It is known, by local tradition, that he had a typical moț character, joyful and witty and he had a musical talent, playing the leaf, alphorn, flute, and violin.

The last Assembly in Blaj saw the Habsburg governor, Anton Freiherr von Puchner, approve of the arming of National Guards for Romanians and Saxons.

With the discreet assistance of Imperial Russian troops, the Austrian army (except for the garrisons at Alba Iulia and Deva) and the Austrian-Romanian administration retreated to Wallachia and Wallachian Oltenia (both were, at the time, under Russia's occupation).

On 8 November, Avram Iancu, along with his 4,000 combatants of the "Auraria Gemina" Legion took part in joint military actions with Austrian forces.

The Romanian fighters holding out in their mountains stronghold were running low of supplies, having only 800 rifles to arm a few thousand men, and were completely surrounded by Hungarian troops by the end of March.

Iancu's direct adversary, Hungarian commander Imre Hatvany [ro], seems to have taken advantage of the provisional armistice to attack the Romanians in Abrud.

On 8 June, the Romanian stronghold in the mountains was attacked by the largest Hungarian force yet: 4,000 men supported by 19 cannons led by General Farkas Kemény [hu].

[12] The Russian intervention in June precipitated events, especially since Poles fighting in the Hungarian revolutionary contingents wanted to see an all-out resistance to the Tsarist armies.

The latter, understandably close to Avram Iancu (especially Nicolae Bălcescu, Gheorghe Magheru, Alexandru G. Golescu, and Ion Ghica) were also keen to inflict a defeat on the Russian armies that had crushed their movement in September 1848.

Finally, the conflict ended on 29 July, as Avram Iancu offered a guarantee to the Hungarian troops that he would not attack them, allowing them to withdraw in front of the Austro-Russian offensive.

In fact, it appears that the agreement was in no way a pact: Kossuth meant to flatter the Wallachians, by getting them to champion the idea of Iancu's armies leaving Transylvania for good, in order to help Bălcescu in Bucharest.

His personal documents (commented by Liviu Maior [ro]) show that the un-realistic assumptions of Kossuth had made him view the Hungarian leader as a "demagogue".

Avram Iancu agreed to disarm as soon as the Austrians took over, and wrote in 1850 a detailed report to the new Governor of Transylvania, General Ludwig von Wohlgemuth.

While Hungarian nationalism was slowly fitting in the pattern that would make the Ausgleich acceptable for both sides involved, the Romanian option raised more and more irritation.

The revolutionary zeal it had found under Iancu, although profiting the Monarchy, could also prove to be a weapon used for very different goals (the Austrians were especially fearful that the Orthodox faith of the Romanians would accommodate itself with Pan-Slavism, completing the gap between Serbia and the Russian Empire).

While the decision for his initial arrest (in December 1849) was quickly overturned after local protests (and explained as an abuse), he was censored throughout his life, had his library confiscated, and was placed under surveillance.

Being treated as peripheral by the people in power, he spent the rest of his life traveling the Apuseni Mountains, as a half-mad vagrant, living out of whatever alms that the impoverished moți population could spare for him, singing sad Romanian doina songs on his flute.

[1] Avram Iancu was officially declared a Hero of the Romanian Nation in November 2016 by the Parliament of Romania and President Klaus Iohannis.