Knezates, Voivodeships and the Great Invasions (9th–13th Centuries)

The first known Romanian political formations were the knezates and voivodeships, led by knezes and voivodes. The chronicle of Anonymus, notary of King Béla of Hungary, written around 1200, speaks of three rulers in Transylvania and the Banat at the arrival of the Hungarians: Menumorut in Crișana, Glad in the Banat and Gelu, “the Romanian,” in Transylvania. The value of this text is debated by historians, but it shows the existence of local political organizations. In Oltenia and Muntenia, the voivodeships of Litovoi and Seneslau appear in the 13th century.

The Hungarians entered the Pannonian Plain around 896 and gradually began to expand toward Transylvania. King Stephen I, crowned in 1000 or 1001, Christianized Hungary in the Latin rite and organized the state. The conquest of Transylvania lasted centuries: from the 11th century the Székelys were brought into the area as border guards, and from the 12th century German colonists, called “Saxons,” were settled by King Géza II. Transylvania became a voivodeship of the Hungarian kingdom, with a voivode appointed by the king, at the head of its own administration.

An essential document for the history of Wallachia is the Diploma of the Knights of St John, of 1247, issued by King Béla IV. It mentions the knezates of John and Farcaș and the voivodeships of Litovoi and Seneslau between the Carpathians, the Danube and the Olt. The charter granted these territories to the Knights Hospitaller, except for the Romanian lands. Litovoi opposed the claims of the Hungarian king and died in battle around 1277, and his brother Bărbat paid a ransom. The document proves that Romanian political formations were already well organized in the mid-13th century.

The great Mongol invasion of 1241–1242, led by Batu Khan, devastated Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania and Hungary. Fortresses and towns were burned, and the population was massacred or enslaved, as attested by chroniclers such as Rogerius, a canon of Oradea, in his “Carmen miserabile.” The empire of the Golden Horde then controlled the north-Pontic steppe and exercised strong influence. The Romanians survived by withdrawing into mountainous and forested areas. After the invasion, the kings of Hungary strengthened the system of fortresses and encouraged colonization, while the nobility gained power.

Before these events, in 1223, the Cumans, a nomadic Turkic people, had been defeated by the Mongols at Kalka, and in 1227 the bishopric of Cumania was founded to convert them. The Cumans then settled in Muntenia and southern Moldavia and left traces in the language and place names such as Teleorman or Bărăgan. In the 14th century, the weakening of the Golden Horde and the pressure of the Hungarian crown created the conditions for the founding of independent Romanian states. They were born of the will to preserve autonomy in a region disputed by great powers.