Basarab the Old

Basarab III cel Bătrân, also known as Laiotă Basarab or Basarab Laiotă was ruler of the Principality of Wallachia in the 1470s.

Biography

After Basarab's brother, Vladislav II of Wallachia, was killed by their cousin, Vlad Dracula, in a duel in 1456, he laid claim to Wallachia against Dracula, thus becoming the third pretender to the Wallachian throne. Two decades later, in November 1476, Vlad invaded Wallachia with Hungarian and Moldavian support forcing Basarab to flee to the Ottoman Empire. However, Basarab returned, and Vlad was murdered in late 1476 or early 1477.
Basarab repeated the achievement of Dan II in being elected by the boyars as Voivode on five occasions. Moreover, he succeeded the same ruler on four occasions. Two of his reigns also surrounded the last period in which Vlad III the Impaler ruled over Wallachia.
Like so many others of his contemporaries who held FogarasMircea the Elder, Vlad the Impaler, and Radu the Fair he regularly granted estates to their boyars or awarded the heads of the local communities with the title boyar.
In 1479, Basarab joined in the Battle of Breadfield, and died in December 1480.