Mircea the Elder

Io Mircea, voivode of Wallachia, I held the land between the Carpathians, the Danube, and the Black Sea from 1386 until my last winter. In my charters I named what I guarded: the crossings, the ports, and the fortress of Dârstor, up to the Great Sea. To endure, I learned when to bend and when to draw steel.

Bayezid I pressed from the south with swift horse and many levies. I would not meet him on open ground. In the low woods and marsh at Rovine we felled trees, choked the paths, burned fodder, and sent arrows from alder thickets. His numbers availed him little where the mud held his hooves. When the weight grew too great, I vanished into the forest and returned where his guard was thin.

I bargained openly and fought in shadow. With King Sigismund I swore the pact at Brașov in 1395, for the safety of my borders. When the great host marched to Nicopolis, Wallachian banners went too; I kept men enough to hold the river when that venture broke. At times I bowed to the Hungarian crown, and at times I stood alone. After the sultan fell at Ankara, I crossed and recrossed the Danube, backing and unseating his contenders, and I strengthened Giurgiu to watch the ferries.

I set my seal to keep the law, minted clean coin, and raised churches to steady souls. Cozia on the Olt I founded and endowed; there I keep my rest. Judge me by this: the frontier held, and Wallachia kept its name.