Seneslau,
also Seneslav or Stănislau,
was a
Vlach ''
voivode
Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...
'' mentioned in the
Diploma of the Joannites issued by king
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of Andrew II of Hungary, King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group ...
(1235–1270) on 2 July 1247. The diploma granted territories to the
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
in the
Banate of Severin and ''
Cumania''.
According to the diploma, the king gave the territories east of the
Olt River
The Olt ( Romanian and Hungarian; ; or ', , ''Alytos'') is a river in Romania. It is long, and its basin area is . It is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania. Its average discharge at the mouth is . It originates in the Hă ...
to the knights, with the exception of the territory of ''voivode'' Seneslau.
The name of Seneslav is of
Slavic origin. Seneslau held central and southern
Muntenia
Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the rarely used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in Ro ...
(''i.e.'', the territories along the rivers
Argeş and
Dâmboviţa).
The Romanian historian Ioan Aurel Pop suggests that Seneslau was quasi independent of the king of Hungary.
According to the Hungarian historian István Vásáry, his title ''(voivode)'' suggests that he had a territorial unit under his jurisdiction.
The diploma of Béla IV also refers to the ''
kenazate''s of
John,
Farcaş and ''voivode''
Litovoi.
Although the names of Seneslau and Litovoi are of
Slavic origin, they are expressly said to be Vlachs ''(Olati)'' in the king's diploma.
See also
*
Founding of Wallachia
*
List of princes of Wallachia
This is a list of princes of Wallachia, from the first mention of a medieval polity situated between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube until the union with Moldavia in 1859, which unification of Moldavia and Wallachia, led to the creation of ...
References
Sources
*Georgescu, Vlad ''(Author)'' – Calinescu, Matei ''(Editor)'' – Bley-Vroman, Alexandra ''(Translator)'': ''The Romanians – A History''; Ohio State University Press, 1991, Columbus;
*Pop, Ioan Aurel: ''Romanians and Romania: A Brief History''; Columbia University Press, 1999, New York;
*Treptow, Kurt W. - Popa, Marcel: ''Historical Dictionary of Romania'' (part Historical Chronology); Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996, Lanham & Folkestone;
*Vásáry, István: ''Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365''; Cambridge University Press, 2005, Cambridge; {{ISBN, 0-521-83756-1
Златарски, Васил. История на българската държава през средните векове. Том III. Второ българско царство. България при Асеневци (1187—1280), София 1940* Коледаров, Петър. Политическа география на средновековната българска държава, Втора част (1186–1396), София 1989
13th-century Hungarian nobility
History of Muntenia