Carol I is seen as a towering figure of national history in contemporary Romania. He is often depicted in history books as a historical leader on par with Decebalus, Stephen the Great, Michael the Brave or Alexandru Ioan Cuza. This view emerged during the second half of his reign, with the founding of the constitutional monarchy and the victory in the War of Independence making Carol a legendary personage in his own lifetime, according to historian Lucian Boia:His long reign (of forty-eight years, one more than Stephen the Great) allowed the myth to come to fruition even within his lifetime. The image of the sovereign, mediocre at first, took on a powerful brilliance in the last years of the century. An educational poster of around 1900 presents "the four pillars of the Romanian people", along with other heroes of Wallachian history. The four are Trajan and Decebalus, Cuza and Carol I. Even Michael the Brave becomes a secondary figure by comparison. Carol appears organically rooted in Romanian history; he represents a new beginning, of course, but a beginning based on much older foundations.