Stefan cel Mare , Stephen The Great 1457-1504 AD . Silver Gross. MOLDOVA.Type 1B

Description: Stephen III of Moldavia, most commonly known asStephen the Great(Romanian:tefan cel Mare;pronunciation:[tefantelmare]; died on 2 July 1504), wasVoivode (or Prince)ofMoldaviafrom 1457 to 1504. He was the son of and co-ruler withBogdan II, who was murdered in 1451 in a conspiracy organized by his brother and Stephen's unclePeter III Aaron, who took the throne. Stephen fled toHungary, and later toWallachia; with the support ofVlad III epe,Voivode of Wallachia, he returned to Moldavia, forcing Aaron to seek refuge inPolandin the summer of 1457.Teoctist I,Metropolitan of Moldavia,anointedStephen prince. He attacked Poland and preventedCasimir IV Jagiellon,King of Poland, from supporting Peter Aaron, but eventually acknowledged Casimir's suzerainty in 1459.Stephen decided to recapture Chilia (nowKiliiain Ukraine), an important port on the Danube, which brought him into conflict with Hungary and Wallachia. He besieged the town during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, but was seriously wounded during the siege. Two years later, he captured the town. He promised support to the leaders of theThree Nations of TransylvaniaagainstMatthias Corvinus,King of Hungary, in 1467. Corvinus invaded Moldavia, but Stephen defeated him in theBattle of Baia. Peter Aaron attacked Moldavia with Hungarian support in December 1470, but was also defeated by Stephen and executed, along with theMoldavian boyarswho still endorsed him. Stephen restored old fortresses and built new ones, which improved Moldavia's defence system as well as strengthened central administration. Ottoman expansion threatened Moldavian ports in the region of theBlack Sea. In 1473, Stephen stopped paying tribute (hara) to theOttoman sultanand launched aseries of campaigns against Wallachiain order to replace its rulers who had accepted Ottoman suzerainty with his protgs. However, each prince who seized the throne with Stephen's support was soon forced to pay homage to the sultan. Stephen eventually defeated a large Ottoman army in theBattle of Vasluiin 1475. He was referred to asAthleta Christi("Champion of Christ") byPope Sixtus IV, even though Moldavia's hopes for military support went unfulfilled. The following year, Ottoman SultanMehmed IIrouted Stephen in theBattle of Valea Alb, but the lack of provisions and the outbreak of a plague forced him to withdraw from Moldavia. Taking advantage of a truce with Matthias Corvinus, the Ottomans captured Chilia, theirCrimean Tatarallies Cetatea Alb (nowBilhorod-Dnistrovskyiin Ukraine) in 1484. Although Corvinus granted twoTransylvanianestates to Stephen, the Moldavian prince paid homage to Casimir, who promised to support him to regain Chilia and Cetatea Alb. Stephen's efforts to capture the two ports ended in failure. From 1486, he again paid a yearly tribute to the Ottomans. During the following years, dozens of stone churches and monasteries were built in Moldavia, which contributed to the development of a specific Moldavian architecture. Casimir IV's successor,John I Albert, wanted to grant Moldavia to his younger brother,Sigismund, but Stephen's diplomacy prevented him from invading Moldavia for years. John Albertattacked Moldaviain 1497, but Stephen and his Hungarian and Ottoman allies routed the Polish army in theBattle of the Cosmin Forest. Stephen again tried to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Alb, but had to acknowledge the loss of the two ports to the Ottomans in 1503. During his last years, his son and co-rulerBogdan IIIplayed an active role in government. Stephen's long rule represented a period of stability in the history of Moldavia. From the 16th century onwards both his subjects and foreigners remembered him as a great ruler. Modern Romanians regard him as one of their greatest national heroes, although he also endures as a cult figure inMoldovenism. After theRomanian Orthodox Churchcanonized him in 1992, he is venerated as "Stephen the Great and Holy" (tefan cel Mare i Sfnt). Stephen was the son ofBogdan, who was a son ofAlexander the Good,Prince of Moldavia.Stephen's mother, Maria Oltea,was most probably related to the princes ofWallachia, according to historianRadu Florescu.The date of Stephen's birth is unknown,though historians estimate that he was born between 1433 and 1440.[7][8]One churchdiptychrecords that he had five siblings: brothers Ioachim, Ioan, Christea; and sisters Sorea and Maria.Some of Stephen's biographers hypothesize that Crstea Arbore, father of the statesmanLuca Arbore, was the prince's fourth brother, or that Crstea was the same as Ioachim.These links with the high-rankingMoldavian boyarsare known to have been preserved through matrimonial connections: Maria, who died in 1485, was the wife of endrea, gatekeeper ofSuceava; Stephen's other brother-in-law, Isaia, also held high office at his court. The death of Alexander the Good in 1432 gave rise to a succession crisis that lasted more than two decades.Stephen's father seized the throne in 1449 after defeating one of his relatives with the support ofJohn Hunyadi, Regent-Governor of Hungary.Stephen was styledvoivodein his father's charters, showing that he had been made his father's heir and co-ruler.Bogdan acknowledged the suzerainty of Hunyadi in 1450.Stephen fled to Hungary afterPeter III Aaron(who was also Alexander the Good's son) murdered Bogdan . Vlad epe (who had lived in Moldavia during Bogdan II's reign) invaded Wallachia and seized the throne with the support of Hunyadi in 1456.Stephen either accompanied Vlad to Wallachia during the military campaign or joined him after Vlad became the ruler of Wallachia.][bettersourceneeded]According to reports from the 1480s, Stephen spent part of that interval inBrila, where he fathered an illegitimate son, Mircea.With the assistance of Vlad, Stephen stormed into Moldavia at the head of an army 6,000 strong in the spring According to Moldavian chronicles, "men from the Lower Country" (the southern region of Moldavia) joined him.The 17th-centuryGrigore Urechewrote: "Stephen routed Peter Aaronat Doljetion 12 April, but Peter Aaron left Moldavia for Poland only after Stephen inflicted a second defeat on him at Orbic recapture Chilia and Cetatea Alb.[113][140]He narrowly escaped with his life, reportedly after being helped by the Aprod Purice, whom tradition identifies as patriarch of theMoviletifamily.Historian Vasile Mrcule agrees with Ottoman sources in noting that cheia was not a military victory for Moldavia, but overall a relative success for his enemy,Skender Pasha. Moldavians reported winning the day only because they narrowly avoided disaster; and because Hronoda, recognized a voivode by dissenting boyars, was captured and beheaded.In the end, Stephen signed a three-year truce with the Porte, promising to pay the yearly tribute to the Sultan

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