10 Facts About Vasile Lupu

Vasile Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years.

Vasile Lupu was a capable administrator and a brilliant financier and was almost the richest man in the Christian East.

Vasile Lupu's father, Nicolae Coci was an Albanian shopkeeper, the son of Constantin and Ecaterina, who originated from Macedonia or Epirus.

Vasile Lupu had held a high office under Miron Barnovschi, and was selected Prince as a sign of indigenous boyars' reaction against Greek and Levantine competition.

Vasile Lupu pursued a Greek-Orthodox policy and sought to become the new Byzantine Emperor.

Vasile Lupu's army was defeated twice in 1639 at Ojogeni and Nenisori and a third time, at Finta, in 1653.

Vasile Lupu went into exile and died while being kept in Turkish custody at Yedikule prison in Constantinople.

Vasile Lupu introduced the first codified printed law in Moldavia, the Carte Romaneasca de invatatura, known as the Pravila lui Vasile Lupu.

Vasile Lupu founded the Princely High School of Trei lerarhi Church in 1640, which taught in Greek and Latin.

Vasile Lupu is depicted in a stamp issued by the Post of Moldova in 1999 and in a stamp of Romania issued in 2019.