Mircea the Elder

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Mircea cel Batrân (1386-1418) was one of the most important rulers in Wallachia. His name literally translates to "Mircea the Old" in modern Romanian, but the original meaning of the expression was "Mircea the Ancient".

Mircea cel Batrân was the son of voivode Radu_I and lady Calinica, descendant of an aristocratic family of the time.

Wallachia's borders moved constantly throughout history, but during his ruling, Wallachia had the widest medieval surface: from river Olt in the North to Danube in the south, and from Danube's Iron Gates in the west to the Black Sea to the east.

During his ruling, Wallachia prospered economically, he gave privileges to traders, limited the power of aristocrats, improved the army, improved the fortifications. He signed treaties with Hungary's Sigismund of Luxemburg and Polish Vladislav Jagello.

Starting in the second half of the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire started threatening the Eastern Wallachia.

In 1394 Bayazid (a.k.a. "Bayazid Ilderim", "the Lightning", nicknamed this way for his lightning attacks -- on an intersting note, also see Blitzkrieg) crossed river Danube leading 40,000 men, an impressive force at the time. His final target was the Roman Empire, but he had to cross Wallachia first. Mircea cel Batrân had only about 10,000 men so he couldn't survive an open fight. He chose what we would call guerilla warfare today, by starving the opposing army (he ordered burning the crops and poisoning the wells before the Ottoman army could reach a village), and by small, localized attacks and retreats. On October 10th 1394, at Rovine, the two armies finally collided. The place was wisely chose by Mircea for its forrested and swampy nature which prevented the Ottomans from properly spreading their army; Mircea finally won the fierce battle and threw the Ottomans out of the country (the battle was literally described by Mihai Eminescu in one of his Epistles).