Radu Paisie
Radu VII Paisie, officially Radul , also known as Radu vodă Măjescul, Radu vodă Călugărul, Petru I, and Petru de la Argeș, was Prince of Wallachia almost continuously from June 1535 to February 1545. A man of uncertain origins, he depicted himself as an heir to the House of Basarab and the Drăculești: the son of Prince Radu the Great and half-brother of Vlad Vintilă and Radu of Afumați. The scholar Nicolaus Olahus partly supported this account and further claimed that Paisie was his own cousin. The descent is endorsed by some modern historians, whereas others suggest that Paisie was a regular member of the boyar class, or even a fishmonger. He is known to have been a monk of the Wallachian Orthodox Church before his coronation.
Paisie took the throne as a boyar favorite in the wake of Vlad Vintilă's assassination. Despite his immediate homage to the Ottoman Empire, which exercised suzerain powers over Wallachia, some records suggest that he was chased out by the pretender Barbu Mărăcine, and possibly also maimed, by having his nose partly slashed, in early 1536. He returned to the country, possibly supported by the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, and staged a bloody repression. He then reaffirmed his fealty to the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and contributed to the Suleiman's expeditions into Hungary. His repression of the boyars sparked new rebellions, which created two other brief interregnums: in 1539, Șerban of Izvorani established himself as regent; for two months in early 1544, Stroe Florescu and Laiotă Basarab took the capital, Târgoviște, but were defeated by Paisie at Fântâna Țiganului.
Possibly as thanks for their military support, Paisie ceded to the Ottomans the port of Brăila. Instead, following his raids into Transylvania, he was confirmed personal ownership of two inland citadels, Vințu de Jos and Vurpăr. Despite relying on Suleiman's support, Paisie also continued to entertain notions of emancipating Christendom and the Balkans from Ottoman rule, and in 1543 even signed to an alliance with the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. Rumors of this policy shift, and the intrigues of another claimant, Mircea the Shepherd, eventually caused Suleiman to depose him. This was done with careful planning, leaving Paisie unable to react before Mircea was in full control of Wallachia. Paisie was eventually exiled to Egypt Eyalet, where he spent the remainder of his life.
His two attested sons, including his co-ruler Marco, were either slaughtered by Mircea's family or Islamized at Suleiman's court. A possible third son, Pătrașcu the Good, came to rule Wallachia in the 1550s, between two of Mircea's reigns. This lineage would make Radu Paisie the grandfather of two other Princes, Petru Cercel and Michael the Brave. In cultural history, Paisie is remembered as the patron of Church Slavonic and one-time sponsor of the printer Dimitrije Ljubavić; as well as being the monarch who completed monastery complexes at Argeș, Cozia, Dealu, and Tismana. Through such enterprises, he and Marco elevated themselves to the fictional status of Eastern Orthodox protectors, contrasting their real-life subjugation to Suleiman.
Biography
Origins
Radu Paisie's election to the throne was made possible by a collapse of public order and the fading out of the ruling dynasty, the House of Basarab. Wallachia's elective custom had always allowed sons born outside wedlock to contest the throne, creating the background for massacres among pretenders; in the 1500s, this strife was doubled by civil wars between factions of the boyar nobility. These backed individual pretenders in exchange for domination of the country's affairs. The conflicts were tolerated by the Ottoman Empire, which exercised suzerainty over Wallachia and neighboring Moldavia, throughout the Medieval era. The fall of Hungary in 1526 left both countries entirely controlled by the Sublime Porte.Little is known about Radu Paisie's origins and early life, although it is often assumed that he was baptized as "Petru" and had a strong connection with Argeș County, in Muntenia. According to some reports, he was married to a Lady Stana. It is also known that he had a sister, Cârstina. A document issued by Michael the Brave implies that Paisie was a fishmonger, calling him Radu vodă Măjescul—"Radu Voivode of the Maja", from an obsolete measure of weight for fish. One more trusted account is that he was born into boyardom, and that, following his wife's death, he had taken orders at Argeș Monastery. Scholar Valentin Gheonea proposes that Petru was forced into monastic seclusion by Prince Vlad Vintilă de la Slatina, after an early attempt to seize the throne. Written tradition maintains that, while at Argeș, he was known as Hegumen Paisie. Church historian Ioan I. Rămureanu additionally notes that Petru was a monk at the same time as Varlaam, who served as Wallachian Metropolitan from at least 1536, and Anania, who succeeded Varlaam in 1544. Among the modern historians, Nicolae Iorga proposes that Paisie's monastic career may have begun earlier. He notes that one Paisie, who may be the same as the future Prince, was sent in 1522 on a church mission to the city of Corona, in Jagiellonian-ruled Transylvania.
In various other records, Paisie is treated as a Basarab family member. An early account by the scholar Nicolaus Olahus describes a Petrus ab Argyes, most likely the future Paisie, being born to a lesser Basarab, by the name of Stanciul. The latter, Olahus reports, was decapitated during one of Vlad the Impaler's three reigns in Wallachia, as an alleged conspirator against the throne. As historian Cornelia Popa-Gorjanu notes, this narrative would make Olahus and Paisie first cousins, and members of the Basarabs' Dănești branch. Olahus' text is endorsed by the literary historian Corneliu Albu, who further suggests that Olahus and Paisie may have corresponded with each other in Romanian.
Historian Constantin Rezachevici argues that Paisie and Olahus were not biological relatives: Paisie was indeed born to Stanciul's wife, but his natural father was Radu the Great, giving Paisie equal rights of succession. Scholars Cristina Feneșan and Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont record a letter of July 15, 1535, sent from the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom by John Zápolya; it notes that an unnamed son of Radu, "persuaded that the regnant voivode was a wrongdoer, took monastic orders and changed his appearance." Feneșan and Bacqué-Grammont identify this text as a reference to Paisie/Petru. Various other authors who credit Paisie as a Basarab see him as an heir of the rival Drăculești. They include historian Iorga, who accepts Paisie's claim to have been a natural son of Radu the Great. Popa-Gorjanu similarly concludes that "Petru of the Argeș was the son of Radu the Great, as attested in all writs and documents, and not the son of Stanciu, Olahus' uncle." By contrast, genealogist Constantin Gane credits Paisie as the son of Stanciul, and not as Radu's son. He further proposes that Paisie was more distantly related to the Drăculești, as a direct descendant from Vlad the Impaler.
Rise to power
In June 1535, the powerful Craiovești boyars and their allies staged Vlad Vintilă's assassination, then engineered Paisie's election to the throne. Upon his coronation on June 12, Paisie took the regnal name "Radu", underlining his supposed descent from Radu the Great. Historian Dan Pleșia also notes that "Petru was not a common name for Wallachian princes", and that "Radu" was a preferred new name for monarchs, down to the 17th-century Radu Șerban. Scholar Marcu Beza notes that Paisie still referred to himself under his birth name in the 1538 orarion carrying his dedication. Iorga further notes that the item uses Пєтрȣ, indicating a Romanian Cyrillic spelling of the vernacular Petru, whereas the rest of the text uses Church Slavonic.Paisie's claim to legitimacy was also enhanced by his regular donations to Meteora, a custom mostly associated with his presumed father. He then took as his new wife a Lady Ruxandra. According to various readings, she was a daughter of Neagoe Basarab and Princess Milica, having been previously married to Radu of Afumați, claimed by Paisie as his deceased brother. As a woman of exceptional beauty, in 1525 she had sparked a war between her suitors, pitting Radu of Afumați against a Moldavian Prince, Stephen IV. Art historian Pavel Chihaia supports the notion that, in marrying his former sister-in-law, Paisie had committed incest as defined in the Bible. A dissenting opinion is provided by scholar Stoica Nicolaescu, who argues that Paisie's Ruxandra "must not be confused" with her predecessor, who had by then remarried a rival claimant, Laiotă Basarab.
As noted by Iorga, Paisie's reign effectively united "in his person" the Drăculești and Dănești. Acting on his behalf, the Craiovești also sought confirmation from the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, to whom they sent a gift of 1 million akçeler. As they admitted in a collective letter, the boyars felt remorse for not having asked Suleiman's approval before the election, but also explained that this would have been difficult at a time when the suzerain was leading a war in the Middle East. Zápolya agreed to speak to Suleiman on behalf of the regicides, some of whom had found a temporary refuge in his Transylvanian lands. He also intervened on Paisie's behalf, informing Suleiman that the former monk was an "insignificant servant", who could be relied upon for preserving Wallachia in the Ottoman sphere of influence; on July 20, Paisie sent a letter to Zápolya in which he swore his fealty to Eastern Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. By November, Paisie had received his Ottoman banner and confirmation as belonging to the abode of peace. His regular tribute, the haraç, was set at a yearly sum of 12,000 scudi.
Aged about 40 at the time, Radu Paisie was the second former monk to obtain the Wallachian crown, preceded in this respect only by the 1480s Prince Vlad Călugărul. The latter's title, Călugărul is sometimes also applied to Radu Paisie. The new reign was "relatively long" by the period's standards, but "not a quiet one." As recorded by the musician and chronicler Hieronymus Ostermayer, Paisie began his reign as a figurehead who "let the boyars do as they pleased". His early efforts were directed toward increasing his personal wealth: in October 1535, he bought back from the destitute boyar Bădică several villages peopled entirely by Gypsy slaves, which subsequently became his "princely Gypsies".
This political line was soon changed by complex circumstances: the years 1536–1537 were anarchic. Having challenged his own retinue, Paisie faced boyar rebellions, which may have driven him out of Wallachia for much of that interval. The years also marked a split with the Craiovești, who put up a family member, Barbu Mărăcine, as their own candidate for the throne. According to Rezachevici, Mărăcine was the actual reigning Prince of Wallachia in February–April 1536, and had been recognized as such by the Porte. While she does not mention the usurper by name, Feneșan and Bacqué-Grammont argue that he was a favorite of Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, the Ottoman Grand Vizier. Popa-Gorjanu similarly argues that Paisie "was chased out with Turkish assistance". Both she and Rezachevici record the story in Olahus, according to which "another pretender" had Petrus ab Argyes maimed, ordering the partial removal of his nose, before chasing him out of the country. According to Rezachevici, the mutilation may have been a "symbolic" cut on Paisie's septum, "as done to many other pretenders."
Feneșan and Bacqué-Grammont suggest that Paisie found sympathy at the Porte with the downfall of Vizier Ibrahim, who was finally replaced by Ayas Mehmed Pasha. As hypothesized by several authors, Paisie was able to reconquer Wallachia only with support from Zápolya and Stephen Majláth, the Voivode of Transylvania, driving his loyalist troops in from the north. Among the primary sources, Olahus claimed that his cousin was in Transylvania during the exile interval. Paisie was then able to re-consolidate his power, turning to violent repression. Some records describe other smaller revolts, which are not located chronologically; one was led by another pretender, Ivan Viezure, whom Paisie captured and decapitated, possibly in 1537. Victims of his revenge included Tudor of Drăgoești, the country's Logothete, and Ban Toma of Pietroșani. Boyars on the loyalist side were led by Vlaicu Piscan, who took over as Logothete, Clucer Coadă, and Vornic Staico Șintescu, as well as Radu Furcovici, who held various commissions and was Paisie's godson. At the end of this punitive expedition, Mărăcine was chased out of the land. His later life gave rise to many legends. According to Rezachievici, the most plausible one is that he was quietly murdered in Istanbul in 1565, being survived by his son, the pretender Nicolaus Bassaraba.