Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years.

[1][page needed] His father, Nicolae (Neculai) Coci was an Albanian shopkeeper, the son of Constantin (Coce) and Ecaterina, who originated from Macedonia or Epirus.

[13] Lupu had held a high office under Miron Barnovschi, and was subsequently selected Prince as a sign of indigenous boyars' reaction against Greek and Levantine competition.

He was a builder of notable monuments (the unique Trei Ierarhi Monastery in Iași and the St. Paraskeva Church, Lviv, among others), a patron of culture and arts founding the Academia Vasiliană).

After relations between the two Princes soured, Vasile Lupu spent much of his reign fighting the Wallachian Matei Basarab, trying to impose his son Ioan to the throne in Bucharest.

Vasile Lupu made alliances with Ottoman officials, in particular with former Grand Vizier Tabanıyassı Mehmed Pasha.