Despite his immediate homage to the Ottoman Empire, which exercised suzerain powers over Wallachia, some records suggest that he was chased out by the pretender Barbu Mărăcine, and possibly also maimed, by having his nose partly slashed, in early 1536.

His repression of the boyars sparked new rebellions, which created two other brief interregnums: in 1539, Șerban of Izvorani established himself as regent; for two months in early 1544, Stroe Florescu and Laiotă Basarab took the capital, Târgoviște, but were defeated by Paisie at Fântâna Țiganului.

Despite relying on Suleiman's support, Paisie also continued to entertain notions of emancipating Christendom and the Balkans from Ottoman rule, and in 1543 even signed to an alliance with the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary.

In cultural history, Paisie is remembered as the patron of Church Slavonic and one-time sponsor of the printer Dimitrije Ljubavić; as well as being the monarch who completed monastery complexes at Argeș, Cozia, Dealu, and Tismana.

Wallachia's elective custom had always allowed sons born outside wedlock to contest the throne, creating the background for massacres among pretenders; in the 1500s, this strife was doubled by civil wars between factions of the boyar nobility.

Scholar Valentin Gheonea proposes that Petru was forced into monastic seclusion by Prince Vlad Vintilă de la Slatina, after an early attempt to seize the throne.

An early account by the scholar Nicolaus Olahus describes a Petrus ab Argyes, most likely the future Paisie, being born to a lesser Basarab, by the name of Stanciul (Stantzul).

[15] Scholars Cristina Feneșan and Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont record a letter of July 15, 1535, sent from the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom by John Zápolya; it notes that an unnamed son of Radu, "persuaded that the regnant voivode was a wrongdoer, took monastic orders and changed his appearance.

[23] Scholar Marcu Beza notes that Paisie still referred to himself under his birth name in the 1538 orarion carrying his dedication (part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection).

[29] A dissenting opinion is provided by scholar Stoica Nicolaescu, who argues that Paisie's Ruxandra "must not be confused" with her predecessor, who had by then remarried a rival claimant, Laiotă Basarab.

[31] As they admitted in a collective letter, the boyars felt remorse for not having asked Suleiman's approval before the election, but also explained that this would have been difficult at a time when the suzerain was leading a war in the Middle East.

[19] Both she and Rezachevici record the story in Olahus, according to which "another pretender" had Petrus ab Argyes maimed, ordering the partial removal of his nose, before chasing him out of the country.

[42] As hypothesized by several authors, Paisie was able to reconquer Wallachia only with support from Zápolya and Stephen Majláth, the Voivode of Transylvania, driving his loyalist troops in from the north.

[48] Boyars on the loyalist side were led by Vlaicu Piscan, who took over as Logothete, Clucer Coadă, and Vornic Staico Șintescu, as well as Radu Furcovici, who held various commissions and was Paisie's godson.

[52] His sister received most of Islaz village and the whole of Fălcoiu, purchased by Paisie from a Marga Craioveasca of Caracal; Furcovici and his wife Caplea were similarly granted Bistreț.

[57] In August 1538, Paisie himself took charge of the 3,000-strong expeditionary corps that assisted an Ottoman invasion of Moldavia,[57] which was designed to punish Moldavian Prince Petru Rareș for his insubordination.

[60] In 1540, the Ottoman-friendly Zápolya granted his Wallachian neighbor ownership of two Transylvanian citadels, Vințu de Jos and Vurpăr; the exact circumstances for this territorial gift remain disputed.

[99] As noted by Rezachevici, such efforts were largely perfunctory: "after 1542 it was no longer feasible to mount an effective anti-Ottoman alliance, as the king [Ferdinand I] was incapable of acting against Suleiman".

[100] Historian Léon Lamouche similarly writes that Pope Paul III's advocacy in favor of a league that would have involved Paisie and Rareș failed: "as is usually the case, reality did not meet one's expectations.

[105] Eventually, Paisie's adversaries faced Wallachia's army at a place called Fântâna Țiganului ("The Gypsy's Fountain"), identified as a mineral well outside Găiseni, west of Bucharest.

[111] Spiridon Cristocea and his colleagues date the battle to October 1544; they also note that Piscan's betrayal is still commemorated in the eponymous village of Piscani, where the area once housing his manor was still known in 2012 as Locul Iudei ("Judas' Place").

[112] During this final part of his reign, Paisie traveled extensively: on November 7, 1543, he issued documents from two locations—Murcenii lui Puia near Balta Ialomiței, and Orașul de Floci;[113] the latter town had replaced Brăila as Wallachia's leading port.

[116] The year also saw a new increase in Ottoman demands from Wallachia, with local shepherds being expected to contribute 100,000 sheep as tribute to Istanbul, in exchange for access to its markets.

[118] In June 1544, Suleiman heard a complaint by Prochorus, the Archbishop of Ohrid, according to whom Paisie was making it difficult for him to collect past dues from the Wallachian Church.

[126] Staico Șintescu, who lost his high rank under the new regime, remained a prominent supporter of the deposed Prince, as did Radu Furcovici, who was driven into exile.

However, he proposes that the building was more likely finished in 1544, with murals done under Mircea the Shepherd, and redone even later; Gura's co-ktitors were the three lords of Piscani: the future dissident Vlaicu Piscan, alongside his brothers Mihail and Badea.

[154] Painted in large part by masters David and Radoslav, the infirmary is mentioned by historian Vasile Drăguț among the last Wallachian monuments attributable to high Byzantine art, one with highlights of "great preciousness.

[156] The murals show both Princes and Ruxandra alongside Cozia's administrator, Stroe, whose portrait evades the Byzantine canon and is regarded as one of the first realistic works in Romanian art.

[174] As noted by historian Dinu C. Giurescu, this message, ending in "stop them yourselves if you can do so", summarized Paisie's "impotence in curbing the activity of south-Danubian commercial agents.

[180] The erroneous dating of one document, since corrected, had also left some scholars, including Ioan C. Filitti, to propose that Paisie had actually reigned briefly in 1534, before Vlad Vintilă's assassination.