17 Facts About Nicholas Mavrogenes

Nicholas Mavrogenes was the great-uncle of Manto Mavrogenous, a heroine of the Greek War of Independence.

Nicholas Mavrogenes lived among the sailors, and was chosen Dragoman of the Fleet to Hasan Pasha, the commander of the Ottoman fleet.

Nicholas Mavrogenes left the Ottoman capital accompanied by a huge and ostentatious retinue.

Unlike other Greek princes of Wallachia chosen by the Sultan, Nicholas Mavrogenes was not born in Phanar and, as the Greek elites of Constantinople saw this as a decrease in their influence, they tried to bribe Abdul Hamid with 4,000 bags of gold, in order to obtain Yusuf Pasha's ousting from office; nevertheless, the sultan disagreed, and the treasurer of the empire, who had proposed the deal, was arrested, tortured and killed.

Nicholas Mavrogenes even set up a gazebo in Targul de afara, so that peasants could speak to him.

Nicholas Mavrogenes attempted to erect stakes on all major crossroads, to show the people what would happen to them if they engaged in theft or murder, or if they failed to attend church services.

Nicholas Mavrogenes demanded that Wallachians should lead an austere life and, as such, forbade his people from feasting or lingering in taverns for more than one hour after sunset.

Nicholas Mavrogenes often extorted money from the boyars, for which he cited as pretext his recurring dreams, in which he claimed to have been commanded random killings or banishments, effects which he was allowed to avert only if paid a certain sum.

Nicholas Mavrogenes awarded those people who paid him enough money boyar ranks and privileges, and even revoked the title for boyars who refused to pay him the amount he demanded.

Nicholas Mavrogenes sometimes staged incognito inspections, to observe the activities of boyar officials.

Nicholas Mavrogenes replicated the gesture of the Grand Vizier, and arrested Ivan Ivanovich Severin, Russia's consul in Wallachia.

Severin was freed, after the intervention of Georg Ignaz, Freiherr von Metzburg, the Habsburg consul, who described Nicholas Mavrogenes as acting maniacally and being terrified by the prospect of being at war.

At that time, Nicholas Mavrogenes' army had about 11,000 soldiers, and there was an army of about 15,000 Turks assisting him.

Nicholas Mavrogenes's body was buried on the shore of the Danube, while his head was sent to Constantinople, where it was impaled on a stake.

Nicholas Mavrogenes's bones were later moved by his daughter, Eufrosina, to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Brussa.

Thomas Hope, who knew Nicholas Mavrogenes personally, made him a character in a novel called Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek.

Nicholas Mavrogenes remained a controversial figure, and historians' opinions about him are often contradictory.