ers, the history of the country contains
little else of interest during that period. There are two aspects of
these struggles, however, which devastated the unfortunate
Principalities almost as much as the incursions of the barbarians, that
are well worthy of our consideration. The first is the tenacity and
perseverance with which the Czars, one after the other, sought to
tighten their grasp upon the Principalities, with ultimate aims upon
Constantinople; the second, the occasional efforts which were made by a
few patriots, backed up not so much by the boyards as by the common
people, to relieve the country from foreign domination, whether
Mussulman, Russian, or Austrian--for the last-named nation also sought
to gain a foothold in the land.

Let us briefly review the leading events of the period referred to, and
consider their bearing upon Roumania of to-day. After the unsuccessful
campaign of Peter the Great in which the voivodes, Cantemir and
Brancovano, were enlisted on the side of the Russians, the latter made
no serious attempt to interfere with the government of the
Principalities until about the year 1735, when, under the Empress Anne,
and in alliance with the German Emperor Charles VI., they endeavoured to
expel the Turks, and partially succeeded in doing so. After two
campaigns, however, the allies were ingloriously defeated at Belgrade;
and by the treaty of that name (1739 A.D.) they were not only
compelled to restore all their conquests, but even to relinquish some of
the territory of which the Porte had been deprived in the seventeenth
century. The hospodars who ruled at that time in Wallachia and Moldavia
were Constantine Mavrocordato and Gregory Ghika.[163]

About twenty-five years later the Russians returned to the charge under
Catherine IV., and this time with better success. Their operations
extended over about six years, and the war commenced in 1768 by an act
of hostility on the part of the Sultan, provoked by a Russian
propaganda. In 1769-70 the Muscovites overran Moldavia and Wallachia;
the former, it is said by some, with the connivance of the reigning
prince, Constantine Mavrocordato III.; and, having defeated the Turks in
several pitched battles, and even penetrated into Bulgaria, they
actually ruled in the country until 1774 A.D., and introduced
many useful reforms. Then, however, owing to the interference of Maria
Theresa, Empress of Germany, who, as Queen of Hungary, herself claimed
rights o