Mavromichalis family
The Mavromichalis family (
Origin
According to the
The name Mavromichalis is said to derive from an orphan named Michalis (Μιχάλης, 'Michael'). Because of the dark clothing worn during times of mourning, orphans were often called mavros (μαύρος, lit. 'black'). From this 'mavros Michalis' future generations bore the name of Mavromichalis which is sometimes translated as "Michael the orphan".
Initially they established in
Fame and glory
The first renowned Mavromichalis leader is the 18th descendant of the orphan boy, Georgios Mavromichalis who was the hegemon of a rebellion that took place on the Peloponnisos peninsula sponsored by Count Orlov during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. Together with his sons Ilias-Pierros Mavromichalis and Ioannis "Skilogiannis" Mavromichalis he guided Maniot soldiers to victory over the Turks and their Albanian allies.
Another notable member of the family was a son of Skilogiannis Mavromichalis who is known as Şükür Mehmet Bey. As a child, Bey was captured by Turks during battle, later becoming a Muslim and a
Petrobey Mavromichalis, with support from the leading families of Peloponnisos made the Maniot state and the Mavromichalis family in particular powerful enough to control sizable swaths of territory on the Peloponnisos peninsula and protected them from Greek rebels and Albanian raiders at the encouragement of the Sultan.
However Petrobey's ultimate goal was the freedom of Greeks from Ottoman rule, and he used his local power and autonomy to build support for a large scale Greek rebellion. In 1821 this rebellion formally began in what would become the
After the revolution, Petrobey and his brother
Aftermath
With the advent of the Modern State of
In modern times, the most prominent member of the Mavromichalis family was Kyriakos-Petros Mavromichalis (grandson of Kyriakoulis the hero of the Independence), who was not a soldier but a lawyer and politician, and later became Prime Minister of Greece.
Sources
- Κ. Ζησίου, Οι Μαυρομιχάλαι. Συλλογή των περί αυτών γραφέντων, (K. Zisiou, The Mavromichalai. Collection of their own scripts, Athens,1903)
- Ανάργυρου Κουτσιλιέρη, Ιστορία της Μάνης, (Anargiros Koutsilieris, History of Mani, Athens, 1996)