy the king's attention. In newly-won Transylvania there was renewed religious dissent, this time within the Protestant church, as radical Protestants in the German-speaking towns had ousted the spiritual authorities in the Protestant churches and incited icon-destroying riots against their Orthodox neighbours. Radu's forces arrived in November 1539 and crushed the rebels. The Protestant parishes were liquidated, and all religious life put under the control of the Orthodox metropolitan. In other matters, however, the reign of Radu V is noted for its tolerance; as for example his refusal to condemn the radical writings of Petru Florea - some of the earliest printed works in Wallachia - whose later teachings were condemned fiercely by both clergy and nobility.

From his accession in March 1545, Mircea III Ciobanul took little interest in the administration of the enlarged realm he inherited and spent most of his time concerned with military matters, carrying out army reforms and strengthening the fortifications around Bucharest. In the field of foreign affairs, two early events were the arrival of a Nubian princess at court and a dispute with Bosnia arising over the refusal of Mircea's cousin to follow the rest of the Bosnian royal family converting to Catholic worship. His other ventures in foreign policy were more successful and he was able to bring both Lithuania and the last independent Russian principality of Ryazan into alliance with Wallachia and Bulgaria, his aim being to emulate the policy of earlier rulers in encircling the Ottoman Empire in case of another war.

The test of Mircea's foreign and army policy was actually to come after his death in 1559. Petru cel Tinar, his successor, had to face an invasion from an alliance of Wallachia's enemies in Hungary and Poland in 1560, the same year a portentious comet was sighted. The declaration of war caused a rift in Poland, since its Lithuanian partner was now called by its treaties with Wallachia to fight against its own king alongside Bulgaria and Ryazan. Many of the Lithuanian nobles were openly pro-Wallachian, raising their own armies and marching against their sovereign and their Polish neighbours. The Polish-Hungarian plan was to defeat their enemies piecemeal. To this end a large force of some 50 000 men marched south into Bulgaria, whose own armies had entered Hungarian owned Kosovo. Petru chose to raise a large army and wait. After a great battle outside Sofia, the Bulgarian army was smashed, and its capital besieged. The Voivode of Bulgaria was taken hostage in his palace and forced to pay a large ransom. Meanwhile, having defeated a small Polish invasion of Moldavia, Petru's forces went on the offensive: marching northward through Serbia the Polish and Hungarian troops, short on supplies and exhausted after months of siege and fighting in the Bulgarian mountains, were crushed by a force of up to 20 000 Wallachian cavalry and infantry. The battle of Razan in March 1561 was decisive: the great army was destroyed, and Poland's Venetian and Genoese enemies seized the moment and declared war, hoping to destroy Polish dominion in Croatia and Dalmatia. A Genoese force sailed from Crimea and disembarked in Varna harbour to a rapturous welcome. After the defeat of another Polish attempt on Moldavia, King Sigmund had had enough and was forced to offer Petru peace at the cost of a large indemnity. The civil war with Lithuania was ended. Hungary was isolated. First Serbia and Kosovo fell and then the Banat. With Petru's army besieging Pest, the Hungarians sued for peace. Heavy indemmities were paid, Banat was ceded and Hungary had to recognise the independence of Serbia as a Wallachian dependency. Petru's reign was to end with the country at war once again. The Lithuanians called upon Wallachia and Bulgaria's aid in defeating rebels in Kurland, while in the south war erupted again with the Ottoman Empire, now greatly strengthened by the absorbtion of most of the Anatolian Emirates, Trebizond and Armenia. The struggle in Bulgaria was desparate, but the Wallachians succeeded in blocking the straits, weakening the Ottoman war effort. Although Bulgaria was compelled to pay the Sultan, there was no question of its reconquest. Instead Constantinople was besieged, and formidable fleets of the Knights of St John and the Kingdom of Cyprus sailed against the Turks, whose naval power was broken both in Aegean and Black Sea. On the 17th of July 1567, Constantinople fell. The Wallachian army moved into Macedonia. The Turkish sultan Selim sued for peace, allowing Petru to keep Constantinople and paying heavy indemnities into the bargain. Wallachia's armies now marched through Lithuania to besiege Memel. Petru died at this time and was buried in the monastery of St John of Stoudion in Constantinople.


Wallachian territory at the accession of Alexandru II

Petru was succeeded in 1568 by Alexandru II, a competent general and diplomat. He was faced almost immediately with two crises - a revolt in Eastern Rumelia and demands by the nobility - the "Knights in the Chamber" declaration - for the restoration of their ancient rights at the expense of central authority. Hastily concluding his own peace with the Kurlanders, he returned the bulk of his forces to Wallachia and crushed the rebels, while refusing to entertain the demands of the nobility. For several years afterward, the realm was dangerously unstable and there were further revolts. Unrest continued in the reign of his successor, Mihnea II, whose disasterous "asigurare" laws managed to provoke bitter resentment among both the peasants, nobles and citizens of Constantinople, where the visiting monarch was murdered after serious rioting culminating in a full scale uprising. A new system needed to be devised to accomodate the needs of the new, highly urbanised Greek population which had been incorporated.

I know! I just opened my "Teach Yourself Romanian" book at a random page and picked a word that seemed as if it might make sense in politics!

Mihnea was to be succeeded by the brilliant Mihai Viteazul "the Brave" and it was he who, prior to his accession, was to arrive in Constantinople at the head of an army to suppress the revolt. He was to remain in Thrace as Wallachia joined the great confederation against the Ottoman Empire in 1590, defeating the Turks as they attempted to cross the Dardenelles. Following the assassination of Mihnea in February 1591 Mihai was acclaimed king by all the assembled knights and crowned in Constantinople's cathedral of Haggia Sophia as Prince of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, lord of Bulgaria and Serbia (Bulgaria had been ruled directly under Mihnea since the death of Voivode Boreslav; now its autonomy was restored) and Viceroy of the Roman Empire. Mihai Viteazul assembled his army again and marched south, storming the fortress of Durres and defeating the Turks again in Macedonia before marching into Anatolia itself and leading his army to the gates of the city of Trebizond, which was in revolt against the sultan. However, he was met only by ambassadors from his ally Hungary who informed him the war was over. Venice was to receive most of Greece and Mihai was to receive Albania as part of the settlement. Mihai's reign was one of peace and prosperity, with no obstacles other than a brief quarrel with the church. Foreign trade prospered. Continuing the policy of a light hand among non-Romanian peoples, he created a self-governing principality of Albania. In 1600, Mihai accepted the throne of Hungary, and it seemed that an end might be in sight to the historical animosity between the two nations. However, he was not prepared to convert to Catholicism and so was never able to establish his authority; instead a regent took charge. Rebuffed, Mihai instead turned to Venice and Croatia as allies. Mihai survived an assassination attempt in March 1602, but was never again healthy enough to lead his army. He died in August to be succeeded by Radu Mihnea.
*****************
A 9-7-9 monarch and leader and nothing much for him to do! All the work uniting Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania had already been done by predecessors.
*****************


The Situation after Mihai Viteazul's Victories

During the reign of Radu Mihnea, Wallachia was to look increasingly westwards. The Ottoman threat which had plagued his ancestors was receding; in Europe only Macedonia remained in Turkish hands and in the East, the Ukrainian cossacks had shaken off Ottoman rule and Russia had conquered the last remnants of the Tartar Khanate of the Golden Horde with the exception of Astrakhan. Both Poland and Hungary, Wallachia's jealous northern neighbours, were in a period of growing weakness. Radu Mihnea's reign was notable for the extension of the great University and Academy at Bucharest, hitherto only an ecclesiastical college, which was to become renowned as the centre of an artistic and philosophical revival in Eastern Europe and for reinvigorating Orthodox theology. Radu Mihnea expanded the navy and reinforced his ties with Venice and Croatia. He showed himself a competent politician by out-manoeuvering the Transylvanian burghers' in their demands for greater autonomy. In late 1608, relations between Croatia and their former masters in Hungary deteriorated further until war was declared. Radu Mihnea honoured his commitment to his allies, and began a new campaign against the Hungarians. He began by joining with Venice in an attack on Hungary's ally Bosnia, capturing Belgrade. Severely pressed, the Bosnians were forced to pay a hefty sum to Venice and return Serbia to self-government under Wallachian suzerainty. The armies then turned on Hungary. While Ruthenia was occupied by Wallachia, the Croats advanced on the Hungarian capital. The king of Hungary fled to his mountain stronghold in the Carpathians, but when Croatian and Venetian cannon were heard there too, he sued for peace without losing any territory. The remainder of Radu Mihnea's reign was peaceful apart from the occasion when the Serbs renounced their allegiance and a force was sent to bring them to heel. Radu pardoned the Serbian Voivode, Alexander Vukovic, proclaiming that he had been coerced by scheming Bosnians and Hungarians, but Alexander returned only to revolt again. He was captured and publicly beheaded in Belgrade, but this made him into a martyr and ignited another revolt which was again quickly suppressed. Radu Mihnea's reign was to see no more dissent in Serbia. He died on August 1st 1623.
*************
So, I'd built that Fine Arts Academy and that was that. I considered ending the game there and then. After advice from people on the board, I discovered my inflation was ridiculously high (117% or something) and that I'd effectively ruined the country doing things the way I had.
I couldn't carry on as things were; I typed the cheat code in a few times for deflation. The AAR after this point is after the cheat code; it's not a straight game anymore, but then, I hadn't really planned on going on any further. The inflation had already done a great deal of damage technology-wise.
*************
Alexandru Coconul succeeded him, and pursued a policy of attempting to win the Serbs from Roman Catholicism back to the Orthodox church, putting a great deal of resources into the attempt and ensuring that it had the full backing of the Patriarch of Constantinople. It was in Alexandru's reign that the final war with the Turks which was to drive them from European soil began. In 1625, the Ottoman Turks, supported by Tartars and Kalmyks from Astrakhan, declared war on Albania and made warlike overtures to Bulgaria. Alexandru was not prepared to allow his southern vassals to fall into the sultan's hands, and promptly declared war, citing a list of wrongs against Wallachia and against Orthodox Christians in general, as just cause, first ensuring that he would receive support from Venice. The Venetians attacked the Turks in Macedonia and drove them out in a series of battles and sieges. Meanwhile, the small but determined Wallachian army blocked the straits, while a second Venetian force fought from Ionia against Turkish and Tartar troops along the border, eventually gaining the upper hand and besieging the Turkish capital in Bursa. The Wallachians crossed into Anatolia themselves and laid siege to Kastamonu, defeating more Tartars en route. With his forces cut in half and most of the heartland of Anatolia open, the Turkish sultan offered terms: by the Peace of Sinope, the Ottomans evacuated all of Macedonia, ceding it to Venice, and paid heavy indemnities to Wallachia.