Peter the Lame

Peter the Lame Petru Șchiopul
Prince of Moldavia (1st reign)
Reign	June 1574 – 23 November 1577
Predecessor	John III the Terrible
Successor	Ioan Potcoavă
Prince of Moldavia (2nd reign)
Reign	1 January 1578 – 21 November 1579
Predecessor	Ioan Potcoavă
Successor	Iancu Sasul
Prince of Moldavia (3rd reign)
Reign	17 October 1582 – 29 August 1591
Predecessor	Iancu Sasul
Successor	Aaron the Tyrant
Born	1534
Died	1 July 1594 Bolzano
Spouse	Maria Amirali Irina the Gypsy (one son)
Issue	Maria Ștefanița
House	Drăculeşti
Father	Mircea III Dracul
Mother	Maria Despina
Religion	Orthodox

Peter V the Lame (Romanian: Petru Șchiopul; 1534 – 1 July 1594) was Prince of Moldavia from June 1574 to 23 November 1577. He also ruled 1 January 1578 to 21 November 1579 and 17 October 1583 to 29 August 1591. He was known as "the Lame" due to a physical deformity. Raised by the Turks in Istanbul and hardly knew of his country of origin before gaining the throne of Moldavia.

Voivode of Moldavia

Anxious to rule like his brother Alexandru II Mircea, Petru was elected prince of Moldavia in 1574. However, unlike most of his ancestors, he was a weak prince and eventually gave up the throne in order to live comfortably in the west.

Family life

His first marriage to Maria Amiralis from Rhodes, was already arranged in his childhood, but later failed. They had one daughter, Maria, who married Peter Bornemisza de Kápolna. Petru soon fell in love with a Roma girl named Irina who became his mistress during his first marriage. Marriage to a Roma slave at that time was impossible. He had Irina freed from slavery and baptized, nicknaming her "Botezata" (the Baptized). After he gave up the throne, together they moved to the city of Bolzano in present-day Italy's Tyrol. Sadly for Irina, Peter soon fell in love with a seductive Circassian named Maria, a lady-in-waiting at his mini-court in exile. Irina died at 25 and was buried in a small cemetery in Bolzano. Their son Ștefăniță never ruled in Moldavia. He was raised as a Catholic and placed in a Jesuit seminary in Innsbruck. He was known to be an obedient student, but died of tuberculosis in 1602. He is buried beside his parents in Bolzano.

Death

Two years after the death of Irina, Peter died of syphilis. He is laid to rest beside her and on his tombstone is the inscription: "I, Prince Peter, descendant of the royal Corvinus family of Wallachia...who abandoned the throne of my own will, having obtained asylum from the House of Austria, [breathed my last] on July 1, 1594."