This is a list of princes of Wallachia, from the first mention of a medieval polity situated between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube until the union with Moldavia in 1859, which led to the creation of Romania.
On principle, princes were chosen from any family branch, including a previous ruler's bastard sons, being defined as os de domn, "of Voivode marrow", or as having heregie, "heredity" (from the Latin hereditas); the institutions charged with the election, dominated by the boyars, had fluctuating degrees of influence.
From the early 15th-century the family was divided in two main branches: June1476January–December 1477 Teodosie was defeated in 1521, fled with his mother, and died in exile the following year.
The Ottoman influence in the Wallachian rulers' election grows from the mid-17th century onward.
The process reached its peak with the called Phanariote period (1715-1859), where, between the rulers, there was already no connection (or a very distant one) with the dynasty of Basarab.