page_title: Nicolae Pătrașcu
section_title: As hostage
hierarchical_section_title: Nicolae Pătrașcu / Biography / As hostage
caption_attribution_description: The murdering of Michael the Brave (8.VIII.1601)
context_page_description: Nicolae Pătrașcu, Petrașco, or Petrașcu, also styled Nicolae Vo[i]evod, was the titular Prince of Wallachia, an only son of Michael the Brave and Lady Stanca, and a putative grandson of Pătrașcu the Good. His early childhood coincided with Michael's quick rise through the ranks of boyardom, peaking in 1593, when Michael became Prince and Nicolae his heir apparent. As he began a quest to emancipate Wallachia from the Ottoman Empire, Michael used his son as a party to alliances with the Holy Roman Empire and the Principality of Transylvania, proposing him as either a hostage or a matrimonial guarantee. While entering the Long Turkish War on the Christian side, Michael also negotiated a settlement with the Ottomans, again offering Nicolae as a guarantee.
  With the strengthening of Michael's alliance with the Habsburg Monarchy in 1599, Nicolae participated in Michael's conquest of Transylvania. In December 1599 he was sent back to Wallachia to rule as Prince, while Michael took direct charge of Transylvania and then conquered Moldavia.
context_section_description: Despite the pledge, Michael was also very unwilling to send his family abroad, and procrastinated to October 1600. Florica only arrived on December 30, and Teodora, also promised as a hostage, never left Wallachia. Nicolae finally presented himself at Lécfalva on October 16, accompanied by Archbishop Dionysus and Vistier Stoica Rioșeanu. All three pledged their loyalty to Rudolf and expressed criticism of Michael's policies. On October 17, Nicolae and his mother were honored guests at Corona, on their way to a gilded imprisonment in the castle of Gilău (Gela). In their dialogue with Michael, the Hungarians offered Gilău as a permanent family demesne.
  After Bucov, Simion Movilă took over Nicolae's throne, in what was in practice an alternative dynastic union between Wallachia and Moldavia. Michael remained an exile, seeking to renew his fealty toward the Habsburgs. He departed for Vienna, where he was to seek additional support from Rudolf and made peace with Basta. This interval presented an opportunity for the Hungarian nobles, who denounced Basta and took control over much of Transylvania. Nicolae and Stanca, now their prisoners, were removed from Gilău and dispatched to the more secluded Făgăraș. Some of Michael's supporters in Transylvania acknowledged in March 1601 that the family was healthy and satisfied, but a Mantuan report of April claimed otherwise. Stanca later complained to her mother-in-law that the entire family had been mistreated, and other records suggest that their mobile possession were arbitrarily confiscated. Michael tried to have them released into Rudolf's custody, and proposed that Nicolae become his ambassador in Prague.
  Despite his revival of the Holy League, Michael was having secret dealings with the Ottomans, to whom he sent a number of peace offerings in exchange for recognition as Prince. Again during the early months of 1601, he offered to send his son, "who is now kept under lock at Făgăraș", to Istanbul. The Ottomans demanded Nicolae from the Hungarian nobles, their nominal allies. The request was denied, because Nicolae's captors expected to hold him as a leverage against Michael, and also because of Stanca's passionate opposition to the plan. In August 1601, with Imperial backing, Michael was able to defeat the rebels at Guruslău. News of this pushed the Wallachian boyars into a successful anti-Movilești rebellion, which technically restored Nicolae on the throne. They sent envoys to Michael's camp, who also reached Făgăraș on their way.
  Nicolae's fortunes were overturned within a month, following Michael's killing on Basta's orders, at Câmpia Turzii. Rumors of the period claimed that the two clashed over Michael's intent to divert his forces toward Făgăraș, in order to free Stanca and his children. Others even suggested that Basta framed Michael, first by agreeing to the offensive on Făgăraș, and then by withdrawing support and claiming that Michael was off to join the Ottomans. With Michael dead, Basta took control of the offensive into Transylvania, which eventually included the capture of Făgăraș. An avviso of October 6 claims that Basta's troops ran into Michael's family not at Făgăraș, but at Huszth, which indicates that they had been moved to Partium by the retreating Hungarians, probably through Moldavia. As reported by Gane, Stanca and Nicolae remained harshly critical of Michael in their interviews with Basta and David Ungnad, accepting that he may have been guilty of conspiracy against the Holy League. Nicolae "cried and trembled, informing the German [Ungnad] that, whatever his father's fault, [...] he himself remained blameless and prostrated in front of the Emperor". According to Iorga, the young heir, a "gentle creature", was "blessing his patron Basta, though the latter's hands were drenched in a blood that should have been dear to the princelet."
  Marcu Cercel also pledged his loyalties to the Empire. He followed Basta to Făgăraș, hoping to emerge as the Habsburg favorite for the Wallachian throne. A delegation of boyars supported him, while others noted that, at age e
caption: Michael's killing at Câmpia Turzii, in a 1694 illustration of the events
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