I found a number of studies on mediaeval arms in the Romanian principalities. They corroborate that the peasant army was armed with axes, maces, bows and polearms, and only the boiers had swords. One author mentions that these were produced in Brasov and that they had a "distinctly Romanian look" but the fool neglects to include pictures of said swords :shrug: .

Another study on arms and armour in Transylvania demonstrates that weapons were most strongly influenced by western Saxon tradition and were of the straight double-edged variety. Only much later did curved sabres catch on in Transylvania. This leaves out Valahia...again I'm inclined to think that both sabres and straight swords were equally available to Vlad III and his contermporaries.

I'm waiting on another book on 15th century crafts and manufacturing.

Emanuel

I agree with Teodor. Furthermore, we must be careful to define the kipchaks, or other nomad warrior people, in base of exclusively ethnic considerations. Usually the nomad warriors were grouped as confederations of tribes of diverse origins. Attila´s warriors were not only huns, but also alans and goths, among others. In the introduction of the Codex Cumanicus it has been said that ‘…the question of Cuman-Qipçaq ethnogenesis has yet to be completely unraveled. Even the name for this tribal confederation is by no means entirely clear.’

‘A variety of sources equate them, in turn, with the Qangli, one of the names by which the easternmost, Central Eurasian branch of the Cuman-Qipcaq confederation was known….These tribes included Turkic, Mongol and Iranian elements or antecedents. ‘

Some tribes of the kipchak confederation probably came from the border with China and had a wide contact with chinese military inventions, and also had relations with the Gökturk Khaganate, which unified in a single confederation almost all the nomad tribes of eastern Central Asia. Since old times the turks used lamellar ‘heavy’ armour, as it can be seen in some representations of turkic warriors from that period. Turks were also known for their specialty in iron working. The first bugar capital, Pliska, with strong turkic presence and mostly, but not exclusively, due to it, was an important armory production center.

Kipchaks occupied a great territory of the eurasian steppe, and also had contact with the kazars, another confederation integrated with turkic elements, among others, which used to wear helmets, maille hauberks and lamellar cuirasses. Contacts with the military technology of Bizantium also should be taken on account. Members of the Bahri dynasty, the first dynasty of Mamluks in Egypt, were Kipchaks, which gives us an idea of the armour used by them.

Yes, they knew very well and used the arms and armour of the heavy cavalry, though the light mounted archer still was important in their ranks.
Eurasian-Central Asian nomads were not as primitive as we can think. In fact, they were very sophisticated in many ways. Ways related with war and survival in a very competitive environment. Many arrived to the occident because they were the less apt and were expelled from the steppe by the best, and even so many times they seemed invincible before the eyes of the occidental peoples. They carried more than few military inventions much time before the europeans knew about them, including siege machines, military technologies associated with the cavalry and the horse, suspension systems to carry the sword and an the unsurpassable techniques related with the bow and the military use of the archery. It has been questioned if the nomads made their swords. The turks made them, very aptly. Central Asia also seems to have been one of the old and few producers of wootz in the world.
Regards

Gonzalo

Moldovian footsoldiers armed with curved blades
 

Hello again ,

Not really Wallachian but perhaps its interesting to point out the Thuroczy chronicle (dated circa 1490) , that shows a scene from The Battle of Baia
(Moldvabányai csata in hungarian) that pitted Stefan cel Mare against Mattias Corvinus.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._in_battle.jpg


Note the men-at-arms on Hungarian (left) side armed mostly with poleaxes (dismounted) and lances (mounted).

The Moldovians have mounted boiers (?) armed with lances (note the pointy helmets that contrast with the more "germanic" sallets of the hungarian soldiers) and straight (long)swords (the cavalryman on the rightmost side).

The most interesting is the Moldovian foot , that is armed in a sword and shield/target fashion. The blades on the weapons are curved (and it also appears that they have crossguards , hence they cannot be considered "short polearms" and the like) , that could indicate they might be .. well sabres ??

Cheers ,
Samuel


P.S: Im going on holidays for a week and a half , so have fun without me :) ; I also hope for and look forward to see more Fresco pics and info from you Emanuel :D ;)

On the left side the arms and armour looks very german-ish to me.

Dracula's sword on display
 

I visited Romania in the mid 1970's, toured all around the coutry in a car and on the way back to the capital I remember climbing a small mountain in the Transylvanian Alps north of Bucharesti...it was a total ruin except for one small building in which sat a government official. On the wall was a portrait painting of Vlad the Impaler (Draculea) and in the center of the room was a glass case containing what was labeled as Vlad's sword. I forgot my camera in the carpark at the bottom of the mountain...and I don't remember what it looked like except that I have a vaque memory of it being a sabre type.

St. Stephen of Hungary's sword is obviously a Norse import.

Apologies for the thread necromancy but I stumbled upon this painting of Dürer titled "Die welsche Trophäe" . Its a part of the famous Triumph of Maximilian, in which other "trophies" are also included (e.g. equipment of a Bohemian pavisier or an early Hungarian hussar etc)
I have only recently came to a realization that "welsche" actually means Wallachian in German!

The piece is dated 1518:


http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6487/2530075a.jpg

I recommend checking the original in high-resolution
http://www.zeno.org/Kunstwerke/B/D%C...%5D?hl=welsche

(just click on the picture to enlarge)

Its arguably an "exotic" take on a fairly standard European man-at-arms kit. Yet the addition of the strange closed-helmet as well as the round shield makes it somewhat more original. The lance appears to be of the classic western knightly type. The sword has a huge pommel as well as strangely curved quillions, but nothing that would be out of place in south-eastern Europe (there are similar arming swords in both Kingdom of hungary , Balkans as well as northern Italy; see my post in the "genoese/pisan/venetian weapons" thread ), note however the two big "ears" that the bollock-dagger has on its pommel (again a typical feature on weapons coming from SE-europe; Rumelian Yatagans as well as Daggers "ala stradiota" feature them as well).

Overall a splendid painting and very close to the period in question, I can't understand how is it possible that I haven't came across it earlier.

Regards,
Samuel

- 15th century flail and crossbow from Sibiu


Hi Emanuel,

Could you please give the full bibliographic data of the book that you got that picture from?

Thank you in advance,
Michael

Hi Michael,

My apologies for the late response, I havn't been very active on the forum and I didn't see your post.
The source of the images is a small picture book called "Mileniul Romanesc, 1000 de Ani de Istorie in Imagini, Editura Litera, 2004". This is not a historical book and I'm weary of its accuracy. It doesn't contain much information.

Regards,
Emanuel

The "peacefull" Romanians
 

Hi to all of you,
it looks like now we are two Romanians on this.
I have seen that you had a lot of comments and also shared a lot of information.
History it is one of my hobbies for the last 25 years.
I just want to make a few points here.
The Cumans (especially the Black Cumans) were having some impact in Wallachia. Negru Voda (Negru means Black and voda is a shorter form of the voievod), one of the first known rullers in Wallachia is coming from the area of the Fagaras which it is a known area where many Black Cuman settled and as you can see in the map, some villages still keep some interesting names like Comanestii and Voievodenii.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...asului.svg.png
The Cuman contribution to the establishment of the Wallachian state it is a topic extremely debated between the historians even today (during the communism era it was a taboo subject). In the battle of Posada between Basarab's Wallachian army and Charles's Hungarian army appear a ... recurved bow or Tartars bow as it is known in Wallachia. Also the Byzantine chronicler Laonic Chalcocondyl is mentioning that the shields of the Valachians were similar to the shields of Tartars.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...cle_Posada.jpg
Also, regarding the armors used in Wallachia. I think we can say it was a mix, but Wallachia and Moldavia were excellent customers for the ringmails sold by Venice (Italy). Mircea the Old it is known that he inherited an army of 10000 knights in ringmails made in Venice. Those knights were also mentioned during a jousting in Buda 1412. Two things to be highlighted here:
1) The size of the professional army is huge compared with the size of the country.
2) We are talking about knights here, which means a specific and very expensive warrior of the Middle Age. Something it is not right here with image of the peasants army!
As you probably have seen already, in Romania the best place to see something like armors is only on the gravestones or churches frescoes.
For Mircea the Old era (XIV century) weaponry, we must check the church made in his day, the church of the Cozia Monastery, where we can see the ringmails and a lot of spades.
http://www.crestinortodox.ro/admin/_...a-%2827%29.jpg
http://www.crestinortodox.ro/admin/_...a-%2825%29.jpg
http://www.crestinortodox.ro/admin/_...a-%2828%29.jpg
http://www.crestinortodox.ro/admin/_...cozia-(38).jpg

Regarding the passivity and the peace loving Wallachians/Moldavians that would be correct if we refer to it starting only with 1711 in Moldavia and 1716 in Wallachia when are imposed leaders of foreign nationality (Greeks) named Fanariot. Their first action was to make a law forbidding the weapons for all people. Till than the situation was totally different because both voievodes in Moldavia and Wallachia were known for asking that all people (at least the free ones, so forget about Gypsy warriors because they were slaves) to have weapons.
Stephen the Great provided a list of equipment what the people should have when are called under arms (Polish chronicler: saber, bow and arrows) and Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) had impaled (what would you expect?:)) one of his soldiers because of the poor status of his shield and sword.
A good idea of the sword type used by Wallachians it is given by the old names for some administrative functions and by ... Polish chroniclers.
Mare Spatar (Grand Spade Bearer) : majority of Romanians do not know today but "spata" is the archaic form of "spada" = spade (in german would be spatha). So the nobility was using spades (remember the frescoes from Cozia).
Unfortunately not too many people can speak Romanian because this study could be interesting regarding the evolution of the weapons name during the centuries.
Later, http://www.scribd.com/doc/29788274/P...cu-Elena-Roman LINK
And finally, in the following link you may see some of the Moldavian weapons used during the Stephen the Great. Also a sabre from the XVth century in Fig3 unearthed near Suceava.
LINK

Excellent post Lucian!!! and welcome to the forum!!! :)
Its great to have another here from Romania, as this history is both complex and incredibly fascinating, and your insight is most valuable. Beautiful illustrations also, thank you for posting them.

All the very best,
Jim

Great post Lucian and thank you very much for the splendid info!

Those beautiful frescoes are very similar (I dare to say almost identical) to those found in Kosovo and other places of former Yugoslavia. It appears Serbs similarly (as well as other adjacent ethnicities) to Wallachians used a mix of western and eastern military equipment. For example you'll find a military saint depicted with classic heater shield , lance and a sword on one hand but also a composite bow with a Kipcak/Cuman style quiver as well (in which the arrows are pointed arrowheads up):

http://stage.srpskoblago.org/Archive...e/CX4K2724.jpg

Monastery Decani, Kosovo 1330-1350

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/2...ch1295mace.jpg

Church of Saint Kliment , Macedonia cca. 1295

Sabres of both the classic steppe style (riveted hilts and small pommel caps) as well as "paramerions" (essentially weapons with sword hilts and curved blades) are present as well (furthermore Maces are common secondary weapon depicted, instead of the more western European war-hammers).
There are two great websites that host a big number of photographs of the aforementioned "Yugoslav" frescoes
http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/ and
http://sankire.narod.ru/Balkani.html

I have looked through most of the wall-paintings on the Srpsko Blago website so if anyone's interested I can point-out the relevant ones (with respect to arms and armour).

Lucian in case you have some more info on the arms and armour from Wallachia/Moldavia etc. feel free to post it , id be very interested myself. It seems there were many similarities between the various south-eastern principalities and kingdoms.

Kind Regards,
Samuel

It is debatable whether the warriors on the frescoes are Serb or Greek or Bulgarian. In fact, at 1295, Macedonia was not part of the Serbian Kingdom.

Given the common state entity and close ties between Walalchians, Bulgarians and Cumans in the 12-13th centuries, it is not surprising that the arms and armor were shared as well.

When looking at frescoes, we also have to remember that the equipment depicted is also based on church cannons and on the artist's own images of how a warrior should look like. Some of the equipment may have been copied down from earlier frescoes, so pictorial evidence alone cannot be completely relied upon, and has to be examiend combined with archaeological finds, written sources, etc.

Regards,
Teodor

Splendid observation Teodor ,
the depiction of armour in particular seem to have had a great deal of anachronism (e.g. the continuous portrayal of scale/ lamellar armour).As to the ethnicity of the warriors saints I personally think its negligible as for example the Bulgarian 14th century version of manasses chronicle has illustrations with similar figures. Furthermore you'll find very similar/identical portrayal of warrior saints in Kosovar/Serbian frescoes. Coming back to the accuracy of the depiction of arms and armour, some pieces however do have novelties in them, especially in terms of weapons. You can see yelman-less sabres and "paramerions" as well as the cuman-style quivers in the first half of the 14th century , whereas the early 15th century fresco of a trio of warrior-saints (cca. 1408-1420) presents an interesting "development" ( manasija monastery)

http://www.babamim.com/yahoo_site_ad...210019_std.JPG


Note the bow-case of the central figure , he has two arrows in it with its fletching pointed upwards , which is more characteristic of Anatolian Turks (there is an article on a similar matter by Russ Mitchell in volume 4 of journal of medieval military history). The rightmost figure of St Nikita sports a sabre with a quite visible yelmen, which is again more typical of later weapons.

You can compare those with earlier depictions (such as the one in my earlier post) and with the depiction of St. Nicetas from Gracanica (1321-22)

http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/...s1-w1e5-87.jpg
Note the lack of yelmen as well as the "habaki" part between the hilt and the blade.. again a feature more characteristic of earlier sabres. Swords are sometimes presented in anachronistic way (some appearing even after two centuries e.g. you'll find an identical depiction of a sword from a 12th century fresco in a 14th century one etc.) but some are "modern" in their appearance ,e.g. pieces that have semi-curved cross-guard and even hand and a half grips. Those examples of sabres/quivers as well as swords are in my opinion a sign that not all of those fresco depictions are necessarily "outdated" or entirely fantastical. Some are filled with immense attention to detail that can in fact rival the art from Western Europe.

Regards,
Samuel

Samik, you are right!
 

Actually a lot of very old churches, but especially the Cozia's church frescoes, are in the Serbian style. Mircea the Old had many relations and alliances with the Serbians. The style we can name it Serbian but I think it would be more correct to name it Byzantine.
Talking about Kossovo, Mircea the Old provided some troops (around 3000 soldiers it is mentioned in several recent articles an even in some history books but I found nothing from that era and I have no idea if were infantry, archers or light cavalry) for the Battle from Kossovo Polje in 1389. I suppose were light cavalry because were supposed to move really fast for a long trip.
In that battle were so many nations that I am almost not surprised about the outcome whom everybody said that is their victory. I am even amazed that they made a cohesion between so many groups.
Coming back to the Wallachian and especially the Moldavian swords, I found an interesting work related to the representation of Saint George on stove tiles from the fourteenth century and also an interesting conclusion:
"One can also note the character of weapons depicted. Sabers appear on
the tiles with St. George mostly in Wallachia (9), while there are only 2 from
Moldavia and 1 in Transylvania. Unlike the sword, the sabre was hardly known
in the medieval west. It was a more oriental type of weapon, re-introduced in
South-Eastern Europe during the fifteenth century due to the conflicts with the Turks. This indicates that in Wallachia such oriental weapons were much more familiar in those times than in Moldavia or Transylvania." The study is at this LINK .

Samuel,

Good points, supported with perfect illustrations. The blade on St. Nikita's sabre is actually very similar to some swords captured at the second siege of Vienna, more than 2 centuries later - certainly an example of a type that was just starting to appear in Europe. The grip with the forefinger over the crossguard is also remarkable and further shows that the painter must have had a good amount of exposure to warriors of the time, maybe even having some military experience himself.

The second fresco shows the habaki-like plate at the base of the blade, while the garment is conviniently left open to reveal what looks like mail sewn inside. This is where the problems with frescoes start - reenactors tend to see things on some frescoes, which are more the product of conjecture. For example, if that really mail sewn inside, and if so, how about the trousers (same pattern on the outside) with those strange plates on the knees? And then the wild speculation starts.

Overall though you are correct - frescoes provide valuable insight into the arms and armor in the Balkans in the Middle Ages, but they have to be examined with caution to discern what the artist copied from his surroundings, what he copied from older images and what was completely his imagination. And we should be careful to restrain our own imagination somewhat as well.

Thanks for the nice images,
Teodor

Since I cannot edit my previous post and seeing that the second picture somewhat disappeared I'm re-uploading the depiction of St. Nicetas from the Gracanica fresco (1321-22)

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/1...asabreorap.jpg

Thank you both Teodor and Lucian for your knowledgeable (and much needed) insight !

Regards,
Samuel

We must be just a week from Halloween, since I found myself reading an article on this topic. Even sportier is that, as I finished the article, I noticed the author's name looked familiar. I'm quite sure she is a fellow forumites.
Anyway, I wanted to link to the article in this thread for reference.

Also, why not resurrect a zombie thread during this witching season?

https://heritagearmssa.com/2017/11/1...d-the-impaler/

Having read the linked article, in conjunction with this thread, I find a number of her conclusions a bit over-simplified. An example, The conclusion the Kilij was the ancestor of the sabre instead of the other way around. The statement that the short kilij was used by Cavalry instead of a longer shamshir/sabre, not Infantry seems a bit odd to me as well. The UK general's mameluke-like sword has a noticeable and long 'yelman' but does not require a scabbard with an open spine as the blade is not parabolic and is not highly curved. It was adopted after the french invasion of Egypt by Napoleon when the french generals liked them, and the English liked the French version. (UK one below - earlier versions had a brass scabbard, and came with an orderly to keep it polished) It's fairly stabby too. generals of the period would of course never actually need to use a sword in actual combat unless it got really desperate, which would not be often, if they were a good general.

P.s - I thought Shamshire was a county in the UK, not all that far to the southeast from me in Gloucestershire,the other side of Wiltshire, and just south of Berkshire :D.

More than you wanted to know about Vlad III:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY82EpsvbQ8

Most interesting to see this old thread again Wayne! Its been over a decade, and indeed how appropriate to 'revive' the thoughts of good old Dracula on Halloween! :)
Actually the article from Heritage arms was I believe by Stuart Bates, Cathey Brimage is the editor of the publication.

While a bit tenuous, the topic associating the notorious Vlad with the mameluke saber is of course viable in certain remotely connected facts in some degree.
However in most cases such likelihood is about as plausible as the much debated connection between Vlad III (1431-1477) and Bram Stoker's famed vampire. Naturally there are certain possibly connected elements, again in degree.

The evolution of sword forms is mostly speculative chronologically, and that of the 'saber' is pretty well veiled. It seems generally held that curved blades evolved somewhere in Central Asia, probably Turkmenistan to give some sort of geographic reference, keeping in mind that the nomadic tribal people of the Steppes were the likely users of them, and around 9th century.

It is unclear exactly when this design arose with the Turkic tribes that formed the Ottoman empire, but these were not of course in the manner exactly of the later shamshir types, nor the stout shorter blades with yelman known as 'pala'. It seems that some sort of curved saber (as with falchions in Europe) was in use, but these may have been as with many falchions, straight backed with radiused edge to the point.

By the time of Vlad, while there were certainly some type of curved blade swords contemporary, there is no evidence I have ever seen of his using one. I have seen apocryphal sources noting him having a 'Toledo' blade , which in this time would have been of course, a 'knightly' broadsword. We know that straight broadswords were in use in Eastern Europe in these times, but there was a slightly curved version with a kind of 'S' shaped crossguard in use as well.

The 'Ottoman' style shamshirs and the similarly hilted 'pala' did not evolve until considerably later, though we know such sabers were in use by 17th century, and the East Europeans, adopted Ottoman styled swords.

Time for a bit of thread necromancy... Surviving written accounts of individual martial deeds in Wallachian history are rare. These are also, fairly unknown, especially to English speaking audiences. Since most of it is written in Romanian, I hope to add a bit of info here, for non-Romanian speakers.

In addition to written accounts, surviving weapons and iconography are also rare as hen’s teeth.

A few notes: by Wallachia, it is implied the medieval state of Wallachia, in historical documents known as “Țara Rumânească” “Ungrovlahia” or “Wallachia Transalpina”. Moldova, although also referred to as “Wallachia” or “Moldo-Vlahia” in certain Polish documents, will be referred to strictly as “Moldova”.

Dregator - Historical Romanian ranks and titles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor...nks_and_titles
Jupan - Župan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDupan

Stroe Buzescu’s duel with the Tatar (1602)

The following is probably the best-known duel (there aren't many known :( ). In October 1601, after the assassination of Wallachian voievod, Michael the Brave (August 1601), the next to be elected voivode was Radu Șerban. However, his reign was initially, not to be a peaceful one, having to fight-off various rivals. One of these was Simion Movilă, brother to the Moldovan voivode, Ieremia Movilă. At first, Simion Movilă, had to retreat to Moldova, not having the troops to maintain the throne. However, he would return during September 1602, with 40,000 Tatars (commanded by Ğazı II Giray - Khan of the Crimean Khanate.), the Moldovans sent by his brother, Ieremia Movilă, and about 300 Cossacks. Radu Şerban's army was much smaller, totalling around 8,000-10,000 infantrymen and 6,000 horsemen, to which were later added 1,000 horsemen sent from Transylvania by the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta. Considering the numerical superiority of the invaders, Radu Şerban adopted a defensive tactic. The decisive battle took place at Teişani, in the valley of the Teleajen river, on September 23 and 24, 1602. All the Tatar attacks against the Wallachian fortified camp with trenches and palisades failed; in the end, after having suffered great losses, the Tatars had to retreat to Silistra. During the battle of Teişani, the son-in-law or grandson (it’s not known for certain, only named Mârza) of the Crimean Khan had a duel with the Wallachian boyar Stroe Buzescu (also held the title of Mare Stolnic). Whether Stroe or the Tatar was the one who made the challenge, I’m not sure. There are quite a few internet articles written in Romanian, that deal with this event. The basic version of events is this...Stroe Buzescu has a duel with the Tatar, and wins by sword thrust (more on that later). Stroe is generally considered to be an old man during this duel, whereas the Tatar is a young, fit and of great stature. A lot of David vs. Goliath vibes going on here. The thing is that Stroe’s birth date isn’t known, so we don’t know his age for sure. He dies from a sword wound on his face sustained in battle with the Tatar. Commonly, it is said be an infection or the enemy’s sword was poisoned (considering he died 5 weeks later, I’d go with infection).

Now for the evidence. As I said, quite a few internet articles are written in Romanian on this duel, however very few cite historical sources. And in my opinion, if something isn’t quoted from a historical source, IT NEVER HAPPENED!. In my opinion, the best free source is “Monumentul funerar în Țara Românească – discurs narativ și efigie” by Ioan Albu. The following Romanian texts are exterpts from said work, the English translations are however, my own attempts:

Stroe’s wife, Sima Buzescu, commissioned a funeral stone with the following inscription:



In addition to the grave stone, we also have Stroe Buzescu's courage mentioned in a 29 June 1604 chrysobull (hrisov) by Voivode Radu Serban (original in slavonic):

Stroe was buried at Stănești monastery, in Vâlcea county, and fortunately the tombstone also includes a depiction of the duel. The following is a copy of the original that resides at the National Military Museum Bucharest. Although it's not a detailed depiction, there are still some interesting things to be seen:
- Stroe (on the right) is using what seems to be a pallash (paloș in RO, pallos in HU, pałasz in PL), deduced by the straight blade, but also the straight scabbard under his leg. The fact that he used it to thrust, and that the scabbard is under his leg, makes me wonder if it was actually a koncerz/hegyestőr
- The Tatar is seen dropping his sabre, of fairly typical shape (notice the large yelman). Also besides him, are a recurve bow in holster and a quiver with arrows.

Other sources:
https://historia.ro/sectiune/actuali...oe-577794.html
https://wiki.drajna.ro/doku.php?id=b...in_si_stanesti

Here are a few pictures I took at the Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României:

Sf. Gheorghe & Sf. Dumitru (nice details on the composite bow). Painting atributed to master painter Dobromir, 1526, from the Curtea de Argeș monastery's church.

More pictures from the same...interesting how nicely detailed the composite bows are depicted. Also interesting is how the swords have 3 fullers at the base, only one extending to the tip. And finally, the scabard chapes all have the same design.

One more note regarding the Tatar's depiction on Stroe's tombstone, his sabre seems to be similar in shape this sabre in the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm, Sweden. This type of sabre can also be seen mural painting at the Moldovița monastery - „Buna Vestire” church built in 1532, being word by the Ottoman riders in a scene depicting the seige of Constantinopole.

A few depictions from/about Wallachians/Moldovans in order:

1- Terracotta stove tile depicting a rider akin to polish winged hussar from Târgoviște, Wallachia, 1640.

2- Eques walachus. Ein reuter aufs der walachi (Diversarum gentium armatura equestris, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Abraham de Bruyn 1576)(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-OB-26.984.jpg)

3- Moldovan (called Wallachian in the depiction) envoy sent by voievode Alexandru Lăpușneanu being greeted by Poles of Sigismund II Augustus in July 1567 in Gorodno (today Belarus) from Vera designatio Urbis in Littavia Grodnae : Ware abconterfectung der Stadt Grodnae in der Littaw - published at Nürnberg in 1568. Enscriptions are "Poloni excipiunt Vualachos" "Die Polen entpfangen die Valachiss Bottschafft". Poles on the right, Moldovans on the left. (https://polona.pl/item/vera-designat...MDUxMQ/0/#item)

4- Militis walachia ex vestitus (Omnium pene Europae, Asiae, Aphricae, Americae gentium habitus - Abraham de Bruyn 1581)(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/C...ry_people).jpg)

Notice how the rider from [2] and one of the riders from [3] have the same pouncing lion heraldry on the shield. Also, some of the riders from [3] have the same style hats as in [2].

A few more:

5 - same as [3], taken from "Călători străini despre Ţările Române Vol. II". Info from "Buletinul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice - 1924 Anul XVII P.P. Panaitescu".

6 - Moldovan ruler, Ieremia Movilă (died July 1606) tomb veil from Sucevița Monastery's Church, Suceava county Romania.

7 - Portrait of Ieremia Movilă.

8 - Son of Moldovan ruler Vasile Lupu, Ioan Lupu - died 1639 (embroidery portrait)
(https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fi%C8%...23FBEC2C19.jpg)

9 - Tombstone of Wallachian ruler, Radu de la Afumati (died 1529)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...la_Afumati.jpg

10 - Tombstone of Wallachian boyar, Albul Golescu (died 1574). Source:Monumentul funerar în Țara Românească –
discurs narativ și efigie -Ioan Albu (https://revistatransilvania.ro/wp-co....Ioan-Albu.pdf)

One more:

11 - Mihai Viteazul (died 1601) from Georgios Palamedes' rhyming chronicle of the life of Michael the Brave, written in 1607. Very poor quality depiction, but what is discernable is a fairly typical looking sabre.

A few pictures from the Museum of Oltenia region in Craiova city, Dolj county (Muzeul Olteniei Craiova - history and archeology section). The two last spathas (4th century) were found near Desa village Dolj county.

A few more:

A few photos from the "Muzeul Militar Naţional - Regele Ferdinand I" Bucharest.

A few more from the same:

Minor observation, while visiting the Golești museum (Muzeul Golești) near Pitești, I noticed this decoration on a stove tile, which is very similar to Albu Golescu's tombstone (died 1574), posted earlier. I doubt that it is from the same period, but still interesting.

A few more photos from "Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României". Icons depicting saints with 18th century pallash types, with knuckle guards.
1 - St. Prokopios (18th century) from Bistrita monastery, Valcea county. Nice stitching detail on the scabbard.
2 - St. Michael from Partoş monastery, Banat region (1740). Former Austrian Empire, today Romania.
3 - St. Michael, (18th century), Banat region. Former Austrian Empire, today Romania.
4 - Unknown (St. George?). Probably Transylvanian. Nice longsword with type XV blade and rain-guard?

One more.

A very poor-quality photo of Vasile Lupu's tomb shroud. Ruler of Moldova 1634-53.

My Xmas present: A Turkish sword of the early tribal 'Ertugrul' style: The long 'yelman' is sharp.

Nice, congratulations! Is it based on any archeological find?

I think it was based on one in the Topkapi Museum that had straight quillons, and another that had down curved ones. Mine is a simpler version.

Here's something that bugs me...this horseman looks very similar to the "Eques Walachus" by Abraham de Bruyn 1576 (posted above). I'm really wondering how much de Bruyn's was actually inspired by this.

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 128 Buch von den probierten Künsten — Südwestdeutschland, 1535 Franz Helm, page 72
Heidelberg University Library, Cod. Pal. German 128 Book of the tried arts - Southwest Germany, 1535 Franz Helm

Source: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/di...ge,info,thumbs

I think this particular illustration must have been modeled on a print of Turkish riders by Erhard Schön, made around 1530, and I think I recognize some of the other illustrations as well. Prints like these circulated widely and were often copied or imitated.

I don't recognize the "eques Walachus", but wouldn't be too surprised if it was based on a earlier piece also.

Best,

Mark