In the later battle of Kossovo of 14 4 8, between the Hungarians, led by Hunyadi Janos and the sultan Hungary Murad II., the Walachian contingent treacherously surrendered to the Turks; but this did not hinder the prevalent laxity of marriage, the frequency of divorce, and the fact that illegitimate children could succeed as well as those born in lawful wedlock, by multiplying the candidates for the voivodeship and preventing any regular system of succession, contributed much to the internal confusion of the country.
Michael's wife Florika and his son Nicholas were carried off into Tatar captivity, and erban or Sherban, of the Bassaraba family, was raised to the voivodeship of Walachia by imperialist influences, while Sigismund resumed the government of Transylvania.
In 1711 the voivode Demetrius Cantemir, rendered desperate by the Turkish exactions, concluded an agreement with the tsar Peter the Great by which Moldavia was to become a protected and vassal state of Russia, with the enjoyment of its traditional liberties, the voivodeship to be hereditary in the family of Cantemir.