Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis (military commander)

Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis ( _el. Κυριακούλης Μαυρομιχάλης), was a Greek revolutionary who fought in the War of Independence.

Born in Mani, the son of Pierros Mavromichalis and baby brother of Petrobey, when the Greek War of Independence broke out he organised a band of young Maniates into a fighting force.

Kyriakoulis fought at Kalamata, Methoni, Koroni and was present at the Siege of Tripolitsa operation as commander-in-charge of the Valtetsi headquarters in the incipient revolutionary army.

He heroically and successfully defended the camp, twice, in the Battle of Valtetsi, leading a far inferior force to strenghten their positions, allowing new reinforcements to succeed in repelling the Turkish attack.

With the war against Ali Pasha over, the Souliotes -who had sided with the Albanian against the Ottomans- were in mortal danger because of Hursid Pasha's constant attacks and siege. To deal with this, an unexpert commander Alexandros Mavrokordatos, who was not a soldier but a politician and future statesman, chose Kyriakoulis to command an expedition to bring relief and reinforcements. [G.Kafentzis "Istoria ton Neoteron Chronon", Ekdosis Chatzichrisou, Athens, 1974]

On his way to the city of Kiafa his expeditionary force met action with a Turkish avant garde near the seaside village of Mourtou, completely defeating their foes and making a large ammount of prisoners.

His decission to take his captives to imprisonment in the Peloponnesus rather than to massacre them -as it was the common- showed his military ethics, but at the same time weakened his already small regiment composed by 500 Maniots plus some Philhellenes, mostly former Bonapartist French soldiers and young romantic Italian revolutionaries. [Poti Stratiki "To Athanato 1821", Ekdosis Stratiki, Athens, 1990]

In his effort against a stronger and much more compact force under Omer Vryonis, but with the overall leadership of an excellent skilfull commander like Hursid, who was an expert against guerrilla warfare, Kyriakoulis' band was at last defeated but showing the same Thermopylae spirit as their Spartan kinsmen of ancient times fighting till the last drop of blood. Mavromichalis was finally killed at Kiafa in Souli on July 4, 1822 and was buried with honours in Mesolonghi.

He was the grandfather of Kyriakos-Petros Mavromichalis, the politician and later Prime Minister but above all, for the Peloponnesians in general and for the Maniots in particular he became the icon of the sacrifice made in behalf of the freedom of Greece.

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