tribes. In
order to obtain redress for these grievances, an embassy, comprising the
two brothers Peter and Asan, went to Constantinople. They were admitted
to the emperor's presence, but their requests were refused, and one of
the brothers, having displayed too much warmth on the occasion, received
a box on the ear, which may be said to have laid the foundation of the
Wallacho-Bulgarian Empire, and expedited the fall of the Greek dynasty.

At first the revolt was unsuccessful, and the Wallachs and Bulgarians in
alliance were obliged to retreat across the Danube (1187); but soon
returning with a powerful army, in which a new tribe, the Kumani, were
also represented, they succeeded in inflicting a defeat upon the Emperor
Isaac (about 1193), who narrowly escaped with his life. Pressing on to
Adrianople, the allies threatened to overwhelm the Eastern Empire, and
the Emperor Alexius Comnenus was only too glad to conclude a peace with
them (about 1199) and to recognise their independence.

[Footnote 125: Pic (p. 64) says the Roumanian Wallachs were first
referred to in 970, and (p. 113) first mentioned north of the Danube in
1222.]

VIII.

The _Wallacho-Bulgarian_ Empire lasted, according to different authors,
from sixty to one hundred years, and contemporaneously with it the
_Kumani_ were also dominant in part of ancient Dacia; indeed, according
to some writers, Trajan's Dacia was called the land of the Kumani. The
information concerning the latter is very scanty. One writer says that
as the 'Uzi' they were found on the banks of the Danube at the end of
the eleventh century; others say they entered Moldo-Wallachia about
1046. About 1089 they are spoken of as in Transylvania, and the period
of their domination is variously stated as between these dates and
1220-1246. They were probably converted to Christianity about 1220-1223.
About that time the tribe was broken up, and part of them wandered into
Hungary, where they are said to have been guilty of great cruelties, and
to have subsisted down to the fifteenth century.

During the same period also (1200) the order of _Teutonic Knights_ had
lands allotted to them in Transylvania by Andreas II. of Hungary, as
well as in part of Wallachia, over which he claimed the sovereignty; but
they sought to free themselves from his control, and the gift was soon
withdrawn, and in 1224 they were compelled to leave the territory over
which they had exercised jurisdiction. About 1247--1