Laskarina Bouboulina

Laskarina Bouboulina ( _el. Λασκαρίνα Μπουμπουλίνα, 11 May 1771 - 22 May 1825) was a Greek heroine of the Greek War of Independence in 1821.

Early life

Bouboulina was born in a prison in Constantinople. She was the daughter of captain Stavrianos Pinotsis and his wife Skevo. The Ottomans had imprisoned Pinotsis because he had taken part in the failed Orlof Revolution of 1769–1770 against the Ottoman rule. Her father died soon afterwards and the mother and the child returned to the island of Hydra. Four years later, when her mother married Dimitrios Lazarou-Orlof, they moved to the island of Spetses. Bouboulina had eight half-siblings.

She married twice, first to Dimitrios Yiannouzas and later to Dimitrios Bouboulis. Bouboulis was killed in a battle against Algerian pirates in 1811. Bouboulina took over his fortune and trading business and built four ships, including one large warship "Agamemmnon", at her own expense.

In 1816, the Ottomans tried to confiscate Bouboulina's property because her second husband had fought for the Russians against the Turks in the Turko-Russian wars. Bouboulina sailed to Constantinople to meet Russian ambassador Count Pavel Strogonov to seek his protection. In recognition of Bouboulis's service to the Russians, Strogonov sent her to safety in Crimea. Bouboulina also met with the mother of Mahmud II, after which Mahmuud's mother reportedly convinced her son to leave Bouboulina's property alone. After three months of exile in the Crimea, Bouboulina returned to Spetses.

upport of the independence movement

Bouboulina joined the Filiki Etaireia, an underground organization that was preparing Greece for revolution against the Ottoman rule, as its only female member. She bought arms and ammunitions at her own expense and brought them secretly to Spetses in her ships, to fight "for the sake of my nation." Construction of the ship "Agamemnon" was finished in 1820. It was later one of the largest warships in the hands of Greek rebels. Bouboulina bribed Turkish officials to ignore the ship's size. She also organized her own armed troops, composed of men from Spetses. She used most of her fortune to provide food and ammunition for the sailors and soldiers under her command.

On 13 March 1821 Bouboulina raised her own Greek flag, based on the flag of the Comnenus dynasty of Byzantine emperors, on the mast of "Agamemnon". On 3 April the people of Spetses revolted and later joined forces with a number of other ships from other Greek islands. Bouboulina sailed with eight ships to Nafplion and began a naval blockade. She led her own troops until the fall of the fort on 13 November 1822. Later she took part in the naval blockade and capture of Monemvasia and Pylos. Bouboulina's son, Yiannis Yiannouzas, died in the battle at Argos, against superior numbers of Ottoman troops.

She arrived in time to witness the fall of Tripolis on 11 September 1821 and met general Theodoros Kolokotronis. Later their children Eleni Bouboulina and Panos Kolokotronis were married. During the ensuing extermination of the Ottoman garrison, Bouboulina saved most of the female members of the sultan's household.

After independence

After independence, when the opposing factions erupted into a civil war in 1824, the Greek government arrested Bouboulina because of her family connection to now-imprisoned Kolokotronis; the government also killed her son-in-law. She was eventually exiled back to Spetses. She had used all of her fortune for the war of independence.

Death in feud

Laskarina Bouboulina was killed in 1825 as the result of a family feud in Spetses. The daughter of a Koutsis family had eloped with Bouboulina's son, Georgios Yiannouzas. The father of the girl, Christodoulos Koutsis, and armed members of his family went to Bouboulina's house seeking her. Infuriated, Bouboulina showed up in the balcony of her house to confront them. After her argument with Christodoulos Koutsis, someone shot her in the chest. The killer was not identified.

Legacy

Bouboulina was posthumously awarded the rank of Admiral by the Russian Navy, a singularly rare achievement for a 19th century woman. Her descendants donated the ship "Agamemnon" to the Greek state. It was renamed "Spetses" and became the Navy flagship. It was burned in the naval base of Poros by Andreas Miaoulis during the next Greek civil war in 1831. On the island of Spetses there is the "Bouboulina Museum", housed in the 300 year-old mansion of Bouboulina's second husband, where her descendants still live. A statue of Bouboulina stands in the harbor in Spetses. Various streets all over Greece and Cyprus are named in her honor, notably Bouboulina Street near the National Technical University of Athens (the "Polytechnion") and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, in central Athens, and also in Piraeus and in Nicosia.

External links

* [http://www.spetsesdirect.com/bouboulina/index.htm SpetsesDirect on Bouboulina]
* [http://www.bouboulinamuseum-spetses.gr Bouboulina museum official site]