Wallachians and Moldo-Wallachians: The Self-Fashioning Rhetoric of the Claimants to the Throne of Wallachia (Late 16th and Early 17th Centuries) By Marian Coman

https://www.academia.edu/165862829/Wallachians_and_Moldo_Wallachians_The_Self_Fashioning_Rhetoric_of_the_Claimants_to_the_Throne_of_Wallachia_Late_16th_and_Early_17th_Centuries_ In this paper, I explore the intriguing self-fashioning rhetoric of claimants to the Wallachian throne in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. My main contention is that the political paradigm shifted dramatically from the 1590s to the 1630s, with the Movilă family as the prime mover of this transformation. Simion Movilă and his supporters were the first to introduce the concept of a ‘foreigner’ or ‘stranger-lord’ into Wallachian political debates. Once it entered the Wallachian political lexicon, the idea of a ‘native prince’ became legitimate rhetorical currency, which Simion Movilă’s rivals could also shape to their own ends. Radu Șerban redefined the concept of a ‘native prince’ by devising a new political notion, that of a Wallachian princely lineage of the Basarabs. His model of a Wallachian ‘native’ dynasty was a direct reaction to the Moldo-Wallachian princely lineage promoted by the Movilă family. Three decades later, another Wallachian nobleman-turned-ruler, Matei, further developed the idea of the House of Basarab and employed it as a rhetorical tool to promote his political programme of fending off ‘foreigners’, including Moldavians and Greeks alike. ...