In the depth of the national distress the choice of the people fell on Michael the son of Pet ruko, ban of Craiova, who had fled to Transylvania to escape Alexander's machinations. Supported at Constantinople by Sigis mund Bathory (q.v.) prince of Transylvania (1581-98 and 16o1-02), and the English ambassador, Edward Barton, and aided by a loan of 200,000 florins, Michael succeeded in procuring from the Divan the deposition of his enemy and his own nomination. Michael's genius secured Walachia for a time a place in universal history. By previous concert with the Moldavian voivode Aaron, the Turkish guards and settlers in the two Principalities were mas sacred at a given signal (Nov. 13,
Having secured the help of Bathory by accepting his suzerainty, Michael next invaded Turkish territory, and took Rustchuk, Silistra and other places on the right bank of the Danube. A simultaneous invasion of Walachia by a large Turkish and Tatar host was successfully de feated at the battle of Mantin (1595). The Sultan now sent Sinan Pasha, "the Renegade," to invade Walachia with too,000 men. Michael withdrew to the mountains before this overwhelm ing force, but, being joined by Bathory with a Transylvanian con tingent, resumed the offensive, stormed. Bucharest, and, pursuing the main body of Sinan's forces to the Danube, overtook the rear guard and cut it to pieces. In 1597, the Sultan, weary of a dis astrous contest, reinvested Michael for life and granted the suc cession to his son.
On the abdication of Sigismund Bathory in Transylvania, Michael, in league with the imperial forces, and in connivance with the Saxon burghers, attacked and defeated his successor Andreas Bathory near Sibiu (Hermann stadt), seized the government, and secured his proclamation as prince of Transylvania ( r600). The emperor appointed him vice roy, and the diet ratified his position. The partiality that he showed for the Ruman and Szekler parts of the population, how ever, alienated the Transylvanian Saxons, who preferred the direct government of the emperor. The imperial commissioner, General Basta, lent his support to the disaffected party, and Michael was driven out of Transylvania by a successful revolt, while a Polish army invaded Walachia from the Moldavian side. Michael ap pealed to the emperor, who was won over by his singular address, supplied him with funds, and sent him to Transylvania as imperial governor. In conjunction with Basta he defeated the superior Transylvanian forces at Goroslau, expelling Sigismund Bathory, who had again aspired to the crown. But at the moment of his returning prosperity Basta, who had quarrelled with him about the supreme command of the imperial forces, procured his murder (Aug. to, 16o1). Not only had Michael rolled back for a time the tide of Turkish conquest, but for the first time in modern history, and the only time before 1918, he united what once had been Trajan's Dacia, in its widest extent, and with it the whole Ruman race north of the Danube, under a single sceptre.
Matthias Bassaraba and Constantine Brancovan.—Sigis mund now resumed the government of Transylvania, while Ser ban, of the Bassaraba dynasty, was, by the emperor's wishes, ap pointed voivode of Walachia. On his deposition by the Porte in 1611 there followed a succession of princes who, though for the most part of Ruman origin, bought their appointment at Stam boul. The most notable of them was Matthias Bassaraba
54) who maintained his position and reorganized his principality despite incessant attacks from his rival Basil the Wolf, of Mol davia. Matthias's illegitimate son and successor Constantine Ser
ban (1654-58) was the last Bassarab to rule in Walachia. On his death the Turks, who in 1698 moved the seat of government to Bucharest, at a safer distance from the Transylvanian frontier, were able to exercise a greater influence over the various notable families which aspired to rule. The immediate successors of `the Bassarabs were, however, able men. Sherban Cantacuzino
88) who was forced to assist the Turks at the siege of Vienna (1688) opened up secret communications with the emperor, who granted him a diploma creating him count of the empire and recognizing his descent from the imperial house of Cantacuzino.
Sherban meanwhile collected his forces for an open breach with the Porte. His prudence, however, perpetually postponed the occa sion, and Walachia enjoyed peace to his death in i688. This peace ful state of the country gave the voivode leisure to promote its internal culture, and in the year of his death he had the satis faction of seeing the first part of a Walachian Bible issue from the first printing-press of the country, established at Bucharest.
Immediately on Serban's death the boyars elected his sister's son Constantine Brancovan (1688-1714) who ruled the province skilfully until, fearing the increasing strength and prosperity of his vassal, the Sultan deposed him. He was finally beheaded at Constantinople in May 1714. A scion of the rival Cantacuzinian family was then elected and after exhausting the principality for the benefit of the Divan, was deposed and executed in 1716.
From this period onwards the Porte introduced a new system with regard to its Walachian vassals. The line of national princes ceased. The office of voivode, or hospodar, was sold to the highest bidder at Stamboul, to be farmed out from a purely mercenary point of view. The princes who now succeeded one another in rapid succession were mostly Greeks from the Phanar quarter of Constantinople, and were gen erally men of culture and intelligence, and Constantine Mavro cordato introduced an extremely liberal agrarian reform, even decreeing the abolition of serfdom in 1747—an enactment which was not, however, carried out. But the rule of the Phanariots and their Greek satellites could not but be productive of grinding op pression, and numbers of the peasantry emigrated. In 1745 the number of tax-paying families, which a few years before had amounted to 147,000, had sunk to 70,000. The hospodar Scarlat Ghica (1758-61), removed the Turkish settlers from Walachia, but the Turks maintained their grip on the country by holding on the Walachian bank of the Danube the fortresses of Giurgiu, Turnu Severin and Orsova, with the surrounding districts.
The tide of Ottoman dominion, however, was ebbing fast. In 1769 the Russian General Romanzov occupied the principality, the bishops and clergy took an oath of fidelity to the empress Catherine, and a deputation of boyars followed. Catherine set about reorganizing the principalities on Russian lines, and at Focpni she demanded (1772) that the Sultan recognize the in dependence of Walachia and Moldavia under a European guar antee. The failure of these negotiations was followed by the Treaty of Kutchuk Kainarji
; but before considering this it is convenient to review the early history of Moldavia.