Roxani Soutzos lived with him in Paris and Saint Petersburg in the 1830s, as did their first-born son, Ioannis "Michalvoda", who was the legation secretary.
23 Facts About Roxani Soutzos
1.
2.
The princely couple spent their final decades in Athens, where Roxani Soutzos was heading a literary salon.
3.
Roxani Soutzos was born in 1783, which made her slightly older than her future husband.
4.
Roxani Soutzos's mother was Eleni Skanavi, daughter of a Phanariote banker.
5.
Michael and Roxani Soutzos were known to have been married the same year, though genealogist Constantin Gane argues that they may have already been wed around 1800.
6.
In late 1812, Roxani Soutzos's father had obtained the throne of Wallachia, a Romanian-inhabited client-state of the Ottoman Empire, like neighboring Moldavia.
7.
Roxani Soutzos finally took over as Great Dragoman in October 1817, after purchasing support from Halet Efendi, the influential Ottoman courtier, who was his alleged partner in fraudulent deals.
8.
Roxani Soutzos saw this position as a stepping stone toward the Wallachian throne, and spend money on bribes to obtain his appointment.
9.
The throne went instead to Alexandros Roxani Soutzos, who was Michael's aged second-uncle.
10.
Roxani Soutzos was finally appointed Prince of Moldavia on 24 June 1819, with the expiration of Scarlat Callimachi's seven-year term of office; Smaragda Mavrogenes-Callimachi, who was Roxani's maternal aunt, had been her predecessor as the princely consort.
11.
The Prince and the Eterist chief Alexander Ypsilantis conspired together to start a Greek War of Independence from Moldavia, with Roxani Soutzos pledging his wealth, as well as the entire military forces of Moldavia, to the realization of this goal.
12.
In February 1821 a Russian spy, Pavel Pestel, recorded rumors that Roxani Soutzos was made aware that the Eterists and the Arnauts were preparing a revolt, but had asked his boyars to keep quiet.
13.
Roxani Soutzos was in the audience at Iasi when Ypsilantis recited his proclamation to the Greeks.
14.
Roxani Soutzos optimistically urged Prince John to leave his place of exile and join them in Bessarabia or Moldavia-proper, claiming that the Imperial Russian Army was readying itself to join the war on the Greek side, and that Moldavian Greeks had collected 3 million piasters to help the cause.
15.
The indignant Caradja asked his nephew, Alexandros Mavrokordatos, to continue taking care of the Roxani Soutzos children, implying that Michael was incompetent.
16.
Roxani Soutzos describes Michael as having "superior abilities", and Roxani as a "very amiable woman".
17.
Roxani Soutzos obtained several letters of recommendation: one from Alphonse de Lamartine, the celebrated French poet, and his wife Elisa, another from Ignatios Babalos, the exiled former Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia, and several from the Swiss banker Jean-Gabriel Eynard.
18.
Eynard proposed that Roxani Soutzos take over as the Greek ambassador to Bourbon France.
19.
Roxani Soutzos was received by the King of France, Charles X, as well as by the Dauphin Louis.
20.
Obreskova was a presence at the court of Otto and Amalia, alongside Roxani's daughters Maria Zographos and Eleni Soutzos; through her daughter Rallou, Roxani was the mother-in-law of jurist Petros Paparrigopoulos.
21.
Roxani Soutzos was a benefactor to the poor of Athens and was buried with princely honors.
22.
Georgios Roxani Soutzos, known to Romanians as "Iorgu Sutu", remained active in the United Principalities to his death in 1875.
23.
Roxani Soutzos was a prominent figure in the Romanian Freemasonry, a racehorse breeder, and, from 1861, brother-in-law of Dimitrie Sturdza.