Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 1. szám)
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The Political Relations between Wallachia and Hungary 23 1355 document states that they were performed after the achievement of the pontifical office ("post adeptum pontificale officium"). The official papal investment is dated on the 15th of July 13451'4. The discrepancy between the chronicle date and the document one is at least of one year. But a certain error could have interfered in drafting the document, which is however not significant for the objective of the action itself. The reference point is the achievement of the pontifical office. Even before, when Demetrius held an inferior position, though important, that of high clerical official (praepositus) at Buda, he also served the king in a similar quality, as a messenger. Demetrius' main job in the king's company appears thus to be the performing of deputations. The king came in 1344 at the Southern boundaries of Transylvania, which would converge, with the dating of the pledge in the chronicle114 115. We incline to believe that the time of this event, the Wallachian voivode's oath, is the year 1344116. During that period, two associated rulers governed Wallachia, Basarab I together with his son, Nicholas Alexander117. Nicholas Alexander appears for the first time in a papal document, mentioned among those who had been sent letters containing the urge to convert to the Catholic Church118. He seems thus to have been the real leader south of the Carpathians, probably exerting his attributions as a ruler along with his father, but in an executive leading position, naturally having the approval of Basarab I, who is known to have passed away only in 1352. In 1351, mentioning Carol Robert's 1330 expedition, King Louis mentioned Basarab I only as his father's unfaithful ("infidelem ipsius patris noştri")119, which may bring another argument concerning the acceptance of the suzerainty by the Wallachian rulers. Nicholas Alexander's fidelity was not consistent. Some time before 1359 he rebelled against the king. The moment can be placed more precisely before the royal campaign against the citadel of Zara, certified as a post quern moment in the 1359 document. Consequently, Vladislav's rebellion took place before the 1356 campaign. Meaning that a radical change intervened during the immediately following period after February 1355, when he is called by the king "our Wallachian voivode"120. The Wallachian voivode, Nicholas Alexander's independent position also left its mark on the internal political life of the Romanian State. The pro-Hungarian faction was forced to emigrate and took refuge at King Louis's court. Their deed was appreciated and rewarded after several years. Louis 114 Documente privind istoria românilor (DIR), C, Transilvania, veac XIV, voi. IV, no. 320. 115 On the 15th of June 1344, the king was in Braşov, and until the 28th of July in Transylvania: P. Engel, Királyitineráriumok 1324-82, 1387-1437, (following up: Királyitineráriumok), Kézirat (mss.), Budapest, 1995, p. 14. 116 Bertényi Iván, op. cit., p. 191, claims that the Romanian voivode would have yielded for fear of a Hungarian military campaign. 117 Şt. Ştefanescu, Ţara Românească de la Basarab I „întemeietorul" până la Mihai Viteazul, Bucureşti, 1970, pp. 39 et passim. 118, Alexandro Bassarati“: DRH, D., I, p. 60. 119 DRH, D., I, p. 67. 120 Ibidem, pp. 70-71.
