Editing History of Romania (section)

== High Middle Ages ==
{{Main|Romania in the Middle Ages}}
{{See also|Moldavia in the Middle Ages|Transylvania in the Middle Ages|Wallachia in the Middle Ages|Founding of Wallachia}}

[[File:Castelul Bran2.jpg|thumb|[[Bran Castle]] ({{langx|de|Törzburg}}, {{langx|hu|Törcsvár}}) built in 1212, is commonly known as ''Dracula's Castle'' and is situated in the center of present-day Romania. In addition to its unique [[architecture]], the [[castle]] is famous because of persistent myths that it was once the home of [[Vlad III Dracula]].]]
[[File:Europe_mediterranean_1190_cropped.jpg|alt=Kingdom of Hungary, King Béla III of Hungary, 1190, Europe, map|thumb|Europe in 1190]]
During the [[Middle Ages]] the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]] controlled vast areas to the north of the river [[Danube]] (with interruptions) from its establishment in 681 to its fragmentation in 1371–1422. These lands were called by contemporary [[Byzantine]] historians [[Bulgarian lands across the Danube|Bulgaria across the Danube]], or Transdanubian Bulgaria.<ref>{{Cite web |title=T. Balkanski – Transilvanskite bylgari – Predgovor |url=http://macedonia.kroraina.com/tb2/tb_predg.htm |website=macedonia.kroraina.com}}</ref> Original information for the centuries-old Bulgarian rule there is scarce as the archives of the Bulgarian rulers were destroyed and little is mentioned for this area in Byzantine or Hungarian manuscripts. During the First Bulgarian Empire, the [[Balkan–Danubian culture|Dridu culture]] developed in the beginning of the 8th&nbsp;century and flourished until the 11th century.{{sfn|Opreanu|2005|p=127}}{{sfn|Spinei|2009|p=87}} It represents an [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] [[archaeological culture]] which emerged in the region of the [[Lower Danube]].{{sfn|Opreanu|2005|p=127}}{{sfn|Spinei|2009|p=87}} In Bulgaria it is usually referred to as [[Pliska-Preslav culture]].<ref>Плиска-Преслав: Прабългарската култура, Том 2, Българска академия на науките Археологически институт и музей, 1981.</ref>

The [[Pechenegs]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Constantine VII |first=Porphyrogenitus |title=Constantine Porphyrogenitus De Administrando Imperio |date=950 |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/rus/texts/constp.html |location=Constantinople |author-link=Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus}}</ref> the [[Cumans]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Xenopol |first=Alexandru D. |title=Histoire des Roumains |volume=i |pages=168 |year=1896 |place=Paris}}</ref> and [[Oghuz Turks|Uzes]] are also mentioned by historic chronicles on the territory of Romania until the founding of the Romanian principalities of [[Wallachia]] in the south by [[Basarab I]] around 1310 in the [[High Middle Ages]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Ștefănescu |first=Ștefan |title=Istoria medie a României |volume=I |pages=114 |year=1991 |location=Bucharest}}</ref> and [[Moldavia]] in the east, by [[Dragoș]] around 1352.<ref>{{Citation |last=Predescu |first=Lucian |title=Enciclopedia Cugetarea |year=1940}}</ref>

The [[Pechenegs]], a semi-nomadic [[Turkic people]] of the [[Central Asian steppes]], occupied the steppes north of the [[Black Sea]] from the 8th to the 11th centuries, and by the 10th century they were in control of all of the territory between the [[Don River (Russia)|Don]] and the lower [[Danube]] rivers.<ref name="britannica">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/448299/Pechenegs|title=Pechenegs &#124; people &#124; Britannica.com|publisher=britannica.com|access-date=2015-08-25}}</ref> During the 11th and 12th centuries, the nomadic confederacy of the [[Cumans]] and [[Kipchaks|Eastern Kipchaks]] dominated the territories between present-day Kazakhstan, southern Russia, Ukraine, southern Moldavia and western [[Wallachia]].<ref name="cambridge">{{cite web|url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780511110153&ss=fro|title=Cumans and Tatars – Cambridge University Press|publisher=cambridge.org|access-date=2015-08-25}}</ref><ref name="eliznik">{{cite web|url=http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaHistory/wallachia-history.htm|title=Romania's ethnographic regions – Wallachia (Țara Românească)|author=eliznik|publisher=eliznik.org.uk|access-date=2015-08-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923235632/http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaHistory/wallachia-history.htm|archive-date=2015-09-23|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="gather">{{cite web|url=http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977384642|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130426051709/http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977384642|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-04-26|title=Gather.com – Join The Conversation : Gather.com|publisher=gather.com|access-date=2015-08-25}}</ref>

It is debated whether elements of the mixed Daco–Roman population survived in Transylvania through the [[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]] to become the ancestors of modern [[Romanians]] or whether the first [[Vlachs]] and Romanians appeared in the area in the 13th century after a northward migration from the [[Balkan Peninsula]].<ref>István Lázár: ''Transylvania, a Short History, Simon Publications'', Safety Harbor, Florida, 1996
[https://books.google.com/books?id=sCdhLh0C2okC&q=%22Almost+certainly%2C+the+Vlachs+came+from+the+Western+Balkans+and+only+migrated+into+Rumania+as+nomads+abandoned+it+in+the+late+thirteenth%22&pg=PA53]{{Dead link|date=May 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>Martyn C. Rady: ''Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary'', Antony Grove Ltd, Great Britain, 2000
[https://books.google.com/books?id=4SViWPzFj1AC&q=%22sudden+entry+of+the+Vlachs+into+the+Hungarian+historical+record+around+1200+was+a+consequence+of+Romanian+immigration+from+the+Balkan+interior%22&pg=PA91]</ref> There is also debate over the ethnicity of Transylvania's population before the Hungarian conquest.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=VÁLI |first=FERENC A. |date=1966 |title=Transylvania and the Hungarian Minority |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24363369 |journal=Journal of International Affairs |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=32–44 |jstor=24363369 |issn=0022-197X}}</ref>

Several [[Hungarian rulers|Kings of Hungary]] invited settlers from Central and Western Europe, such as the [[Saxons]], to occupy Transylvania. The [[Székelys]] were brought to southeastern Transylvania as border guards. Romanians are mentioned by the Hungarian documents of a township called ''Olahteluk'' in 1283 in [[Bihar County]].<ref>György Fejér, Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus ac civilis, Volume 7, typis typogr. Regiae Vniversitatis Vngaricae, 1831 [https://books.google.com/books?id=1HnUAAAAMAAJ&dq=olahteluk&pg=RA1-PA100]</ref><ref name="Tamás Kis" /> The "land of Romanians" (''Terram Blacorum'')<ref>Dennis P. Hupchick, Conflict and chaos in Eastern Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, 1995 p. 58 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ycNApODqgRUC&dq=first+appearance+romanians+transylvania&pg=PA58]</ref><ref>István Vásáry, Cumans and Tatars: Oriental military in the pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 28 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8C6P3PYaPmQC&dq=terram+blacorum+1222&pg=PA28]{{Dead link|date=May 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>Heinz Stoob, Die Mittelalterliche Städtebildung im südöstlichen Europa, Böhlau, 1977, p. 204 [https://books.google.com/books?id=wRAiAAAAMAAJ&q=1222+terram+blacorum]</ref><ref name="Tamás Kis">Tamás Kis, Magyar nyelvjárások, Volumes 18–21, Nyelvtudományi Intézet, Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem (University of Kossuth Lajos). Magyar Nyelvtudományi Tanszék, 1972, p. 83 [https://books.google.com/books?id=wGUg0F2FzvgC&q=olah&pg=PA82 Magyar nyelvjárások]</</ref> appeared in [[Făgăraș]] and this area was mentioned under the name "Olachi" in 1285.<ref name="Tamás Kis" />

King [[Louis I of Hungary]] dispatched [[Andrew Lackfi]], [[Count of the Székelys]] to invade the lands of the [[Golden Horde]] in retaliation for the [[Tatars|Tatars's]] earlier plundering raids against [[Transylvania]]. [[Andrew Lackfi|Lackfi]] and his army of mainly [[Székelys|Székely]] warriors inflicted a defeat on a large [[Tatars|Tatar]] army on 2 February 1345.{{sfn|Kristó|1988|pp=96–97}}{{sfn|Bertényi|1989|p=58}} The campaign had finally expelled the [[Tatars]] and ended the devastations of the Mongols in [[Transylvania]].<ref name=":34">{{Cite book |last=Makkai |first=László |title=History of Transylvania Volume I. From the Beginnings to 1606 – III. Transylvania in the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom (896–1526) – 3. From the Mongol Invasion to the Battle of Mohács |publisher=Columbia University Press, (The Hungarian original by Institute of History Of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |year=2001 |isbn=0-88033-479-7 |language=English |chapter=The Three Feudal 'Nations' and the Ottoman Threat |chapter-url=http://mek.niif.hu/03400/03407/html/82.html}}</ref> The [[Golden Horde]] was pushed back behind the [[Dniester|Dniester River]], thereafter the [[Golden Horde|Golden Horde's]] control of the lands between the [[Eastern Carpathians]] and the [[Black Sea]] weakened.{{sfn|Kristó|1988|pp=96–97}}{{sfn|Sălăgean|2005|p=199}} [[Moldavia]] was founded in 1346.

Independent Wallachia had been near the border of the Ottoman Empire since the 14th century until it had gradually succumbed to the Ottomans' influence during the next centuries with brief periods of independence. [[Vlad III the Impaler]] was a [[List of rulers of Wallachia|Prince]] of Wallachia in 1448, 1456–62, and 1476.<ref>{{Citation|last =Schoolfield|first =George C.|title =A Baedeker of Decadence: Charting a Literary Fashion, 1884–1927|publisher =Yale University Press|year=2004|isbn = 0-300-04714-2|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LzBSu7HZLhcC&pg=PA219}}</ref><ref name="donlinke">{{cite web |url=http://www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad.htm#Evidence |title=VLAD TEPES – The Historical Dracula |publisher=donlinke.com |access-date=2015-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150902005823/http://www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad.htm#Evidence |archive-date=2015-09-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Vlad III is remembered for his raids against the Ottoman Empire and his initial success of keeping his small country free for a short time. In the [[Western world]], Vlad is best known for being the inspiration for the [[Count Dracula|main character]] in [[Bram Stoker]]'s 1897 novel ''[[Dracula]]''. The {{ill|Romanian historiography|ro|Istoriografia română}} evaluates him as a ferocious but just ruler,<ref>{{Citation| title =Count Dracul's Legend| year =2006| url =http://www.romaniatourism.com/dracula.html| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160117044410/http://www.romaniatourism.com/dracula.html| archive-date =2016-01-17}}</ref> and the defender of the Wallachian independence and of the European [[Christianity]] against Ottoman expansionism.

[[Stephen III of Moldavia|Stephen the Great]] ({{Langx|ro|Ștefan cel Mare}}) is thought to be the best [[List of rulers of Moldavia|voivode]] of [[Moldavia]].<ref>{{Citation|last =Marek|first =Miroslav|title =Rulers of Moldavia: Mushati family|url =http://genealogy.euweb.cz/balkan/balkan18.html}}{{Self-published source|date=August 2012}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=August 2012}} Stephen ruled for 47 years, an unusually long period for that time. He was a successful military leader and statesman, losing only two out of fifty battles;{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} he built a shrine to commemorate each victory, founding 48 churches and monasteries,<ref>{{Citation|last = Orthodox Church in America|title = St. Stephen the Great – Commemorated on July 2|url =http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?FSID=149011}}</ref> many of which have a [[Painted churches of northern Moldavia|unique architectural style]] and are listed in [[UNESCO]]'s list of [[World Heritage Sites]]. Stefan's most prestigious victory was over the Ottoman Empire in 1475 at the [[Battle of Vaslui]], for which he raised the [[Voroneț Monastery]]. For this victory, Pope [[Sixtus IV]] nominated him as ''verus christianae fidei athleta'' (a true Champion of the Christian Faith). After Stephen's death, Moldavia also came under the suzerainty of the [[Ottoman Empire]] during the 16th century.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
[[File:Europe_in_the_14th_Century.jpg|alt=14th century, Europe, map|thumb|Europe in 14th century]]
Although the core religious vocabulary of the Romanian language originated from Latin,<ref name="Treptow 1997 45">Treptow ''et al.'' 1997, p. 45.</ref> many terms were adopted from the Slavic [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodoxy]],<ref name="Spinei 269">Spinei 2009, p. 269.</ref> showing a significant influence dating from the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]] (681–1396).<ref>{{Citation|title=The Other Europe: Eastern Europe To 1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64VpSBd7xUcC&q=wallachia+church+slavic&pg=PA21|isbn=978-0-8156-2440-0|last1=Garrison Walters|first1=E|year=1988| publisher=Syracuse University Press }}</ref>