Bogdan the Founder

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Bogdan the Founder
Bogdan Întemeietorul
Petru I
Lațcu
FatherMikola (debated)

Bogdan I, commonly known as Bogdan the Founder (

Moldavia in the 1360s. He had initially been the voivode, or head, of the Vlachs in the Voivodeship of Maramureș in the Kingdom of Hungary. However, when the first certain record was made of him in 1343, he was mentioned as a former voivode who had become disloyal to Louis I of Hungary
. He invaded the domains of a Vlach landowner who remained loyal to the king in 1349. Four years later, he was again mentioned as voivode in a charter, which was the last record of his presence in Maramureș.

Bogdan and his retainers left Maramureș for Moldavia between 1359 and 1365. Moldavia had been under the rule of Sas of Moldavia, a vassal of Louis I of Hungary, but the local Vlachs were opposed to the Hungarian suzerainty. Bogdan expelled Sas's son, Balc, by force and seized the throne. In retaliation, Louis I confiscated Bogdan's estates in Maramureș in 1365. Bogdan reigned as the first voivode of Moldavia. He did not accept the overlordship of Louis I of Hungary, transforming Moldavia into the second independent Romanian principality.

Origins

Bogdan's early life is subject to scholarly debate

Archbishop of Kalocsa, to Clisura Dunării three times in 1334 and 1335 to make preparations for the movement of Bogdan, son of Mikola, from "his country" to the Kingdom of Hungary.[6] Historian Pál Engel says that Voivode Bogdan led a large group of Vlachs from Serbia to Hungary on this occasion.[7] The royal charter neither referred to Bogdan's ethnicity, nor mentioned large groups of Vlachs. However, the use of titles such as "vojvoda" and "knez", along with the name Bogdan, suggests a Slavic rather than Aromanian composition within that group.[8] Historian Victor Spinei emphasizes that the "similitude of the names is insufficient to identify" Bogdan, son of Mikola, with Bogdan, the future voivode of Moldavia.[1]

At Cuhea, the ruins of a church and a

Roman Catholic church, suggesting that either Bogdan's family converted to Catholicism or an originally Catholic church building was transformed to serve an Orthodox family.[9] The oldest parts of the manor house were built in the late 13th century, but it was enlarged in the middle of the next century.[1]

Bogdan's domain in

Vișeu.[1]

Conflicts in Maramureș

When Charles I's son, Louis I of Hungary, ascended the throne in July 1342, Bogdan had already been the voivode of the Voivodeship of Maramureș.[1] At that time, the Vlach knezes, or chiefs, of Maramureș elected their voivodes from among their number.[1][13] Louis I's charter, dated to 21 October 1343, referred to Bogdan as "former voivode of Maramureș, disloyal to us", showing that Bogdan had come into conflict with the king or the king's representatives and lost his office.[14] The document referred to a debate between Bogdan and János Kölcsei, the royal castellan of Visk (now Vyshkovo in Ukraine), but the causes and exact circumstances of the debate are unknown.[15] According to historians Radu Carciumaru and Victor Spinei, Louis I's attempts to limit the voivodes' privileges caused the conflict.[15] Spinei writes that the king exploited the conflicts between the leading Vlach families to depose Bogdan with the assistance of local knezes, thus hindering him from rising up in open rebellion.[14] On the other hand, Ioan-Aurel Pop says that Bogdan staged a rebellion against the sovereign which lasted for years.[16]

After his deposition, Bogdan did not leave Maramureș.[14] King Louis mentioned Bogdan as "an inveterate disloyal subject of ours" in a royal charter, issued on 15 September 1349, suggesting that Bogdan's relations with the king had worsened between 1343 and 1349.[14] According to the document, Bogdan attempted to persuade a Vlach knez, Giula of Giuleşti, and his six sons to join him.[15][14] For the Giuleştis refused him, Bogdan and his nephew, Stephen, invaded their domains in Maramureș and expelled them from there.[15][14] King Louis ordered John, voivode of Maramureș (who was Stephen's brother and Bogdan's nephew) to restore the Giuleştis in their estates at an assembly of the knezes in the presence of Andrew Lackfi,[17] ispán, or head, of Maramureș County.[18]

The presence of Bogdan in Maramureș was last documented on 14 May 1353.[19] On this day, the Eger Chapter determined the boundaries of the domain of Bogdan's two nephews, Stephen and John, in Cuhea.[20][21] The document mentioned both Stephen and John as the king's "loyal servants" and referred to their uncle as "Voivode Bogdan", without mentioning his disloyalty.[20][21] Bogdan must have been present, because the boundaries of his nephews' estates were fixed in the presence of the neighboring landowners, including Bogdan, according to the document.[20]

Voivode of Moldavia

The biographer of Louis I of Hungary,

Moldova River in the late 1340s or the 1350s.[2][23][24] Both Dragoș and his successor, Sas, accepted Louis I's suzerainty.[2][23]

No contemporaneous sources mentioned the reasons of Bogdan's movement to Moldavia.[20] According to Tudor Sălăgean, Bogdan left Maramureș because he "failed to get rid of the Hungarian hegemony".[25] Victor Spinei writes that Dragoș's example encouraged Bogdan to cross the Carpathian Mountains, especially because he knew that the Vlachs in Moldavia were opposed to Louis I's authority.[20] A diploma of King Louis, issued on 20 March 1360, mentioned that the Vlachs rose up in open rebellion in Moldavia, but Dragoș of Giulești – one of the six sons of Bogdan's former opponent, Giula of Giulești – defeated them, restoring the king's rule in Moldavia.[19]

According to a royal charter, dated to 2 February 1365, Bogdan and his (unnamed) sons had "stealthily" fled from Hungary because they wanted to seize Moldavia.[26] Balc, the son of Sas of Moldavia, tried to resist them, but Bogdan and his sons forced him to withdraw to Hungary.[26][27] In retaliation, Louis I of Hungary confiscated Bogdan's domain in Maramureș and donated it to Balc and his brothers.[26][28] Bogdan seized the province after Balc left for Hungary.[2]

Bogdan's action took place before 2 February 1365, but the exact date is debated.[22][29] The earliest year, proposed by historians, is 1359; historians suggesting this date say that Bogdan took advantage of the local Vlachs' rebellion, documented by the 1360 royal diploma.[2][16][30] Dennis Deletant writes that Bogdan invaded Moldavia around 1363.[31] Radu Carciumaru proposes the same year; he says that Bogdan took advantage both of a conflict between Louis I of Hungary and Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and of the decisive victory of the Lithuanians over the Tatars in the Battle of Blue Waters.[32] Bogdan's action took place in 1364, according to Victor Spinei, and only in 1365, according to Tudor Sălăgean.[28][33]

Rădăuţi

John of Küküllő mentioned that Louis I's army often invaded Moldavia, but the "number of Vlachs inhabiting that land increased, transforming it into a country".

King of Poland in 1370.[35]

The boundaries of Moldavia during Bogdan's reign cannot exactly be determined.

Rădăuţi.[39][40] Bogdan was succeeded by his son, Laţcu.[33]

Legacy

The foundation of the independent Principality of Moldavia – the second independent Romanian state after the

Principality of Wallachia – is attributed to Bogdan by modern historians.[30][41] The list of the voivodes of Moldavia, recorded in the Bistrița Monastery in 1407, begins with Bogdan, without referring to his predecessors, Dragoș and Sas, who were mentioned in all Moldavian chronicles.[42] In Turkic documents, Moldavia was mentioned as "Kara-Boğdan", or "Black Bogdan", from the late 14th century onward, which also shows his fame.[38][43]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Spinei 1986, p. 204.
  2. ^ a b c d e Georgescu 1991, p. 18.
  3. ^ Vásáry 2005, p. 159.
  4. ^ Györffy 1998, p. 118.
  5. ^ Krassó vármegye története. III. Oklevéltár. Budapest: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára. 1882. pp. 10–11.
  6. ^ Pop 2013, p. 323.
  7. ^ Engel 2001, p. 135.
  8. ^ Pop 2013, p. 324.
  9. ^ a b Crăciun 2005, p. 147.
  10. ^ Pop 2013, p. 238.
  11. ^ Pop 2013, pp. 238–239.
  12. ^ Györffy 1998, p. 123.
  13. ^ Vásáry 2005, p. 157.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Spinei 1986, p. 205.
  15. ^ a b c d Carciumaru 2012, p. 182.
  16. ^ a b c Pop 2005, p. 275.
  17. ^ Engel 1996, p. 152.
  18. ^ Pop 2013, pp. 199–200.
  19. ^ a b Carciumaru 2012, p. 183.
  20. ^ a b c d e Spinei 1986, p. 206.
  21. ^ a b Pop 2013, p. 199.
  22. ^ a b c Spinei 1986, p. 207.
  23. ^ a b Deletant 1986, p. 190.
  24. ^ Brezianu & Spânu 2007, pp. 124–125.
  25. ^ Sălăgean 2005, pp. 200–201.
  26. ^ a b c Pop 2005, pp. 239.
  27. ^ a b Deletant 1986, p. 191.
  28. ^ a b Spinei 1986, p. 208.
  29. ^ Rădvan 2010, p. 322.
  30. ^ a b c Treptow & Popa 1996, p. 45.
  31. ^ Deletant 1986, pp. 190–191.
  32. ^ Carciumaru 2012, p. 184.
  33. ^ a b Sălăgean 2005, p. 201.
  34. ^ a b Engel 2001, p. 166.
  35. ^ a b Spinei 1986, p. 211.
  36. ^ a b Rădvan 2010, p. 324.
  37. ^ Rădvan 2010, p. 529.
  38. ^ a b Brezianu & Spânu 2007, p. 56.
  39. ^ Brezianu & Spânu 2007, p. 45.
  40. ^ Rădvan 2010, p. 382.
  41. ^ Brezianu & Spânu 2007, p. 57.
  42. ^ Andreescu 1998, p. 94.
  43. ^ Spinei 1986, pp. 209–210.

Sources

Further reading

  • Bogdan, Ioan; Petrovici, Emil; Mihaila, G. (1968). Scrieri Alese [Selected Writings] (in Romanian). Editura Academiei.
  • Decei, Aurel (1939). "Une opinion tendencieuse de l'historiographie hongroise: les origines de Bogdan I, fondateur de la Moldavie". Revue de Transylvanie (in French). 5 (1): 289–312.
  • Holban, Maria (1965). "Contacts balkaniques et réalités roumaines aux confins danubiens du Royaume de Hongrie. A propos de la publication de nouvelles sources concernant Basarab". Revue des études sud-est européennes (in French). 3: 385–417.
Bogdan the Founder
 Died: 1365-1367
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Voivode of Moldavia

1359–1365 – 1365–1367 		Succeeded by
Petru I
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