Alexandros Mavrokordatos

Alexandros Mavrokordatos                             ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΜΑΥΡΟΚΟΡΔΑΤΟΣ

Born 11 February 1791                                     Died August 1865

 

 Section 1, Number 293 

Phanariot, statesman, and prince, Alexandros Mavrokordatos fought during the War of Independence both as a warrior and a politician. He was named Prime Minister of the newly formed country several times, and yet still remains a somewhat enigmatic figure. Opinions differed about him both during his lifetime and after.

His Life

Alexandros Mavrokordatos came from a Chiot family that could trace its roots to the late Byzantine period and which, under the Ottomans, lived in the Phanar district of Constantinople where they prospered. They could even claim their very own coat of arms. 

The status of Prince was granted to an ancestor in 1699.

 

As Hospodars (dukes or princes) in Moldavia and Wallachia in present day Romania, they became extremely rich and powerful, and yet, totally dependent on the vacillating whim of every Ottoman sultan.

Exiled to Italy in 1818 along with his Hospodar uncle who had run afoul of the sultan, he studied medicine and military strategy, learned to speak 7 languages, and met Byron and a slightly condescending Shelley in 1820 when he was learning English from Mary Shelley in Pisa.(1) 

A rather exotic portrait of the young Mavrokordatos

 www.kollerauktionen.chennews.htm

Mavrocordatos joined the Filiki Etairia in 1819 and took an active part in the Greek War of Independence from the beginning. In the spring of 1821, he went to Marseilles, loaded a ship with arms and ammunition purchased partly at his own expense and sailed for Greece. He was not only a combatant, but also a politician and planner.  He wrote Greece’s Declaration of Independence and would become president of the First National assembly in 1822.

During the war, he fought in western central Greece and helped in the successful first siege of Missolonghi in Nov 1822. It made him quite famous in Europe and brought him close to Byron. In a letter, Byron called him “the only Washington… kind of man amongst them”. (2)

Given his British sympathies, Mavrokodatos  would eventually lead the “English Party” as opposed to  Ypsilantis, (another Phanariot Prince) and Kolokotronis who, at that time favoured the Russians. He would bitterly oppose Kolettis who became leader of the so called French party. It speaks volumes that the first parties in modern Greece would identify themselves by the foreign country they felt most likely to back the new state rather than select a name reflecting the nation’s independent status.

In 1825 Mavrokordatos became Secretary of State. Then Ibrahim Pasha arrived in the Peloponnese and he became a soldier again, almost dying at Sphacteria in May 1825. When Missolonghi fell to the Ottomans once more in April 1826, he retired from fighting but did act as an intermediary with the French, English and Russians who had differing views over the Greek struggle. Remember, it was not until 1830 that Greece was actually recognized by the powers as an independent state.

When Kapodistrias became head of state in 1828, he would call on Mavrokordatos to help, although Mavrokordatos thought him far too dictatorial. After Kapodistrias’ murder, Mavrokordatos became Minister of Finance, and was Vice-President of the National Assembly at Argos in 1832. He was appointed Minister of Finance by King Othon when he came and in 1933 and, later became Prime Minister on four different occasions under King Othon.

 In 1830                                                             The mature statesman

Mavrokordatos wore a bewildering number of political hats during the rest of his political life.

 From 1834 onwards, he was the Greek envoy at Munich, Berlin, and London, Premier of Greece again briefly in 1841, and then an envoy to Constantinople.

In 1843, after the September 3rd uprising, he returned to Athens as Minister without portfolio in the Metaxas cabinet, and from April to August 1844 was head of the government formed after the fall of the Russian party. In 1854-1855 he was again head of the government for a few months.

What Was Mavrokordatos Really Like?

He has been characterized as brave, honest, unselfish, charming, deceitful, and dishonest, - often by the same people! There was so much infighting and so many opposing views during this period that any notable Greek, especially a diplomat dealing constantly with foreign powers and thorny issues, could easily be perceived as both a hero and a villain at the same time.

 

 Mavrokordatos’ Phanariot background was his ‘wound’ and his ‘bow’. It gave him prestige but also fostered mistrust among the various Greek factions. One writer summed it up this way: as a Phanariot, he was alien to many western Europeans, because too inscrutably oriental, while he was alien to many Greeks, because he appeared to them too much the westerner.(1)  

Stanhope, another Philhellene would damn him with faint praise: 'Mavrocordato is a clever, shrewd, insinuating, and amiable man … but …there is nothing great or profound in his mind.” He then adds insult to injury by saying “what, after all, can you expect from a Turk or Greek of Constantinople?”  (Historians fall into the race trap all too often. One reminds the reader that his princely title was, after all, ‘a Turkish one’ (not quite true) as opposed to what, I wonder, those given by God? (And so on.)

Being a diplomat in the cauldron that was Greek politics meant that you would be supported by some and vilified by others.  Perhaps he deserves a lot of credit for simply surviving while striving to reconcile so many factions.

 His plain grave stele is not quite as austere at it first seems: note the stele is supported by an ‘ancient temple’ inside of which is enshrined the Mavrokodatos coat of arms. A wreath of victory decorates the upper stele which is topped by his stern bust looking out over a multitude of Phanariot graves.

His grave is in Section One, Number 293 

Footnotes

(1)  He was teaching Mary Shelley Greek in exchange. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rom/summary/v012/12.2minta.html   offers a very interesting read on Mavrokordatos, Byron and Shelley and the prejudices of the time. Shelley referred to Mavrokordatos as “our turbaned friend” and, while admitting he was agreeable and accomplished, just did not like him much.

(2)See: https://petercochran.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/byron-and-alexander-mavrocordatos.pdf for an analysis of Byron’s set and Mavrokordatos  that is both fascinating and delightfully gossipy.