Theodoros Grivas

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Theodoros Grívas.

Theodoros Grivas (* 1797 in Preveza , Epirus ; † 24 October July / 5 November  1862 greg. In Mesolongi , Aetolia-Akarnania ) was a modern Greek military leader and politician. He was instrumental in the overthrow of King Otto in 1862 .

Life

Theodoros Grivas came from an old Armatolen family in Akarnania in western Greece and was a son of the Palikaren chief Drakos Grivas, who was much known in the battles against the Turks and against Ali Pasha by Janina . He was first known for his role in the Greek struggle for freedom against the Ottoman Empire. He opened the uprising in western Greece by fighting with Turkish horsemen near Laspi at the beginning of June 1821 and took part in the siege of Brachori in Aetolia, which began on June 9, 1821 . Since then he has shown himself to be one of the most tireless Rumeliot Palicars, and later repeatedly in Morea .

Grivas helped defend the Makrynoros pass against Ismael Pliassa Pascha from June 29, 1821 , fought with Patras that same summer , and in the summer of 1822 at the side of Alexandros Mavrokordatos at Kompoti in Epirus, and later at Aitos. When he and Theodoros Kolokotronis had to surrender to the government in Nauplia at the beginning of 1825 , he was held prisoner in Hydra for a short time . He used his imprisonment to learn to write until he and his friends were sent back to the field under the pressure of the Egyptian attacks. After the fall of Mesolongi in the summer of 1826 he had to protect the mountain fortress Palamidi with his Rumeliots, whose betrayal Ibrahim Pascha tried in vain to buy through the most tempting offers to Grivas in 1827.

During the presidency of Ioannis Kapodistrias , Grivas remained relatively calm after he had felt compelled to hand over Palamidi to the president. After the assassination of Kapodistrias (October 1831) he took part in the victorious campaign of the Rumeliots against Argos (April 1832) as well as in the turmoil that led to the demolition of the congress of Pronia by Rumelioten gangs (August 1832). He also took part in the plot of Kolokotronis in the fall of 1833, through which the recall of the Bavarian reign and the declaration of consent of King Otto should be achieved. Russian support was hoped for. A petition to Emperor Nicholas I tried to assert his influence on the recall of the reign of King Ludwig . Only the signatories of the address, including Kolokotronis, Grivas, Tsavelas, were arrested on September 19, 1833 at the instigation of Georg Ludwig von Maurer and charged with high treason . In 1834 Grivas was sentenced to long imprisonment on the Palamidi, but was released in the summer of the same year by the minister Ioannis Kolettis , who then successfully sent him into the field against Messenian and Arcadian insurgents.

As a result, Grivas was promoted to General Inspector of the Greek Army. He played an important role in the movements triggered by the Attic September Revolution. An uprising organized by him at the beginning of June 1844 in the province of Akarnania against the government of King Otto failed. Grivas was lured to Athens by promises , where he was to be arrested; but he fled to Alexandria on a French ship . Amnestied in September 1844, he returned to Athens, rejoined the Chamber of Deputies and was reappointed General Inspector of the Army in November 1844. In 1847, however, with financial support from England, he tried a new uprising in Akarnania, which was settled through Turkish mediation. He lived in Ioannina for two years until he took up his post again after being pardoned again.

In 1854 Grivas made himself a pioneer of the Panhellenic idea . The Crimean War seemed to him the best opportunity to regain Constantinople . When an uprising against Turkish rule broke out in Epirus in January 1854, he took his dismissal and, with his young son Demetrios Grivas , tried to fan the revolt against the Sublime Porte . He gathered a corps of 1,500 men near Ioannina and defeated the Turks at Kutzulios on March 10, 1854, but later suffered two complete defeats at Mezzovo and Damoko and had to flee to Thessaly . In June 1854 he was amnestied by the Greek government and reinstated as inspector general of the army. As a result of Grivas' expedition to Turkish territory, King Otto's government was severely compromised towards the Western powers. They had to put up with the occupation of Piraeus by the French until February 1857, had to promise strict neutrality and forbid the volunteer corps.

As a member of parliament, Grivas was among the first to demand the formation of a national guard. He described this as the only power the people could hope for and the king could have confidence in. When the military revolt in Nauplia broke out, he refused to participate because the time was not yet ripe; his son Demetrios, however, took part. Grivas' attitude contributed to the fact that the crew of Nauplia gave up their futile resistance and fled to Anglo-French ships.

Finally, Grivas thought the time was ripe for an uprising against King Otto. On October 5, 1862, he gave the signal to revolt in Vonitsa in Akarnania, while Otto was on a tour of the Peloponnese . He then moved to Mesolongi to form a mobile column here. The troops in Athens followed Grivas' example. Otto's government was overthrown and the dethroned king returned to Bavaria. Shortly after Otto's fall, Grivas died on November 5, 1862 at the age of 65 in Mesolongi.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy : Griwas (Theodor) . In: Johann Samuelersch, Johann Gottfried Gruber (Ed.): General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 1st Section, Vol. 91 (1871), p. 437 f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Grivas (Theodorakis) , in: Brockhaus' Conversations-Lexikon , 13th edition, 1882-87, vol. 8, p. 431.
  3. ↑ a b c d Theodoros Grivas . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 7, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 750.
personal data
SURNAME Grivas, Theodoros
BRIEF DESCRIPTION modern Greek military leader and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Preveza , Epirus
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1862
Place of death Mesolongi , Aetolia-Acarnania