Seimeni

Seimeni (plural of Seimen) designates the group of flintlock-armed infantry mercenaries charged with guarding the gospodar (ruler) and his court in 17th and 18th century Wallachia and Moldavia. They were mostly of Serb and other Balkan origin. The term is of Turkish origin: seğmen means "young armed man". In modern transcriptions of Slavonic, it may also appear as simén (plural: siméni) or siimén (siiméni).

Menaced by the growing privileges of boyars and threatened to lose land grants or be turned into serfs, the Wallachian seimeni rebelled in 1655, being crushed after Prince Constantin Șerban enlisted the help of George II Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania, as well as that of Moldavia's Voivode Gheorghe Ștefan. After exercising a rule of terror in Bucharest, capturing and executing several boyars, they were decisively defeated by Rákóczi on June 26, 1655, in a battle on the Teleajen River. The rebellion of the Seimeni and Home Guard or the Hrizea's revolts broke out on February 26–27, 1655, in Wallachia.

The timing of the events is controversial, but the reason is Constantin Șerban's desire to deprive himself of the services of the seimeni, which Matei Basarab relied on completely. At the beginning of the uprising, between 14 and 32 boyars were killed.[1][2]

It is an uprising of both Praetorian and ethnic origin and headed by Hrizea of Bogdănei, a swordsman and a foster parent. Hrizea was a bed-keeper, locksmith, and worshipper, like his mother-in-law, who was called Dragutin or Dragomir under Matei Basarab.[3]

The uprising was extinguished after the Battle of Hopleja on June 26, 1655.