Seimeni
Seimeni designates the group of flintlock-armed infantry mercenaries charged with guarding the hospodar and his court in 17th and 18th century Wallachia and Moldavia. They were mostly of Serb and other Balkan origin. The term is of Turkish origin: seğmen means "young armed man", it itself derives from Persian سگبان. In modern transcriptions of Slavonic, it may also appear as simén or siimén.
Menaced by the growing privileges of boyars and threatened to lose land grants or be turned into serfs, the Wallachian seimeni rebelled in 1655, being crushed after Prince Constantin Șerban enlisted the help of George II Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, as well as that of Moldavia's Voivode Gheorghe Ștefan. After exercising a rule of terror in Bucharest, capturing and executing several boyars, they were decisively defeated by Rákóczi on June 26, 1655, in a battle on the Teleajen River.
Literature
- Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Sfatul domnesc și Adunarea Stărilor in Principatele Române, Bucharest, 1995
- Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Bucureștilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre, Bucharest, 1966, p. 73
Category:Infantry units and formations
Category:Mercenary units and formations
Category:Romanian words and phrases
Category:Turkish words and phrases
Category:17th century in Wallachia
Category:History of the Serbs
Category:Serbian mercenaries
Category:Military history of Romania
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Category:18th century in Wallachia
Category:17th century in Moldavia
Category:18th century in Moldavia