Wallachia had been founded as a principality in the early fourteenth century by Basarab I, after a rebellion against Charles I of Hungary, although the first mention of the territory of Wallachia west of the river Olt dates to a charter given to the voivode Seneslau in 1246 by Béla IV of Hungary.

In 1417, Wallachia accepts the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire; this lasts until the nineteenh century, albeit with brief periods of Russian occupation between 1768 and 1854