[15] Banking on his wife's influence at the court, he obtained the village of Slănicul de Jos in Muscel County, ignoring a rival claim stated by the Vlădescu boyars.

[18] Stroe and Logothete Radu Cocorăscu were fully in charge of Wallachia's government in August 1645, while Prince Matei was în priumblare ("taking leave").

[19] During this first portion of his career, Leurdeanu became noted as an art patron and ktitor: by 1646, he had constructed the Orthodox church on his wife's land in Golești; he also refurbished Vieroși Monastery, where before 1647 he had buried a son, Necula (died 1633), and a daughter, Axinia.

[24] A document dated to 1652 clarifies that Stroe was sacked upon revelations of embezzlement or theft—specifically, that he and two boyar accomplices had broken into the crate holding coins that Wallachia owed in Ottoman tribute (the haraç), and taken out 85 bags of gold.

[43] As noted by historian Constantin Rezachevici, Mihnea, in reality a Greek merchant, was entirely without internal support, and asked the Șerbanist boyars to return in order to better secure his throne.

According to Rezachievici, the surviving Leaurdeanus agreed to an alliance with Mihnea only because of their mutual hatred for an Ottoman protege, Constantin I Cantacuzino, who was emerging as a kingmaker among Wallachia's boyars.

[50] From September 1660, Grigore I Ghica's reign sparked a latent civil war between the main branches of the Cantacuzino family and a coalition formed by Greek and Romanian boyars.

[53] Despite being Constantin I's nephew, Dumitrașcu took Stroe's side, and was widely seen as subordinate to his will; their co-conspirators were a Romanian Paharnic Staico Bucșanu, and two prominent Greeks, Balasache Muselim and Nicula Sofialiul.

[57] According to the 18th-century chronicler Constantin Căpitanul Filipescu, Ghica had his own suspicions against the Postelnic's sons, as they had rejected his plans for rebelling against the Ottomans with Habsburg support.

[58] Returning to Bucharest with his defeated army, Prince Grigore ordered a confrontation of the boyar witnesses at Craiova, during which Mareș Băjescu took the Postelnic's side and accused the others of perjury.

Trying to gain the upper hand over his rivals, Leurdeanu dispatched to Istanbul a delegation of boyars, who proposed Dumitrașco Buzoianu, a Wallachian squire, as Prince.

"[67] In 1668, after a period of relative peace, the Cantacuzino party intended to expose Leurdeanu's guilt by suggesting he sign another writ which attested Constantin I's innocence.

[69] According to an apologetic family chronicle, known as Letopisețul Cantacuzinesc, Prince Radu plotted the mass murder of surviving Cantacuzinos, being assisted in this by Leurdeanu and Muselim.

[71] While his son Matei was openly persecuted,[72] Stroe was arrested and tried for his role as vasul dracului ("Satan's vessel")[71] in the 1663 episode, but "adamantly and fiercely refuted the charges".

As was the legal custom of the day, Leurdeanu was not allowed to confront either the evidence or his accusers;[75] in the anti-Cantacuzino epic known as Cronica Bălenilor, the letters are condemned as inauthentic.

This was reportedly requested by Constantin I's widow (also named Elina), who asked that Stroe be instead ordered to spend his remaining years in monastic solitude.

[79] According to historian Violeta Barbu, the Prince was in fact interested in preserving a political balance and reapplied a "fundamental norm" of old Wallachian (and more generally Romanian) society.

[80] Another scholar, Ion Ionașcu, suggests that Antonie's punitive justice was not even-handed, since several boyars who had conspired with Leurdeanu remained active at the court, with Gheorghe Băleanu even contributing to Stroe's sentencing.

[89] Matei Golescu was still in Wallachia: also in 1670, Antonie heard a complaint from Clucer Tudoran Vlădescu, who wanted to be returned ownership of Slănicul de Jos.

[92] As reported in a contemporary register kept by Berislăvești Monastery, upon reunion with his ally, the Prince openly acknowledged that Leurdeanu was not guilty of the Cantacuzino killing, stating to his boyars that responsibility was entirely his.

[95] During this interval, Stroe himself reportedly ordered the arrest and torture of other Cantacuzino heirs, including the future Stolnic and historian Constantin II.

"[100] Also according to Axinte, the Cantacuzinos had sensed this peril before Stroe's return, and fabricated evidence that he, with Radu Dudescu and Gheorghe Băleanu (who were still in Bucharest), worked to usurp the throne.

Ducas had Băleanu subjected to an ordeal by fire, ultimately realizing that he was being misled; the Cantacuzinos' position at the court was completely weakened as a result.

[103] During the first of these terms, he and his co-regents, Radu Crețulescu and Vistier Bunea-Vâlcu Grădișteanu, had to flee Bucharest, which had been devastated by the plague outbreak, and were governing from Fântânele.

[108] Vornic Leurdeanu was certainly survived by two of his sons: Pitar Stroe II and a Hieromonk Ghenadie; Matei Golescu was last attested for having served as Comis in 1673.

His political activity saw a complete reconciliation with the Cantacuzinos, who became allies of his in a boyar revolt against the intruding Phanariotes; in one instance in 1716, he welcomed the Habsburg armies on his estate at Vieroși, helping them storm into Bucharest.

[115] Golești church preserved two silk stoles, donated by СTPOЄ ВЄΛЬ ВИСTIA ("Stroe the Great Treasurer") and his wife Vișa, and now displayed by the National Museum of Art of Romania.

[117] Stroe was also the likely owner of a large collection of Transylvanian tinware, accidentally discovered during a 1965 dig at his wife's estate of Dealul Goleasca (by then part of Ștefănești).

[120] As noted by author Gheorghe Bengescu, the first generations of Romanian historians "have shown themselves to be more than harsh in depicting Stroe Leurdeanu, though he had always denied, including during his trial, any participation in the crime for which he stood accused.

[122] In 1939, travel writer Emanoil Bucuța noted that, while the Golescus as a whole had a good standing in Romanian history, their patriarch Stroe impacted the landscape of Golești with "tumultuous recollections".