Bogdan I

Bogdan I the Founder
Bogdan I (modern portrait by Pierre Bellet)
Voivode of Moldavia
Reign	1359-1365 – 1365-1367
Predecessor	Sas
Successor	Laţcu
Died	1365-1367
Burial	Rădăuţi
Issue	Ștefan Petru I Laţcu
Father	Mikola (debated)

Bogdan I, or Bogdan the Founder (Romanian: Bogdan Întemeietorul), was the first independent ruler, or voivode, of Moldavia in the 1360s. He had initially been the voivode, or head, of the Vlachs in Maramureș in the Kingdom of Hungary. However, when the first certain record was made of him in 1343, he was mentioned as a former voivode who had become disloyal to Louis I of Hungary. He invaded the domains of a Vlach landowner who remained loyal to the king in 1349. Four years later, he was again mentioned as voivode in a charter, which was the last record of his presence in Maramureș.

Bogdan and his retainers left Maramureș for Moldavia between 1359 and 1365. Moldavia had been under the rule of Sas of Moldavia, a vassal of Louis I of Hungary, but the local Vlachs were opposed to the Hungarian suzerainty. Bogdan expelled Sas's son, Balc, by force and seized the throne. In retaliation, Louis I confiscated Bogdan's estates in Maramureș in 1365. Bogdan reigned as the first voivode of Moldavia. He did not accept the overlordship of Louis I of Hungary, transforming Moldavia into the second independent Romanian principality.

Bogdan's early life is subject to scholarly debates. According to a theory, Bogdan was descended from a Vlach family, native to Maramureș. His ancestral estates formed a "valley knezate" with its center in Cuhea. According to a concurrent theory, Bogdan was identical with one Voivode Bogdan, son of Mikola. A royal charter, dated to 6th October 1335, narrated that Charles I of Hungary had sent Ladislaus Jánki, Archbishop of Kalocsa, to Clisura Dunării three times in 1334 and 1335 to make preparations for the movement of Bogdan, son of Mikola, from "his country" to the Kingdom of Hungary. Historian Pál Engel says that Voivode Bogdan led a large group of Vlachs from Serbia to Hungary on this occasion. The royal charter neither referred to Bogdan's ethnicity, nor mentioned large groups of Vlachs. Historian Victor Spinei emphasizes that the "similitude of the names is insufficient to identify" Bogdan, son of Mikola, with Bogdan, the future voivode of Moldavia.