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<\/a>Constantin Br\u00e2ncoveanu ascended to the throne of Wallachia following the sudden death of \u0218erban Cantacuzino (1678\u20131688), following a free election by the boyars and church leaders, because, as one of the chronicles of the time attests, everyone \u201cknew that he was wise and descended from royal stock.\u201d Prudent and content with what God had given him, the chronicles tell us that Br\u00e2ncoveanu initially refused the decision of the country\u2019s council, being persuaded only by the external political danger that threatened the country\u2019s stability and by his desire not to leave the fate of the principality at the mercy of the Turks.<\/p>\nEndowed with numerous virtues\u2014among them wisdom and a keen diplomatic sense, which best define his character\u2014Br\u00e2ncoveanu succeeded, during a period of major political upheaval on the international stage of Central-Eastern and Southeastern Europe, to remain on the throne of Wallachia for a quarter of a century. The profound mark his reign left on Romanian history\u2014a reign that gave its name to an entire era and to an architectural and artistic movement that became emblematic of the Romanian region\u2014prompted one of our greatest historians, Constantin C. Giurescu, to compose the following evocative portrait: \u201cA prudent steward, a man of faith, and a lover of art and culture, Constantin Br\u00e2ncoveanu is one of the most prominent figures of our past. He symbolizes the golden age of the Romanian spirit. And his tragic end, borne with the fortitude of a true Christian soul, adds a martyr\u2019s halo to his image.\u201d1 But the virtues and deeds of \u201cConstantin Br\u00e2ncoveanu\/Ancient Boyar and Christian Prince,\u201d as the Romanian folk ballad sings of him, paradoxically earned the prince not only the unanimous respect of his contemporaries but also\u2014as the Greek hieromonk Mitrofan Grigoras noted even at the time\u2014the hatred and envy of some of his close associates, who \u201cdespising his forbearance, his long-suffering, and his kindness (…) and piling sin upon sin, had reached the height of wickedness, the envy that is the cause of murder\u2014envy, I say, the mother of murder, the envy that is wounded by what is good; envy, having taken hold of them, caused human nature to rage against itself and incited them to commit bloodshed through assassinations and intrigues\u201d2.<\/p>\n
The substance of these intrigues was transformed into a series of charges, such as that he maintained secret correspondence with the Austrians, the Russians, the Poles, and the Venetians; that he had fleeced the country through oppressive taxation; that he had amassed enormous fortunes with which he hoped to support himself after taking refuge with his family in Transylvania, where he owned several estates and properties, that in the summer of 1711 he had allegedly urged Grand Spatar Toma Cantacuzino to defect with part of his army to the Russian-Moldavian side, and that he was pursuing an increasingly autonomist policy, even going so far as to mint gold coins. Growing increasingly suspicious of the prince\u2019s sincerity and loyalty, the Turks saw Holy Week of 1714 as the opportune moment to depose him. Taken by surprise by the sultan\u2019s firman, the voivode was arrested and taken to Constantinople along with his entire family. Imprisoned in the Fortress of the Seven Towers, tortured to reveal where he had hidden his wealth, and refusing Sultan Ahmed III\u2019s offer to submit to \u201cTurkish law,\u201d he was ultimately beheaded alongside his four sons\u2014Constantin, \u0218tefan, Radu, and Matei\u2014and the grand clucer Ianache V\u0103c\u0103rescu.<\/p>\n