Litovoi
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox royalty Litovoi,<ref name='Pop'>Template:Cite book</ref> also Litvoy,<ref name='Vásáry'>Template:Cite book</ref> was a Vlach/Romanian voivode in the 13th century whose territory comprised northern Oltenia in today's Romania.<ref name='Georgescu'>Template:Cite book</ref>
He is mentioned for the first time in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by king Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247.<ref name='Vásáry'/> The diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania, “with the exception of the land of the kenazate of Voivode Litovoi,” which the king left to the Vlachs “as they had held it”.<ref name='Vásáry'/>
Name
The king’s diploma also refers to the kenazates of Farcaș and John and to a certain voivode Seneslau.<ref name='Pop'/> Although the names of Litovoi and Seneslau are of Slavic origin, they are expressly said to be Vlachs (Olati) in the king's diploma.<ref name='Vásáry'/> It seems that Litovoi was the most powerful of all the above local rulers.<ref name='Pop'/> His territories were exempted from the grant to the knights,<ref name='Vásáry'/> but half of the royal tax generated by his land (terra Lytua) was assigned to the Hospitallers – except for the income from the District of Hátszeg (terra Harszoc in the diploma’s only surviving, papal copy, Template:Langx), which the king kept all for himself.<ref name='Makkai'>Template:Cite book</ref> According to the Romanian historian Ioan-Aurel Pop, the king had grabbed Haţeg from Litovoi shortly before 1247.<ref name='Pop'/>
War with the Hungarians
In 1277 (or between 1277 and 1280),<ref name='Pop'/> Litovoi was at war with the Hungarians over lands king Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1272–1290) claimed for the crown, but for which Litovoi refused to pay tribute.<ref name='Georgescu'/> Litovoi was killed in battle.<ref name='Georgescu'/> This event is recounted in the king’s letter of grant of 8 January 1285, in which king Ladislaus IV donated villages in Sáros County (today in Slovakia) to Master George, son of Simon, who had been sent against Litovoi.<ref name='Vásáry'/>
Ioan Aurel Pop argues that the Litovoi mentioned in the diploma of 1247 was not identical to the Litovoi whose death is described in the letter of grant of 1285, and the latter was probably the former’s successor.<ref name='Pop'/>
See also
References
Sources
- Georgescu, Vlad (Author) – Calinescu, Matei (Editor) – Bley-Vroman, Alexandra (Translator): The Romanians – A History; Ohio State University Press, 1991, Columbus; Template:ISBN
- Makkai, László: From the Hungarian conquest to the Mongol invasion; in: Köpeczi, Béla (General Editor) – Makkai, László; Mócsy, András; Szász, Zoltán (Editors) – Barta, Gábor (Assistant Editor): History of Transylvania - Volume I: From the beginnings to 1606; Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994, Budapest; Template:ISBN
- Pop, Ioan Aurel: Romanians and Romania: A Brief History; Columbia University Press, 1999, New York; Template:ISBN
- Vásáry, István: Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365; Cambridge University Press, 2005, Cambridge; Template:ISBN