Litovoi, also Litvoy, was a Vlach

Vlachs

Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...

 voivode in the 13th century whose territory comprised northern Oltenia

Oltenia

Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....

 (Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

).

He is mentioned for the first time in a diploma issued by king Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV , King of Hungary and of Croatia , duke of Styria 1254–58. One of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grandfather Bela III, and by the rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the...

 (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247. The diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

 in the Banate of Severin

Banate of Severin

-References:*George Popoviciu, Istoria românilor bănăţeni, Lugoj, 1904*Patriciu D., Istoria Banatului Severin, Tipografia Diecezană, Caransebeş, 1899....

 and Cumania

Diocese of Cumania

The Diocese of Cumania was a Roman Catholic diocese in Hungary.The diocese was founded in 1227 with its seat in Milcov, serving the Cumans and the Teutonic Knights in the Burzenland. The diocese was destroyed during the course of the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241.It was a suffragan of the...

, “with the exception of the land of the kenazate of Voivode Litovoi,” which the king leaved to the Vlachs “as they had held it”.

The king’s diploma also refers to the kenazates of Farcaş

Farcaş

Farcaş, also Farkas, Farkaş or Farcas, was a cneaz mentioned in a diploma issued by king Béla IV of Hungary on 2 July 1247; the diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania. Farcaş held a kenazate which was given to the knights by the king...

 and John

John (knez)

John, also Joan or Ioan, was a cneaz mentioned in a diploma issued by king Béla IV of Hungary on 2 July 1247; the diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania. John held a kenazate which was given to the knights by the king...

 and to a certain voivode Seneslau

Seneslau

Seneslau, also Seneslav or Stănislau, was a Vlach voivode mentioned in a diploma issued by king Béla IV of Hungary on 2 July 1247; the diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania...

. Although the names of Litovoi and Seneslau are of Slavic

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

 origin, they are expressly said to be Vlachs (Olati) in the king's diploma. Bulgarian historian Vasil Zlatarski

Vasil Zlatarski

Vasil Nikolov Zlatarski was a Bulgarian historian-medievalist, archaeologist, and epigraphist.- Life :Vasil Zlatarski was born in Veliko Tarnovo in 1866, the youngest child of the teacher Nikola Zlatarcheto who was a prominent activist in the educational movement and the religious and national...

, based on an information of Rashid-al-Din and other sources, suggests that the voivodeship of Litovoi was under the suzerainty of the Second Bulgarian Empire

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

.

It seems that Litovoi was the most powerful of all the above local rulers. His territories were exempted from the grant to the knights, but half of the royal tax

Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...

es generated by his land (terra Lytua) was assigned to the Hospitallers – except for the income from the Haţeg

Hateg

Hațeg is a town in Hunedoara County, Romania with a population of 12,507. Three villages are administered by the town: Nălațvad, Silvașu de Jos and Silvașu de Sus.Țara Hațegului is the region around Hațeg town...

 district (terra Harszoc in the diploma’s only surviving, papal copy), which the king kept all for himself. According to the Romanian historian Ioan Aurel Pop, the king had grabbed Haţeg from Litovoi shortly before 1247.

In 1277 (or between 1277 and 1280), Litovoi was at war with the Hungarians over lands king Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1272–1290) claimed for the crown, but for which Litovoi refused to pay tribute

Tribute

A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...

. Litovoi was killed in battle. This event is recounted in the king’s letter of grant of 8 January 1285, in which king Ladislaus IV donated villages in Sáros County

Sáros county

Sáros was a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northeastern Slovakia...

 (today in Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

) to Master George, son of Simon, who had been sent against Litovoi.

Ioan Aurel Pop argues that the Litovoi mentioned in the diploma of 1247 was not identical to the Litovoi whose death is described in the letter of grant of 1285, and the latter was probably the former’s successor.

Sources

• Georgescu, Vlad (Author) – Calinescu, Matei (Editor) – Bley-Vroman, Alexandra (Translator): The Romanians – A History; Ohio State University Press, 1991, Columbus; ISBN 0-8142-0511-9
• Makkai, László: From the Hungarian conquest to the Mongol invasion; in: Köpeczi, Béla (General Editor) – Makkai, László; Mócsy, András; Szász, Zoltán (Editors) – Barta, Gábor (Assistant Editor): History of Transylvania - Volume I: From the beginnings to 1606; Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994, Budapest; ISBN 963-05-6703-2
• Pop, Ioan Aurel: Romanians and Romania: A Brief History; Columbia University Press, 1999, New York; ISBN 0-88033-440-1
• Vásáry, István: Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365; Cambridge University Press, 2005, Cambridge; ISBN 0-521-83756-1
• Златарски, Васил. История на българската държава през средните векове. Том III. Второ българско царство. България при Асеневци (1187—1280), София 1940
• Коледаров, Петър. Политическа география на средновековната българска държава, Втора част (1186–1396), София 1989