Mircea the Elder (Romanian: Mircea cel Bătrân, pronounced [ˈmirtʃe̯a tʃel bəˈtrɨn] ; c. 1355 – 31 January 1418) was the Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418. He was the son of Radu I of Wallachia and brother of Dan I of Wallachia, after whose death he inherited the throne.
After the death of his step-brother Dan I, Mircea takes over the throne in 1386, as Wallachia, on one side, was going through a process of economic, administrative, religious development, but also of strengthening the army, and on the other side it was confronted with the expansion tendencies of the Hungarian Kingdom and Poland, which were aiming at controlling the mouths of the Danube, but also those of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.
During the reign of Mircea the Elder, Wallachia controlled the largest area in its history, gaining Dobruja in 1388, the Banate of Severin in 1388/9 and Podunavia (which is suspected to be the Timok Valley, or the name of the Danube river valley in Slavonic as stated in Mircea's letter "both sides of Danube").
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