The last Bulgarian-Wallachian diplomatic marriage in the Middle Ages: facts and hypotheses
The last Bulgarian-Wallachian diplomatic marriage in the Middle Ages: facts and hypotheses

Summary/Abstract: Interdynastic marriages were one of the main means in the diplomacy of the medieval rulers and were inevitably present in the neighbourly relations between the states during that era due to the conviction shared by all medieval rulers that kinship between them is the most reliable guaranty of loyalty and reciprocity of interests. Loyalty was particularly important among immediate neighbours like Bulgaria and Wallachia, especially in the presence of a common neighbour with undisguised conquest aspirations threatening the territorial integrity of the surrounding countries just as Hungary was with respect to Bulgaria and Wallachia. The Bulgarian rulers resorted to marital diplomacy with the Wallachian ruling family in the 14th century and maintained the kinship ties between the two dynasties until the end of the existence of the medieval Bulgarian state by a consecution of three marriages. The article focuses on the third marriage that was concluded between the Vidin ruler John Sratsimir (1353–1396) and a Wallachian princess and deals with the date and the reasons for its conclusion, as well as with the problems related to the identification of the Vidin tsaritsa.

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