Mircea the Elder and the Struggle Against Ottoman Expansion

Mircea the Elder, prince between 1386 and 1418, is one of the greatest rulers of Wallachia. A son of Radu I, he took the throne at a time when the Ottoman Empire was conquering the Balkans. His reign lasted more than thirty years and brought the state economic prosperity, glorious battles and an active foreign policy. Mircea ruled Dobruja as far as the mouths of the Danube, which is why his title includes the formula “ruler of Dobruja and lord of Dârstor,” and his coins and charters show the strength of the state.

To protect his country, Mircea concluded alliances with the king of Poland and with the king of Hungary, Sigismund of Luxembourg. In 1389 he was probably among the participants in the Battle of Kosovo, where Sultan Murad I was killed and the Serbs were defeated. In 1394 the Ottomans, led by Bayezid I “the Thunderbolt,” began a campaign against Wallachia, and Mircea’s decisive victory came at Rovine, on 17 May 1395. The exact site of the battle, probably near Argeș or in Oltenia, is still debated. The prince understood that the only path to survival was to combine armed struggle with diplomacy.

In 1396, Mircea took part, alongside the crusaders led by Sigismund, in the Battle of Nicopolis, on the Danube, where the Christian army was crushed by Bayezid. Mircea nevertheless managed to withdraw without heavy losses and to keep his country. After the defeat of the Ottomans by Timur (Tamerlane) at Ankara in 1402, Mircea intervened in the struggles for the Ottoman throne, supporting Musa. This policy of balance and alliances allowed him to survive in a region dominated by greater powers, in a difficult age.

Toward the end of his reign, Mircea was forced to accept the payment of an annual tribute to the sultan, around 1417, on terms that preserved his internal autonomy. Wallachia remained a Christian state, with its own prince, without military occupation and without a pashalik. Dobruja was lost to the Ottomans, and Giurgiu and Turnu were occupied. The agreement with the Porte did not mean the loss of statehood, but a form of vassalage that lasted until the 19th century. Mircea died in 1418 and was buried at Cozia Monastery, which he had founded.

Mircea’s reign was also a period of cultural flowering: he founded Cozia, supported the Cutlumus Monastery on Mount Athos and developed trade with Brașov, granting privileges to its merchants. The poet Mihai Eminescu chose him as the hero of his “Third Letter,” in which he portrays him confronting Sultan Bayezid. Historians consider that Mircea the Elder laid the foundations of a strong state, capable of resisting Ottoman pressure, and his name has remained linked to the idea of dignity and the struggle for freedom.