10. “No Turk is authorised to take away one or more servants of either sex, natives of Wallachia; and no Turkish mosque shall ever exist on any part of the Wallachian territory.”
11. “The Sublime Porte promises never to grant a Ferman[[9]] at the request of a Wallachian subject for his affairs in Wallachia, of whatever nature they may be; and never to assume the right of calling to Constantinople, or to any other part of the Turkish dominions, a Wallachian subject on any pretence whatever.”
This treaty in many respects advantageous to Wallachia, still forms the basis of its constitution. The first, third, fourth, and latter part of the fifth articles only, have since undergone alterations, which have proved in no small degree detrimental to the liberties of that country. The remainder have been, and are to this day, punctually observed.
The qualification of a mere tributary prince did not, however, appear to the Sultan Mahomet as implying sufficient submission; and, in order to place the person of the Voïvode under a more immediate dependence, he gave him the rank and title of a Turkish Pashah; a dignity, which has ever since been inseparable from that of Voïvode or Hospodar.
The principality remained in a peaceable state several years after its war with Mahomet, and the weakness and incapacity of several of its princes afforded to the Ottoman court the means of ruling over it with increasing power. In 1544 portions of territory bordering on the Danube were ceded to the Turks; the fortresses of Ibraïl, Giurgevo, and Tourno, which have much figured in all the subsequent European wars of Turkey, were raised upon them, and were garrisoned by Turkish soldiers. Having gained so strong a footing in the country, the conduct of the Turks became more and more overbearing: its rights and privileges were no longer respected; and the Porte countenanced, or connived at, every sort of depredation committed by the soldiers of the garrisons beyond the boundaries of the fortresses; and soon treated the principality and its inhabitants as on the same footing with all its other Christian conquests.
This state of things continued to the year 1593, when an individual of the name of Michael was elected to the Voïvodate. He no sooner held the reins of government than he determined to deliver his country from the Turkish yoke, and restore it to independency. Circumstances soon afforded him an opportunity of putting this plan into execution. The Prince Sigismund of Transylvania, also tributary to the Turks, revolted against them towards this period, at the instigations of the Pope and of the Emperor Rodolphus. With him and with the Voïvode Aaron of Moldavia, Michael formed a league against the enemies of Christianity. But in order to give a greater appearance of justice to their proceedings, the allies sent a long list of grievances to the Porte, demanded redress, and insisted that some satisfactory guarantee were given of a change of system for the future. These representations not only remained unanswered, but, shortly after they were made, a troop of three thousand Janissaries came into Wallachia, and went about the country, levying contributions on the villagers, and committing all sorts of outrages. A Wallachian force was at last sent against them, and they were all put to the sword; after which, Michael, at the head of an army composed of his own troops and those of his allies, marched against Giurgevo, and compelled its garrison to retire to the other side of the Danube.
The threatening attitude of Michael and his allies induced the Sultan Amurat to desist from further provocation, and to wait for a more favourable moment of imposing again his yoke on the principalities; but he died suddenly in 1595, and his successor, Mahomet III., no sooner ascended the throne than he resolved to carry that plan into execution by the means of an overpowering army. Forty thousand Turks and twenty thousand Tartars, under the orders of the Grand Vezier, invaded the Wallachian and Moldavian provinces nearly at the same time, and a long war ensued. The invaders suffered a series of defeats: for five years they renewed the campaign with no better success; and the Sultan was finally compelled to relinquish his claims.
In 1600, after the abdication of Sigismund of Transylvania, that principality became tributary to the Emperor Rodolphus; and as the Voïvode Michael, whom the emperor had engaged into his interests, had assisted him in defeating the schemes of Cardinal Battori, pretender to the Transylvanian sovereignty, Rodolphus, to reward him, left him the government of Transylvania. The Voïvode fixed his residence in that province, and appointed a lieutenant in Wallachia. But in the following year the Transylvanians, not satisfied with his administration, revolted, and sent invitations to their former Prince, Sigismund, who was living as a private individual at Clausenburg, to come and resume the supreme authority. An Austrian army, under the command of General Baste, was hastily dispatched to stop the progress of the rebellion; and Michael, who had repaired to Wallachia, returned with some troops, and joined the imperial general. They marched together against the rebels, who had formed an army of equal strength, and an obstinate battle took place, which terminated in the entire defeat of the insurgents, and in the subjection of the whole province. When events had determined the fate of Transylvania, the two allied commanders quarrelled in a discussion concerning the ulterior measures of administration; and Baste, resolved by some means or other to get rid of Michael, whose pretensions appeared to him to have become of a dangerous tendency, caused him to be assassinated. The Wallachian troops were sent back to their country, and they carried away with them the head of the Voïvode Michael, which was buried in the monastery of Dialloluy, near the town of Tirgovist, where the monument that was placed over it at the time, with an inscription alluding to the principal events of his life, and to the circumstances of his death, engraved in Slavonian characters, still exists.
The death of Michael, which took place in 1602, spread great consternation and confusion in Wallachia. The Primates[[10]] lost time in deliberations on the measures that were to be pursued; and the Turkish Pashahs of the neighbourhood sent a strong body of troops, which, crossing the Danube at different places, occupied the greatest part of the principality, and put it out of the power of the Wallachians to make any effectual resistance. The sultan’s orders for the election of a Voïvode of his own choice were soon obeyed, and the principality resumed its tributary character; the treaty of Mahomet II. was renewed, but the amount of the tribute was fixed at a much higher sum. From this period forward, Wallachia remained under the power of the Ottoman Sultans; and although its inhabitants, in the course of the 17th century, made frequent efforts to throw off the yoke, the success of such attempts always proved momentary, and consequently more injurious than beneficial to them in the sequel.
With regard to Moldavia, the first act of its submission to the Turks was not the effect of conquest, but a voluntary measure of precaution and security.[[11]] It was only in 1536 that this principality consented to become tributary to the Sultan, and the event is thus explained by all the Moldavian historians.