Having, with the aid of his allies, effectually freed his country from external enemies, Michael had now a brief space of time for improving its internal condition, for it is hardly necessary to say that these desolating wars had reduced it to the very lowest stage of misery. Fields were tilled, cattle imported from Transylvania, seed corn distributed amongst the peasantry, and soon the face of the land assumed a smiling aspect, and new towns and villages sprang from the ruins of the old. Minor wars he had with the Tartars, and conspiracies were formed against him and quelled. He was even accused of treachery against his suzerain, whom, however, he managed to satisfy during a visit to Weissenburg; and well would it have been for Michael and his country if his ambition had not prompted him to over-estimate his powers, and if he had been content to reign in peace over his own principality. But this was not his policy. His victories had given him a high rank amongst the powers of the Orient; and the changes which were taking place brought him into communication with one and another, and favoured a scheme of aggrandisement which, though it was for a time successful, eventuated in his downfall and death.
Sigismund Bathori, weary of government, had abdicated in favour of his brother, the Cardinal Andreas, with whom Michael had nothing in common, and then it was (if not previously) that the latter began to nurse the design of becoming the independent ruler over what had been ancient Dacia, namely, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Siebenbürgen. With this view he commenced negotiations with the Porte, which were eagerly welcomed; and he also approached the German emperor, from whom he needed money to pay his mercenary troops. Indeed, for the purpose of accomplishing his ends, he at one and the same time did homage and acknowledged himself the vassal of both powers. For a long time he temporised and contented himself with strengthening and drilling his forces. At length taking advantage of unfriendly relations which subsisted between Andreas Bathori and the emperor, from whom he had succeeded in obtaining a subsidy on the plea that he required it for his operations against the Turks, who constantly threatened the Empire, Michael hastily assembled his forces, and, against the warnings and wishes of his wife and some of his more discreet counsellors, he crossed the Boza Pass in the Carpathians in 1599, and proceeded to overrun Siebenbürgen, as he professed, in the name and interests of his suzerain, the German emperor.
