Vlachs of the Wallachian hills

Who holds it

Name

None named for 1200. The first named leaders north of the Danube are the voivodes Litovoi and Seneslau and the knezes John and Farcas in the Hospitallers' charter of 1247 (later).

Title

Village and valley headmen (later called knezes and voivodes)

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

Choniates has Vlachs cross the Danube with the Cumans in 1199; Spinei (2009, p. 159) and Madgearu (2016) read them as Vlachs of the north bank. The charter of 1247 names Litovoi's land in northern Oltenia, the knezates of John and Farcas and Seneslau's land east of the Olt (en.wikipedia, Wallachia and Cumania). Nothing between is dated.

Overlord

Presumably the Cuman clans of the plain, who would take tribute and services; not attested for 1200.

What it holds

• Villages and sheep runs of the Oltenian hills (the Jiu, the Motru and the Olt valleys)
• Villages and sheep runs of the Muntenian hills (the Arges, the Dambovita, the Prahova and the Buzau valleys)
• Summer pastures on the southern slopes of the Carpathians, shared with the shepherds of Transylvania (presumed)
• The ruined fortress of Drobeta at the Iron Gates (record Drobeta (Severin))

Allies and rivals

Neighbours of the Cumans of the plain, with whom some rode to Thrace in 1199; kin by speech of the Vlachs of the Bulgarian tsardom south of the Danube and of the Vlachs of the Olt land in Transylvania.

How things stand that morning

Vlach and Slav villages under their own headmen, presumably tributary to the Cumans; thin evidence, none dated to 1200. Across the borders: west of the Cerna and at Orsova the Hungarian Banat (hungary); north, over the crest, Hungary's Transylvania (outside); south, the Cuman ranges of the plain (Cumans of the Wallachian plain); north-east across the Milcov, the Vlachs of the Moldavian hills (Vlachs of the Moldavian hills).

Wealth

Sheep, cattle, grain in the valleys; salt was later mined at Ocnele Mari (not attested for 1200).

Military

Not recorded; some rode with the Cumans in 1199.

Threats

• Cuman exactions
• Hungarian expansion over the passes (from 1211, later)

Customs and assemblies

Not recorded for 1200. Later (1247) the land had knezes and voivodes who owed the king of Hungary dues and service; in 1200 the villages presumably ran their own affairs under their elders. Orthodox in faith (a papal letter of 1234 complains of Vlachs in Cumania who took the sacraments from Greek bishops).

Overlord claims

The Cumans' (presumed). Hungary's claims begin with the Teutonic Knights (1211-1225) and the Banate of Severin (1230s): later.

Places of note

• Curtea de Arges: Later princely seat (14th century); not a town in 1200
• Campulung: Later German and Vlach market town (13th-14th century); not a town in 1200

Where the sources disagree

• Romanian historiography holds a continuous Romanian population north of the Danube and reads the Vlachs of 1199 as theirs; Hungarian and some Bulgarian historians dispute the extent. The dated evidence for 1200 itself is nil.

Evidence: One ambiguous Choniates notice (1199) and the charter of 1247; the outline follows the hill country below the crest.

On the map: Drawn on the hill country between the plain and the Carpathian crest; the communities, their number 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