Un candidat la tronul Moldovei, spre 1859: Lascăr Cantacuzino Paşcanu

The present study is a part of the author’s older preoccupations concerning the extremely complex issues which preceded and determined the formation of the Romanian national state (1859). A special segment of these preoccupations is represented by the presentation of the candidates to the thrones of the two Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia. Among them was Lascăr Cantacuzino Paşcanu, who made significant efforts, through money and personal connections at Istanbul, the capital of the suzerain power, to obtain Moldavia’s throne. The study illustrates the story of a lamentable failure of a man who found himself in obvious disagreement with the spirit of the epoch and with the Romanian national aspirations.