Alexandros Mavrokordatos

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Alexandros Mavrokordatos

Prince Alexandros Mavrokordatos ( Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Μαυροκορδάτος , born February 11, 1791 in Constantinople ; † August 18, 1865 in Aegina ) was a Greek politician and multiple prime minister .

Family and independence fighters

Mavrokordatos came from a Phanariote family who for a long time provided the princes of Wallachia under the name Mavrocordat . In 1812 he went to the court of his uncle, the prince (Hospodar) of Wallachia, Ioan Gheorghe Caragea . With this he went into exile to Russia and Italy after his deposition in 1818 .

There he completed his studies at the University of Padua . In Italy he joined the secret society Philiki Etaireia . After the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821 he went to Morea as a Phanariot .

Political career

First Greek Prime Minister

There he campaigned for the establishment of a regular government. After he was president of the regional administration of Messolongi for a while , he was elected president of the executive branch by the First National Assembly in Epidaurus on January 13, 1822 and thus de facto the first prime minister after the declaration of independence of Greece. In this capacity he signed the First Greek Constitution of 1822. In the following months he suffered defeats on the one hand as at Peta on July 16, 1822, and on the other hand was able to maintain his position through his successful resistance at the first siege of Messolongi from November 1822 to January 1823.

Aspirations for independence and acquaintance with Lord Byron

However, on May 10, 1823, he lost his office of President of the Executive to Petros Mavromichalis . During his tenure he was Executive Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) until December 1823.

From 1823 to 1825 he was Governor General of Messolongi as representative of the national government. In this office he was often the host of the well-known English writer Lord Byron , who campaigned as a philhellene for the Greek struggle for independence and died in Messolongi during the tenure of Mavrokordatos as governor. Together with Byron he planned, among other things, the attack on the Fort of Lepanto .

From February to April 1826 he was again Foreign Minister under the Executive President Georgios Koundouriotis . After the landing of General Ibrahim Pasha , Mavrokordatos fought again for the freedom and independence of Greece.

Navarino Battle, painted by Carneray

After the defeat of the Ottoman troops at the Battle of Navarino on October 20, 1827, he was appointed by the new governor and de facto prime minister Ioannis Kapodistrias as a member of his committee for the management of war materials. However, he resigned from this office in 1828. After the assassination of Kapodistrias on October 9, 1831 and the resignation of his brother Augustinos Kapodistrias from the office of President of the Government Commission and incumbent governor on April 13, 1832, he first became finance minister. He was then from July 1832 to February 1833 Vice President of the National Assembly in Argos .

Reign of King Otto I.

After King Otto I ascended the throne on February 6, 1833, he became Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Prime Minister Spyridon Trikoupis . From October 24, 1833 to June 12, 1834 he was his successor as Prime Minister.

He was then envoy in Munich , Berlin and London , before he was again Prime Minister of a transitional government from July 6 to August 22, 1841 as Chairman of the Ministerial Council. After that he was ambassador to Constantinople .

After the uprisings of September 3, 1843, he was a minister without a portfolio in the cabinet of the first constitutional prime minister, Andreas Metaxas . After a brief interim government by Konstantin Kanaris , he became Prime Minister himself on April 11, 1844. However, he had to resign from this office on August 18, 1844. In the following years, as an opposition politician, he particularly criticized the policies of his successor and chairman of the French Party (Γαλλικό Κόμμα) Ioannis Kolettis . Mavrokordatos himself was next to Georgios Koundouriotis leader of the so-called English party (Αγγλικό Κóμμα).

From July 29, 1854 to October 11, 1855, he was Prime Minister for the last time.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Provisional Constitution of Greece
  2. ↑ His diary from Munich and Berlin was published in 2011 by the Benaki Museum in Athens under the title To anekdoto ēmerologio tu Alexandru Maurokordatu: Monacho - Berolino (1834 - 1837) ( ISBN 978-960-6757-49-5 ; 978-960 -476-091-6).

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Ottoman Empire / Greek War of Independence Head of State of Greece
1822–1828 		Ioannis Kapodistrias
Spyridon Trikoupis Prime Minister of Greece
1833–1834 		Ioannis Kolettis
King Otto I. Prime Minister of Greece
1841–1841 		King Otto I.
Konstantinos Kanaris Prime Minister of Greece
1844 		Ioannis Kolettis
Konstantinos Kanaris Prime Minister of Greece
1854–1855 		Dimitrios Voulgaris
personal data
SURNAME Mavrokordatos, Alexandros
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Μαυροκορδάτος, Ἀλέξανδρος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek politician and prime minister
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1865
Place of death Aegina