Vlachs of the Moldavian hills

Who holds it

Name

None named for 1200 or for any date before the 14th century

Title

Village headmen

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

Choniates (Magoulias p. 74): in 1164 the fugitive Andronikos Komnenos was apprehended by Vlachs near the borders of Galitza (Galicia) and taken back to the emperor. Kinnamos (Bonn p. 260): in 1166 Leon Vatatzes attacked Hungary from the regions near the Black Sea with an army that included a large body of Vlachs, 'colonists from the people of Italy'. Nothing is dated for 1199-1200.

Overlord

Not pinned: the Cuman clans, Galician influence from the north, or none.

What it holds

• Villages of the Moldavian sub-Carpathian hills (the Trotus, the Bistrita, the Moldova and the Suceava valleys) and the Suceava plateau (presumed)
• Summer pastures on the eastern slopes of the Carpathians (presumed)

Allies and rivals

Neighbours of the Cumans of the plain to the east and south, of Galicia's Ponyzia to the north and of the Szekely marches of Transylvania over the crest.

How things stand that morning

Not recorded; presumably Vlach and Slav villages under their own headmen in the hills and forests, beside the Cuman summer pastures. Across the borders: north, Galicia's Chernivtsi country (outside); west, over the crest, Hungary's Transylvania (outside); east, the Cuman ranges (Cumans of Moldavia and the Bugeac); south across the Milcov, the Vlachs of the Wallachian hills (Vlachs of the Wallachian hills).

Wealth

Sheep, cattle, timber; the salt of Targu Ocna is later (not attested for 1200).

Military

Not recorded.

Threats

• Cuman exactions
• Galician or Hungarian expansion (later)

Customs and assemblies

Not recorded. Orthodox in faith.

Overlord claims

None recorded for 1200. The bishopric of Cumania at Milcov (1227) and the Hungarian march of Moldavia (1340s) are later.

Places of note

• Suceava: Later Moldavian capital (14th century); not a town in 1200
• Baia: Later German market town (13th-14th century); not a town in 1200

Where the sources disagree

• The 1164 notice comes 36 years before the game opens and the 1166 one may concern Vlachs from south of the Danube; neither shows a self-governing Vlach land, so no vlachs realm is drawn.

Evidence: Two 12th-century Byzantine notices (1164, 1166) and nothing for 1200.

On the map: Drawn on the hill and forest country west of the Siret; the communities and their bounds are not recorded for 1200.

Primary sources for The Cumans

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
• The Laurentian Chronicle (the Suzdal continuation kept in the late 12th and 13th centuries; manuscript 1377). The court record of Vsevolod III of Vladimir. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• The Tale of Igor's Campaign (about 1187 to 1200 (disputed)). A poem on Igor Sviatoslavich's defeat by the Polovtsians in 1185 that addresses the princes of the day by name: Vsevolod of Vladimir, Rurik and David Rostislavich, Yaroslav of Galich, Roman of Volhynia and the Olgovichi of Chernigov, of whom Igor himself was prince from 1198. Read online