36 Facts About Radu Golescu

Radu Golescu-Stirbei, historically known as Radul or Raducanul Golescul, was a Wallachian statesman, entrepreneur and philanthropist; he was the maternal grandson of Spatharios Radu Leurdeanu Golescu, as well as the father of the writers Iordache and Dinicu Golescu.

Especially in his final decade, Radu Golescu reinvested much of his wealth into the social uplift of peasant communities, building several rural schools and sponsoring the printing of books.

Radu Golescu's rise began in the early 1780s, when he took over as Spatharios, overseeing work on the Old Princely Cort of Targoviste; he remained associated with Dambovita County, especially as its Ispravnic, in which capacity he served until being deposed by the Ottomans in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787.

Radu Golescu returned to Wallachia under the subsequent reign of John Caradja, who tasked the former Ban with sanitation work, which was supposed to contain the eponymous plague.

Ban Radu Golescu died shortly after, with his funeral being the last public function attended by Caradja, who then fled Wallachia.

Radu Golescu was the maternal great-great-grandson of Stroe Leurdeanu, one of the major political intriguers of the mid-to-late 17th century.

The name of "Golescu" had been used sporadically by various members of the clan, the first one of whom was a 16th-century Clucer, named Radu Golescu, who had served Prince Radu Paisie; it was revived and settled by the early-18th-century Radu, known in some records just as "Radu Leurdeanu".

Radu Golescu-Stirbei was an educated man by 18th-century standards: probably home-schooled, he preserved his manuscript textbooks, in the Greek original.

From his marriage to Zoita or Zinca, daughter of Costache Florescu, Radu Golescu-Stirbei had four sons and a daughter.

Radu Golescu's activities included surveying the city's property boundaries, settling disputes between boyar Grigore Greceanu and the local burghers.

Notes left by Targoviste burgher Dumitrache al Popii Gheorghe suggest that Radu Golescu was detained by the Ottoman Army, which put an end to his tenure.

At some point before 1816, he and his cousin Sandu Radu Golescu set up two watermills at the mouth of Raul Doamnei, just east of Pitesti.

Radu Golescu was a major producer of honey, beeswax, hay, and maize, which he sold abroad through a Transylvanian merchant, Constantin Hagi Pop; an employer of skilled immigrant workers, he opened up a number of shops, and an inn, on Bucharest's Podul Calicilor.

The Habsburgs governed using a revamped version of the Boyar Divan, presided upon by Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; Radu Golescu was assigned to it as a Vornic.

Radu Golescu's request was denied as contrary to Wallachian customs, with Metropolitan Dositei Filitti weighing in the fact that Golescu was not agnatically descended from Stroe Leurdeanu.

Radu Golescu complained to the Prince that he had been cheated on by the debtors; although the vineyards were entirely located in Muntenia, his claim was addressed by an inquiry headed by the Oltenian Banship.

Radu Golescu had various dealings with the eponymous Dudescu boyars, and, around 1801, collected rent for Safta Dudescu's inn.

The latter alleged that Radu Golescu wanted to have him take religious orders in order to confiscate his estate, and, with help from Habsburg authorities, crossed into Transylvania.

Dudescu was financially ruined by this initiative, and returned willingly in 1805, when Radu Golescu again took him into his direct care.

Radu Golescu was still seen as a champion for the common man, and asked by the citizens of Ploiesti to act as judge at a trial opposing them to the Prince.

In 1799, with Mourouzis returning on the throne, Radu Golescu proceeded to address matters of internal trade by establishing a glassmaking factory at Sotanga in Dambovita, initially staffed by Transylvanian Saxons who "live[d] in his houses".

Radu Golescu first rose to the Great Banship in 1799, and endured as such in 1800, by which time his son, Nicolae, was the Ispravnic of Pitesti.

Radu Golescu's departure was prompted by Pazvantoglu, who had stormed into Oltenia.

Still a Vornic under Prince Constantine Ypsilantis, in 1805 Radu Golescu Sr ruled exemptions from the tithe for the Bucharest bakers.

Radu Golescu remained in place, as the third-oldest member of the administrative Divan, and cooperated with the new regime: he and Barbu Vacarescu, together with Ivan Meshchersky, formed an investigative triumvirate which looked into abuse by Ypsilantis' Muntenian Ispravnici.

Radu Golescu was deposed on 6 September 1808, after an inspection ordered by Alexander Prozorovsky.

Radu Golescu was sidelined until February 1812, when he was promoted to the core of the Divan; this was after, and because, some of the boyars had spoken out against Russian policies, and had then been sent into internal exile, vacating their seats.

Ypsilantis himself had fled to safety in Transylvania, while some of the boyars freely moved between Austrian and newly Russian-conquered territory; many, including Radu Golescu, denounced Ypsilantis and declared themselves loyal to Russian Emperor Alexander I, moving to Moldavia when Ypsilantis staged his return.

In July 1813, Radu Golescu was assigned to a boyars' team which tried to contain "Caragea's plague"; according to Iorgulescu, this was Caradja's attempt at "buying off" the Golescus.

That same year, Radu Golescu was again attested as Great Vornic, but "of the Upper Land".

Radu Golescu instead made a point of collecting personal debts, and had one of his Saxon women-workers, Lisabeta, held in the debtors' prison.

Radu Golescu financed an edition from Rafail Monahul's book of ethics, Usa pocaintii.

Radu Golescu then organized it into a village for both the Rudari and Saxons, calling it Goleasca.

Radu Golescu demanded that a two-bed clinic be organized on his Golesti estate, with services provided by the physician of Pitesti.

Proud of his lineage, the Vornic [Radu Golescu] only reserved venom, harsh words of scorn, for any parvenus that made their way into the nobility.

Ban Radu Golescu is the subject of two epigrams, which were carved into stone near his fountain in Golesti, and which were first translated into Romanian by George Fotino in 1943.