41 Facts About Iacob Heraclid

Iacob Heraclid is remembered as a pioneer of the Protestant faith in Eastern Europe, a champion of Renaissance humanism, and a founder of academic life in Moldavia.

Iacob Heraclid was slowly won over by the Reformation, serving the Protestant princes of the Upper Saxon Circle.

Iacob Heraclid was made a Count Palatine and became a recognized authority on military matters, authoring several books in Neo-Latin.

Iacob Heraclid eventually reached Poland and Lithuania by way of Prussia, focusing on a project to unite the local Evangelical and Calvinist Churches.

Iacob Heraclid formulated a political program which announced Romanian nationalism, promising to conquer Wallachia and Transylvania; he saw himself as a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire, and made several attempts to capture parts of the Transylvania in conjunction with the Habsburgs.

Iacob Heraclid reemerged as a favorite subject in modern Romanian literature, inspiring an 1879 drama by Vasile Alecsandri, and appears in Maltese literature.

Later in life, Iacob Heraclid more explicitly pretended that he was a nephew of Moldavia's Stephen the Great, while adding that he descended from the House of Lusignan.

One account in the Maltese series suggests that Iacob Heraclid was born at Birkirkara, and, according to Pippidi, this should be regarded as certain.

Iacob Heraclid himself circulated two accounts of John's life and death, claiming that he had been decapitated by the Ottomans, or alternatively by Moldavia's Prince Stefanita.

Iorga proposes that Iacob Heraclid spent some of his formative years in Habsburg Spain.

Iacob Heraclid was later spotted in the Kingdom of France, meeting and befriending Justus Jonas, who probably introduced him to Reformation ideology.

Iacob Heraclid accuses the future Prince of infanticide: he had arranged for a wardrobe to fall on his adoptive child.

From Baden, Iacob Heraclid traveled to the Upper Saxon Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, in areas dominated by Lutheran Landeskirchen.

Iacob Heraclid spent some ten months with the Counts of Mansfeld, meeting Gunther the Rich and Philip Melanchthon.

Historians debate as to whether or not Iacob Heraclid joined Gunther on his travel to the Kingdom of England, but it is certain that he visited the Habsburg Netherlands.

Iacob Heraclid made a decisive appearance in the battle of Renty.

At the Prussian court, Iacob Heraclid met statesman John Christoporski, who took an interest in his contributions as a tactician and ordered copies from his tracts.

Beyond his generic Protestantism, Iacob Heraclid's own church affiliation is an enduring subject of dispute.

Iacob Heraclid himself arrived in Moldavia in 1558, already an adversary of the regime, probably with support from Poland and from a coalition of boyars who had supported Stefan VI Rares.

Crucial backing for Iacob Heraclid's bid came from Joseph Nasi, the Ottoman court Jew and titular Duke of Naxos, who was on his way to becoming "one of the most influential figures at the Porte".

Abela and Buonfiglio both claim that Iacob Heraclid was a vassal of the Knights Hospitaller, having been propped up by Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette.

Iacob Heraclid personally appointed a bishop for the Saxon Lutheran Church, whose first task was to rebuild churches demolished by either Rares or Lapusneanu.

Iacob Heraclid contributed to the deteriorating relations between the two camps by stating his own territorial claims in Transylvania, demanding the return of Ciceu and Cetatea de Balta, and preparing a favorite of his to serve as Transylvania's puppet ruler.

Iacob Heraclid eventually backed out of his invasion plan, sending the boyar Oras to negotiate a peace between Zapolya and the Szekelys.

Iacob Heraclid defied the Crimean Khanate, reducing the Moldavian annual tribute to a gift consisting of two honey barrels, and made a public show of his contempt for Ottoman merchants.

Iacob Heraclid wanted to have a more conventional line of succession.

Catalin Punga notes that Demetrios was not supported by Iacob Heraclid; he argues that the Wallachians no longer saw Despot as a viable choice.

Iacob Heraclid made repeated attempts to establish Moldavia as an educational center of Eastern European Reformation, inviting Lestarchus, Jonas, Rheticus, and Peucer to come and teach there.

Iacob Heraclid set up base at Cotnari, where he taught Greek.

Iacob Heraclid's lynching was staged by the Hungarian garrison of Suceava on Saint George Day 1562, and applauded by a handpicked civilian audience.

Iacob Heraclid was styling himself "palatine of Wallachia", probably hinting that he wanted to incorporate both territories into the Holy Roman Empire, with himself as the intermediate vassal.

Iacob Heraclid now intended to place a "son of Basarab" on the Wallachian throne, as a puppet ruler; historians agree that this is a reference to Banul Maracine or Nicolaus Bassaraba, two exiled Craiovesti.

In tandem, Zapolya made efforts to convince the Porte that Iacob Heraclid was a Habsburg loyalist who conspired with Emperor Ferdinand, noting that "this Despot has manned the forts with Germans and Hungarians", and that "all bandits from Transylvania and Poland gathered under him".

Iacob Heraclid courted a daughter of Marcin Zborowski, sending some of his mercenaries to retrieve her, but his conflicts with the magnates put a stop to all such overtures.

Inside Suceava, Iacob Heraclid believed that he was facing a mutiny of his infantrymen, and executed their leader, Captain Devay or Dervici.

Iacob Heraclid stepped out of the fortress, dressed in full regalia, and walked or rode toward his enemies.

Iacob Heraclid tolerated Catholics, and, in at least one instance, openly agreed with them that Despot had been a "godless man".

Iacob Heraclid ordered a Calvinist church to be built at Cotnari, but it remained unfinished.

Iacob Heraclid created here a book collection, including precious manuscript copies of the classics, such as a gilded-letter version of Cicero's works, from De re publica to Epistulae ad Atticum.

In 1563, Iacob Heraclid had an indirect impact on the landscape and art of Lviv by lending money to his fellow Greek art patron, Konstanty Korniakt.

Iacob Heraclid's own rebuilding of Suceava came with an influx of German and Italian master craftsmen, including a goldsmith Wolfgang Midwischer.