A History of Romania by Iorga Nicolae;Prodan David;

Author:Iorga, Nicolae;Prodan, David;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Histria Books
Published: 2021-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

As Moldavia was completely ruined, having been the theatre since 1683 of the wars between the Turks and the Poles, which only ended sixteen years later in the peace of Carlowitz, as the new, imported Greek aristocracy — Cantacuzinos and Rosettis — replaced the old families in many estates, as the impoverished voivodes merely appeared for a time on a throne that had lost all prestige, while Miron Costin and his brother worked for autonomy under Polish domination, Brâncoveanu was often real master of both principalities. His influence was felt as far as Transylvania, of which he nearly became prince, and which he crossed as conqueror (1691) to impose, together with the Turks and the Tartars, the ephemeral reign of Emeric Tököly, a client of the Sultan. In one sense, under another form, he recalled Michael the Brave and Stephen the Great.

The literary interpretation of this brilliant reign is found in a work of which, unfortunately, we now have only fragments. It was written by the prince’s uncle, the Grand Stolnic Constantine Cantacuzino, whose sister was Brâncoveanu’s mother. This other grandson of Radu Șerban, and descendant of the Byzantine emperors, who by no means forgot his glorious genealogy, had studied at Constantinople and then — which was very rare — at Venice and Padua, where he had been introduced to the Latin civilization of the Renaissance. Involved in all the affairs of the principality, respected counsellor of a nephew whom he afterwards succeeded in dethroning, he had not too much leisure to express his large and superb ideas in literary form. In his History of the Romanians, the conception of which is vaster than that of the work of Miron Costin, because he understood the related peoples of the Balkans and proposed to tell the past of the entire race in a comprehensive way, Cantacuzino gave proof of a critical erudition which the Moldavian logofăt had never possessed. He could classify and discuss very ably the values of domestic and foreign sources of evidence, deeds of donation and folk songs, the importance of which he realized. More than once, his voice was raised eloquently in protest against the foreigners who, without knowing a nation’s past, were in a hurry to condemn its actual situation, with equal severity and injustice.

When Brâncoveanu had ended his days so tragically, the historian’s son, Stephen, was chosen by the conqueror and confirmed by the Turks. Two years later, however, the new prince fell under a sentence passed by the cruel Grand Vizier Dchin-Ali, an open enemy of the Christians, upon the other friend of the Imperialists and “traitor” to Ottoman interests; and the author of the History of the Romanians shared his doom. It was as if fate had wanted to indicate by a line of blood that the end of the royal absolutism of the indigenous princes must also be the end of the Romanian civilization, confident in its unity and proud of its origin, which had developed in the prosperous tranquility of a long reign.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.