Doi mari dregători ai Ţării Moldovei la cumpăna veacurilor XVII-XVIII: Ionaşco şi Ion Balş
Two great boyars of Moldavia in the 16th-17th centuries – Ionaşco and Ion Balş

Summary/Abstract: Descendants of the one of the oldest and most important Moldavian family, the representatives of the Balş family have entered the public life of Moldavia mostly from the second half of the 17th century; the first notable members were the cousins Ionaşco and Ion Balş, who possessed most important charges in the Country Divan. In this article, which is a prosopographical study about the two governors mentioned above, we have tried, with the help of the sources we have reached, to reconstitute the most important aspects of their life and activity. Living in the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the next one, knowing very well the realities of the day, they climbed very fast the hierarchical levels of the state, becoming counsellors and relatives of the princes to whom they have sworn allegiance; they used marital strategies which included them in the most important families of the time, they raised considerable fortunes and always took care of the family’s spiritual patrimony, as well as the welfare of their descendants, of which were noted some of the most remarkable figures of the 19th century’s political scene.

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