1. Alexandros Mavrokordatos was a Greek statesman, diplomat, politician and member of the Mavrocordatos family of Phanariotes.
11 Facts About Alexandros Mavrokordatos
1. 2.
In 1812, Mavrokordatos went to the court of his uncle John George Caradja, Hospodar of Wallachia, with whom he passed into exile in the Austrian Empire, where he studied at the University of Padua.
3.
Alexandros Mavrokordatos was a member of the Filiki Eteria and was among the Phanariot Greeks who hastened to Morea on the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1821.
4.
At the time of the beginning of the revolution, Alexandros Mavrokordatos was living in Pisa with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley, and upon hearing of the revolution, Alexandros Mavrokordatos headed to Marseilles to buy arms and a ship to take him back to Greece.
5.
Alexandros Mavrokordatos was a very wealthy, well educated man, fluent in seven languages, whose experience in ruling Wallachia led many to look towards him as a future leader of Greece.
6.
Unlike many of the Greek leaders, Alexandros Mavrokordatos, who had lived in the West, preferred to wear Western clothing, and looked towards the West as a political model for Greece.
7.
Alexandros Mavrokordatos's friends ascribe every action to the most disinterested patriotism; but his enemies hesitate not to pronounce them all to have for their end his party or private interest.
8.
Alexandros Mavrokordatos 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", making him in effect Greece's leader.
9.
Alexandros Mavrokordatos did not play the part of a national leader, and had created a deliberately complicated constitution largely to ensure that no one else could become a successful leader while he was off securing his power base in West Rumeli.
10.
In 1824, Alexandros Mavrokordatos welcomed Lord Byron to Greece and tried to persuade him to lead an attack on Navpaktos.
11.
Alexandros Mavrokordatos was Vice-President of the National Assembly at Argos, and was appointed by King Otto as his Minister of Finance, and in 1833 Premier.