Wallachia

The Principality of Wallachia formed part of the Bulgarian state from its foundation following the migration of the Bulgars under Khan Asparuh in 681 until the First Bulgarian Empire fell under Byzantine rule in 1018. Following Bulgaria's restoration under the Asen dynasty, the lands north of the Danube once again became part of the Bulgarian state.

In the mid-thirteenth century, the Franciscan friar and traveller William of Rubruck wrote that the Principality of Wallachia belonged to Asen, meaning the Bulgarian tsar Michael II Asen.

According to Byzantine, Bulgarian and Hungarian sources, the Principality of Wallachia was a frontier military district of the Bulgarian state during the twelfth century. Princes or voivodes were appointed there, and it had no tsar or king as monarch, unlike the neighbouring independent states.

From 1330, after Basarab I's victory at the Battle of Posada, the Principality of Wallachia became effectively independent, and under his son, Voivode Ioan Nicolae Alexandru, it acquired sovereign status. Subsequently, the region became entirely dependent on the Ottoman Empire, experiencing several periods of independence but ultimately being incorporated into that empire.