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Today, only isolated groups of peoples in the Balkans (Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria) are referred to as Vlachs and these people speak Aromanian (e.g., Wace & Thomson 1914, Winnifrith 1987, Caragui 1999). The Romanian and Moldavians, who speak another language derived from Latin, Daco-Romanian, represent the largest concentration of Latinized people of southeastern Europe. Historically, Romanians and Moldavians were known as Vlachs. The Romanian province of Walachia was named for the Valachs and served as their traditional homeland. Other groups of Vlachs have been assimilated into the local populations. The Vlach culture of Vlassko was largely destroyed at the end of the Thirty Year War (1648).
The purpose of this paper is to ask some very simple questions. Who were the Valachs of Vlassko? What is their relationship, if any, to other groups of people called “Valchs“? What events caused their migration to Vlassko? Unfortunately, the answers to these simple questions are stymied by the same problems that have confronted all Vlach research. First, there is little written history about the Vlachs. Second. On lifestyle Vlachs were largely nomadic shepherds who lived in remote mountainous locales and were known to travel great distances. In fact, Vlachs are tied into the difficult mosaic of Balkans History. Fourth, Vlachs were famous (and still are) for their ability to assimilate into which ever culture they happened to find themselves (Balamaci 1995). For Example. Vlachs who migrated into Bosnia readily dropped Christianity in favor of the local Islam, and the Vlachs who migrated into the Habsburg Empire were “Slavicized” in both religion (Orthodox to Roman Catholic) and language (Winnifrith 1987). Fifth, the term “Vlach” has historically been loosely used by others and oftentimes referred to any outsiders who were shepherds. Although conclusive answers are not forthcoming, it is clear that the history of Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, the Balkans) is at least as important as Czech history in describing the ancestry of Tex-Czechs.
The Vlach Empire and Expansion
The Byzantine Empire was weakened by (1) the split of the Roman and Orthodox Churches in1054, (2) Norman conquests of Byzantine territories in Italy, (3) Turkish conquests of Byzantine territories in the east beginning in 1071, and (4) the seven crusades between 1096 and 1254 (Magocsi 1993). Against this weakened Byzantine Empire, a Vlach Revolution occurred in 1185 086 in protest against a harsh tax imposed on sheep-goat herds and was lead by Ivan and Peter Asen (Magocsi 1993). This “Asenid Empire” or “Empire of the Vlachs and Bulgars” existed south of the Danube River within present-day Bulgaria, and reached its zenith between 1218 and 1241 (Fig. 4). The first written record of Vlachs north of the Danube River (in Transylvania) is in 1210 (Caragiu 1999). This group has been considered as representing a northward influx of Vlachs from the Asenid Empire and/or Vlachs who had previously retreated into the Carpathian Mountains when the Roman Legions withdrew.
By 1242, the Vlach Empire was weakened by Mongol invasions. However, Vlachs during the late 1200’s spread eastward to establish Moldavia, which alternated as a vassal state of Poland and the Ottoman Turks (Magosci 1999). By the late 13th Century as well, continued Vlach migration into the plains north of the Danube gave rise to Walachia in 1290 (Magocsi 1999). Walachia was established as the new “homeland” of the Vlachs and as a province of Hungary (Fig. 4). From 1330 until 1340, Walachia, under the rule of Basarab I, existed as a nearly independent state. Walachia again emerged as a near independent state ruled by Mircea between 1386 and 1390.
Initially, the Vlachs are believed to have assisted the Turks by acting as guides and guards through mountain passes that were well known to the Vlach shepherds (Sugar 1977). In time, however, Vlachs numbered among those resentful of the Turkish presence. Indeed, the most prominent resistance against the Ottomans occurred in the Vlach states of Walachia and Moldavia. Vlad II Dracul took Walachia to the status of semi-independent state between 1436 and 1446. His son, Vlad III Tepes (the historical figure for Dracula of fiction) used both diplomatic and brutal means of war to establish Walachia as an independent state between 1453 and 1460. And again in 1476. Stefan the Great maintained Moldavia free from Ottoman rule from 1457 until 1504 (Magocsi 1993).
In Vlassko, the first widespread reference to Vlachs occurred during the Thirty Years War and are well documented in Dostal (1956) and Polisensky (1971). For example, Jan Amos Comenius wrote in 1960 “Moravians of the mountains around Vsetin, called Wallachians, are a warlike people…they refuses to accept the Habsburg yoke and for three whole years defended their freedom with the sword.” Later, in 1624, he wrote “the inhabitants of the lordship of Vsetin and the mountains thereabout (who are called Wallachians) continued to resist with arms and could not be brought to deny their faith or offer submission…” In 1628, Jesuit missionaries, in abandoning their attempt to convert the Vlachs to Catholicism, stated that the “inhabitants of Vlassko were Valachs and hence utterly infractory.” Zlin town records from 1621 refer to “the Wallachians, who are the local rabble,…” Albrecht Waldstein, Habsburg Military lord of Vsetin, wrote in 1621 about the expected uprising of the locals and referred to the Vlachs as “Wallachians” against whom he did not have sufficient support to mount a campaign. A Habsburg commissioner in 1622, writing about the local Moravians, stated that “the people are inclined more to the enemy and the Wallachians.”
The significance of these period references is that the Vlachs of Vlassko were both considered apart from the Moravians, and referred to as Wallachians. Walachia is the Romanian province and the homeland of the Vlachs. This later distinction is important, because, as noted below, “Vlach” came in Moravia to refer to shepherds in general.
The Thirty Year War
Whatever the origin of the Vlachs of Vlassko, the Thirty Year War and subsequent events most profoundly changed the Vlach culture, and, as argued in the next section, set the stage for the next wave of Vlach immigration. The most detailed accounts of this war in Vlassko are found in Dostal (1956) and Polisensky (1971).
The Thirty Year War began in Bohemia in 1618 with the Battle of White Mountain near Prague. The war had numerous roots, but the primary one was the religious battled between Catholicism that the Habsburgs deemed to prevail over all their lands and the growing Protestant movement that had it roots with Jan Hus and later reformers such ass Luther and Calvin. War spread to Moravia in 1619 and Waldstein, lord of Vsetin, was appointed military commander for Habsburg forces in Moravia. With the exception of Vlassko, the Moravians were defeated in less than two years, with the Moravian government collapsing soon after the Bohemian defeat at White Mountain, and most Moravian towns and villages surrendering to Habsburg Imperial forces without a fight. It was the Vlachs, who at this time had largely become Protestants of one sort of another and who considered themselves freer than the lowland Moravians, who proved the thorn in the Habsburg side.
Vlach warfare against the Habsburgs consisted of raids, including those against Malenovice, Zlin, and Valasske Mezirici. Waldstein stated that the Vlachs fought as a “Horde” and Vlach forces were victorious against the Habsburgs during the initial years of the war. During portions of these initial years as well, Vlachs were joined by Protestant Hungarians, and by 1621 all of Moravia east of the Morava River was controlled by Vlachs. Hungarian forces, however, were defeated by the Habsburgs at Olomouc in late 1621 and withdrew from Moravia in 1622. Vlach forces were subsequently subdued in 1623, accompanied by a series of public executions.
Renewed Vlach attacks on Vsetin occurred in late 1623. The Hungarians, now aided by the Ottoman Turks, reentered the War, and fighting occurred as far west as Brno. The Turks, however, were an older enemy of the Vlachs, and the Vlachs did not join their former allies, the Hungarians. A second peace between Hungary and the Habsburgs was signed in 1624. The Habsburgs seized this opportunity to attack the Vlachs in March 1624 in the mountains west of Vsetin, but the Vlachs prevailed in what was described as a “slaughter” of Habsburg forces. Vlachs captured Lukov in 1626, and joined by Danes, who had entered the war against the Habsburg, also captured Hranice in 1626.
In 1627, Waldstein’s counter-attack forced the withdrawal of the Danish army from Moravian, and sent the Vlachs into retreat. By 1630, Vlachs controlled only their Carpathian strongholds. The final Vlach uprising occurred in 1640 when the Swedes invaded Moravia to do battle with the Habsburgs. Combined Vlach-Swede forces won back portions of Moravia, but then the Swedes withdrew in 1643 to concentrate on a war with Denmark.
In January 1644, a massive Habsburg raid was conducted against the Vlachs in the mountains east of Vsetin, The Habsburg rout was completed by this time with a battle that culminated in the burning of Vlach villages (e.g. Hovezi, Huslenky, Halenkov, and Zdechov), disarming of the Vlachs, destruction of the fields and livestock, and an estimated 20 percent of the males of Vsetin were killed or later executed. Vlachs who fled the area were pursued by the Habsburgs as far as into Hungary. Ultimately, about one third of the plenar Vlach population was killed. With the Conscription of Vlassko on February 16, 1644, a complete registration of the remaining Vlachs occurred. Execution or oath of allegiance to Habsburg and conversion to Catholicism were the choices. Many Vlachs were executed during the infamous executions of 1644 in Vsetin. By March 1644, essentially all the remaining Vlachs who had taken refuge in the high Carpathians had been pursued and killed. Plague then struck the region in September 1644.
War continued with one more attempted invasion of Moravia by the Swedes and Hungarians. The war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In Moravia alone, 63 castles, 22 towns, and 330 villages had been annihilated during the war.
Destruction of the Vlach Culture in Vlassko--Stage-Setting for Immigration
The net result of the crushing Vlach defeat with the close of the Thirty Year War was the destruction of Vlach Culture. Retribution by the Habsburg was severe and the Vlassko area remained one of the most repressed in Europe. A harsh serfdom was imposed upon the Vlachs. Whole groups of people and families were relocated. Taxes were raised to the point (two-third of total gross) that extreme poverty resulted. Overlords were entirely foreign. Serfdom was not lifted until the Revolution of 1848 (Pech 1969), one of the last places in Europe. Immigration to Texas began in earnest in the 1850’s.
Conclusion
In returning to the three simple questions posed at the beginning of this paper, what conclusions can be drawn?
Who were the Vlachs of Vlassko? They were certainly migrating shepherds from Slovakia. If the period references are taken at face value, they were Wallachians or Romanians. The complicating factor, however, is that these Vlachs may have been in migration for a generation or more and had been assimilated in language and probably through marriage to Ukrainians, Poles, and Slovaks.
What is the relationship to these Vlachs to other Vlachs scattered throughout southeastern Europe? First, the original Vlachs were not a single ethnic group, although many were Dacian. Vlachs show every inclination toward assimilation, hence, there are Serbian, Moravian, and Romanian Vlachs. They are united by a shared history, and language and culture to some degree. The strong tie to Romania exists in the historical location of the Vlach homeland and the continuation of the Latin-derived language there.
What caused the migration of the Vlachs into Moravia/ The Ottoman Turks caused the westward migration of Vlachs and other ethnic groups of people. Vlach westward migration along the Carpathian Mountains ended in Moravia were the Carpathians terminate.
The defeat of the rebellion did not destroy the Valachs nor their special kind of mountain economy. In the second half of the Seventeenth Century, the Valachian mountains began receiving a new wave of colonization. Local people from the valleys came with hopes of making a living in the mountains and also of finding shelter from the authorities. The mountains started to live again and they became again a traditional center of rebellious people. The Valachs started again several quarrels with land owners, stopped paying taxes, sent complaints to the Moravian Land Council, etc. They tried to maintain ancient Valach rights including the offices of Valach Dukes, something what did not happen anywhere else in Europe. It was as if they wanted to prove the truthfulness of their song --to stand with everlasting courage against injustice and arbitrariness, to show the world their untamable longing for freedom and regain it even by new blood.
The Valachs were, because of the character of their interesting way of economy, predestined to a traveling, roving, and almost nomadic life. From time to time, in order to survive and make a living, they had to move from one place to another because there were many of them and the original mountain region could not support them. Let us not forget the other reasons which forced the migration of the Valachs from their Romanian homeland. They were under Turkish domination. There were raids by Tartars and Cossacks all the way into the central Carpathians during which many of the Valachian settlements were destroyed and the population was driven out. So it happened that the stream of Valachian colonization moved slowly and repeatedly along the Carpathian range without any consideration of any state or national borderlines. During their migrations the Valachs came in contact with the local populations, mixed with, and accepted many of their customs and gradually started to lose their original Romanian character. The Valachian people started to be Russianized, Ukranianized, and Slovakianized until they arrived in eastern Moravia and Tesin Silesia.
. As late as in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Valachian colonization continued to the outskirts of the south-Moravian valley. The most characteristic Valachian herding regions were concentrated in the mountain areas of Hukvaldy, Valasske, Mezirici, Vsetin, Broumov, Lukov, Vizovice, Zlin, and some neighboring smaller areas.
In comparison to peasant farmers down in the valleys, the relationship between the Valachs and the lords of domains was a lot more liberal. It was irrelevant that they were considered by the landowners as peasants just like the others. The Valachs managed for a long time to keep their special position. They moved quite freely across the mountains and paid instead of all those obligations burdening other peasants, only a so-called Valachian tax, some sort of payment for the lease of land. At Hukvaldy and some other places they turned in every tenth head of sheep.
Furthermore, the Valachs maintained a greater degree of self determination. It was expressed by different judicial customs called Valachian Law. Valachian rights originated from freedoms they had previously gained in the eastern and central Carpathians. They were carried over to Moravia even though the nobility partially limited them. Valachian rights liberated people from tithes (payment of the 10th part), from corvee, from taxes to the government, and permitted them to elect their own leaders--Valachian Dukes. These supervised the Moravian and Silesian Valachs, the borderlines of pastures, managed the Valachian economy, collected Valachian taxes and turned them in to the landowners, solved and judged internal disputes in which local or government authorities did not interfere. All this substantially differentiated the Valachs from the other peasants. The Valachs were aware of this and defended their rights as best as they could.
Now it is about time to have a look at another page of Valachian history. It is the one which secured for them everlasting glory as courageous fighters for their rights, for freedom of the fatherland against feudalistic authorities, against local and international enemies. Only the Hussites brought to the Czech national history so much emotion, drama, and tragedy as these eastern Moravian rebels. It started before the Thirty Years War when the mountain dominion of Vsetin became the cradle of anti-feudal rebellion for the Valachians.
The first popular mutiny which seriously threatened the powers of feudal authorities burst out in 1612. The first threatened was no one else than the Imperial General Albrecht of Wallenstein to whom Valachs declined to fulfill their obligations as subjects and against whom they filed a complaint because of his cruelty and recklessness directly with the Land-Captain Karel the Elder of Zerotin. Wallenstein zealously opposed the non-Catholic religion of the Valachian people. He found supporters in neighboring landlords-Lord of Broumov- Jan Kavka of Ricany, and in the Hungarian Duke Emerich Doczi of Natluce, Lord of Vizovice. It should be noted that Lord Doczi was assaulted by Valachs and beaten with canes and was for a long time bedridden because of wounds he suffered. Events of national and European significance soon came to bear on the local Valachian rebellions. On May 23,1618, the Catholic governors were thrown from the windows of the Castle of Prague. The revolt of the Czech protestant nobility became an anti-Habsburg uprising.
Now we meet again the former Moravian Land-Captain Ladislav Velen of Zerotin and meet Sir Jan Adam of Vickov who was getting ready to hold eastern Moravia with help of the Valachs. The Valachs and peasant people had their own reasons for revolting against the authorities and became, therefore, natural allies against the Habsburgs. They meant to renew to their autentic economic and social freedoms. It is remarkable how they knew to connect their own struggle with the large international war situations. It happened first of all during the invasion of Danish and Swedish armies into Moravia. Prince Gabor Bethlen planned to form with the Danes and Swedes a strong alliance against the Habsburgs. For a number of years these circumstances drove the Valachs into battles where they never voluntarily laid down their weapons. This is remembered by one of the most significant contemporaries of that time, Jan Amos Komensky. "Moravian mountain people around Vsetin, so called Valachs, a courageous people, after Frederick’s (Czech King) defeat in 1620, refused to accept the Austrian yoke and for full three years managed to defend with arms in their hands their freedom.” J. A. Komensky had on mind only the beginning of the Valachian rebellions.
Now Cardinal Frantisek Ditrichstejn came back to Moravia. Until he died in 1636, he became supreme lord of this land. The Valachs often used the tactics of guerilla warfare, and alas to any foreign mercenary who fell into their hands. Nothing was achieved by a penal expedition of Spanish and Italian troops. They had to return without success. For the time the Valachs were invincible in their mountains. Cardinal Ditrichstejn was in a rage since he did not know what to do against them. The Valachs again attacked Valasske Mezirici, deeply penetrated into the domain of Olomouc, took the town of Hranice, tried to take over Castle Lipnik, and barricaded the pass of Jablunkov, etc.
Their forces were led by Jan Adam of Vickov and Ladislav Velen of Zerotin. The latter published a number of patents (proclamations) appealing to the Valachs to remain in the anti-Habsburg struggle,…that very soon expected freedom would return. It remains a fact that during 1621, all of eastern Moravia was in the hands of the rebels and the imperial armies did not even dare to go there. Valachs dominated even the country around Mistek, Frydek and Pribor. Perhaps never during the Thirty Years War did they have such a hope for success as they had at that time.
After the winter season of 1622/23, Valachs freeholders came to the forefront of the Valachian rebellion. They were the mountain people who during the time of the unrest refused to fulfill any of their obligations to the authorities and lived in the mountains their own life without any masters. Landholders held them to be a dangerous enemy of their privileges. The international situation at that time did not favor the Catholic camp. Free Valachs maneuvered as smaller but remarkable well organized groups maintaining the flame of the Valachian uprising. Ruling Catholic authorities often called them villains and compared them to common robbers. This was a result of their helplessness in fighting the Valachs. As a result, two of the most cruel noblemen, Albrecht of Wallenstein and Jan Kavka of Ricany, sold their estates which had not earned them any profit for a long time. The torch and also the burden of rebellion was carried until 1626, first of all by the relentless Valachs from Vsetin.
The anti-Habsburg war plans, which had such a narrow relationship to Moravia, soon fell apart. This decided the destiny of the second Valachian uprising. Hopes for victory which seemed to be at hand were again destroyed, even if the imperial army could not defeat, disarm or force to obedience the Valachs. For two months organized mercenaries rode through the Valachian mountains. Because of vengeance they burned Vsetin and executed many Valachs. But all this was hopeless. The real center of Valachian uprising was in the mountains, which protected them against arbitrariness of the enemy, like a mother protects her children.
The second Valachian uprising lasted fifteen months (1626-1627). Cardinal Ditrichstejn insulted them by calling them Valachian bandits and Valachian rabble. The Valachian people united in struggle. They ambushed and conquered towns and castles and dared to go into greater battles against German, Spanish and Italian mercenaries. They fought marvelously well and their name became world famous.
When noblemen could not succeed to dominate Valachs by armed force, they selected new tactics. They realized the sad truth that the only way to fight successfully against the Valachs would be to fight them only with help of Valachs whose service was acquired through bribes. So at the end of thirties, birth was given to a special mountain police recruited from the Valachs, a militia called portashes. For two hundred years these renegades protected the estates of the nobility and served against the interests of the Valachian people. The authorities asserted that they hired them to protect themselves against cruel bandits, which is what they named the Valach rebels.
Especially in the Thirties of the Seventeenth Century, there spread a new form of popular resistance--“zbojnictvi" (small guerilla war). Yes, during those times, the Valach country had its own “mountain boys” (horni chlapce), its Janosiks, who took from the rich and gave to the poor. Let us at least remember 0ndruska from the domain of Vsetin, and the Valachian Captain Adamcik, whose guerrilla organization, for a long time, was feared by the wealthy. Zbojnictvi was not robbery and murders; it was only an unusual, perhaps even a guerrilla-form of popular resistance, and a continuation of famous traditions of the first and second Valachian uprisings
People loved the “mountain boys” (horni chlapce) and did not go into hiding like the rich noblemen. Quite the contrary, they protected them, supported and hid them. As time went on they created a myth about their invincibility and invulnerability. Only the Austrian authorities who still did not learn enough from the Valachian rebellions, could on January 09,1641, publish a patent presenting a strange proposition on how to get rid of “zbojnictvi.” This patent promised a pardon and, furthermore, a generous reward to any “zbojnik” who would kill his comrade, another “zbojnik”, and present convincing proof about it. What pride filled up the hearts of the Valachs when this announcement fell on barren soil.
Many times the Valachs had to clear their way by using their valasky. It was a three-foot long cane where on one end an axe was attached. It was their preferred weapon that they mastered perfectly. They supplied the Swedish army with clothing, materials, shoes, and even with simple military items such as saddles and pistols of their own manufacture.
Valachs not only fought only side by side with the Swedes, but also independently. They were also involved in a small guerrilla war. Their third uprising spread all over the mountain region of Valachian territory. The destiny of this uprising was basically decided by the forces of the anti-imperial block, especially the Danes, who unexpectedly went over and joined the Imperial side, since they feared Swedish domination of the Baltic Sea. The Swedes had to recall all their garrisons from Moravia and the emperor had a free hand to take action against the Valachs.
He took instant advantage of the favorable situation and assigned Count Rottal to repeat a punitive expedition against the Valachs which would not lead to a shameful fiasco as the previous one on the river Rokytnice. At the military meeting on January 14,1644, Count Rottal along with imperial General Buchheim worked out a detailed plan of military action against the Valachs. The attack against Vsetin would be led from three directions: from Valasske Mezirici, from Holesov, and from Uhersky Brod. Not many records were preserved about the main battle against the Valachs. It took place probably on January 26 and 27, l644, and it is for sure it ended with the defeat of the rebels. Imperial power was regained this way after twenty-three years of heroic popular resistance. The supreme commander of Moravia, Count Rottal, could now without any obstacles, take bloody vengeance on the Valachian people. Now the Valachs suffered their “Bila Hora.”
When 300 Valachs were executed, the executions were far from ended. Punishments were cruel, just as we know about them from other popular rebellions: beheadings, hangings, quartering while alive, breaking on the wheel, smashing limbs with a pestle, burning alive on a spit, tearing out of the tongue. The imperial army plundered and burned large areas of Valach territory. This inhuman behavior of the victors was supposed to scare off all Valachs and silence forever their desire for freedom. Many Valachs managed to escape and so the number of inhabitants in rebellious domains dropped to about one quarter . The execution of twenty-one Valach leaders was set up in Brno. Valach captains were led on ropes and chains into the jail of the Brno town hall. Those who fell to the ground because of exhaustion were hung on the nearest tree.
Representatives of Valachian towns and villages had to sign a promise that all Valachs were going to properly fulfill their obligations as subjects, not keep any weapons, and that they, themselves, were going to capture fugitive leaders of the rebellion and non-Catholic priests and hand them over alive or dead to authorities. The Valachian country went through many changes. The power of Catholic landowners rose and became stronger.
So this was the tragic end of a glorious epoch of our history which was forever recorded by the Valachian people of eastern Moravia and Silesia.
The defeat of the rebellion did not destroy the Valachs nor their special kind of mountain economy. In the second half of the Seventeenth Century, the Valachian mountains began receiving a new wave of colonization. Local people from the valleys came with hopes of making a living in the mountains and also of finding shelter from the authorities. The mountains started to live again and they became again a traditional center of rebellious people. The Valachs started again several quarrels with land owners, stopped paying taxes, sent complaints to the Moravian Land Council, etc. They tried to maintain ancient Valach rights including the offices of Valach Dukes, something what did not happen anywhere else in Europe. It was as if they wanted to prove the truthfulness of their song --to stand with everlasting courage against injustice and arbitrariness, to show the world their untamable longing for freedom and regain it even by new blood. |
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