Basarab I of Wallachia

Basarab I, called the Founder (c. 1270–1352), was the voivode who took Wallachia out of Hungarian overlordship. A charter of 1324 names him a vassal of Charles I of Hungary, but by 1325 another calls him disloyal, and he raided Hungary.

In July 1330 he marched to help Bulgaria's Michael Shishman against Serbia and shared the defeat at Velbazhd. Charles then invaded to take back the border lands Basarab held and refused his offer of tribute and a son sent to court. But the king's army, starving, had to accept an armistice.

On 9–12 November 1330 the Wallachians shot arrows and hurled rocks from the cliffs of a narrow Carpathian pass, nearly annihilating the king's army; Charles barely escaped. Hungarian suzerainty ended. Basarab moved his seat to Câmpulung, and his dynasty ruled Wallachia for two centuries.