Wallachian Settlements Mentioned in Internal Documents (C
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Coman Marian THE BUILDING OF THE MOLDAVIAN-WALLACHIAN FRONTIER c. 1350 – c. 1450 M.A. Thesis in Medieval Studies CEU eTD Collection Central European University Budapest June 2002 THE BUILDING OF THE MOLDAVIAN-WALLACHIAN FRONTIER c. 1350 – c. 1450 by Coman Marian (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ External Examiner ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor CEU eTD Collection ____________________________________________ Examiner Budapest June 2002 I, the undersigned, Coman Marian, candidate for the M.A. degree in Medieval Studies declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 1 June 2002 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Table of Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................... II LIST OF MAPS ................................................................................................................................... III INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1. THE MOLDAVIAN-WALLACHIAN MEDIEVAL FRONTIER: DIFFERENT APPROACHES. ..................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 INTERPRETATIVE PARADIGMS .......................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 A frontier like all the others ..................................................................................... 3 1.1.2 A “special” frontier ................................................................................................. 3 1.2. IMAGINING FRONTIERS: TERMS AND APPROACHES .......................................................... 7 1.2.1 Terms and concepts ................................................................................................. 7 1.2.2 Theories about the frontier and methodological approaches. ................................. 8 CHAPTER 2. FROM AN OPEN TO A CLOSED FRONTIER. ...................................................... 13 2.1. NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL BOUNDARIES ....................................................................... 13 2.2. AN OVERVIEW OF THE LANDSCAPE ................................................................................ 18 2.3. DEMOGRAPHIC REALITIES OF THE BORDERLAND ........................................................... 19 2.4. POPULATION MOVEMENTS ............................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER 3. THE MONGOL LEGACY ......................................................................................... 30 3.1. THE GOLDEN HORDE’S DOMINATION ............................................................................ 30 3.2. FROM A PASTORAL TO AN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE. THE ECONOMIC FEATURES OF THE REGION. ........................................................................................................................ 34 3.2.1. Commercial activities in the region ...................................................................... 34 3.2.2. From a pastoral to an agricultural landscape. ..................................................... 37 3.3. “THE COMPETITORS:” THE HUNGARIAN KINGDOM AND THE LOCAL TATAR RULERS. .... 39 3.3.1. The kingdom of Hungary ...................................................................................... 40 3.3.2. Demetrius princeps Tartarorum ........................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 4. THE TERRITORIAL EXPANSION OF THE WALLACHIAN AND MOLDAVIAN PRINCIPALITIES ..................................................................................................... 49 4.1. TERRITORIAL ASPECTS OF THEIR EMERGENCE ............................................................... 49 4.1.1. Wallachia .............................................................................................................. 50 4.1.2. Moldavia: from defense mark to state...................................................................53 4.2. BESSARABIA AND BASARAB. ......................................................................................... 56 4.3. MOLDAVIAN EXPANSION TOWARDS THE SOUTH IN THE END OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY ............................................................................................................................. 60 4.4. WALLACHIA’S EASTERN BORDER IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ............................................................................................................................................ 64 CHAPTER 5. SETTLEMENT AND DISPUTE ON THE FRONTIER .......................................... 68 5.1. FROM AGREEMENT TO CONFLICT....................................................................................68 5.2. THE DISPUTED BORDERLANDS ....................................................................................... 71 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 79 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................... 82 ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................... WALLACHIAN SETTLEMENTS MENTIONED IN INTERNAL DOCUMENTS (C. 1350-1450) .............. SOUTHWESTERN MOLDAVIAN SETTLEMENTS MENTIONED IN INTERNAL DOCUMENTS (1384- 1448) ....................................................................................................................................... BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... CEU eTD Collection i List of Abbreviations AIIA Anuarul Institutului de Istorie si Arheologie “A. D. Xenopol” DRH-A Documenta Romaniae Historica. A. Moldova (Romanian Historical Documents. Series A. Moldavia). Vol. 1 (1384-1448), ed. Constantin Cihodaru, Ioan Caproşu and Leon Şimanschi and Vol. 2 (1449-1486), ed. Leon Şimanschi. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1975 and 1976. DRH-B Documenta Romaniae Historica. B. Ţara Românească (Romanian Historical Documents. Series B. Wallachia). Vol. 1 (1247-1500), ed. Petre P. Panaitescu and Damaschin Mioc and vol. 2 (1500-1525), ed. Ştefan Ştefănescu and Olimpia Diaconescu. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1966 and 1972. DRH-D Documenta Romaniae Historica. D. Relaţiile dintre Ţările (Romanian Historical Documents. Series D. The relationships between Romanian principalities). Vol. 1 (1222-1456). Ed. Constantin Cihodaru and Ştefan Pascu. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1977. CEV Prochaska, Antonius, ed. Codex epistolaris Vitoldi. Krakow: Academiae Litterarum Cracoviae, 1882. Hurmuzaki Documente privitoare la istoria românilor (Documents concerning the history of Romanians). Series I, vol. 1 (1199-1345) and vol. 2 (1346-1500), ed. Eudoxiu de Hurmuzaki and Nicolae Densuşianu. Bucharest: Socecu & Teclu, 1889,1900. RdI Revista de istorie RI Revista istorică RRH Revue Roumaine d’Histoire SAI Studii şi articole de istorie CEU eTD Collection SMIM Studii şi materiale de istorie medie SRI Studii. Revistă de istorie ii List of Maps 1. Wallachian settlements mentioned in internal documents (c. 1350-1450) 2. Southwestern Moldavian settlements mentioned in internal documents (1384-1448) 3. Map of the main archaeological findings in Moldavia (c. 1250-c. 1350) CEU eTD Collection iii Introduction Also, the above mentioned Wallachs and the notary of the king of the Romans brought to us a description of the boundaries and places that, as they say, were occupied and wrested by the Moldavian voievod from the Wallachians. This is the only extant known piece of information concerning the Wallachian- Moldavian frontier for the period between 1350 and 1450. An attempt to write on this topic, based on such flimsy evidence may appear rather foolish. And, indeed, such seems to have been the opinion of previous Romanian scholars, who have rarely addressed this topic during the last 150 years. Even when they did so, they usually dismissed it in just a few lines. I my opinion their verdict was hasty and incorrect, and the following pages are present a long overdue reconsideration of the problem. The glimpse that the above quoted source offers us represents only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath it lays a complex process through which the two expanding societies, Moldavian and Wallachian, met and interacted. My purpose here is to reconstruct the expansion of the two principalities up to the moment of their first overlap, which determined the first settlement of