Gheorghe Bibescu

George Bibescu, Prince of Wallachia, 1844

Gheorghe Bibescu , also George Bibesco , (born April 26, 1802 in Craiova , † June 1, 1873 in Paris ) came from an old Wallachian boyar family and was ruler of the Principality of Wallachia from 1843 to 1848.

biography

Prince Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei's brother , after studying law in Bucharest and Paris in 1824, took up a position as an administrative clerk in the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs, but left this post in 1834 and lived in Paris and Vienna from then on .

He joined with his brother Barbu the 1827 by Dinicu Golescu and Ion Heliade-Rădulescu brought into being "Soţietatea literară românească" ("Romanian Society for Literature") whose character was based on the principles of Freemasonry . In its program, the conversion of "Sfântul Sava" into a university was proposed as well as the opening of another such institution in Craiova and the establishment of schools in almost all localities in Wallachia . The society also tried to promote the edition of Romanian-language newspapers and demanded an end to the state monopoly on printing machines. The head office was at Podul Mogoşoaiei in Bucharest.

In 1842 he returned to Bucharest and successfully led the opposition to the ruling Prince Alexandru II Ghica . On January 1, 1843, he was elected the new ruler of the country by both the liberal and the conservative boyars.

He proved to be a prudent and innovative ruler, regulating the precarious financial situation of the country and expanding the army. He also helped intensively the victims who had become homeless during the great fire in Bucharest on Easter 1847.

Proclamation of Islaz 1848

However, his relationship with Parliament began to deteriorate over disagreements over several bills. Due to the strong influence of the tsarist empire, the Wallachia government gave the Russian engineer Alexander Trandafilow and his company the concession to exploit the Romanian mines, which were mostly privately owned, for twelve years. Bibescu gave his approval. This aroused great resentment, and the Grand National Assembly canceled this contract on March 4th of that year. Now the prince made a mistake: Bibescu simply dissolved the public meeting, with the consent of Tsar Nicholas I , on the grounds that the proposals and interpretations of the contracts by the delegates were inadequate. Likewise, the MPs were against his attempt to introduce the French language as a subject in the higher schools in the country, but especially for the Lyceum “Sf. Sava “to only use French as the language of instruction on the grounds that the Romanian language is unsuitable for the modernization of the country.

As the differences of opinion between the assembly and the prince came to a head, the authorized chairman of the Wallachian State Council, General General Kiseleff , recommended new elections. The elections brought politicians loyal to the prince into the new parliament. Bibescu subsequently passed several important laws, such as a new law on the Orthodox clergy , for which the responsible boyars could now set the church budget, and a law to liberate all serf Gypsies who previously had to be at the service of the churches and authorities. He also ensured better relations with the Principality of Moldova , with which a customs union was entered into from 1847 after an agreement with Mihail Sturdza , the Moldovan prince .

But the revolution of 1848 also spread to Bucharest. The prince was asked by the insurgents to take their side, but the latter refused, but he did not fight them either. On June 9, 1848, the Islaz proclamation was issued. In 21 articles, among other things, the administrative and legal independence of the Romanian people, the composition of the National Assembly to be represented by all estates, the freedom of the press, the liberation of Gypsies from serfdom through compensation, the complete and equal schooling for all Romanians of both sexes , the abolition of the beatings and the death penalty, the emancipation of the Jews and political rights for all citizens of other faiths. It was then submitted to the prince, who accepted the resolution on June 11th. As a result, large parts of the nobility and clergy revolted and the prince was forced to leave on June 13th ^. / June 25,  1848 ^greg. to abdicate, to leave the country and go to Transylvania , later to Paris.

In 1857 he entered the political stage again and took part in the preparations for the reorganization of the Danube principalities. In 1859 he ran for the Conservatives against Alexandru Ioan Cuza . Like his older brother Barbu Ştirbei, he defended the idea of ​​uniting the two principalities under the rule of a foreign prince, but he was unable to prevail. It was not until seven years later that Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was finally elected Prince of the United Principalities. After the election of Cuza, he was elected to parliament in the autumn of 1862, but he turned down the mandate and moved permanently to Paris.

After his death he was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Today numerous streets in Romania commemorate him , for example in Bucharest, Constanța , Corabia , Craiova , Piteşti and Ploieşti .

family

Maria Văcărescu

Gheorghe Bibescu first married Princess Zoé Mavrocordato (1805-1892), adoptive daughter and heir to the property and name of Prince Grigore Basarab de Brâncoveanu, the last of the Brâncoveanu family, which is why he inherited their title and wealth. Since the marriage was unhappy and his wife suffered from severe depression, the prince wanted to divorce in 1845. He got into a conflict with the Orthodox Church. After he had received the divorce permit for himself and his future daughter, Maria Văcărescu (1815-1859), the boyar daughter Maria Văcărescu (1815-1859), who was still married to Prince Constantin Ghika, after he had installed a new patriarch in Constantinople by the Sultan, he married her in the autumn of the year in Focșani .

The Brâncoveanu inheritance passed to his son from his first marriage, Gheorghe (Grigore) Bibescu-Basarab (Grégoire Bibesco-Bassaraba), who married Valentine de Riquet, Contesse de Caraman-Chimay, a granddaughter of Napoleon Bonaparte , in Paris . He was the father of the writer Anna Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles .

literature

• Emanuel Bădescu: Nemaipomenitele aventuri ale prințului Bibescu. In: Ziarul de Duminică. January 20, 2010.
• Keith Hitchins: Românii, 1774–1866. Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest 2004.
• Nicolae Isar: Sub semnul romantismului de la domnitorul Gheorghe Bibescu la scriitorul Simeon Marcovici. Editura universitara, Bucharest 2003, ISBN 973-575-818-0 .
• Charles and Barbara Jelavich: The establishment of the Balkan national states, 1804–1920. University of Washington Press, Seattle 1986, ISBN 0-295-80360-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Constantin C. Giurescu: Istoria Bucureştilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre. Editura Pentru Literatură, Bucharest 1966, p. 120.
2. ↑ Constantin Maciuca: Prefaţă cronologic Tabel. S. V-XL, here S. VII, X, XXXVII f
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Keith Hitchins: Românii, 1774–1866. Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest 2004, p. 212f.
4. ↑ Charles and Barbara Jelavich: The establishment of the Balkan national states, 1804-1920. University of Washington Press, Seattle 1986, p. 93.
5. ↑ unibuc.ro ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ Selon Michel Cantacuzène: Mille ans dans les Balkans. Christian publishing house, Paris 1992, p. 291.
7. ↑ Emanuel Bădescu: Nemaipomenitele aventuri ale prințului Bibescu. In: Ziarul de Duminică. January 20, 2010.