John, ^[1] also Joan ^[2] or Ioan, ^[3] was a cneaz (local chieftain or ruler) ^{[2] [4]} mentioned in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by King Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247; the diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania. ^[5] John held a kenazate which was given to the knights by the king. ^[5] His kenazate lay in southern Oltenia. ^[2]

The diploma of Béla IV also refers to the kenazates of Farcaş and voivode Litovoi and to voivode Seneslau. ^[5] Seneslau and Litovoi are expressly said to be Vlachs (Olati) in the king's diploma. ^[5]

The Romanian historian Ioan-Aurel Pop suggests that the kenazate of John was one of the incipient Romanian states south of the Carpathian Mountains. ^[2] In the diploma, his name is given in its Latin form (Johannes), and so contains no hint of the nationality of its bearer. ^[5]

See also

• Foundation of Wallachia
• List of rulers of Wallachia

References

Sources

• Pop, Ioan Aurel: Romanians and Romania: A Brief History; Columbia University Press, 1999, New York; ISBN  0-88033-440-1
• Rady, Martyn: Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary; Palgrave (in association with School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London), 2000, New York; ISBN  0-333-80085-0
• Spinei, Victor: The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century; Brill, 2009, Leiden and Boston; ISBN  978-90-04-17536-5
• Treptow, Kurt W. - Popa, Marcel: Historical Dictionary of Romania (part ‘Historical Chronology’); Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996, Lanham and Folkestone; ISBN  0-8108-3179-1
• Vásáry, István: Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365; Cambridge University Press, 2005, Cambridge; ISBN  0-521-83756-1