AN
ACCOUNT
OF
_THE PRINCIPALITIES_
OF
WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA:
WITH
VARIOUS POLITICAL OBSERVATIONS
RELATING TO THEM.
BY WILLIAM WILKINSON, ESQ.
LATE BRITISH CONSUL RESIDENT AT BUKOREST.
Dobbiamo considerare queste due provincie, Wallachia e Moldavia a guisa
di due nave in un mar’ tempestoso, dove-rare volte si gode la
tranquilita e la calma. DELCHIARO—_Revoluxione di Wallachia_.
_LONDON_:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1820.
Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode,
Printers-Street, London.
PREFACE.
Amongst the nations of Europe most given to letters, none have so
largely contributed to the general list of publications, relating to the
condition and progress of the different countries of the world, as the
English; and no travellers possess to the same degree as they do the
love of describing them, however numerous the accounts that have
preceded the period of their own experimental observations. Their
journals, nevertheless, hardly ever fail to create interest, and the
least share of novelty in form or matter induces the less travelling
class of their countrymen to read them with pleasure.
Turkey and Egypt in particular have long been favourite themes; and
indeed the Ottoman empire in every point of view, whether topographical,
historical, administrative, religious, moral, political, military, or
commercial, offers an inexhaustible subject for investigation, and an
endless excitement to curiosity. No regular and minute description has,
however, yet been undertaken of two of its most important and curious
provinces, those which divide the principal part of the ancient kingdom
of Dacia, under the modern denomination of Wallachia and Moldavia,
although in the renewed existence of Greek governments exercising most
of the prerogatives of independency, in the struggles of two nations
between a strong remnant of Dacian barbarism and the influence of modern
civilisation, and in a country comprehending within its own boundaries
all the productive resources which fall but separately to the share of
other countries, sufficient matter may be found to render them a subject
by no means unworthy of notice.
These considerations have encouraged me to write the following pages
with the view of laying them before the public. An official residence of
some years in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, afforded me
the most ample opportunities of observation on every thing they contain
most interesting, and I have endeavoured to make an accurate and
satisfactory description of them. With regard to their history, I have
only dwelt upon the most remarkable events, and have merely given it
that extent to which its degree of importance seems entitled. I was
apprehensive that longer and more minute details might be found tedious
and unnecessary.
I regret, however, that at the time I wrote this account, I was not
sufficiently prepared to enter into further particulars with respect to
the minerals with which those countries abound; I intend, if I return to
them, to bestow as much attention as possible to that particular object,
and to make it the subject of a future separate treatise.
I am aware that my present undertaking is deserving of an abler pen; but
as the character of nations can only be properly understood after some
length of residence among them, I trust that the circumstances which
place it to my lot, will make the apology of my intrusion, and become a
motive of indulgence to its deficiencies in literary merit.
As Wallachia was the country of my fixed residence, I naturally chose it
for the principal scene of my observations; and indeed the history of
the two principalities is throughout so intimately connected, the form
of their respective governments, the language, manners, and customs of
the inhabitants, have ever been so much alike, that a description of the
one renders a distinct account of the other superfluous.
The political importance to which these two provinces have risen since
the reign of the ambitious Catherine, has given them a place of no small
consequence in the general balance of Europe. Most of the European
cabinets keep an eye upon them from the same motives, though with
different views; but politics alone have hitherto brought them into
notice, and philosophically or philanthropically speaking, it must be
confessed that a share of attention, directed by common justice and
humanity, was equally due to their definitive fate.
I have taken an opportunity of introducing into my appendix, a very
curious account of the military system of the Ottoman empire, translated
from a Turkish manuscript by an English gentleman, who possesses a
perfect knowledge of that language, and who has favoured me with it. I
have added to it some explanatory notes, rendered necessary by the
metaphorical, and in many parts, obscure style of the original writing,
and which my friend has purposely translated in a literal sense, in
order not to divest it of that originality of narration which
constitutes a great share of its interest.
The work was written in 1804, by order of the then reigning Sultan,
Selim III., with the view of explaining the important advantages of the
new military institution, called Nizam-y-Gedid, by which the Ottoman
armies were trained into a regular form of discipline.
This institution, however necessary, and although strongly supported by
all the higher classes, was so violently opposed by the clamorous
janissaries, that at length it became impossible to continue it, and
since the year 1805, the former regulations, or rather irregularities,
have again been prevalent in the Ottoman armies. The same disorders
which the Turkish author so faithfully describes as having existed
before the introduction of the Nizam-y-Gedid, have necessarily followed
its abolishment, and Turkey will no longer trust to her own means for
salvation in future war. Her last one with Russia has made her feel but
too sensibly how far the present form of discipline of her armies may
prove fatal to her existence, if ever she is abandoned to herself for
defence.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Geographical position and extent of Wallachia and
Moldavia—historical remarks from the decline of the Dacians to
the last century Page 1
CHAPTER II.
Inauguration of the Hospodars.—Present form of government.—Local
laws.—Tribunals of justice.—Members of the divan, and other
public functionaries.—Districts.—Caïmacam of
Crayova.—Ispravniks. 46
CHAPTER III.
Population.—Tribute and taxes.—Other branches of
revenue.—Metropolitan dignity.—Monasteries. 60
CHAPTER IV.
Gold and silver mines.—Productions.—Restrictions on their
exportations.—Navigation of the Danube.—Trade of importation. 72
CHAPTER V.
Bukorest and Tirgovist, the capitals of Wallachia.—Yassi, the
capital of Moldavia.—A description of them.—Mode of
travelling.—Breed of horses. Page 86
CHAPTER VI.
Observations on the Greeks in general.—Their introduction to the
government of the principalities.—Their political
system.—Causes of the declaration of war between England and
Russia, and Turkey in 1806.—Those which occasioned the failure
of the English expedition to Constantinople.—Subsequent change
of policy of the Ottoman government.—Peace with England.—Peace
with Russia, and circumstances which mostly contributed to
it.—Hospodars, Callimacki and Caradja.—Prince Demetrius
Mourousi’s death.—Caradja’s flight from Wallachia.—Reflections
on the conduct of the Porte relative to the two
principalities. 95
CHAPTER VII.
Climate—its influence.—Education of the
Boyars.—Schools.—Wallachian tongue.—Modern Greek.—National
dress, music, and dance.—Amusements.—Holidays.—Manners of
society.—Marriages.—Divorces.—Religion and
superstition.—Authority of the church—its independence of the
patriarchal church of Constantinople. 126
CHAPTER VIII.
Peasants.—their manners and mode of
living.—Emigrations.—Agriculture.—General aspect of the
country.—An account of the Gypsies Page 155
CHAPTER IX.
Intercourse of foreigners.—Foreign consuls.—How far the natives
are benefited by their intercourse with foreign residents. 177
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE POLITICAL POSITIONS OF THE
PRINCIPALITIES 187
APPENDIX 199
AN ACCOUNT
OF
_THE PRINCIPALITIES_
OF
WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA.
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND EXTENT OF WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA—HISTORICAL
REMARKS FROM THE DECLINE OF THE DACIANS TO THE LAST CENTURY.
The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, situated between 43° 40′
and 48° 50′ north latitude, 23° and 29° 30′ east longitude, occupying a
space of 350 miles in length, and 160 in breadth, are separated from the
Austrian provinces of Temesvar, Transylvania, and Boukovina, by the
Carpathian mountains; from Russia, by the river Pruth; and from Bulgaria
(the ancient Mœsia), by the Danube.
It is sufficiently ascertained that these two provinces, joined to those
of Transylvania and Temesvar, composed the kingdom of Dacia, finally
conquered by the Romans.
The Dacians were originally a Scythian or Sarmatian tribe, resembling,
in language and manners, the Thracians; the Greeks, indeed, considered
them as a part of the Thracian nation.
They were a sober and vigorous people, capable of enduring any hardships
and privations in war: they did not fear exposing themselves to the
greatest dangers, because they looked upon death as the beginning of a
much happier life; and this doctrine, according to Strabo, they held
from a philosopher named Zamolxis, who was held in high repute by them.
The progress of the Roman arms, which, under the reign of Augustus, were
carried to the banks of the Danube, brought them into contact with the
Dacians, who were at that time governed by a warlike prince named
Bærebestes, who boldly set the Roman conquerors at defiance. After his
death, they were divided into four or five different principalities, and
their strength was a good deal broken by the Romans; but their last king
Decebalus, one of the ablest and most enterprising warriors of his time,
re-united them into one body towards the 87th year of the Christian æra.
The first irruption of the Dacians into the territory of the empire,
took place during the latter part of Augustus’s reign; and, at times
repulsed, at other times successful, they continued to annoy the Romans
without any decisive advantage taking place on either side. At last the
Emperor Domitian, determined to put a stop to their depredations,
marched in person against them.
The particulars of the war which ensued are sufficiently detailed in the
Roman history. The result of it having been such as to compel Domitian
to sue for peace; he consented to pay to Decebalus an annual sum in the
shape of a pension, but which, in fact, was nothing less than a tribute.
It was regularly paid by the Romans until the year 102, when the Emperor
Trajan declared his resolution to discontinue it; and the Dacians
thereby considering themselves no longer bound to observe the treaty of
peace, crossed the Danube, and laid waste the Roman territory. Upon
these acts of hostility, Trajan put himself at the head of a numerous
army, and marching against them, forced them to retire, passed the
Danube in pursuit, engaged and defeated their successive forces, and
finally compelled Decebalus to acknowledge himself his vassal. Trajan
then returned to Rome, where he received the honour of a triumph, and
the title of _Dacicus_.
But not long after, Decebalus, eager to shake off the Roman yoke,
invaded and plundered the territory of his neighbours the Iazygæ, who
were also tributary to the empire, on their refusal to join him against
the Romans. Trajan again took the field at the head of a vast army,
determined to chastise and subdue the Dacians. He reached the banks of
the Danube in Autumn, and he thought it prudent to wait there the return
of the fine season, that he might carry on military operations with more
facility and success. It was during this interval, that he caused his
famous bridge to be built over the Danube, under the direction of the
architect Apollodorus of Damascus; and its present remains are
sufficiently visible to verify the ancient accounts of this stupendous
work. When the water is very low, some of the piles stand two or three
feet above it, and render that part of the river difficult of
navigation; they are looked upon as rocks by the natives of each side.
At the return of the Spring, when the bridge was completed, the Roman
army marched over it, and commenced hostilities. The war was long and
difficult, but it terminated in the complete subjugation of the Dacians,
and in the death of their king, Decebalus, who, finding it impossible to
avoid being made prisoner, killed himself that he might not fall alive
into the conquerors’ hands.
Dacia was thus converted into a Roman province, and Trajan shortly after
sent colonies to increase its population. New cities were built, and
pavements were constructed on the high roads, for the greater facility
of communication.[1] It was governed by a Roman pro-prætor until the
year 274.
Under the reign of Gallienus, when the empire was already declining,
various parts of Dacia were seized by the Goths, and other barbarous
nations.
A few Roman legions yet remained in the country, under the reign of the
Emperor Aurelian, who, returning from Gaul, came down to Illyria, and
finding a great part of Dacia in the hands of the barbarians, foresaw
the impossibility of maintaining any possessions in the midst of them,
and he withdrew a good number of the Roman inhabitants to the other side
of the Danube, and settled them in Mæsia.
During the space of a hundred years from that period, those of the
natives who had remained behind, and their descendants, were incessantly
exposed to the rapacities of a variety of barbarous tribes, who came
into the country for plunder.
Towards the year 361, the Goths, more powerful than the rest, seemed to
have been left in exclusive possession of the province, and were
inclined to make a permanent stay in it. They embraced the Christian
religion, and established it in Dacia; since when, to the present
moment, it has never ceased to be predominant amongst its inhabitants.
In 376, the Hunns, having over-run the countries possessed by the Goths,
forced Athanaric, King of the Vizigoths, to retire with all his forces
to that part of Dacia, situated between the rivers Dniester and Danube,
now called Moldavia. He raised a wall between the latter river and the
Pruth, by which he thought himself sufficiently protected against the
attacks of his enemies. The Hunns, however, were not stopped by it; and
their approach spread such consternation among the Goths of the
interior, that those who had the means of escaping, to the number of
some hundred thousand, fled for refuge into the Roman territory, and
were permitted by the Emperor Valens, to settle in Thrace, upon
condition that they should live peaceably there, and serve, when
required, in the Roman armies.
The Hunns having penetrated into Dacia, were left masters of it until
the year 453, when Ardaric, King of the Gepidæ, a people previously
conquered by Attila and the Hunns, revolted against them, in consequence
of Attila’s death. His son and successor, Ellach, marched against them,
but being defeated and slain, the Hunns were driven back into Scythia,
and the Gepidæ remained masters of all Dacia. They entered into a sort
of alliance with the Romans, who agreed to pay them a pension. In 550,
their first quarrels with their neighbours, the Lombards, took place;
and being sometimes assisted by the Emperor Justinian, they carried on
frequent hostilities against them, for the space of eight years, at the
end of which both nations resolved to decide the fate of the war by one
great battle. The Lombards, under their King Alboin, had previously
formed an alliance with the Avars, a people of Scythian extraction; and,
assisted by them, they marched to action. Both sides fought with equal
valor; but at last victory declared in favour of the Lombards, who,
pursuing the Gepidæ, made a great slaughter among them. The Gepidæ,
either destroyed, dispersed, or subdued, never after had a king of their
own, and ceased to be a nation.
Alboin’s achievements in Dacia attracted the notice of Narses, sent by
Justinian to conquer Italy: he made offers to him, and finally engaged
him to join the expedition with all his forces. The Lombards thus
abandoned their possessions in Dacia and Pannonia to their friends and
neighbours the Avars. These, also known by the name of White-Hunns,
remained in them until their own destruction by the Franks and
Bulgarians. In the 7th century, being joined by other barbarous tribes,
they pushed their incursions as far as the gates of Constantinople,
where they were so completely defeated by the Emperor Heraclius, that
they could not recover the blow: it was the original cause of their
rapid decline.
Towards the close of the same century, a nation, known under the names
of Slaves and Bulgarians, came from the interior of Russia to that part
of Mæsia, which has since been called Bulgaria. Soon after a great
number of Slaves, headed by their chief Krumo, crossed the Danube, and
settled in Dacia, where they have since been known under the name of
_Wallachs_. Opinion varies with respect to the origin of this name. Some
historians pretend that the Slaves distinguished by it the Romans of
Mæsia; whilst others maintain that they meant by it a people who led a
pastoral life, and had given it to the inhabitants of Mæsia, most of
whom were shepherds; and that a great number of these, having joined the
Slaves in Dacia, the name by degrees became a general one amongst its
inhabitants. The modern Wallachians, however, exclude it altogether from
their language, and call themselves “Rumunn” or Romans, giving to their
country the name of Roman-land, “Tsara-Rumaneska.”
Some former inhabitants of Dacia, joined by a number of Slaves and
Bulgarians, separated from the new settlers, and went to the lower part
of Dacia lying between the rivers Olt and Danube, where they fixed their
habitations. They formed themselves into a nation, and chose for their
chief one _Bessarabba_, to whom they gave the Slavonic title of _Bann_
or regent. The country within his jurisdiction was called _Bannat_; and
it retains to this day the name of Bannat of Crayova, the latter being
that of its present capital. Several other petty independent states
arose at the same time in various parts of Dacia; but they were
frequently annexed to the same sceptre, at other periods dismembered,
according to the warlike ardour or indolence and incapacity of their
various chiefs. Their general system, however, consisted in making war
against the Romans of the lower empire, in which they were seconded by
the Slaves and Bulgarians of Mæsia, whom they looked upon as their
natural allies. This state of things continued to the close of the 9th
century, at which period the Slaves having fallen into decline, various
hordes, originally Scythians, successively undertook the conquest of
Dacia, driving each other out of it, according to the momentary
superiority of the one over the other. The most remarkable of these were
the Hazars, the Patzinaces, the Moangoures, the Ouzes, the Koumans, and
other Tartars.
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_.
The Wallachians under this Voïvode joined again the Hungarians in 1448,
and made war on Turkey; but being totally defeated at the battle of
Cossova, in Bulgaria, and finding it no longer possible to make any
stand against the Turks, they submitted again to the annual tribute,
which they paid until the year 1460, when the Sultan Mahomet II. being
occupied in completing the conquest of the islands in the Archipelago,
afforded them a new opportunity of shaking off the yoke. Their Voïvode,
also named Dracula[5], did not remain satisfied with mere prudent
measures of defence: with an army he crossed the Danube and attacked the
few Turkish troops that were stationed in his neighbourhood; but this
attempt, like those of his predecessors, was only attended with
momentary success. Mahomet having turned his arms against him, drove him
back to Wallachia, whither he pursued and defeated him. The Voïvode
escaped into Hungary, and the Sultan caused his brother Bladus to be
named in his place. He made a treaty with Bladus, by which he bound the
Wallachians to perpetual tribute; and laid the foundations of that
slavery, from which no efforts have yet had the power of extricating
them with any lasting efficacy. The following is the substance of the
treaty:—
1. “The Sultan consents and engages for himself and his successors, to
give protection to Wallachia, and to defend it against all enemies,
assuming nothing more than a supremacy over the sovereignty of that
principality, the Voïvodes of which shall be bound to pay to the Sublime
Porte an annual tribute of ten thousand piasters.”
2. “The Sublime Porte shall never interfere in the local administration
of the said principality, nor shall any Turk be ever permitted to come
into Wallachia without an ostensible reason.”
3. “Every year an officer of the Porte shall come to Wallachia to
receive the tribute, and on his return shall be accompanied by an
officer of the Voïvode as far as Giurgevo on the Danube, where the money
shall be counted over again, a second receipt given for it, and when it
has been carried in safety to the other side of that river, Wallachia
shall no longer be responsible for any accident that may befall it.”[6]
4. “The Voïvodes shall continue to be elected by the archbishop,
metropolitan, bishops, and boyars[7], and the election shall be
acknowledged by the Porte.”
5. “The Wallachian nation shall continue to enjoy the free exercise of
their own laws; and the Voïvodes shall have the right of life and death
over their own subjects, as well as that of making war and peace,
without having to account for any such proceedings to the Sublime
Porte.”
6. “All Christians who, having once embraced the Mahometan faith, should
come into Wallachia and resume the Christian religion, shall not be
claimed by any Ottoman authorities.”
7. “Wallachian subjects who may have occasion to go into any part of the
Ottoman dominions, shall not be there called upon for the haratsh or
capitation tax paid by other _Rayahs_.”[8]
8. “If any Turk have a lawsuit in Wallachia with a subject of the
country, his cause shall be heard and decided by the Wallachian divan,
conformably to the local laws.”
9. “All Turkish merchants coming to buy and sell goods in the
principality, shall, on their arrival, have to give notice to the local
authorities of the time necessary for their stay, and shall depart when
that time is expired.”
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.
In 1529 the Voïvode Stephen, being on his death-bed, called to him his
son Bogdan, who was likely to succeed him, and his principal nobles: he
addressed them at length on the political situation of the country,
representing the probability of its being soon attacked by the Turks,
and the insufficiency of its means to make any effectual resistance
against their power. He dwelt on the ferocious character of the reigning
Sultan Suleÿman I., and recommended to them in the strongest manner,
rather to seek his clemency by the voluntary offer of a tribute, than
expose themselves to his vengeance in resisting his attempts to obtain
it.
After Stephen’s death, Bogdan neglected some years his father’s advice,
till at last he saw the necessity of following it; and he sent, in 1536,
ambassadors to Constantinople to offer the tribute. The Sultan then
entered into written engagements with him, by which the same privileges
as those of Wallachia were granted to Moldavia; but in which the tribute
was merely called a _Peshkicsh_, or present.
Moldavia was governed on the same plan as the sister province, and
frequently shared the same fate in war; sometimes ravaged by the Turks,
at other times successful in resisting them. Towards the close of the
16th century, after its successful co-operation with Wallachia,
Sigismund of Transylvania seized it, deposed the Voïvode Aaron, his
friend and ally, and appointed a man of his own choice, whom he bound to
pay him tribute. But in 1597, a Polish army invaded the province, and
rescued it from the hands of Sigismund. In 1602 the Poles restored it to
the Turks, against whose power the Moldavians never after struggled with
any permanent success. Their frequent and fruitless efforts to regain
independency, exhausted their means and patriotic ardour; and by degrees
they became accustomed to the Turkish yoke. The appointment of the
Voïvodes was left to the pleasure of the Sultans, although the formality
of the election continued to take place a long time after; but the
tribute was no longer called a present, and its amount was increased at
almost every new appointment.
As far, however, as the end of the 17th century, intervening political
motives still induced the Porte to show some deference to the privileges
of the two principalities; but at the early part of the 18th century,
the Ottoman Court became less constrained in its policy, and in assuming
the right of punishing by death the Wallachian princes, laid the
foundations of that system by which both have been governed to the
present moment. The event which proved so fatal to the respective
constitutions of those states, will show at the same time how far their
public spirit must have been subdued, and how rapid appears to have been
its decline.
During the reign of Sultan Ahmet, the Porte had, in 1695, declared war
against the Emperor; and the Voïvode Constantine Brancovano Bessarabba
of Wallachia was directed to form an army, and to march into the
Austrian states, in order to second the operations of the Grand Vizier
who was to commence hostilities from the frontiers of Servia. The
Voïvode partly obeyed; but, either from a secret hatred to the Turks, or
from being bribed into the Emperor’s cause, probably from both these
motives, he abstained from taking any active part in the campaign, and
by that circumstance alone, favoured the operations of the Austrians. At
the conclusion of the peace of Carlowitz, the Emperor Leopold rewarded
the Voïvode’s services by conferring on him the title of Prince of the
Roman Empire, together with the gift of some landed estates in
Transylvania. These circumstances could not remain hidden from the
knowledge of the Ottoman court, who, however, found it necessary to use
dissimulation; and some years elapsed without any notice being taken of
them.
In 1710, Bessarabba was drawn into a secret correspondence with the Czar
Peter the great, the object of which was to obtain his co-operation in
that sovereign’s projected war against the Turks. The Voïvode promised a
contingent of thirty thousand men, and an ample supply of provisions and
other necessaries for the Russian army.
The purport of this correspondence became known to the Porte, and the
death of Bessarabba was immediately determined upon; but at the same
time it was deemed adviseable to use stratagem instead of open force,
and it was resolved that he should be drawn into a snare by the Prince
of Moldavia. Nicholas Marrocordato then governed that province, but he
was thought unfit for the execution of the plan; the Porte therefore
recalled him, and appointed to the principality Demetrius Cantimir,
whose fidelity had been frequently tried both in peace and war. Cantimir
set out from Constantinople for Moldavia, having instructions and
positive orders to seize Bessarabba under the colour of friendship,
alliance, or any pretence which he might think proper, and send him
alive or dead to Constantinople.[12]
But Cantimir, who, it seems, had neither the ambition nor the desire of
being made Voïvode of Moldavia, having twice before procured that
principality to his younger brother Antiochus, accepted it with the
express condition that he should not be called upon to pay any tribute,
or to make any of the presents customary at the new nominations. But
when he reached Moldavia the Grand Vezier wrote to him by the Sultan’s
order, not only to send immediately the usual tribute and presents, but
also to prepare provisions for a numerous Turkish army, to throw a
bridge over the Danube for their passage, and to join the Turks in
person with Moldavian troops, besides other intolerable burthens.[13]
Cantimir says, that perceiving now how little faith was to be expected
from the infidels, and esteeming it far better to suffer for the
Christian cause, he resolved to detach himself from the Turkish
interest, and sent a faithful messenger to the Czar, with an offer of
his services and principality.
With these favourable prospects in Wallachia and in Moldavia, the Czar
advanced towards the Ottoman frontiers. In 1711, he arrived with all his
forces at Yassi, where he remained some days in expectation of the
contingent and provisions promised by the Voïvode of Wallachia. But it
seems that Bessarabba, as the rupture between the Sultan and the Czar
drew near, alarmed at the great preparations of the Turks, and the
approach of their army, composed of two hundred and twenty thousand men,
thought it prudent to take no part in the war, and the subsequent
disasters of the Russians are in a great measure attributed to the
failure of his former promises to the Czar, who had placed too great a
reliance in them. The events of this war are too well known to need any
further explanation here. When peace was restored, and the Voïvodate of
Moldavia had remained vacant by Cantimir’s defection, Nicholas
Marrocordato was again appointed to it. Bessarabba remained unmolested,
but not without the fear of early vengeance. Eager to regain the favour
of the Ottoman government, and to obtain the assurance of oblivion on
the past, he sent large supplies of money, and considerable presents to
the Turkish ministers, and to the public treasures; he repeated them so
often, as to convince the court that he possessed immense wealth, and
the Grand Vezier, Ally-Pashah, who was his personal enemy, obtained from
the Sultan a formal order for his recall, and for the seizure of his
treasures. The Vezier then formed the plan of enforcing this order, and
it was carried into execution in the following manner:—
In 1714, at the beginning of April, being the week of the Passion, when
the attention of the Wallachians and their occupations were entirely
devoted to the long ceremonies of the Greek church, a Capigee-Bashi[14],
of the Sultan, arrived at Bukorest with a suite of a hundred men; he
sent word to the Voïvode that he was on his way to Hotim upon very
pressing business of the state, and that he should only have time to pay
him a visit on the next morning, after which he intended to take his
departure. Accordingly, he went the next day to the palace, and, on
entering the closet of the Voïvode, who stood up to receive him, he
placed a black handkerchief on his shoulder, conformably to the then
usual method of announcing depositions to persons high in office in
Turkey. The Voïvode was confounded by the unexpected compliment, but the
moment he recovered from his first emotions, he burst into a long strain
of invectives against the Sultan and the Turks, for treating him with so
much ingratitude after the many services he had rendered to the Porte.
The Capigee, however, placed a guard about his person, and proceeded to
the divan chamber, where he read a _Ferman_, which contained the decree
of Bessarabba’s deposition, declared him a traitor, and ordered him to
Constantinople with all his family. After the _Ferman_ had been
published, the Capigee secured the public treasure, and all the
Voïvode’s private property. The frightened inhabitants of Bukorest
remained tranquil spectators of all these acts of violence, and made no
effort to release the Voïvode from his imprisonment. With a nation more
awakened to its own dignity, and to the value of independence, an event
of this nature would not, perhaps, have taken place without the support
of an army, and the shedding of blood; and, indeed, the circumstances of
this very occurrence would hardly appear credible, if they were not
almost fresh in the memory of the present generation.
Two days after Bessarabba’s deposition, one Stephen Cantacuzene, of
Greek origin, and calling himself a descendant of the imperial family of
that name[15], was, by the Sultan’s order, raised to the Voïvodate.
On the 14th April, the Capigee-Bashi left Bukorest with Bessarabba, his
wife, four sons, three daughters, and grandson, and escorted by the
Turkish guard. They soon reached Constantinople, and the Voïvode, with
all his family, was immediately confined in the state prison of the
Seven Towers. His treasures not being found so considerable as had been
expected, his sons were put to the torture for three successive days,
that they might confess where their father had hidden the rest; or that
the latter, being a witness to his children’s torments, might come
forward and make that confession himself. But as these cruelties did not
produce the intended effect, the Sultan, exasperated at the apparent
obstinacy of the sufferers, ordered them to be executed in his presence.
The prisoners were conducted to a square, under the windows of the
seraglio, and a long list of accusations was read to them; it alluded
particularly to the treachery of Bessarabba in the Austrian war, and to
the indignant expressions he had made use of against the person of the
Sultan, when his recall had been signified to him. The four sons were
first beheaded, one after the other, and the execution of the father
closed this scene of butchery. When the Sultan withdrew, the five heads
were put upon pikes, and carried about the streets of Constantinople.
The bodies were thrown into the sea, but they were picked up by some
Christian boatmen, and conveyed to a Greek monastery in the little
island of Halcky, in the Propontis, where they received burial.
As to the unfortunate princess and the remainder of her family, they
were shortly after exiled to Cuttaya, in Asia Minor, but three years
after they were permitted to return to Wallachia.[16]
The Voïvode Cantacuzene only remained in office two years, and he was
the last Wallachian prince, whose nomination was effected through the
formality of election. This important prerogative of the inhabitants had
been abolished some years before in Moldavia. The Porte found it
unnecessary to suffer it any longer in Wallachia, and indeed it had,
since more than a century, become merely nominal.
Nicholas Marrocordato was transferred from the government of Moldavia to
that of Wallachia, and proclaimed by a Turkish Capigee-Bashi in 1716. At
this time the Porte was preparing to carry on a defensive war against
Austria; and had the primates of Wallachia felt the courage to protest
against so manifest a violation of their privileges, they would, most
probably, have succeeded in securing a better observance of them.
Since the commencement of the decline of the Turkish power, the Ottoman
court has made it an invariable policy to infringe little by little on
the privileges allowed to foreign nations by treaty; and to conduct, by
systematic stratagem, an administration which has been constantly
falling in vigour and energy. If any infraction is left unnoticed by the
party it concerns, and the article of a treaty, in its modified state,
is once applied with success to any case to which it may relate, it
becomes a precedent which the Porte will obstinately refer to at any
other time that the strict interpretation of the article is insisted
upon.
Thus, without assigning any satisfactory reason, and without repealing,
in a plausible manner, the Wallachian law of election, the Sultan took
to himself the exclusive right of appointing to the two Voïvodates. The
measure was not opposed, and its repetition became habitual; and if, at
the present moment, the inhabitants of the two Principalities were to
recall their right to memory, and claim the enforcement of it, the Porte
would consider and treat the proceeding as open rebellion on their part.
No prince of Wallachian or Moldavian birth or origin, was ever appointed
after the recall of Bessarabba, and the Porte would have been willing to
govern the principalities through the means of Turkish Pashahs; but the
intrigues of the state-interpreter, Alexander Marrocordato, who was then
endeavouring to secure either of the Voïvodates to his son Nicholas,
induced at the time the Ottoman government to introduce another system,
which subsequent motives have contributed to support to the present day.
The Porte selected the new princes from the Greeks of Constantinople,
whose long habit of obedience and servile degradation, appeared to
render them suitable tools for the new policy adopted, relative to the
government of the principalities. From that moment the princes have been
appointed by _Beratt_, an imperial diploma, in which the Sultan, in
proclaiming the nominations, commands the Wallachian and Moldavian
nations to acknowledge and obey the bearers of it, as sole depositories
of the sovereign authority.[17]
They were instructed to pursue the plan, of administration of the
Voïvodes, and thus they were suffered to hold a court, to confer
dignities and titles of nobility, and to keep up a show of sovereign
splendour, circumstances which were most flattering to the vanity of the
Greeks, and proved useful to the interested views of the Porte. But they
were most strictly forbidden to maintain troops, or to collect any,
under any pretence whatever. This precaution was indispensable, as it
prevented the princes from acquiring military power, and the natives
from aspiring to independency.
In the course of the last century, a variety of Greek princes succeeded
to each other in the government of the principalities. One alone,
Constantine Marrocordato, appointed in 1735 to Wallachia, devoted
himself with zeal to the welfare of the country. Some wise institutions,
to which we shall have occasion to advert in the sequel, attest the
liberality of his views, and a generosity of character which is not to
be traced in any of his successors. But he was twice recalled, because
he refused to comply with demands of the Ottoman government, which
appeared to him incompatible with duties he owed to the Wallachians. The
other princes, less scrupulous, and more careful of their own interests,
marked their administration by the most violent acts of extortion, and
an invariable system of spoliation. Few of them died of natural death,
and the Turkish scymetar was, perhaps, frequently employed with justice
among them. In a political point of view, the short reigns of most of
these princes offer nothing of sufficient importance or interest to
deserve a place in history.