George Ducas

Voivode George Ducas (Greek: Γεώργιος Δούκας, Romanian: Gheorghe Duca) (d. 1685) was three times Prince of Moldavia (September 1665 – May 1666, November 1668 – 20 August 1672, November 1678 – January 1684) and one time Prince of Wallachia (1673 – 29 November 1678).

He was married to Anastasia, the daughter of Eustratie Dabija, and later to Dafina Doamna; George Ducas fathered Constantine Ducas.

A Greek, George Ducas had been kept in Vasile Lupu's retinue and slowly overcame the obstacles set by his modest social origin.

Supported by Dafina Doamna and some of the boyars, he came to the throne in Iaşi after Dabija's death, but was soon ousted after his opponents appealed to the Ottomans, unjustly claiming Duca's rule was corrupt.

He contracted large debts in order to reclaim the throne, which he managed to following Iliaș Alexandru's rule. The policy of increased taxation led to the uprising of Mihalcea Hâncu in October 1671, crushed the next year after Ducas received Ottoman help. But, as Ducas failed to provide supplies needed for the War against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the Sultan Mehmed IV's life placed in peril at the attack of Kamianets-Podilskyi, the Turks swiftly replaced him with Ștefan Petriceicu.

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