Mircea the Elder ascended the throne of Wallachia 640 years ago: A reign between confrontations and diplomacytranslated

Mircea the Elder ascended the throne of Wallachia on September 23, 1386, after the immortality of his brother, Dan I. His reign was one of the longest in the medieval history of Wallachia, for over three decades, with an interruption in the years 1395-1396.

Son of Radu I, he took over the leadership at a time when the state was between the interests of the Kingdom of Hungary, Poland and the powers south of the Danube. At the same time, the Ottoman expansion towards the Balkan Peninsula and the Danube would become the main challenge of his reign.

In the documents of the time, Mircea appears with the title of "great voivode and lord of Ungrovlahia". At the same time, his dominion exceeded the territory between the Carpathians and the Danube. The Lord of Wallachia owned or claimed, at different times, the Banat of Severin, the Land of Făgăraș and Amlaș, territories in the south of Moldavia, as well as possessions in the south of the Danube.

Banat de Severin represented one of the main areas of strategic interest. The chronicles of the Hungarian kingdom record periods when the dignity of ban de Severin was vacant, a situation related to the exercise of authority by the lords of the country...