Editing Elena Ionuț

{{Infobox person
| name = Elena Ionuț
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1502|7|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Bucharest]], [[Wallachia]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1572|3|7|1502|7|27|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Bucharest]], [[Wallachia]]
| occupation = Keeper of the House records
| era = [[Early Foundation Era]]
| known_for = Preservation of the [[House of Ionuț]] records
| father = [[Dragos Ionuț]]
| mother = Maria Ionuț
| family = [[Ionuț family]]
}}

'''Elena Ionuț''' (27 July 1502 – 7 March 1572) kept the registers and seals of the [[House of Ionuț]] for most of her adult life. When [[Grozav Ionuț]] killed her father and claimed the House in November 1521, Elena removed the archive before his men could seize it. The records she protected were later used by [[Mihai Ionuț (House of Ionuț head)|Mihai Ionuț]] when he restored the House.<ref name="succession-crisis"/>

Elena preserved disputed events in the family record. Grozav's claim remained in the succession register with her notation that Maria and four of the five children had rejected it. She later applied the same method to disagreements between Mihai and [[Stefan Ionuț]], recording the decision and the objection beside one another.

== Dragos's registers ==
Elena was born in [[Bucharest]] on 27 July 1502. She was the fourth child of [[Dragos Ionuț]] and Maria Ionuț. Dragos taught her the names and obligations recorded for the households attached to the early [[Bucharest Butchers|Butchers]]. By her late teens, she was already copying damaged entries and checking whether seals matched the decisions written beside them.

Her work gave her a different relationship with Dragos than her brothers had. Grozav argued with him over control, Mihai attended household meetings, and Stefan worked among the crews. Elena spent long periods with the papers through which Dragos tracked membership and promises of protection.

== Removal of the archive ==
Grozav killed Dragos on 23 November 1521. Elena returned to the family home before Grozav's supporters took control of it and removed the main register with its succession pages. She also took two House seals. Elena left ordinary account papers behind so the missing archive would not be noticed immediately.

Elena first carried the records to a loyalist household in Bucharest. She later moved the succession pages to the monastery that had raised Dragos. She kept the seal keys with her and refused to give them to Mihai until the loyalist households had formally rejected Grozav on 2 December.

== Keeper of the restored archive ==
After Grozav's expulsion, Elena brought the records back to the family. Mihai restored the House on 12 April 1522 and confirmed her as keeper of the archive. She entered his restoration beneath Grozav's rejected claim in the existing register.<ref name="house-restoration"/>

Elena produced a duplicate of the succession pages and stored it separately from the main archive. When Stefan was killed in 1537, she entered the location and cause of his death before recording the end of his command. Mihai regularly asked her to read earlier decisions aloud during family disputes because she would include objections that other participants preferred to forget.

During the 1560s, Elena's eyesight weakened. An assistant read entries back to her, but Elena continued holding the seal keys and approved corrections herself. She died in Bucharest on 7 March 1572 after a winter respiratory illness, aged 69.

== See also ==
* [[Dragos Ionuț]]
* [[Mihai Ionuț (House of Ionuț head)|Mihai Ionuț]]
* [[House of Ionuț]]
* [[1521 Ionuț succession crisis]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="succession-crisis">"[[1521 Ionuț succession crisis]]". ''1521 Ionuț succession crisis''. ''Vrienden Universe Wiki''.</ref>
<ref name="house-restoration">"[[House of Ionuț#Restoration|Restoration]]". ''House of Ionuț''. ''Vrienden Universe Wiki''.</ref>
}}

[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Ionuț family]]
[[Category:1502 births]]
[[Category:1572 deaths]]
[[Category:Early Foundation Era]]