He came to the throne about 1456 or 1458, and reigned until 1504, and his whole life was spent in wars against Transylvania, Wallachia (which he at one time overran and annexed to Moldavia), the Turks, and Tartars.  Considered in conjunction with the acts of Hunniades and Vlad the Impaler, those of Stephen present a tolerably faithful picture of the condition of Roumania in the fifteenth century.  We shall therefore ask the reader to bear with us whilst we hurry through the leading events of his life.  Five years after he came to the throne, Stephen overran Transylvania.  In 1465 he married Eudoxia, a Byzantine princess, and two years afterwards we find him at war with Matthias of Hungary (the son of John Corvinus), by whom he was defeated at Baja.  Between that time and 1473 he once, if not twice, defeated Radu (the brother of Vlad the Impaler), King of Wallachia, and in 1475 he was at war with the Turks, whom he defeated on the river Birlad, between Barnaba, and Racovica.  This battle he is said to have won by stratagem.  He concealed a number of men in a neighbouring wood, and when the battle was at its height they were ordered to commence playing various instruments as though another force were approaching, and this created such a panic amongst the Ottomans that they gave way and fled precipitately, followed by Stephen, who put many to the sword.  In that year also Stephen again defeated Radu and completely overran Wallachia.  Having reduced it to submission, he placed a native boyard on the throne as his viceroy, who showed his gratitude to Stephen by rebelling and liberating the country from his rule; but he was in his turn murdered by his Wallachian subjects.  In 1476 Stephen sustained a terrible defeat at the hands of the Ottomans at Valea Alba (the White Valley), but eight years afterwards, allied with the Poles, he again encountered this terrible enemy.  His army was at first forced to give way, and he is said to have fled for refuge to Niamtz, where he had a castle, but his mother refused him admission and bade him return to his army.  Here is the story, with its sequel, as it is told by the poet who has already once been quoted (Bolentineanu):—­

    ’Blows are heard resounding at the outer gate. 
    ’Tis the hour of midnight; whose the voice so late? 
    “Hasten, dearest mother”—­ha! that well-known sound—­
    “From the host I’m driven, bleed at every wound! 
    Fearful was our fortune, terrible the fray,
    Scattered all my army, fled they in dismay. 
    Mother, open quickly; infidels pursue,
    Icy is the night wind, purple blood their cue.” 
    “Ha! what say’st thou, stranger?  Stephen’s far away,
    Dealing death, strong-handed, where he stands at bay. 
    Of him the mother I; such my son is he. 
    Be thou who thou may’st, my son thou canst not be. 
    (Yet can Heaven have fated, dealt this fearful blow? 
    Can his soul be craven, quail before the foe?)