Ioan Potcoavă

Memorial of Ivan Pidkova in Lviv

The only known portrait of Ivan Pidkova, printed in Polish album in the 17th century

Cossack with a head of Ioan Potcoavă, baroque sculpture from Great Armoury in Gdańsk

Ioan al IV-lea Potcoavă (or Ivan Pidkova - Іван Підкова in Ukrainian; also known as Ioan Sarpega, Ioan Creţul, and allegedly baptized as Nicoară Potcoavă; died June 16, 1578) was a Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks (1577 - 1578; possibly the first one in history to be elected by the entire Zaporizhian Sich), and Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia (November - December 1577). His moniker ("potcoavă" in Romanian/"pidkova" in Ukrainian - "horseshoe") is said to originate in the fact that he used to ride his stallions to the point of breaking off their horseshoes; another version says that he could break and unbend both horseshoes and coins with his fists.

Hetman of the Cossacks

After rising to prominence as a successful soldier, he was elected Hetman by the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host neighbouring Moldavia. Such elections do not appear to have been uncommon; Stefan Batory, the Prince of Transylvania stated that:

"The lands between the Bug and Dniester are populated by a mix of races composed of Lithuanian Poles, Muscovites and Romanians. The Cossacks are raised from the Muscovites and Romanians".^[1]

In 1574, Ioan Vodă cel Cumplit named the territory "Our Country from over the Dniester". Other Moldavian Hetmans of the Cossacks were Grigore Lobodă (Hryhoriy Loboda; 1593–1596) and Dănilă Apostol (Danylo Apostol; 1727–1734).

Voivode of Moldavia

Ioan IV Potcoavă was one of the so called Domnişori ("Little Princes"), named so because of a more or less based claims of belonging to Moldavian ruling families, thus exercising demands of the throne.

Claiming to be Ioan III Vodă's half-brother, he chased Petru V Şchiopul from the throne and resisted the first wave of violent Ottoman reaction. The Turks, their Wallachian vassal Mihnea II Turcitul and their Polish partner, King Stefan Báthory, managed to remove him. In the end, Ioan IV Potcoavă was taken prisoner and decapitated in Lviv.

Legacy

He is the hero of Taras Shevchenko's romantic 1839 poem Ivan Pidkova, of Romanian writer Mihail Sadoveanu's socialist realist 1952 novel Nicoară Potcoavă, and of several Cossack ballads.

See also

• List of Ukrainian rulers

References

Inline

1. ^ Ion Nistor, Basarabia, 10/1990, p.159.

General

• Grigore Ureche, Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei

Preceded by Petru Şchiopul

Prince/Voivode of Moldavia 1577

Succeeded by Petru Şchiopul

Persondata
Name	Ioan Potcoava
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Date of birth
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Date of death	June 16, 1578
Place of death