ABSTRACT
The Orthodox faith practised by the Romanians was both ancient and distinctive. They lived alongside Catholic communities, they showed tolerance in the fifteenth century towards the Hussites, and they placed a high premium on their origins, antique, imperial and Roman. The international standing of the Romanian principalities rose in accordance with the growing importance of the Black Sea, 'a turntable of international trade' in the late Middle Ages, to use the railway metaphor deployed by George I. Brătianu. It is important to emphasize the prince's conception of the Romanian realm as a doorway into Christianity and the need to organize a Christian defence of the 'Romanian gate' and with it, of all Europe. The principality of Wallachia could offer indispensable logistical support for the Christian army; by means of the Danube and Black Sea, the Romanian Trans-Danubian territories would facilitate a great advance of the crusade from the Carpathians into the southern Balkans.
