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BES affairs. He afterwards became professor of law at Ingoldstadt, and was author of a good many historical works.—J. G.  BESOZZI,, born at Milan, 1648 (Charles I.); died 1706; studied under Giuseppe Gaudini, and Ciro Ferri. He was also an engraver.—W. T.  BESSARABA or BASSARABA, an ancient and powerful family which has given the name of Bessarabia to the country lying between the Dneister and the Pruth. The following members of that family were remarkable:—

(The Black), founder of the principality of Wallachia, died in 1265. About 1240 he reigned over Fogarash, a colony founded by the Daco-Romainians, who had been forced by the incursions of the barbarians to take refuge among the Carpathian mountains. Some time afterwards Pope Gregory IX. pressed Bela, king of Hungary, to give up the Wallachian schismatics to the catholic church; and about the same period Batton Khan, grandson of Genghiz Khan, after having overrun Russia, Poland, and Cumania, came to lay waste Hungary, and to drive the terrified inhabitants back towards the Carpathians. Menaced at once with barbarian violence and religious persecution, Radu withdrew with a part of his people to the country which stretches from the Carpathians to the Danube, and from the Oltu to Shiret. That territory, with the exception of the Banat of Craiova, had been all but deserted; but towards the end of the seventh century it had been repeopled from the Aurelian Dacia, the inhabitants of which had established themselves there, and had become civilized through the Templars who had fixed there their principal residence. Radu compelled the Ban of Craiova to acknowledge himself his vassal, and built the towns of Argissu and Tergovisti. He gave to his people a code of laws in many respects very remarkable, but strongly imbued with the aristocratic spirit peculiar to that age. Though the supreme dignity had been declared elective, it continued after the death of Rodolph in the family of Bessaraba.

I., son of Rodolphus II., was elected to the supreme dignity (vaivode) in 1382. He first made war against the Bulgarians, and afterwards against the Turks. These being joined by the Hungarians levied war against him; but finding himself unable to cope with two such powerful enemies at the same time, he submitted to the Turks and engaged to pay them tribute, on condition that they should leave him in all other respects independent. Mirce, however, sought an early opportunity of breaking this compact. He formed an alliance with Sigismund, who, alarmed at the progress of the Turks, most willingly joined him, and being reinforced with troops from all Christendom, but particularly from France, they took the field against the common enemy. The campaign terminated in the disastrous battle of Nicopolis, 28th September, 1396. Seeing his French auxiliaries about to be defeated, he left them to their fate, and went over to the side of the sultan, who suffered him to return with his army to Wallachia. The Turks, however, under Bajasid their sultan, again in 1398 invaded the principality of Mirce, but were repulsed, and forced to commence a retreat in which they nearly all perished. This campaign freed the Wallachians for eighteen years from the tribute due to Bajasid. Before his death Mirce had the mortification to see his country again become tributary to the Turks; and after that event, which occurred in 1418, the principality fell into a state of anarchy, in consequence of the succession being disputed among Mirce's numerous natural children.

II., surnamed, was elected vaivode in 1592. He found the country cruelly wasted and groaning under intolerable burdens, while his troublesome neighbours, the Turks, in defiance of express treaties, began to build mosques in the Wallachian territory. Michael formed an alliance with Sigismond Bathory, vaivode of Transylvania, and Rodolph II., emperor of Germany and king of Hungary, and with the assistance of the former fell upon the Turks whom he found in Wallachia, slew great numbers of them, deprived them of the fortresses they possessed on the left of the Danube, and even proceeded to attack them in Bulgaria. A fierce contest ensued, although the forces of the Wallachian prince were not equal in number to those of his enemy. Michael, however, in order to make sure of the protection of Sigismond, acknowledged himself vassal to that prince, and uniting their forces, they succeeded in driving from the other side of the Danube the grand vizier, Senan Pacha, who had come to invade Wallachia. Sigismond soon after abdicated in favour of the emperor of Germany, having exchanged his dignity of vaivode for that of cardinal, and a pension of 50,000 crowns, with the possession of the towns of Oppeln, and of Ratibor in Silesia. He soon, however, repented of his bargain, and returned to reclaim his crown, which he shortly afterwards resigned in favour of his cousin the cardinal, Andrew Bathory. The elevation of this ecclesiastic to the dignity of a sovereign, afforded Michael a favourable opportunity of setting about the accomplishment of an object he had long ardently desired, viz. to bring all the provinces of ancient Dacia under his own dominion. With this view he came to an understanding with Rodolph, made peace with the Turks, and, having penetrated into Transylvania, attacked Andrew at Hermanstadt, and completely defeated him. Andrew fled from the field, but was overtaken and killed, and Michael now became master of the whole principality. Sigismond Bathory made a feeble attempt, in conjunction with Jeremiah Moghila, prince of Moldavia, to wrest the territory from Michael; but by the signal defeat of both, Michael at last secured possession of the great object of his ambition. He united the three crowns of Dacia (1600), and assumed the title of Michael, vaivode of Wallachia and Moldavia, counsellor of his imperial and royal majesty, governor of Transylvania. Michael did not long enjoy his good fortune. His power became a source of uneasiness to Rodolph, the Poles began to form projects against him, and his subjects consisting of tribes formerly hostile to one another, resumed their ancient feuds, which all his authority was unable to suppress. Nor was he more fortunate in an expedition against the Poles in Moldavia. He was twice beaten, and was at last reduced to the necessity of taking refuge in Vienna. He was assassinated the following year (1601) at the instigation of Basta. He was forty-three years of age, and had reigned nine years, during the whole of which he had been engaged in war.

, vaivode of Wallachia, after a series of sanguinary contests with the Turks, who in defiance of treaties had constituted themselves princes of Wallachia, succeeded in gaining the crown in 1654, and for half a century prolonged the dominion of the native princes.

. Constantine II. Brancovan belonged to the Bessaraba dynasty through his mother, who was the grandniece of Matthew Bessaraba Brancovan. On the demise of his uncle, Serban II. Cantacuzene, in the year 1688, Constantine became vaivode. At this period the Turks were at war with Austria, and Constantine, being a vassal of the former, was necessitated to lend them his assistance in reinstating Emeric of Tököli on the throne of Transylvania. Tököli, however, did not long enjoy his dignity, and, pursued by the imperialists, he took refuge in Wallachia. Here his quasi-ally, Constantine, treacherously destroyed all that remained of his army, and obliged Tököli himself to flee to Belgrade. This service to the Austrian cause, Constantine turned to good account. He speedily strengthened his relations with the Emperor Leopold, and consented to become his active, though secret agent; for which alliance he was rewarded with the dignity of "prince of the holy empire." Notwithstanding his close relations with Leopold, Brancovan was compelled, for the sake of appearances, to aid Turkey in her wars with the imperialists, until the peace concluded at Carlowitz in 1699 relieved him from a situation so equivocal. He then turned his attention to the internal affairs of his country, and attempted such financial reforms as were possible considering the clamorous necessities of the Turks, who, constantly excited against him by Alexander Mavrocordato, the dragoman of the Porte, were only to be satisfied by the power of money. Constantine only waited a favourable opportunity to rid himself of a yoke which daily became more oppressive; and on the death of Leopold in 1705, perceiving that Austria now regarded the Wallachian alliance with indifference, he made overtures to Peter the Great of Russia, with whom he concluded a treaty, engaging himself to furnish both men and provisions. The divan becoming aware of this treaty through the treachery of Constantine's own ministers, the ruin of Brancovan was decided upon; and for this end it was resolved to employ his rival, Demetrius Cantimir, the prince of Moldavia. But Cantimir detested the Turks even more than he hated Bessaraba, and before engaging in the destruction of the latter, he also made a treaty with the czar. Brancovan was not to be overreached in this way; but after a 