Michael the Brave

Voivode of Romania. Known as the unifying Prince of the Carpathian regions of Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia. Descendant of the Draculesti dynasty, his power was consolidated by a policy of precarious balance between friendship with the Ottomans and the Hapsburg Empire and by daring war actions to take possession of those Danubian principalities. He defeated Sultan Murad III (1595), the Magyars Bathory (1599) and the Wallachian Boyars (1601). However, his increased prestige and authority aroused fears and jealousies among powerful neighbors, mainly Rudolph II, was the cause of his death by assassination immediately after the battle of Goroszló (August 3, 1601).