• Source: House of Basarab

The House of Basarab (sometimes spelled as Bazarab, Romanian: Basarab pronounced [basaˈrab] ) was a ruling family that established the Principality of Wallachia, giving the country its first line of Princes, one closely related with the Mușatin rulers of Moldavia. Its status as a dynasty is rendered problematic by the official elective system, which implied that male members of the same family, including illegitimate offspring, were chosen to rule by a council of boyars (more often than not, the election was conditioned by the military force exercised by candidates). After the rule of Alexandru I Aldea (ended in 1436), the house was split by the conflict between the Dănești and the Drăculești, both of which claimed legitimacy. Several late rulers of the Craiovești claimed direct descent from the House after its eventual demise, including Neagoe Basarab, Matei Basarab, Constantin Șerban, Șerban Cantacuzino, and Constantin Brâncoveanu.
Rulers usually mentioned as members of the House include (in chronological order of first rule) Mircea the Elder, Dan II, Vlad II Dracul, Vlad III the Impaler, Vlad the Monk, Radu IV the Great, and Radu of Afumați.




Name and origins


The dynasty was named after Basarab I, who gained the independence of Wallachia from the Kingdom of Hungary around 1325.
The origin of the family is highly disputed with theories of Vlach, Cuman or partially Cuman. origin. There is no scholarly consensus on the actual origin of the Basarabs as the Cuman hypothesis has not been proven and at least four royal charters from the 14th century refer to Basarab as a Vlach.
The name is likely of Cuman or Pecheneg Turkic origin and most likely meant "father ruler". Basar was the present participle of the verb "to rule", derivatives attested in both old and modern Kypchak languages. The Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga believed the second part of the name, -aba ("father"), to be an honorary title, as recognizable in many Cuman names, such as Terteroba, Arslanapa, and Ursoba.
Basarab's "possible" father Thocomerius also bore an allegedly Cuman name, identified as Toq-tämir, a rather common Cuman and Tatar name in the 13th century. The Russian chronicles around 1295 refer to a Toktomer, a prince of the Mongol Empire present in Crimea.

The Cuman or Pecheneg origin of the name is used as the foundation of the theory of Cuman origin, in a similar manner to Cuman origin theories linked to the Asen of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Like Asen and his family, who according to the theory were of non-Bulgarian extraction, and who founded a dynasty and became Bulgarians, Basarab and his family could have also been of Cuman extraction, founded a dynasty, and became Romanians.




Genealogy


The following genealogical tree is a simplified version, meant to show the ruling princes, their documented brothers and sisters, and the spouses/extramarital liaisons of those who had ruling heirs, following the conventions:

Ruling princes have their name emphasized and their ruling years in Wallachia.
Several members of House of Basarab ruled in Moldavia; those reigning years are marked with M.
Small numbers at the end of each name are meant to indicate the mother of each offspring.
There are two branches of the dynasty: Drăculeşti (DR) and Dăneşti (DA)
If the prince died while ruling, the last year is preceded by a cross.
Spouses and extramarital liaisons are separated by a horizontal line.




A printed family tree






Legacy


The Basarab name is the origin of several place names, including the region of Bessarabia (today part of Moldova and Ukraine) and a few towns, such as Basarabi in Romania, Basarabeasca in the Republic of Moldova, and Basarbovo in Bulgaria.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom herself was descended from Princess Stanca of Basarab (1518?-1601) as an eighth-generation descendant of Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde of Erdőszentgyörgy, a Hungarian countess from the Teck-Cambridge family. Elizabeth was thus also a great-grandniece of Vlad IV the Monk.




See also


Dracula in popular culture
Michael the Brave
Anna Basarab
List of titled noble families in the Kingdom of Hungary




References



Vasary, Istvan, Cumans and Tatars, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 149–155




Sources


Spinei, Victor (2009). The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth century. Koninklijke Brill NV. ISBN 978-90-04-17536-5.




External links



Marek, Miroslav. "Basarab genealogy". Genealogy.EU.
Marek, Miroslav. "Related Muşatins genealogy". Genealogy.EU.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Vlad Ţepeş
• Károly Róbert
• János Hunyadi
• Lajos I dari Hungaria
• House of Basarab
• House of Drăculești
• Neagoe Basarab
• Basarab the Young
• Basarab I of Wallachia
• List of princes of Wallachia
• House of Dănești
• Basarab the Old
• Alexander I Aldea
• House of Bogdan-Mușat