| Maria Tolmay | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Died | 1420 or 1427 |
| Spouse | Mircea I of Wallachia |
| Issue | Michael I of Wallachia |
Maria Tolmay or Mara (died in 1420 or 1427) was the wife of Mircea I of Wallachia. She was the mother of his only legitimate son and co-ruler, Michael. She was born to an unidentified Hungarian noble family and owned present-day Lesencetomaj at Lake Balaton in the Kingdom of Hungary in the early 15th century.
Her baptismal name has traditionally been reconstructed as Mara. [1] However, only its last two letters (..RA) have been preserved by an inscription of a picture painted in 1761. [1] Constantin Gane proposed that she was a member of the House of Basarab, stating that she was the first cousin of her husband, Mircea I of Wallachia, for which they could only marry with a special permission issued by the Archbishop of Ohrid. [2] The source of Gane's theory cannot be identified. [2] Historians Petre P. Panaitescu, Constantin Rezachevici and Radu Florescu stated that she was closely related to the Counts of Celje. [2] [3]
According to historian Mihai Florin Hasan, neither her baptismal name nor her family can certainly be identified. Her baptismal name could also be Klara, or even Anna. [1] She owned Lesencetomaj near Lake Balaton in 1400. [4] Consequently, she may have been related to any Hungarian noble family which had landed property in the region, including the Counts of Celje, the Szécsis, Bánffys or the nobles who owned the village of Badacsonytomaj. [1]
She gave birth to the only legitimate son of Mircea I of Wallachia, Michael. [3] Michael was first mentioned as his father's co-ruler in 1391. [5] She certainly visited her estate on Lake Balaton in 1400. [4] On this occasion, Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary, ordered her to respect the ancient privileges of the inhabitants of Ketzel and to stop collecting duties from them. [4]
Panaitescu proposed that she had built a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Holy Virgin in Târgoviște in 1417. [1] She may have again visited Lesencetomaj in 1419, because a charter refers to her return from Hungary in that year. [6] According to Panaitescu, she survived her husband and son, and died in 1427. [1] Hassan proposes that she died shortly after the murder of her son during an Ottoman campaign against Wallachia in May 1420, because Lesencetomaj was listed among the villages of the royal castle of Rezi on 20 April 1421, showing that her estate had escheated to the Crown. [4]
Basarab I, also known as Basarab the Founder, was a voivode and later the first independent ruler of Wallachia who lived in the first half of the 14th century. Many details of his life are uncertain. Although his name is of Turkic origin, 14th-century sources unanimously state that he was a Vlach. According to two popular theories, Basarab either came into power between 1304 and 1324 by dethroning or peacefully succeeding the legendary founder of Wallachia, Radu Negru, or in 1310 by succeeding his father, Thocomerius.
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Mircea the Elder was the Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418. He was the son of Radu I of Wallachia and brother of Dan I of Wallachia, after whose death he inherited the throne.
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The Order of the Dragon was a monarchical chivalric order only for selected higher aristocracy and monarchs, founded in 1408 by Sigismund of Luxembourg, who was then King of Hungary and later became Holy Roman Emperor. It was fashioned after the military orders of the Crusades, requiring its initiates to defend the cross and fight the enemies of Christianity, particularly the Ottoman Empire.
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Vladislav II was a voivode of the principality of Wallachia, from 1447 to 1448, and again from 1448 to 1456. The way Vladislav II came to the throne is debatable. The most accepted view is that Vladislav assassinated Vlad II Dracul, ruler of Wallachia, and was subsequently placed on the throne by John Hunyadi, on the other, Vladislav II was helped by the Ottomans to replace Dan III which was assigned by the Hungarians.
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The Night Attack at Târgoviște was a battle fought between forces of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, and Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire on Thursday, June 17, 1462. The battle started after Mehmed, who already had tense relations with Vlad, discovered his alliance with Hungary's king Matthias Corvinus and ordered his forces to ambush him. Vlad foiled the attack and invaded Bulgaria. In response, Mehmed raised a great army with the objective to conquer Wallachia and annex it to his empire. The two leaders fought a series of skirmishes, the most notable one being the Night Attack where Vlad attacked the Turkish camp in the night in an attempt to kill Mehmed. The assassination attempt failed and Mehmed marched to the Wallachian capital of Târgoviște, where he found a few men with cannons. After leaving the capital, Mehmed discovered 23,844 impaled Turks whom Vlad had killed during his invasion of Bulgaria. The number is mentioned by Vlad himself in a letter to Matthias Corvinus. The sultan and his troops then sailed to Brăila and burned it to the ground before retreating to Adrianople. Both sides claimed victory in the campaign and Mehmed's forces returned home with many captured slaves, horses, and cattle.
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