| Excerpt |
In the Archives of Bucharest National Library we found several letters which unveil us information about Mathilda Cantacouzin, granddaughter of Moldavia’s logothète (something similar to Minister of Justice), Anastasie Bashota. Mathilda was the daughter of Helene - the only child of Bashota - and prince of Basarabia, George Cantacouzin. Their marriage was a disastrous one because the prince, a passionate gambler, lost almost the entire family’s fortune. Mathilda’s letters written from a private boarding school in Dresda, his uncle’s letters, the prince Rudolph Cantacouzin, and the letters of Miss Edlinger, the boarding school headmaster reveals us the desperate situation of the young girl. In the last nine years she was forced to change schools because her mother couldn’t afford to pay the taxes. Besides all this she had no news from home. These letters brings us information about the famous will of Anastasie Bashota which kept the law reports and society’s attention in the middle of XIX-th century. |
