Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos

Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos ( _el. Αλέξανδρος Μαυροκορδάτος) (born February 11, 1791, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now İstanbul, Turkey) – died August 18, 1865, Aegina) was a Greek statesman and member of the Mavrocordatos family of Phanariotes.

In 1812, he went to the court of his uncle Jean Georges Caradja, Hospodar of Wallachia, with whom he passed into exile in Austria and Italy (1818), where he studied at the University of Padua. He was a member of the Filiki Eteria and was among the Phanariot Greeks who hastened to the Morea on the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1821. He was active in endeavouring to establish a regular government, and in January, 1822 he was elected by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus as the "President of the Executive".

He commanded the advance of the Greeks into western Central Greece the same year, and suffered a serious defeat at Peta on July 16, but retrieved this disaster somewhat by his successful resistance to the First Siege of Messolonghi (Nov. 1822 to Jan. 1823). His English sympathies brought him, in the subsequent strife of factions, into opposition to the "Russian" party headed by Demetrius Ypsilanti and Kolokotronis; and though he held the portfolio of foreign affairs for a short while under the presidency of Petrobey (Petros Mavromichalis), he was compelled to withdraw from affairs until February 1825, when he again became a Secretary of State. The landing of Ibrahim Pasha followed, and Mavrocordatos again joined the army, barely escaping capture in the disaster at Sphacteria, on May 9, 1825, by swimming to Navarino.

After the fall of Messolonghi (April 22, 1826) he went into retirement, until President John Capodistria made him a member of the committee for the administration of war material, a position he resigned in 1828. After Kapodistria's murder (October 9, 1831) and the resignation of his brother and successor, Augustinos Kapodistrias (April 13, 1832), Mavrocordatos became Minister of Finance. He was Vice-President of the National Assembly at Argos (July, 1832), and was appointed by King Otto as his Minister of Finance, and in 1833 Premier.

From 1834 onwards, he was Greek envoy at Munich, Berlin, London and, after a short interlude again as Premier of Greece in 1841, he was appointed 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. Going into opposition, he distinguished himself by his violent attacks on the Kolettis government. In 1854-1855 he was again head of the government for a few months. He died in Aegina on 18 August 1865.

References

*E. Legrand, "Généalogie des Mavrocordato" (Paris, 1886).