Alexander and Demetrios Ypsilantis

Greek revolutionaries

• Alexander Ypsilantis
• Born: 1792
• Birthplace: Unknown
• Died: January 31, 1828
• Place of death: Vienna, Austria

• Demetrios Ypsilantis
• Born: December 25, 1793
• Birthplace: Unknown
• Died: 1832
• Place of death: Unknown

In their individual ways, the Ypsilantis brothers, idealistic aristocratic Greek revolutionaries of the Byzantine Phanariote class, demonstrated the problems as well as the possibilities of the Greek movement toward national autonomy and independence.

Early Lives

In the narrow, winding alleys of Constantinople was a district that became notable as a seat of power for the Christian communities of the Ottoman Empire. This district, called the Phanar after the lighthouse that was one of its principle landmarks, formed the seat of the Patriarchate of the Orthodox millet of the Ottoman Empire and the center of Eastern Orthodox Christendom. It was populated primarily by Greeks and included a number of ancient and noble Greek families dating back to the Byzantine Empire before it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. One such family, ostensibly related to the Greek imperial dynasty of the Comneni, was the Ypsilantis (sometimes spelled Ipsilantis or Hypsilantis). This aristocratic Phanariote family originally came from Trebizond (Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor and became active in the movement for Greek independence that gradually emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although the history of the family dates back many centuries earlier.

The Ypsilantis had, for many years, been active in the administration of the Ottoman Empire (the Turks preferred to turn this aspect of the running of their state over to the multilingual and well-educated Greeks). Members of the Ypsilanti family not only attained the important post of grand dragoman to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople but also obtained the lucrative and politically advantageous position of hospodar of the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Because Russia at this time also had an interest in this region as protectors of the Orthodox Christian subjects and because the Ypsilantis were coreligionists with the Russians, members of the family also became noteworthy for their Russian attachments. The growing nationalist aspirations of the Greeks of the diaspora at the end of the eighteenth century, fed by hopes aroused by earlier Serb insurrections and by anticipation of Russian support against their Turkish overlords, were naturally centered on their Phanariote Greek fellow countrymen.

Constantine Ypsilanti, hospodar of Wallachia and the father of the brothers Alexander Constantine and Demetrios Ypsilanti, had become actively engaged in conspiratorial activity with Russia against the Ottomans during the latter half of the eighteenth century, had served as liaison between the Serbs and Russians during the Serb revolt of 1804, and had fought on the side of the Russians in the Russo-Turkish War of 1806 to 1812. Constantine finally defected to Russia in 1806 and died there in 1816.

Lives’ Work

Constantine’s eldest son, Alexander, who was raised in an atmosphere of nationalist fervor aroused by the changes brought about by the French Revolution, made an early successful career in the Russian army. He participated in the 1812 war against Napoleon Bonaparte and became an aide-de-camp and major general of the army of Russian czar Alexander I. He was decorated for heroism and was one of the youngest generals of the Russian army.

Around 1820 Alexander became embroiled in the activities of the Philiki Hetairia, a Greek secret society founded by undistinguished Greek merchants in Odessa in 1814 devoted to achieving the liberation of the Greeks from Ottoman domination. This society had the aim of creating an independent Greek state in southeastern Europe, perhaps even reviving the Byzantine Empire.

In 1818, the headquarters of the society moved from Odessa to Constantinople, the center of the Greek diaspora, and began to increase its membership. It was rumored that the designs of the society were supported by the Russian czar and his Greek foreign minister, John Capodistrias, although in actuality Capodistrias had, in 1816, refused an invitation to join the society as its leader. Alexander became its leader in 1820. He used this position and its secret membership as a springboard to plan insurrections against the Turks from the Danubian principalities as well as Greece. His plan was to involve the Serbian royal dynasty of Obrenović, the Bulgarians, the Romanians, and the Greeks in an all-Balkan insurrection against the Ottoman Empire, which, in late 1820 and early 1821, was occupied with putting down the revolt of the Albanian despot Ali Pasha of Yannina. Alexander felt that the time was ripe for revolt.

This period of history represents a convergence of the histories of several nations and intellectual movements. First, it was a period of nationalistic and Romantic striving of the Balkan nations, in particular the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians, and the Romanians of the Danubian principalities, for liberation from the oppression of the declining Turkish, or Ottoman, Empire. These Eastern Orthodox people looked to Russia, at this time a powerful czarist empire, to come to their assistance since they shared the same religion and, in several cases, the same Slavic blood.

The Russian Empire also had imperial ambitions on this region and maintained a continued interest in it. The Ottoman Empire, although it had suffered militarily, especially from the depredations of its own Janissary corps, had made attempts at reform and was at the same time in collision with the imperial aspirations of the British and Russian Empires. At this time the Ottomans had not only lost many of their possessions in Anatolia and North Africa but were also in the throes of opposition from their Balkan subjects. One of the more serious of these was the rebellion of Ali Pasha Tepelenë, the Albanian warlord and brigand who had become the despot of Yannina in Epirus. He had created a small state for himself in Epirus and was quickly becoming a powerful force to be reckoned with. In 1804 the Serbs, under their leader Karadjordje Petrović, had revolted against the intolerable conditions created by the Turkish Janissaries and were, by 1807, demanding independence from Turkey itself.

The question as to the ultimate fate of the Ottoman Empire was at this time a complex foreign policy issue, because the allocation of power in Europe hung in the balance. It was an age of intrigue, secret societies, freemasonry, and committed revolutionaries whose patriotic aspirations did not always spring from strategic calculation or common sense. It was an age of incipient nationalism and quest for freedom inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.

In 1820 the Turks turned their forces against the troublesome Ali Pasha of Yannina. The Greeks saw this as an opportunity to make their own bid for autonomy. Alexander had been waiting for just such an opportunity. He planned to personally lead a revolt that would restore to the Greeks their state and the freedom to recover the great empire of the Byzantines. Although there were a number of Hetairists in the principalities who might support him, he felt that he needed to act expeditiously before the Turks could raise a counterrevolutionary force.

The first Greek insurrection broke out in the Romanian principalities when Alexander led a group of Greek officers of the Russian army and other supporters into Moldavia in March of 1821. He issued a call for Greek and Romanian popular support, intimating that he already had the support of the Russian czar. He did not succeed in gaining peasant adherence, however, or that of fellow Romanian insurrectionists, in particular that of Tudor Vladimirescu, mainly because of mistrust of the Phanariotes because of their past injustices. He also appealed to the czar to come to his aid, but to no avail.

The czar disclaimed any responsibility for the insurrection, expressed his extreme displeasure, and dismissed Alexander and his brothers from the Russian army henceforth. In June, 1821, Alexander and his Sacred Battalion were thoroughly defeated by the Turks at the Battle of Dragasani. Alexander, his brother Nicholas, and a few supporters escaped into Austria only to be captured later. Alexander was tried and imprisoned in Bohemia, only to be released shortly before his death in 1828.

Although the movement was initially unsuccessful, this marked the beginning of the pathway to the independence of Greece, because Alexander’s ill-fated attempt coincided with another uprising that was taking place in the Peloponnese with the involvement of his brother Demetrios, and with better fortune. Demetrios had also joined the Russian army and in 1821 fought in the Peloponnese on the side of the Greeks. He later achieved a career in Greek politics. He had been appointed by his brother Alexander as the representative of the revolutionary secret society, the Philiki Hetairia, in Greece.

Demetrios first attempted to organize the Greek islanders from Hydra and then went to the Peloponnese, where he put forth his plan for organizing the Greek Morea into a sort of parliament. He encountered opposition, however, from the more entrenched local notables, most of whom did not wish to submit to a central authority. He became president of the national assembly that met at Argos in December, 1821, partly because he, too, was presumed to have Russian support. However, he became disillusioned by the internal squabbling of the Greeks and instead went to Corinth to organize its siege against the Turks.

This insurrection captured the popular imagination, attracting philhellenes from all over Europe along with material and financial support. Although beset with internal factionalism, the Greek revolt was saved through foreign intervention after Great Britain, France, and Russia combined against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Navarino on October 20, 1827. This victory was followed by the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. By 1832 the sultan had acknowledged the independence of Greece. As later dissension arose among the Greeks, Demetrios withdrew from politics. His ideas were in advance of his time since he envisioned a rule of law in which Greeks and Turks could live together.

Significance

Alexander and Demetrios Ypsilanti both continued the revolutionary tradition begun by their illustrious family, including the attainment of high office, attachment and loyalty to Russia, distinguished military service, and active involvement in revolts against the forces of oppression. They both put misguided faith in secret societies and intrigue and misled their followers concerning the level of their support from Russia, but both were natural leaders who were able to find a following. Although both saw their dreams and aspirations fail during their lifetimes, the ultimate goals of both brothers were vindicated by history.

Bibliography

Campbell, John, and Philip Sherrard. Modern Greece. New York: Praeger, 1968. Contains considerable discussion of the Philiki Hetairia and its import.

Clogg, Richard, ed. The Struggle for Greek Independence: Essays to Mark the 150th Anniversary of the Greek War of Independence. London: Archon, 1973. Covers the Phanariotes, Philiki Hetairia, the independence movement, insurrections, and the philhellenic movement.

Dakin, Douglas. The Unification of Greece, 1770-1923. London: Ernest Benn, 1972. Dakin focuses on the constitutional and state formation questions that followed the independence movement.

Djordjevic, Dimitrije, and Stephen Fischer-Galati. The Balkan Revolutionary Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. Djordjevic discusses the revolutionary movements of the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries and the formation of states in the Balkans.

Woodhouse, C. M. The Greek War of Independence: Its Historical Setting. London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1952. Woodhouse discusses the effect of Ypsilanti’s abortive insurrection and its effect of the megali idea of a greater Greece.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Modern Greece: A Short History. 5th ed., rev. London: Faber and Faber, 1991. Includes information about the Philiki Hetairia and about the Ypsilantis’s participation in the Greek War of Independence.

Zakynthos, D. A. The Making of Modern Greece: From Byzantium to Independence. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1976. Zakynthos discusses the social and political background of Greece and the Greeks during the Ottoman period.