The natives were treated as slaves by all these hordes of barbarian intruders, and great numbers of them were continually retiring to the other side of the Carpathians; where they settled under their own chiefs, sometimes independent, at others tributary to the kings of Hungary. The most conspicuous and thriving of these colonies were those of Fagarash and Maramosh.
The devastations continued in the plains finally drove out all the natives, and in the 11th century the Tartars retired, leaving the country a complete desert. It remained in this state until the year 1241, when the inhabitants of Fagarash, conducted by their chief Raddo Negro (Rodolphus the Black), crossed the mountains, and took possession of that tract of country, which is now called Upper Wallachia. Nearly at the same time, the inhabitants of Maramosh under their chief Bogdan, came and settled in that part which is by some called Moldavia, from the name of the river Moldau, which crosses it to fall into the Danube, and by the natives and Turks, Bogdania. Raddo Negro and his followers halted at the foot of the mountains, where they laid the foundation of a city, to which they gave the name of Kimpolung. At present it is reduced to an indifferent village; but its original extent is marked by old walls in ruin; and some inscriptions in its cathedral church attest it to have been Raddo’s capital. His successors transferred their residence to Tirgovist, more pleasantly situated in the plains.
Some Wallachian, Transylvanian, and Hungarian authors differ in opinion with respect to the exact period of Raddo’s and Bogdan’s establishment in Wallachia and in Moldavia, and fix it at a different year of the early part of the 13th century; but as they give no satisfactory explanation on the subject, I am disposed to differ from them all, in placing that event in the year 1241, on the strength of the following considerations:—1st. It does not appear probable that the kings of Hungary, who, at the commencement of the 13th century were very powerful, and who looked upon Fagarash and Maramosh as dependencies of their crown, would have suffered their inhabitants to desert them, in order to settle in foreign countries: 2dly, It would seem strange that Raddo, Bogdan, and their followers should have quitted their homes in a prosperous country, and come to inhabit a desert, without some extraordinary event had necessitated so remarkable an emigration: and 3dly, the best Hungarian historians place in the year 1240 the invasion of Battou-Han in the northern countries; and add, that having crossed Russia and Poland at the head of 500,000 men, he entered Hungary in the year 1241, where he staid three years, during which he put every thing to fire and sword, and finally retired because nothing more was left to satisfy his thirst of blood.[[2]] It appears, then, extremely probable that the ravages of Battou-Han, and the terror he spread in the adjacent provinces, were the only causes of this emigration, which no historian has yet otherwise accounted for.
Bogdan and Raddo assumed the Slavonic title of Voïvode, equivalent to that of commanding prince. When tranquillity was restored in Hungary, they acknowledged the supremacy of the Hungarian king; but it does not appear that the formalities of the recognition had been such as to bind their successors; for, at the early part of the principalities, some Voïvodes disputed it with success; and from the commencement of the 14th century, their independency was acknowledged by Hungary.
The Bannat of Crayova had been little molested during the great incursions of the barbarians: in the 9th century it had become tributary to the kings of Hungary, who afterwards held it as a sort of refuge for the knights going to, and coming from, the Holy Land; but soon after Raddo’s arrival, the Bann submitted to him the supreme sovereignty of the Bannat, and it has since then been annexed to the principality of Wallachia.
During the latter part of his life, Raddo raised another city, distant about thirty miles south-west of Kimpolung, on the borders of the river Argis: he gave it the name of Courté d’Argis, and resided in it occasionally. He also built a church here, which, two hundred years after, one of the Voïvodes beautified in a very conspicuous manner. The whole of the exterior work is entirely of carved marble, something in the style of the steeple of St. Stephen’s church at Vienna, but far more elegant. The whole produces a very striking effect; and, as it has perfectly preserved its original beauty, it is certainly a monument that the Wallachians may boast of in any part of Europe.
The Voïvodate was not made hereditary; and although it devolved sometimes from father to son, the successor was obliged to go through the formality of being elected by the chiefs of the nation.
Several successors of Raddo strengthened the government, the population increased, and a great number of small towns and villages were built in the country. Frequent hostilities against the Hungarians, arising from the claims of sovereignty of the latter, accustomed the Wallachians to war; and in 1391 the Voïvoide Mirtza collected a numerous force, and attacked the neighbouring possessions of the Turks with the view of rescuing them from their hands. The Sultan Bajazet being at that moment employed in Asia in a troublesome war with the Prince of Castomona, had left his conquests near the Danube without the means of defence. But when the news of their invasion reached him, he suspended his operations in Asia, and returned to Adrianople, from whence he sent a numerous army to Wallachia. The Voïvode marched to meet the Turks; and, after a bloody battle, he was defeated, and compelled to become tributary to the Sultan. The annual amount of the tribute was fixed at three thousand piasters.[[3]]
Wallachia continued to pay it until the year 1444; when Ladislas King of Hungary, preparing to make war against the Turks, engaged the Voïvode Dracula to form an alliance with him. The Hungarian troops marched through the principality and were joined by four thousand Wallachians under the command of Dracula’s son.[[4]]
The Hungarians being defeated at the celebrated battle of Varna, Hunniades their general, and regent of the kingdom during Ladislas’s minority, returned in haste to make new preparations for carrying on the war. But the Voïvode, fearful of the Sultan’s vengeance, arrested and kept him prisoner during a year, pretending thereby to show to the Turks that he treated him as an enemy. The moment Hunniades reached Hungary, he assembled an army and placed himself at the head of it, returned to Wallachia, attacked and defeated the Voïvode, and caused him to be beheaded in his presence; after which he raised to the Voïvodate one of the primates of the country, of the name of Dan.