Ioan Potcoavă
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Ioan Potcoavă (or Ivan Pidkova - Іван Підкова in Ukrainian; also known as Ioan Sarpega, Ioan Creţul, and allegedly baptized as Nicoară Potcoavă; d. June 16, 1578) was a Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks (1577 - 1578; possibly the first one in history to be elected by the entire Zaporizhian Sich), and Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia (November - December 1577). His moniker ("potcoavă" in Romanian/"pidkova" in Ukrainian - "horseshoe") is said to originate in the fact that he used to ride his stallions to the point of breaking off their horseshoes; another version says that he could break and unbend both horseshoes and coins with his fists.
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[edit] Hetman of the Cossacks
After rising to prominence as a successful soldier, he was elected Hetman by the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host neighbouring Moldavia. Such elections do not appear to have been uncommon; Stefan Batory, the Prince of Transylvania stated that:
- "The lands between the Bug and Dniester are populated by a mix of races composed of Lithuanian Poles, Muscovites and Romanians. The Cossacks are raised from the Muscovites and Romanians".[1]
In 1574, Ioan Vodă cel Cumplit named the territory "Our Country from over the Dniester". Other Moldavian Hetmans of the Cossacks were Grigore Lobodă (Hryhoriy Loboda; 1593–1596) and Dănilă Apostol (Danylo Apostol; 1727–1734).
[edit] Voivode of Moldavia
Ioan Potcoavă was one of the so called Domnişori ("Little Princes"), named so because of a more or less based claims of belonging to Moldavian ruling families, thus exercising demands of the throne.
Claiming to be Ioan Vodă's half-brother, he chased Petru Şchiopul from the throne and resisted the first wave of violent Ottoman reaction. The Turks, their Wallachian vassal Mihnea Turcitul and their Polish partner, King Stefan Báthory, managed to remove him. In the end, Ioan Potcoavă was taken prisoner and decapitated in Lviv.
[edit] Legacy
He is the hero of Taras Shevchenko's romantic 1839 poem Ivan Pidkova, of Romanian writer Mihail Sadoveanu's socialist realist 1952 novel Nicoară Potcoavă, and of several Cossack ballads.
[edit] References
- Inline
- ^ Ion Nistor, Basarabia, 10/1990, p.159.
- General
| Preceded by Petru Şchiopul |
Prince/Voivode of Moldavia 1577 |
Succeeded by Petru Şchiopul |
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