to the Porte was increased, but no other important change
was made in the terms of suzerainty.[134]

[Footnote 133: The two crowns had been united under him.]

[Footnote 134: To show what uncertainty hangs over the history of this
man, and in fact of the whole period, it may be mentioned that Neigebaur
and other writers make this treaty to have been signed between Vlad II.
and Mohammed III., who reigned 135 years later, whilst French writers
state that it was between Vlad V. and Mohammed II.; but they all agreed
as to the date 1460. Henke calls him Vlad III. He was universally named
the Impaler in consequence of a practice which is well known to our
readers through the so-called Bulgarian atrocities. A sharpened pole was
forced into the body of the victim, and the other end was then driven
into the earth, the unfortunate man, woman, or child being left to
writhe in agony until relieved by death.]

V.

For a century after the foundation of _Moldavia_, or, as it was at first
called, 'Bogdania,' by Bogdan Dragosch, the history of the country is
shrouded in darkness. Kings or princes are named, one or more of whom
were Lithuanians; two or three Bogdans, Theodor Laseu, Jurgo
Kuriotovich, Peter, Stephen, Roman, Alexander, &c., and some of them are
said to have been dethroned and to have reigned twice and even three
times, until at length a prince more powerful than the rest ascended the
throne, and by the prowess of his arms succeeded in establishing his
name and fame in history. This was Stephen, sometimes called the 'Great'
or 'Good,' but whether he deserved the latter title the reader will be
best able to judge for himself.

He came to the throne about 1456 or 1458, and reigned until 1504, and
his whole life was spent in wars against Transylvania, Wallachia (which
he at one time overran and annexed to Moldavia), the Turks, and Tartars.
Considered in conjunction with the acts of Hunniades and Vlad the
Impaler, those of Stephen present a tolerably faithful picture of the
condition of Roumania in the fifteenth century. We shall therefore ask
the reader to bear with us whilst we hurry through the leading events of
his life. Five years after he came to the throne, Stephen overran
Transylvania. In 1465 he married Eudoxia, a Byzantine princess, and two
years afterwards we find him at war with Matthias of Hungary (the son of
John Corvinus), by whom he was defeated at Baja. Between that time and
1473 he once, if not twice