Radu IV the Great
Prince of Wallachia
Radu IV the Great (Romanian: Radu cel Mare; 1467 – 23 April 1508) was a Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia from September 1495 to April 1508.
Biography
He succeeded his father, Vlad Călugărul, who was one of the three brothers to Vlad III the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș). He was married to Princess Catalina Crnojević of Zeta (sometimes spelled as Katarina or Jekaterina), member of the House of Crnojević, the daughter of Ivan Crnojević and his wife Voisava Arianiti. Radu was succeeded by his first cousin Mihnea cel Rău, son to his uncle Vlad Țepeș.
Reign
Radu the Great, the son of Vlad the Monk, received a select education and was designated heir to the throne since his father's time. Ascending the throne in 1495, he was mature, married to Lady Catalina and had several children. His reign was a peaceful one, focused on internal organization, supporting the Church and culture, without major wars. The exception was the conflict in 1506 with Bogdan III of Moldavia, generated by Radu's support for a pretender to the throne; the dispute ended with the mediation of Maxim Brancović, future metropolitan of Wallachia.
During the time of Radu the Great, the boyars were trying to limit the princely authority through Ottoman support, which is why the voivode approached the Craiovești family, offering them privileges. In 1507, he brought to Târgoviște the Serbian hieromonk Macarie, who printed the first book on Romanian territory here – the Liturgy (1508), making Târgoviște an important printing center in southeastern Europe.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Radu IV the Great” is prince of Wallachia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Radu, Great and Prince, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “prince of Wallachia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1060817. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1467, 1508, 1495 and 1506.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Radu IV the Great”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Radu IV the Great primary sources, Radu IV the Great archive and Radu research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Radu IV the Great”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Radu IV the Great” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.