Nicolae Pătrașcu, Petrașco, or Petrașcu, also styled Nicolae Vo(i)evod (Church Slavonic and Romanian Cyrillic: or ; 1580 – late 1627), was the titular Prince of Wallachia, an only son of Michael the Brave and Lady Stanca, and a putative grandson of Pătrașcu the Good. His early childhood coincided with Michael's quick rise through the ranks of boyardom, peaking in 1593, when Michael became Prince and Nicolae his heir apparent. As he began a quest to emancipate Wallachia from the Ottoman Empire, Michael used his son as a party to alliances with the Holy Roman Empire and the Principality of Transylvania, proposing him as either a hostage or a matrimonial guarantee. While entering the Long Turkish War on the Christian side, Michael also negotiated a settlement with the Ottomans, again offering Nicolae as a guarantee.

With the strengthening of Michael's alliance with the Habsburg monarchy in 1599, Nicolae participated in Michael's conquest of Transylvania. In December 1599 he was sent back to Wallachia to rule as Prince, while Michael took direct charge of Transylvania and then conquered Moldavia. Some records suggest that Nicolae was considered, or considered himself, a Prince of Moldavia, though that title was more likely held by a cousin, Marcu Cercel. In late 1600, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Moldavia invaded Wallachia and chased out Nicolae, replacing him with Simion Movilă. Michael was also chased out of Transylvania by his former ally Giorgio Basta and a large faction of the Hungarian nobility. In negotiating his peace with the latter, he sent Nicolae and Stanca as hostages. They were assigned ownership of Gilău, but, following clashes between Basta and the Hungarians, were taken by the latter to a harsher imprisonment in Făgăraș Citadel. Basta assassinated Michael in August 1601, but then liberated the family, with the ostensibly pro-Habsburg Nicolae still vying for the Wallachian throne.

In 1602, the Wallachian crown went to Radu Șerban of Coiani, who had previously been Nicolae's Paharnic. Mutilated by his rival, Nicolae settled in the Archduchy of Austria, joining the regional court of Ferdinand Habsburg. He later moved to Habsburg Hungary, living mostly in Tyrnau with his own retinue. He litigated over his father's assets, which had been confiscated by the Empire, and set out to redeem his memory, while also involving himself in conspiracies for the recovery of Wallachia. From 1610, he reconciled with Radu Șerban, becoming his Postelnic and assisting with his expedition into Burzenland. He welcomed the older Prince in exile, after he was deposed by the Ottomans in 1611, and two years later married his daughter, Ana. From then until 1620, the two former Princes participated in anti-Ottoman projects that also involved the Duke of Nevers, the Movilești, and Gaspar Graziani.

During the Thirty Years' War, which began after Ferdinand took the imperial throne in 1619, Nicolae and Radu Șerban joined a Habsburg coalition against Gabriel Bethlen's Transylvania. They themselves were chased out of Tyrnau by Bethlen's offensive, and both died of gout within seven years of each other, leaving the family in destitution. In the 1640s, Nicolae's son Mihai was asked by Wallachian Prince Matei Basarab to become his crown prince, but this request did not suit Habsburgs policies, and was dropped. Nicolae's widow and his daughter Ilinca were allowed passage, and repatriated both Princes' remains, which were buried together at Comana Monastery. Ilinca went on to marry a high-ranking boyar, Istratie Leurdeanu.

Name In a document which uses the courtly language, Church Slavonic, Nicolae describes himself as: ("By the Grace of God Io Niecolaie Voivode and Hospodar of the Entire Hungro-Wallachian Country").Iorga (1934), pp. 76–77 Historian Nicolae Iorga highlights the exotic nature of Nicolae's baptismal name, in its temporal context. The last Prince of Wallachia to have been crowned under that name was the 14th-century Nicolae Alexandru, whose memory had faded, and it was only used since by the pretender Nicolaus Bassaraba.Iorga (1934), p. 77 The latter, a scion of the Craiovești, had made his most successful bid for the throne in 1563–1564.Neagoe, p. 197; Rezachevici (1998), p. 55 Iorga proposes that both Bassaraba and Pătrașcu were in fact named in honor of their supposed common ancestor, Neagoe Basarab, both of them with a synophone.Iorga (1934), p. 77 Scholar Ștefan Mihăilescu believes that Michael the Brave may have named his son in direct homage to Saint Nicholas, whom he credited as his personal protector.Mihăilescu, p. 41 A period witness and biographer, Balthasar Walther, contrarily reports that Pătrașcu celebrated his name day on the Feast of Saint Peter (June 29).Simonescu, pp. 14–15

In Moldavia, the Prince was generally known as Neculai or Nicola,Rezachevici (2000), p. 10 although one Moldavian document of 1600 refers to him as Petru Vodă ("Peter the Voivode").Grigoraș, p. 9 The derivative Pătrașcu appears in Nicolae's signatures in Neo-Latin, which style him as Nicolaus Petrasko WaiwodaIorga (1934), p. 79 or Nicolaus Petrascus Waiwoda.Cernovodeanu, pp. 219, 221 The registers of the Hof-Bibliothek, also kept in Latin, name him as Nicolaus Petrascus or Nicolaas Petrash.Tabvlae codicvm manv scriptorvm praeter graecos et orientales in Bibliotheca palatina vindobonensi asservatorvm, Vol. VI, pp. 79, 416. Vienna: Venum dat Caroli Geroldi Filius, 1873 In Tuscan sources, his name appeared more simply as Petraschi Vaivoda.Göllner, p. 77; Theodorescu, p. 206 Some of the Romanian writs issued after his departure refer to him as Pătrașco Voevod, or merely as Jupan Necula.Donat, pp. 217, 220, 225 Another early Romanian record, preserved by Nicolae's tombstone, cites him as Petrașco Niculae.Mihăilescu, p. 50

Biography Origins and early life

Various scholarly disputes surround the origins of Nicolae's father Michael the Brave, or Mihai Viteazul, who passed himself off as a son of Pătrașcu the Good, from the Drăculești princely clan, and therefore also as a half-brother of Petru Cercel. Some historians accept that he was Prince Pătrașcu's son, or at least a member of his house.Gane, pp. 106–107, 138–139; Neagoe, pp. 200–201; Mihăilescu, p. 41; Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1989–1990; Stoicescu, pp. 64–65, 100; Theodorescu, pp. 8, 29–30 Others simply list Michael's paternal roots as disputed.Mârza, p. 73; Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1989–1990; Stoicescu, p. 70 Nicolae's grandmother was Teodora (Tudora), Pătrașcu's alleged mistress. A native or resident of Orașul de Floci, she was of Greek ethnicity and reportedly worked as a barmaid.Gane, pp. 138–139; Ionașcu, p. 166. See also Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1989–1991; Stoicescu, p. 70

In the 16th century, Wallachia was a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, which had an important say in its political life. From beginnings as an itinerant merchant, Michael joined the boyar aristocracy in 1588, when he served as lesser Ban in Mehedinți County, then as Stolnic.Gane, pp. 140–141; Stoicescu, pp. 70–71 According to contemporary writers such as Germanico Malaspina, Nicolae looked to be aged 12 or 13 in 1599–1600, meaning that he was born in 1586 or 1587.Gane, p. 144; Iorga (1934), p. 77; Mihăilescu, p. 42. See also Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1990, 1991 & (2000), p. 10 Mihăilescu has "year unknown". According to his research, the only reliable date to go by is 1584, the year of Michael's marriage to Lady Stanca; Nicolae was the couple's eldest child.Mihăilescu, p. 41 Historian Radu Mârza gives Nicolae's birth year as "approx. 1584",Mârza, p. 73 while other documentary evidence pushes the date back to ca. 1575.Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1990, 1991

Stanca, who had been previously married to Postelnic Dumitru of Vâlcănești, was a relative of the Buzești boyars.Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1990, 1991; Stoicescu, pp. 35, 38, 40, 70, 172 She was also mother of Michael's daughter, Florica, who may have been born to another woman.Rezachevici (1976), p. 1990 Historians disagree on whether Florica was born ca. 1585Mârza, p. 73 or much earlier.Rezachevici (1976), p. 1990 She was promised in marriage to several European monarchs, but eventually wed boyar Preda "Floricoiu" of Cepturoaia.Ionașcu, pp. 233–234; Neagoe, pp. 196, 201; Stoicescu, pp. 57, 108, 232. See also Gane, pp. 143–144, 146, 211; Rezachevici (1976), pp. 1990, 1991 Stanca's brother was Dragomir of Cârțoclești, who was briefly Michael's Stolnic; this made her aunt of another boyar, Spatharios Balea, who acted as her caretaker.Ionașcu, pp. 60, 125, 167; Stoicescu, pp. 30, 31, 53, 69, 70, 82, 99, 103, 254 Historians have often assumed that Stanca was the sister of Vornic Dragomir Dobromirescu, but later research proved that there was no relation between them.Stoicescu, pp. 170, 171 Genealogist Constantin Gane also describes Stanca as the daughter of Logothete Radu of Drăgoești and a niece of Dobromirescu,Gane, pp. 138, 140–141 though other historians reject that hypothesis.Ionașcu, pp. 165–167; Stoicescu, pp. 53, 82

Michael, rising to become Great Ban of Oltenia, fell afoul of the ruling Prince, Alexander the Wicked. According to legend, he miraculously evaded execution,Mihăilescu, p. 41 then left into self-exile. It is probable that Nicolae and Stanca remained behind in Oltenia.Mihăilescu, p. 41; Simonescu, p. 36 Walther reports that Pătrașcu went into hiding with a band of Gypsies, while Stanca was sent to live with the "women of the land".Simonescu, p. 36 Michael eventually took the throne in 1593, with crucial backing from the Ottoman potentate Andronikos Kantakouzenos. The latter is often assumed to have been a brother of Teodora, which would establish a genealogical link between Nicolae and the emerging Cantacuzino family. The interpretation remains controversial.Cazacu, p. 176; Gane, pp. 138–139; Neagoe, p. 201; Stoicescu, pp. 41, 64–65

Nicolae followed his family to Bucharest, and probably lived with them in the princely court of Piața cu Flori. An oral tradition records that he owned two pet deer, which he raised on the castle grounds.Mihăilescu, pp. 41–42 Michael grew somewhat estranged from his wife, and kept several official mistresses. One of these was Tudora, wife of the scribe Fiera Leurdeanu,Stoicescu, pp. 203–204 who gave birth to a daughter. Named Marula, she later became wife of Clucer Socol Cornățeanu.Gane, p. 142; Neagoe, pp. 196, 201; Stoicescu, pp. 161–162, 203–204, 206 One tradition refers to another Wallachian, the alleged son of Michael and brother of Nicolae, who ended up serving the Ottoman Empire as Hazar Pasha.Maria Frunză, "Începuturile publicisticii lui B. P. Hasdeu (România, 18 noiembrie 1858—26 ianuarie 1859)", in Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară, Vol. 20, 1969, p. 159

Nicolae's stay in Bucharest ended in 1594, when Michael rebelled against the Ottoman Empire. Wallachia joined the Holy League and the Holy Roman Empire, opening a new theater in the Long Turkish War. The Ottoman Army responded to the revolt by ransacking Bucharest, during which time one of Nicolae's deer was killed and the other lost.Mihăilescu, p. 42 The princely family fled to the fortress town of Gherghița,Mihăilescu, p. 42 although rumor soon spread that they had been sent as hostages to the Principality of Transylvania. According to Mârza, the new developments had pushed Michael into using his own family as pawns in a "complexity of diplomatic games".Mârza, p. 74

Becoming Prince