Nicholas Mavrogenes

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Nicholas Mavrogenes
Prince of Wallachia
Reign1786–1789
PredecessorMichael Drakos Soutzos
SuccessorMichael Drakos Soutzos
Born1735
Paros
Died30 September 1790
Byala
HouseMavrogenis family
ReligionOrthodox

Nicholas Mavrogenes (or Mavrogenous;

Prince of Wallachia (reigned 1786–1789). He was the great-uncle of Manto Mavrogenous, a heroine of the Greek War of Independence
.

Early life and election

Mavrogenes was born on

Sultan Abdul Hamid I to name Mavrogenes prince of Wallachia on 6 April 1786.[2] He left the Ottoman capital accompanied by a huge and ostentatious retinue.[3]

Unlike other

bribe Abdul Hamid with 4,000 bags of gold, in order to obtain Yusuf Pasha's ousting from office; nevertheless, the sultan disagreed, and the treasurer of the empire, who had proposed the deal, was arrested, tortured and killed.[4]

Ruler of Wallachia

Mavrogenes and the Boyar Council

On 15 May 1786, Mavrogenes reached

Văcăreşti, near Bucharest, and on 17 May he was ceremoniously crowned and settled at the princely residence of Curtea Nouă. One of his first decrees was issued four days later, when he announced that all the people of Wallachia could address their grievances directly to him. He even set up a gazebo in Târgul de afară (Obor), so that peasants could speak to him.[5] He also attempted to erect stakes on all major crossroads, to show the people what would happen to them if they engaged in theft or murder, or if they failed to attend church services.[1] During the same year, he ordered the building of an aqueduct, which, although completed, was destroyed during the conflicts that followed his rule, and never fully rebuilt.[6]

Mavrogenes was also involved in the

Jews to be tax exempt and gave them a plot of land in mahalaua Popescului neighbourhood of Bucharest for them to build a synagogue (see History of the Jews in Romania).[7]

Mavrogenes often

privileges, and even revoked the title for boyars who refused to pay him the amount he demanded.[8] He sometimes staged incognito inspections, to observe the activities of boyar officials.[1]

In the 1787 War

Main article:
Russo-Turkish War, 1787–1792

On 24 August 1787 the Ottomans declared war on the

Grand Vizier, and arrested Ivan Ivanovich Severin, Russia's consul in Wallachia. Severin was soon freed, after the intervention of Georg Ignaz, Freiherr von Metzburg, the Habsburg consul, who described Mavrogenes as acting maniacally and being terrified by the prospect of being at war.[9]

As the city of Bucharest was spread over a large area and lacked any kind of fortifications, Mavrogenes decided to build some, including the digging of a moat from Cotroceni to Oborul Vechi, as well as reinforcing the walls of inns and monasteries (which were thus turned into crude fortresses). Unlike any other Phanariote ruler, he raised his own army, which reached 5–10,000 men and was equipped with several cannons,[1] but it was unruly and poorly trained. In addition, Mavrogenes asked for the Ottoman army to help him seal the border with Habsburg Transylvania and reinforce the borders with Moldavia.[10]

During that period, Mavrogenes used the services of Perdicari, an

Braşov).[11]

On 21 November a Habsburg army of 20,000 men, located in the

Cantacuzino families, fled to Transylvania). In order to avoid other betrayals, Mavrogenes arrested all the Wallachian boyars and dispatched them to an Ottoman fortress.[12]

On 9 February 1788, Joseph II, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, declared war on the Ottoman Empire and started spreading manifestos in Wallachia which explained the war's purpose and promised to "free the Romanian people from the Turkish yoke". At that time, Mavrogenes' army had about 11,000 soldiers, and there was also an army of about 15,000 Turks assisting him. With these forces, he obtained a few victories in the battles of Târgu Jiu and Câmpulung, and was able to prevent a Habsburg invasion for about a year.[13]

These victories, together with the predictions astrologer made him confident in a victory and attacked Kronstadt from July to October 1788, but failed to take the city.[14] As the winter of 1788–1789 was harsh, no further military actions were carried out. After Abdul Hamid died in April, the new sultan, Selim III, gave Mavrogenes about 5–6,000 soldiers from Rumelia.[15]

Coburg's troops being welcomed in Bucharest

In the meantime, the Russian army reported victories in Moldavia and rendezvoused with the Habsburg Army in

Battle of Focşani, with an undecided result. A second confrontation occurred as the Battle of Rymnik; more than 10,000 died on the Ottomans' side.[16]

Mavrogenes fled Bucharest on 26 October, accompanied by an army of 1,000 men, after appointing

Alexander Mourousis' rule.[17]

In June 1790, Mavrogenes, joined by a new Ottoman invading force, occupied the village of

Brussa.[19]

Legacy and reputation

Mavrogenes in a deer-drawn carriage

Thomas Hope, who knew Mavrogenes personally, made him a character in a novel called Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek.[21]

Mavrogenes remained a controversial figure, and historians' opinions about him are often contradictory. The Romanian

A. D. Xenopol saw him as maniacal and cruel.[22]

See also
Preceded by
Mihai Suţu
Prince of Wallachia

1786–1789 		Succeeded by
Habsburg occupation

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Giurescu, p.105
  2. ^ Ionescu, p.172-175
  3. ^ Djuvara, p.44
  4. ^ Ionescu, p.175
  5. ^ Giurescu, p.104-105; Ionescu, p.186
  6. ^ Djuvara, p.207
  7. ^ Ionescu, p.185-190
  8. ^ Ionescu, p.192-194
  9. ^ Ionescu, p.201
  10. ^ Ionescu, p.202-204
  11. ^ Ionescu, p.196
  12. ^ Ionescu, p.206-207
  13. ^ Ionescu, p.208; 210-211; 215
  14. ^ Ionescu, p.215-216
  15. ^ Ionescu, p.217
  16. ^ Ionescu, p.217-218
  17. ^ a b Giurescu, p.106
  18. ^ Ionescu, p.223
  19. ^ Ionescu, p.226-227
  20. ^ Ionescu, p.197
  21. Thomas Hope, Anastasius: Or, Memoirs of a Greek, downloadable at Google books
  22. ^ Ionescu, p.172

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nicholas Mavrogenis.
  • Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne ("Between Orient and Occident. The Romanian Lands at the beginning of the modern era"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995
  • Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Bucureștilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre ("History of Bucharest. From the earliest times until our day"), Ed. Pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1966
  • Ştefan Ionescu, Bucureștii în vremea fanarioţilor ("Bucharest in the time of the Phanariotes"), Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1974.
  • Peter Mario Kreuter, Franz Leopold von Metzburg und Nicolae Mavrogheni. Momentaufnahmen einer schwierigen Beziehung zweier diplomatischer Welten. In: Encounters in Europe's Southeast. The Habsburg Empire and the Orthodox World in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Eds. Harald Heppner and Eva Posch. Verlag Dr. Dieter Winkler, Bochum, 2012, pp. 75–91.
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