Tl;dr: the 15th century Balkans were a messTM. It was like a complicated high school drama where everything revolved around who liked who and you totally did not want to be voivode of Wallachia.
What the hell is a Wallachia?
In the 15th century what we today call Romania was divided into three main principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. Wallachia was a relatively young principality. The original principality came into existence in 1310 and was officially recognised by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in 1359. [1] Under the rule of Radu’s grandfather, Mircea the Old (1386-1418) the small principality expanded significantly as Mircea worked to unite the smaller pre-existing states under the Wallachian banner. [2] To the north of Wallachia, across the Carpathian mountains, lay Transylvania. Transylvania was a province of Hungary and was ruled by a voivode (prince) appointed by the Hungarian king. Finally, to the north-east lay the third principality of Moldavia which had emerged in 1359. [3]
These Romanian lands lay along the thriving commercial routes linking the east and the west. By the 15th century they played an important international economic role as the guardian of a commercial corridor extending to Asia, via the black sea along which spices and silks from the East would be traded for clothes, velvet and iron from the West.[4]
Whilst this advantageous positioning did bring them wealth it also made them targets for larger empires.[5] External pressures led to internal instability and Wallachian voivodes came and went at an alarming rate - hardly having to time to warm their throne seats before being dethroned by the next pretender. Alliances were everything and yet often meant very little. In sum, being ruler of Wallachia was a bit of a nightmare of a job.
Internal Troubles
One of the major weaknesses of the Wallachian state was that it lacked a well-established principle of succession to the throne. The voivode was elected by an assembly of boyars (noble landowners) and although the throne was usually given to the eldest son of the previous voivode there was no official policy of primogeniture* so any male relative, legitimate or illegitimate, could make a claim for the throne.[6] Consequently, this ambiguous system of succession led to constant struggles between possible heirs for the throne. Each rallying to get the support and votes of various boyar factions creating great internal tension. Additionally, it encouraged external interference in the dynastic struggles. Since, there were so many possible legitimate rulers, foreign powers would often take advantage of this by supporting and pushing their own personal claimant in the hope that when that claimant took the throne they would advance the interests of the foreign power that put them there. [7] This was the case with almost everyone in our story. Vlad II Dracul took the throne with Hungarian support, Vlad III Dracula with the Ottomans and then later the Hungarians, Radu with the Ottomans (multiple times) and Basarab Laiotă with the Moldavians. Though each of these ascensions to the throne involved military takeovers they were each legitimate according to the Wallachian rules of succession.
The instability created by this system is reflected in the length of each voivode’s rule. Between 1418-1476, 11 princes ruled for an average of five years each. Most reigned for multiple terms making the average length of time for a single uninterrupted rule only two years.[8] In fact the longest, uninterrupted rule for this period was only 11 years! And that was under Voivode Radu III.
* a system in which the right of succession belongs only to the eldest child. In the absence of the eldest it proceeds to the next eldest in order of birth and so on.
Relationship with the Ottoman Empire
First contact between Wallachia and the Ottomans occurred in the late 14th century when Mircea the Old agreed to pay tribute to the emerging power whilst retaining Wallachian independence.[9] Commercially, this allegiance benefitted Wallachia by keeping trade routes open whilst also assuring peace and protection from the Ottomans. Consequently, it was maintained by many later voivodes to the benefit of their country.[10]
Relationship with the Kingdom of Hungary
Despite paying tribute to the Ottomans, most voivodes also swore allegiance and loyalty to the other regional power – Hungary. [11] Catholic Hungary controlled the principality of Transylvania as well as the commercially important Saxon cities like Braşov and Sibiu that lay within Transylvania.[12] For Wallachia, maintaining peace with both Hungary and the Ottomans, was a delicate balancing act as the two powers used the Wallachian throne as a battleground for supremacy in the region – electing and dethroning voivodes as suited their agendas. [13]
However, the Wallachian voivodes could also play this game, swearing allegiance to one power to gain the throne and then switching to the other as suited them. [14] Radu and Vlad’s father, Vlad II Dracul, was particularly adept at this. As mentioned before, he originally gained the throne under the support of the Emperor Sigismund, King of Hungary and Emperor of Germany, but later swore allegiance to Sultan Murad II. He took part in campaigns with the Ottomans against the Transylvanians before swinging back and taking part in anti-Ottoman crusades alongside the Hungarians (despite Murad threatening to kill Vlad and Radu whom he was holding hostage for this exact reason). And then eventually, he was murdered by his own boyars who had also switched sides and now wanted someone else on the throne.[15] Relationships truly were fickle for a Wallachian voivode.
Sons as hostages
Radu and Vlad’s childhood stay with the Ottoman’s to ensure their fathers loyalty was not unusual for the period.[16] Previously, Voivode Mihail I of Wallachia had also been forced to send his sons as hostages to the Ottoman court in 1419 after he’d engaged in an anti-Ottoman crusade with the Hungarians.[17] Many other sons of princes or high-ranking boyars were also taken by the Ottoman court to Bursa or Edirne to ensure their fathers would not betray Ottoman interests and to be educated in the Turkish ways. [18] This process was designed to not only ensure the loyalty of their fathers to the empire but also to indoctrinate the sons into being loyal rulers when they succeeded their fathers.
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Fifteenth century Balkan politics were messy and brutal. Death by old age was a luxury few voivodes could afford, and alliances meant everything. For Radu, this would be no different.
Bibliography
[1] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 30.
[2] Cazacu, Dracula, 3.; Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 20, 30.
[3] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 28.
[4] Cazacu, Dracula, 11
[5] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 27.
[6] Cazacu, Dracula, 15.; Martin Rady, “Historical Introduction,” in Government and Law in Medieval Moldavia, Transylvania and Wallachia, ed. Martin Rady and Alexandru Simon. (Great Britain: University College London, 2013), 8.
[7] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 30.; Rady, “Historical Introduction,” 8.
[8] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 32.
[9] Ibid, 35.
[10] Cazacu, Dracula, 9.
[11] Ibid, 8.
[12] Ibid, 13.
[13] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 38.; Rady, “Historical Introduction,” 8.
[14] Nicolle, Cross & Crescent in the Balkans, 154.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Trow, Vlad the Impaler, 138.
[17] Treptow, Vlad III Dracula The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula, 37.
