Aaron the Tyrant

Aaron the Tyrant ( ro, Aron Tiranul) or Aron Vodă ("Aron the Voivode"; Church Slavonic: Apѡн вода), sometimes credited as Aron Emanoil or Emanuel Aaron (german: Aaron Waida, it, Aaron Vaivoda, tr, ArvanMaxim (1994), p. 23 or ''Zalim'';Kohen, p. 103 before 1560 – May 1597), was twice the Prince of Moldavia: between September 1591 and June 1592, and October 1592 to May 3 or 4, 1595. He was of mysterious origin, and possibly of Jewish extraction, but presented himself as the son of Alexandru Lăpușneanu, and was recognized as such in some circles. His appointment by the Ottoman Empire followed an informal race, during which candidates engaging in particularly exorbitant bribery and accepted unprecedented increases of the ''haraç''. Though resented by the Janissaries, he was backed by a powerful lobby, comprising Solomon Ashkenazi, Edward Barton, Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, and Patriarch Jeremias II. Victorious but heavily indebted, Aaron allowed his creditors to interfere directly in fiscal policy, while adopting methods of extortion against the taxpaying peasantry. He eventually turned against the bankers, staging the execution of Bartolomeo Brutti.

Following such moves, and his heavy-handed repression of rebels in Lăpușna and Orhei, Aaron was ordered to step down by the Porte. The order was rescinded after two months, which had seen the ascendancy of a rebel Prince, Peter the Cossack. Aaron took back his throne, being increasingly reliant on support from the Principality of Transylvania. He entered his second reign as an obedient vassal of the Ottomans, while also turning against Moldavian Catholicism and expelling the Society of Jesus. In secret, he began negotiating Moldavia's participation in the anti-Ottoman " Holy League", defining himself as an ally of the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire. This project drew support from Transylvania, which was then under Sigismund Báthory, as well as from Wallachia's Michael the Brave. With the start of the Long Turkish War in 1593, Moldavia became a secondary theater, invaded successively by the Crimean Khanate and the Zaporizhian Sich; after long negotiations, Aaron was able to ally himself with the latter. He then helped Michael of Wallachia attack the Ottoman flank, extending his rule into the Budjak and Northern Dobruja. During the events, he ordered a series of massacres, killing Ottoman Army prisoners and 19 Jewish financiers.

Despite his military commitment and his quashing of a pro-Ottoman uprising, Aaron was viewed with suspicion by Báthory. Their relationship became tense after Aaron declined to swear fealty at the Transylvanian court, preferring instead for Moldavia to be ruled as a component of the Holy Roman Empire. Báthory reportedly undermined the League, depicting Aaron as untrustworthy; he also endorsed the Moldavian general Ștefan Răzvan, who arrested the Prince and took over his throne. Aaron and his family were exiled to Corona (Brașov), then detained at Martinuzzi Castle, Alvinc (Vințu de Jos)—where Aaron died, allegedly poisoned. He was survived by his stepson Marcu Cercel, who attached himself to the Wallachian court and briefly served as Michael's subordinate Prince of Moldavia. Aaron's name is preserved by Aroneanu Church and eponymous village, both of which are located outside Iași. He is also celebrated as a sponsor of the First Romanian School in Șcheii Brașovului.

Biography

Debated origins

Aaron's origins and early life are a matter of scholarly dispute. His second or non-regnal name, rendered as ''Emanuel'' or ''Emanoil'', has been deduced from a German-language document dealing with his bid for the Moldavian throne; historian A. D. Xenopol proposed using it consistently, to distinguish between Aaron and his 15th-century predecessor, Peter Aaron. He depicted himself as a son of Alexandru Lăpușneanu, who had twice ruled upon Moldavia in the 1550s and '60s. He was also recognized as such by the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood, who asked him to resume the patronage of his "saintly deceased father". In 1594, a '' Pan'' Drożyński of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth noted that Moldavians recognized kinship between Aaron and the Lăpușneanus: Aaron and Alexandru's daughter Mărica Orzechowska viewed each other as brother and sister, and Orzechowska even joined his court to serve as a translator of Polish. Orzechowska also raised her orphaned niece, Anna Czołhańska, who, according to genealogist Ștefan S. Gorovei, was Aaron's own niece.

Modern scholars who accept Aaron's genealogical claims include Alexandru Lapedatu, who thus argues that Aaron was the final male representative of the Bogdan-Mușat dynasty. In some of his work, historian Nicolae Iorga also credits the genealogy. He once described Aaron as an "unrecognized child" of the Prince, whom he nevertheless resembled, being "mean and gluttonous". Elsewhere, he credited reports that Aaron was a direct descendant of Stephen the Great. Cultural historian Răzvan Theodorescu also endorses the claim.

The Moldavian classical historian Ioan Neculce renders a conflicting account. This depicts young Aaron as the nephew and servant of Moldavian Metropolitan Nicanor, with whom he lived at Agapia Monastery. While there, Aaron seduced a nun, and was caught by Nicanor while returning from her chambers. The bishop punished him with a public beating, then chased him out of the country.Sterca-Șuluțiu, p. 85 A variant of the story was recorded in 1886 by jurist Iancu Cerkez, who refers to Aaron's uncle as ''Starets'' Silvan, and notes that the beating occurred when Aaron failed to respect a curfew. According to Cerkez, the boy was not expelled, but rather "fled out of shame and returned only when he could return as a Prince".

Writing before Neculce, the physician Penzen recounted that Aaron was "of the Jewish race". According to researcher Constantin Gane, Aaron was a "Jewish Prince", born as "Solomon Tedeschi ..to one of our voivodes and a Jewish woman." The identification of Aaron and Tedeschi is nonetheless contradicted by period sources: Solomon Ashkenazi, also known as "Tedeschi", was in fact an influential court Jew of the Ottoman Empire, who backed Aaron in his quest for the throne. Xenopol also argues against the possibility that Aaron was born to a Prince and his Jewish mistress, and proposes that he may have been fully Jewish. He notes that any royal descent would clash with details provided by the chronicler Reinhold Heidenstein; Heidenstein depicts Aaron as a former stablehand for the Moldavian boyardom, and as "having usurped, under whatever circumstances, the title of boyar."

Jewish studies academic Elli Kohen also noted the story regarding Aaron's beginnings in horse grooming, but describes him as a "Pole of hypothetical Jewish extraction". Another researcher, Iosif Sterca-Șuluțiu, rejects both Penzen and Heidenstein's accounts, noting that, if they had been true, they would also have been taken up in political literature. His version, based on theories circulated by the Transylvanian School, is that Aaron was the son of a Romanian expatriate from Royal Hungary, Aron of Pozsony, who in the 1540s had wanted to seize the Moldavian throne as a Habsburg candidate; though existentially opposed to Lăpușneanu, this Aron may have been Lăpușneanu's brother—and son of Bogdan III. Sterca-Șuluțiu reads Aaron's references to "my father" Lăpușneanu as clues that the reigning Prince had adopted him in the 1560s.

Some uncertainty also covers Aaron's matrimonial alliances. One interpretation of period texts suggests that he was the son-in-law of the Ottoman Greek businessman and kingmaker, Andronikos Kantakouzenos; also according to this reading, Kantakouzenos' other daughter was married to Wallachia's Stephen the Deaf. This take was rejected by historian Matei Cazacu, who notes that it is based on a mistranslation by Iorga. Several contemporary accounts mention that Aaron was in fact married to a former wife or concubine of Wallachia's Prince Petru Cercel, whose name was probably Stanca. She was most likely the mother of Marcu Cercel, and possibly also of his brothers Ionașcu and Radu Petru. Stanca may have been an ethnic Turk and a Muslim apostate whose original name was Sultana, and was perhaps also a renegade member of the Köprülü family.

Scandalous rise

Aaron's career overlapped with a generalized political and economic crisis, observed in both Moldavia and Wallachia (the Danubian Principalities), as well as throughout their suzerain power, the Ottoman Empire. During the late stages of Romanian medieval history, there was a "continuous degradation of the princely office",Denize, p. 158 bringing Moldavia to the "wretched state which had already taken hold in Wallachia". Art historian Corina Nicolescu also describes a "relative stagnation" of cultural development in both states, correlated with the "ever-increasing subjugation" and the "backward characteristics of Turkish society". This decline corresponded with the Ottoman drive for funds: in 1589, Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha acknowledged that his fiscal regime could only supply one third of the imperial expenses.Maxim (1994), p. 26 In 1591, Peter the Lame, "unable to meet the incessant demands for money that came from Stamboul", relinquished his Moldavian throne, "rather than to await his own ousting, exile, or killing."

As historian Mihai Maxim notes, Peter was unable to pay his main tribute, or ''haraç'', after the Ottomans' stabilization policy, which included pegging the exchange rate. The Prince also lost the crucial backing of Sinan Pasha, who had been deposed. According to the 17th-century chronicler Grigore Ureche, Peter was ultimately pushed to resign and flee by his patriotism, dismissing the alternative of increasing revenue through taxation: "he did not want the curse of his country to be on him." Xenopol dismisses this reading as "apologetic" and charitable, noting that Peter was well acquainted with the Ottoman practices, and would still have bribed his way to the throne under normal circumstances.

Aaron was reportedly familiar to Orthodox Patriarch Jeremias II, who introduced him Edward Barton, the English Ambassador. Both Jeremias and Barton wanted a Prince who would overturn the rise of Catholicism in Moldavia, which Peter the Lame had tolerated or favored; an Orthodox monk, Nikephoros Didaskalos, and a French adventurer, François Ponthus de la Planche, remained in contact with Barton, helping to streamline the project. Aaron's ascent also required joint efforts by Ashkenazi and Barton (who were good friends at the time), and backing from various princesses of the Sultan's Harem. Aaron presented the latter with lavish gifts, including a diamond ring and an emerald necklace. He won additional endorsements from Hoca Sadeddin Efendi and '' Şeyhülislām'' Bostanzade. He defeated powerful contenders, including Ștefan, who was the son of Ilie II Rareș, and Lăpușneanu's known son, Peter the Cossack. Another candidate was Alexandru III Lăpușneanu, Aaron's alleged nephew, who had backing from the Janissaries. In one incident of the interregnum, Alexandru's supporters raided Patriarchy buildings; they demanded that Aaron be sent to live as a prisoner in Aleppo.

In order to ensure his victory, Aaron is alleged to have paid officials at the Ottoman court 110 million ''akçeler''. This "fantastic sum", equivalent to some 917,000 ducats, was borrowed from traders and creditors at 20% interest. Some of the scripts were owned by Barton and the Levant Company, marking an early step in the evolution of Anglo–Moldavian diplomatic contacts. Kohen sees the alliance between Ashkenazi and Barton as motivated by two sets of interests: the former wanted a "more humane treatment for Jews in the semi-autonomous principality", while Barton responded to Elizabethan priorities, aiming to increase influence in Eastern Europe.

This selection process by the Ottomans marked a low in Moldavian history, described by Iorga as a "bargain". It also provided the Sultan Murad III with new sources of income: as recounted by Mustafa Selaniki (and supported by Maxim), Aaron had promised to collect an even higher ''haraç'' than his predecessors. The tribute for Aaron's first year was set at about 60,000 sequins, possibly ten times its regular value, and the absolute highest sum to be paid by Moldavia. As noted by Maxim, when coupled with the princely credits and with the demographic decline affecting taxable income, this pledge created an "impossible situation". Xenopol describes taxation as handled directly by the Prince's creditors, a "continuous stream of Turks". They resorted to torturing peasants in their attempt to recover lost revenue, and also invented an "unprecedented tax", collecting one ox from each family of taxpayers.Xenopol V, p. 111 Sterca-Șuluțiu, however, questions whether the measure was truly unique or completely devastating.

As noted in Grigore Ureche's hostile account, Aaron's policies made the peasants into quasi-serfs. Ureche attributes this development to flaws of character, claiming that Aaron "never grew tired of fornicating and gambling". Neculce also claims that Aaron acted out of personal revenge, as when he allegedly captured his "uncle" Nicanor and castrated him. More in detail, Ureche accuses Aaron of raping boyaresses and women from the peasantry. Sterca-Șuluțiu challenges this account, noting that Ureche fails to record a concrete case, or name the alleged victims.

First rule

Several other controversial developments occurred under Aaron. Some had to do with the rising influence of immigrant Greeks. Medievalist Ioan Caproșu argues that Aaron's reign inaugurated the monopolizing of '' Vistier'' (treasurer) offices by "intermediaries of the Oriental trade". At any one time, three of his eleven high courtiers were Greek; Aaron inherited from his predecessor Peter the ''Vistier'' Iani Kalogeras, who enjoyed the third-longest time in office of any Moldavian treasurer between 1600 and 1700. His ''Postelnic'' was a Iane, possibly the same identified as an "Epirote" in earlier documents, while the first of his '' Spatharii'' was Constantin Vorsi; in 1594, his ''Paharnic'' was an Albanian, Nicolae Coci. At some point in 1593, Andronikos became Moldavia's '' Ban''.

In 1591, the Boyar Council also included another ''Vistier'', known as Planica or Planița. According to medievalist Ștefan Andreescu, this was a Slavonic name for Ponthus de la Planche. The non-native retinue was enhanced by a permanent guard of Hungarian mercenaries, who proved crucial in protecting Aaron during subsequent revolts. Both Iorga and Gheorghe I. Brătianu argue that they were inherited from Peter the Lame, and as such comprised up to 400 men "dressed in Hungarian clothing, with swords on their belts and battle axes in hand". These soldiers ensued a bridge of communication with the neighboring Principality of Transylvania, and made Aaron's Moldavia heavily dependent on Transylvanian assistance.

Aaron soon faced rebellions of the local boyars and burghers. Some of these were probably instigated by brothers Bogdan Ionașcu and Peter the Cossack, which may have prompted Aaron to turn against another kingmaking financier, Bartolomeo Brutti. Brutti, also known as a supporter of Moldavian Catholicism, was executed in April 1592; his entire estate, valued at 30,000 ducats, was confiscated by the state. Aaron probably confiscated Brutti's villages of Săbăoani and Berindești, largely settled by Catholic Csangos; these later appeared as property of the Orthodox monks of Secu.

In May, after riots in Lăpușna and Orhei, Aaron ordered the execution of "treasonous" courtiers, ''Logothete'' Zaharia Bârlădeanu and ''Vornic'' Condrea Bucium. He failed to capture the '' Pârcălab'' of Suceava, Andrei Corcodel, who fled over the border into Ottoman territory. Aaron then gathered the Moldavian military forces and organized the offensive against Bogdan Ionașcu. The armies clashed on the Răut, in present-day Moldova. Bogdan was defeated, mutilated, and sent to live in a monastery; his followers were decimated. The rebellion also prompted Aaron to operate changes in Lăpușna's administration, which had shown itself to be permeated by Brutti's retinue.

The violence and instability called for the Porte's direct intervention. In June, Murad heard a complaint from the boyars, but was unpersuaded. He informed the petitioners that they risked losing their country's privileges, and that he considered making Moldavia into a Muslim '' beylerbeylik''. However, the Ottomans "always sacked those Princes unlucky enough to have sparked an unrest".Xenopol V, p. 112 They eventually deposed Aaron, before June 20, at which date the creditors were already pleading for him to be reinstated. As noted by Iorga, the intrigue involved his alleged nephew, Alexandru III.Iorga (1898), p. 49 There was also a competition between Bogdan Ionașcu and Peter the Cossack, again centered on ''haraç'' offers; Alexandru emerged as the winner, but was then usurped by his uncle Peter, who invaded the country alongside Cossacks from the Zaporizhian Sich. With support from his creditors, and, this time, with crucial backing from the Janissaries, Aaron was reappointed ruler for the second time after a two-month absence. Sultan Murad asked his other vassal, Transylvanian Prince Sigismund Báthory, to depose Peter. The expedition, led by Gáspár Sibrik, ensured that Aaron could return to a pacified Moldavia.

Into the Holy League

In September 1592, Aaron sent a trusted Moldavian, the ''Postelnic'' Oprea, to seize control of the court in Iași and prepare the terrain for his arrival. As ''Ispravnic'' of the throne, Oprea tied but failed to capture a hostile boyar, Nestor Ureche, who managed to cross the border into Poland–Lithuania. The loyalists also captured Prince Peter, Aaron's alleged half-brother, after a battle outside Iași. Aaron had him mutilated, then sent him to Murad, who ordered him impaled on hooks. The restored Prince followed up on his old policies, and, by February 1593, had confiscated Corcodel's estates in such places as Lălești, Climăuți, and Zăvădeni. At some point before April 1593 and December 1594, Aaron executed another rebellious boyar, Vartic, who had put up resistance in the Eastern Carpathians.

The 1592 return also encouraged anti-Catholicism in Moldavia, disassembling Brutti's contributions. Already by August, Aaron restored recognition for the Moldavian Hussites, and reestablished Brethren churches, closed down under Peter the Lame. This move may have been dictated by Ambassador Barton, who claimed that Aaron was effectively taking orders from the Church of England through English missionaries Thomas Wilcox and Richard Babynton. Before January 1593, Aaron finally clamped down on Catholicism itself, expelling the Society of Jesus from Moldavia. Wilcox reported that such moved delighted the various Moldavian Protestants, "who dailie praye for her Majestie's longe lif and good prosperitie".

As argued to Maxim, Aaron's return marked Moldavia's passage into another era, resuming " anti-Ottoman struggles" at a level of violence not seen since the times of Petru Rareș (in the 1540s). Aaron was determined to end his cohabitation with the Ottomans, receiving offers for a military alliance from the Holy Roman Empire, from Pope Clement VIII and, sometime after, from Wallachia's Michael the Brave—the new " Holy League". He sent his own letters to the Holy See, implying that his attitude toward Catholicism was now respectful and friendly, and even hinting to the Primacy of Peter. In tandem, he embarked on a secretive dialogue with Rudolf II, Emperor of the Romans, offering to join the alliance after receiving fail-safe guarantees. He also received reports from the imperial officer Valentin Prepostváry von Lokács, who informed him about the victory at Stuhlweißenburg. Prepostváry invited him to take up arms as a successor to Stephen the Great, "whose warrior fame and name live on to this day".Iorga (1932), p. 222 In his reply, Aaron expressed pleasure, but asked for Emperor Rudolf to contact him in person.

On January 28, 1593, unaware of such dealings, Sultan Murad had set high tributary obligations for Moldavia, which may have included a hike of 30,000 sequins. In summer of that year, Moldavia became a secondary theater for the Long Turkish War, declared by Rudolf and his allies against the Ottomans. In December 1593, Zaporizhians raided Silistra Eyalet, devastating areas around Bender. They were led by ''Hetman'' Hryhoriy Loboda, who, according to a 17th-century source, were assisted by the former Moldavian ''Postelnic'', Meleșan. The Crimean Khanate, as an Ottoman proxy, led a counteroffensive into Pokuttya, which was a bridgehead into Partium and Royal Hungary. Aaron informed Transylvania of this move, allowing Cossacks and Hungarians to contain that threat. One of his letters went to the city government of Beszterce (Bistrița), advising it to close down and guard the road from Baia

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