The period between 1449 and 1457 is considered to be one of the most difficult periods from all points of view: starting with the depreciation of the institutions and their subordonation to the private interests of the elite of the country, and going on with the dangerous decreasing of the political prestige of this Romanian territory, in relation to its neighbours, and painful territorial losses, which arose out of futile ambitions of greedy pretenders to the throne, supported and encouraged by the same political elite. During this period some different political manifestations appeared: one element of continuity and another element of novelty. The element of continuity resided in the behaviour of the political elite, the novelty element is the emergence of a new group of claimants to the throne. At the end of the period a new and necessary process of reorganization and rebuilding of the country would take place.