Wallachian

The Wallachians are the Romanian-speaking Vlachs of the plain between the southern Carpathians and the Danube, where the Principality of Wallachia grew. In 1330 Basarab I defeated Hungarian king Charles I's army at Posada, throwing off Hungarian overlordship and founding the House of Basarab.

Vlad III the Impaler defied Mehmed II with a night attack at Târgoviște in 1462. From the 1520s the principality became an Ottoman tributary, though Michael the Brave broke with the Porte in 1593 and briefly united Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia in 1600.

Constantin Brâncoveanu's reign brought the Brâncovenesc architectural style and ended with his execution in 1714. The Ottomans then imposed Phanariote princes, whose rule ended with Tudor Vladimirescu's rising in 1821. After the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 Russian-administered reform opened a period of urban growth, with Bucharest overtaking Târgoviște.