Ştefan Rareş was ruler of Moldavia in 1551 and 1552.

Ştefan was a son of Petru Rareş

Petru Rares

Peter IV Rareș was twice voievod of Moldavia: 20 January 1527 to 18 September 1538 and 19 February 1541 to 3 September 1546. He was an illegitimate child born to Ștefan cel Mare...

 and succeeded to the Moldavia

Moldavia

Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

n throne on 11 June 1551 when his brother Ilie II Rareş

Ilie II Rares

Ilie II Rareş was Prince of Moldavia between 1546 and 1551.He succeeded his father Petru IV Rareş on September 3, 1546, after he converted to Islam, and took the name Mehmet in May 1546. In 1551 by order of Suleyman I was burgle in Transylvania. The transylvanians before long to defeat the...

 was forced to abdicate by the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

.

He attempted to create an alliance with the German King Ferdinand I

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

 against the Ottomans, but was unsuccessful. He attempted an invasion of Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 in 1564, and when this failed he was assassinated by his boyar

Boyar

A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

s.