MICHAEL THE BRAVE
On 13 November 1593, Prince Michael of Wallachia summoned the top Ottoman officials in his realm to a meeting in the capital of Târgoviste, to receive the tribute he owed Sultan Murad III. For many generations the Wallachians had endured the burdens of vassalage to the Ottoman sultans. Michael the Brave, as he would be known to future generations, felt a burning anger at having to bend the knee, so he ordered his bodyguards to slay the Ottoman officials. The killings sparked an orgy of slaughter throughout the principality as Wallachians viciously attacked Ottoman officials, soldiers and settlers. When Murad learned of the massacre, he told Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha to make the Wallachians pay dearly for their treachery.
The Long War
Following their conquest of Bulgaria in 1393, the Ottomans stepped up their raids into Wallachia. Mircea the Elder, who ruled the principality at that time, had strengthened the fortifications throughout his land in an effort to resist Ottoman aggression. Nevertheless, Sultan Bayezid I compelled his successor, Vlad I, to begin paying annual tribute. In 1462 Sultan Mehmed II went a step further than his predecessors and annexed Wallachia, making it an Ottoman eyalet. The Wallachians needed a charismatic
