Michael the Brave

Romanian prince and voivode of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia (1558–1601)

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Lived 1558–1601, aged 43

Wikipedia
38 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1558–1601
Aged 43

Summary

Updated 2026-06-10

Born Mihai Pătrașcu, he's the only ruler to ever hold Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania at once — a brief union in 1600 that made him a symbol of Romanian nationhood. He kept all three for less than a year before the great powers closed in.

Biography

About

Michael took Wallachia in 1593 and two years later went to war with the Ottomans, winning the Battle of Călugăreni against an army nearly triple his size before being forced to retreat and wait for allies. The war dragged on until 1599, when he turned his attention north: he defeated Andrew Báthory at Șelimbăr, entered Transylvania as imperial governor under Habsburg suzerainty, then invaded Moldavia and drove out Ieremia Movilă. For a few months he held all three principalities and changed his seal to reflect it. The Habsburgs, Ottomans, and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth all moved to break h…

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