Early life Born at an unknown date, Luca was the son of Cârstea Arbore, who served as
pârcălab of
Neamț Citadel in the 1470s, and his wife Nastasia. Various researchers argue that Cârstea, possibly known as Ioachim in some sources, was brothers with Stephen III—making Luca eligible for the princely throne. Luca also had a brother, the
Pitar Ion, and a sister, Anușca. Anușca went on to marry the boyar Crasnăș. The latter's father, also named Crasnăș, was famous as a dissenting boyar, having reportedly deserted Stephen III during the
Battle of Baia. Cârstea himself remained loyal to the prince down to his death. He was killed by the invading
Ottoman army during the invasion of 1476, either
at Vaslui or
in front of Neamț Citadel. Luca's main office was gatekeeper of
Suceava from September 14 (New Style: September 24), 1486. The attributes of this office were greatly expanded by Stephen: it implied command offices in the
Moldavian military forces and diplomatic functions, obliging Arbore to become a polyglot. From 1486, Stephen granted his gatekeeper half of Țăpești village, on the
Lozova River (the other half was awarded to Duma Burdur in 1499). In parallel, Arbore was the squire of
an eponymous estate in
Bukovina, and of
Șipote, in
Iași County. He became
ktitor of churches, dedicated to
Moldavian Orthodoxy, in both localities. He purchased Arbore, including the present-day city of
Solca and communes of
Botoșana and
Iaslovăț, in March 1502, developing it into his main
demesne—favored, with Șipote, because it was closest to Stephen's preferred courts (Suceava and
Hârlău). Folklore records that Arbore used Polish and Ottoman prisoners of war as his laborers, forcing them to quarry stone from
Solca River. From his mother Nastasia, the gatekeeper also inherited the
Bessarabian village of
Hilăuți. Tradition further attributes him ownership of
Hrițeni, in northern Bessarabia. Arbore married a lady Iuliana. One account suggests that she was the daughter of
comis Petru Ezăreanul of
Tutova County, also killed in the war of 1475; this remains disputed. They had at least four male children: Toader, Nichita, and Gliga, and Ioan, the latter of whom did not survive into adulthood. Some records attest a fifth son, Rubeo Arbore. Of his seven daughters, Ana married the great
comis Pintilie Plaxa. Another daughter, Marica, was the mother of Marica Solomon, wife of the
vistier Solomon. Finally, a daughter Sofiica was traditionally believed the wife of a great
vistier, Gavril Totrușan (or Trotușan). Later researchers asserted that her husband was another
vistier, Gavril Misici. However, according to scholar Adrian Vătămanu, she may have been Totrușan's second wife, and Totrușan himself may have been a Misici. Arbore also had a nephew, Dragoș, whom he groomed for the office of Suceava gatekeeper and to whom he donated an estate in Țăpești. In 1497, as Poland invaded Moldavia and besieged Suceava, Arbore reportedly organized a "heroic defense" of the capital. The events at the brought Arbore into direct contact with the
Polish king,
John I Albert, as mentioned years later by Albert's brother,
Alexander Jagiellon. Alexander's letter also confirms that Albert viewed Arbore as a possible contender for the Moldavian throne; in a different chronicle, the defenders are said to given the following reply to Albert: "Know that we will not betray our lord and his castles to you, for our lord, Prince Stephen, is in the field with his army; if you so desire, go and defeat him, and then his castles and the entire country will be yours." The same chronicle describes a meeting between Albert and Arbore outside the castle walls, a few days into the siege. Albert, thinking that Arbore might have princely aspirations, proposed to the gatekeeper that he handle him Suceava and receive support for obtaining the throne. Arbore refused; Albert then tried to capture Arbore, but the latter managed to retreat into the citadel. In 1501, as tensions between Poland and Moldavia were being reignited, Arbore traveled to
Halych and informed the local
starosta that Moldavia intended to annex that city, and possibly other parts of the
Ruthenian Voivodeship as well. It is however not known if the visit was an official diplomatic mission or Arbore's own initiative. In the fall of 1502, although Alexander Jagiellon had taken the Polish throne from his brother, Poland and Moldavia were again at odds with each other. In that context, Arbore had a prominent role in the occupation of Polish region of
Pokuttya. He ordered his own tombstone at around the same time, possibly as a precaution. During the campaign, Arbore again met the
starosta of Halych, who asked him about the destruction of a castle by the Moldavians. Arbore gave a firm reply, meant to be heard by Alexander Jagiellon—it suggested that his lord, Stephen III, did not wish to have any castles near his border, save the castle of Halych. If the identification of
Luca walachus is correct, in November 1503 Arbore also led a Moldavian delegation to
Lublin, trying to reach an understanding over Stephen's annexation of Pokuttya. Arbore was also integrated on the
Boyar Council in 1486, but only returned there in 1498, possibly because he was too often absent from the country on diplomatic assignments. According to historian Virgil Pâslariuc, he was co-opted there because he supported Stephen's co-ruler and designated successor,
Bogdan III, whose claim to the throne was contested by his brothers; and also because he was a distinguished warrior. During the final years of Stephen III's reign, Arbore and
Ioan Tăutu became increasingly influential, taking on more and more attributes; by 1503, Arbore had also risen through the Boyar Council, being listed there as the eighth most important boyar. In 1504, with Stephen III dead, Arbore was allegedly a pretender to the throne, although he continued to serve as courtier of the recognized successor, Bogdan. This account, contested by several historians, is based on Alexander Jagiellon's letter, which also claims that Arbore narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. According to
Nicolae Iorga, the whole episode, as narrated by the source, is "hard to believe" and "confusing". Pâslariuc proposes that Bogdan used Arbore, his loyalist and mentor, to solidify his legitimacy. He also notes that Bogdan punished his nephew Dragoș, who had "ruined a very expensive cannon", by confiscating one of his estates. This was an example of the prince "confronting the great families", with which he was otherwise at peace. Arbore led troops in combat during the new Moldavian–Polish clashes of 1505, prompted by the failed marriage arrangements between Bogdan and Elizabeth Jagiellon. Reportedly, he was present at the Moldavian sieges of
Kamianets and
Lviv. The Poles responded twice, anticipating Arbore's counterattacks and defeating the Moldavian troops on both occasions, which prompted Bogdan to sue for peace. Some of Arbore's other work concentrated on erecting the church of Arbore, which was finished in 1502, and to which he donated an
Acts of the Apostles in 1507. The frescoes, completed in 1504, are a synthesis of
Renaissance and
Byzantine art, noted for the usage of
Gnostic and
Bogomil symbols in an otherwise Orthodox context. Church historian Mircea Pahomi advances the hypothesis that Arbore used Italian stonemasons and painters for at least some of this work. His and his wife's coats of arms, displayed on the central shrine, are among the very few examples of classical Moldavian heraldry.
Regency and downfall Bogdan was an ailing prince, incapable of fulfilling his duties toward the end of his life; alongside Totrușan, Arbore again took hold of the actual government. The throne went to
Stephen IV, a minor (11-years-old at the time). Arbore became the ruler's tutor and, as such, the country's
éminence grise. His estate increased in 1516 with the purchase of
Soloneț from the boyars Hanco, eventually comprising 39 separate domains, including Mount Giumalău. Arbore held the office of gatekeeper to March 15 (March 25), 1523; he is also listed as a
hetman by the chronicler Macarie, but, Eșanu writes, this office had not yet been introduced at the Moldavian court. Similarly, Pahomi notes that the title of
hetman is "wrongly applied" to Arbore, who never held it. During this interlude, Moldavia's foreign policy shifted, and Stephen signed an alliance with the new Polish monarch,
Sigismund I. Arbore, identified by medievalist Ilie Grămadă as the leader of a Polonophile party, negotiated advantageous terms: until Polish troops had entered her territory and provided for her security, Moldavia was not required to either assist Poland or cease paying her debts to the Ottoman Empire. Overall, his policy on the Ottoman issue is described by Pahomi as "active neutrality". Nonetheless, the policy change, which opened the way for Moldavia's participation in a planned crusade organized jointly by the
Holy Roman Empire and the
Kingdom of France, upset Moldavia's relations with the Ottomans and the Crimeans. In August 1518,
Mehmed I Giray sent Crimean troops into Moldavia. These were met outside
Ștefănești by a well-prepared Moldavian force, led by Arbore; there, Mehmed suffered a massive defeat, with many of his troops drowning in the
Prut River. Military historian Mihai Adauge describes Arbore as a "great strategist" and "fearless patriot", on par with Stephen III. Nevertheless, by 1523 the Arbore males had encountered his prince's wrath, being formally charged with
hiclenie (treason). The parish chronicle of Solca noted in the 1880s that "no Moldavian chronicle" specified what crime Arbore had actually committed. As read by Pahomi, the prince's decision reflected cleavages within the Council, inherently linked with the Polish–Ottoman issue. The "old boyars" fell out of favor; a
postelnic Cozma Șarpe Gănescu, confronted with similar charges, escaped to Poland. Toader and Nichita Arbore were reportedly put to death, by strangling during the following month. According to one tradition, one of them may have actually been dead by that time, accidentally killed during a hunting trip. The family residence at Arbore–Solca was confiscated by the ruler, and became state land. Arbore's grave remains undiscovered, but one theory is that his body was stolen by his partisans and secretly buried at Solca. which happened in September 1523. Grămadă also notes that Arbore's death signaled another foreign policy change, with Poland fearing a Moldavian–Ottoman
rapprochement—despite the Moldavian–Ottoman clash at
Tărăsăuți. The prince, who maintained hold of the country while at war with Polish-aligned boyars and
Wallachia, appointed a new administration, comprising Totrușan, and, as the new gatekeeper of Suceava, the boyar Petrică. Totrușan is nevertheless listed among the boyars who took up arms, supporting the pretender
Alexandru Cornea. The movement was finally repressed in blood. Much of the old elite was forced into exile, with some captives executed by the prince at his residence in
Roman. Luca's wife Iuliana had probably died before 1523. Rubeo Arbore, allegedly one of her two surviving sons, took hold of two Moldavian
bombards and surrendered with them to the
Kingdom of Hungary; his sister Sofiica and her husband Gavril also left the country, settling in Poland. Genealogist
Octav-George Lecca argues that the fugitive was another Gliga Arbore, collaterally related to Luca, and describes the flight as an eloping to Poland with two nuns. The Arbore family survived through Luca's female descendants and, according to Lecca, also other close relatives. Daughter Ana Plaxa recovered possession of the Arbore manor in circa 1541, when
Petru Rareș had taken the Moldavian throne. She commissioned master Dragosin Coman to repaint the manorial church, which had been damaged by an Ottoman invasion in 1538, and, dying childless, bequeathed the place to her niece Parasca Udrea. A granddaughter, Anghelina, married a diplomat of Princes Rareș and
Iacob Heraclid, Avram Banilovschi. A Mihu Arbore was recorded as
hetman during the reign of Rareș; in 1538, he changed sides and offered his support to
Stephen V "Locust", only to take part in a conspiracy against the latter that ended with the prince being assassinated in Suceava. ==Legacy==