Foundation of Moldavia - After The Foundation of The Independent Principality

After The Foundation of The Independent Principality

In the 1360s, Moldavia still comprised a minuscule area between the rivers Prut and Siret.

At that time, a late Mongol state still continued to survive in the southern regions of Moldavia. This polity had been isolated from the central nucleus of the Golden Horde as a result of the great Lithuanian victory over the Mongols at Sinivody in 1362. In 1368, King Louis I exempted “the traders of Demetrius, prince of the Tatars” from paying customs duties in the Kingdom of Hungary, in exchange for a similar treatment for traders of Braşov “in the country of Lord Demetrius”. This remnant of the Mongol power disappeared during the next decade and was included in the “Wallachian country” constituted in the southern regions of Moldavia.

Bogdan’s successor, Laţcu (c. 1367–1375) maintained good relations with Poland and also established direct connection with the Holy See. As a result of these activities, and in exchange for his acceptance of the Catholic faith, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Siret was set up under the direct subordination of the pope. By bestowing the title “duke” on Laţcu, the pope also consolidated the international status of Moldavia.

Moldavia’s evolution towards an independent state was stopped, for a short time, by the establishment of Hungarian domination over Halych in the 1370s, which brought Moldavia again under Hungarian suzerainty. For example, Wladislaw of Oppeln, who had been appointed by King Louis as governor of Halych, gave shelter to a “Romanian voivode”, Giurgu who had sought refuge because of the “unexpected treason of his people”. According to a Russo-Lithuanian chronicle, the Romanians elected a Lithuanian prince, Iuriy Koriatovich as voivode, but later (before March 1375) poisoned him.

After the death of King Louis I in 1382, Moldavia reoriented itself towards Poland. Thus Peter I Muşat (1375–1395) interrupted the relations with Hungary in 1387 and formally inaugurated vassalage relations with Poland. Around this time the “Wallachian country” was still under the rule of a certain Voivode Costea (Constantin): in 1386 two Genoese envoys were accredited to the Moldavian princes Constantino et Petro.

Peter I Muşat became the defender of the Orthodox rite. Seeking to stabilize the ecclesiastical situation, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Halych consecrated two bishops for Moldavia, Joseph Muşat and Meletius. The first was a relative of the voivode, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople objected his consecration. Therefore the Metropolitan See of Moldavia was officially recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1401–1402, after a long canonical debate.

During the rule of Peter I Muşat Moldavia extended its territory to the Danube and the Black Sea. At the end of his rule or at the beginning of the rule of his follower, Roman I Muşat (c. 1391–1394), Moldavia achieved territorial unity by including the southern “Wallachian country”. Consequently, in a letter of grant, dated March 30, 1392, Roman I Muşat could call himself “by the grace of God the Almighty, great ruler of Moldavia’s lands from the mountains to the sea”.