Alexander Mourousis
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Alexander Mourousis (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Μουρούζης - Alexandros Mourouzis, Romanian: Alexandru Moruzi; d. 1816) was a Prince of Moldavia and Prince of Wallachia.
[edit] Biography
A member of the Mourousis family of Phanariotes and the son of Constantine Mourousis, he was brought up and educated to speak six languages in addition to his native Greek, and was open to Enlightenment ideas. He ascended the throne in Iaşi (Moldavia) in January 1792, and transferred a year later to the throne of Bucharest (1793-1796), where his first year in office coincided with a bubonic plague outbreak (which he dealt with by quarantineing and confining the ill to the village of Dudeşti).[1] He exploited the population, buying huge amounts of wheat that he then sold to the starving inhabitants a price almost four times higher.
Dismissed owing to intrigues at the court of his Ottoman overlord, Sultan Selim III, he was reinstated (1798–1801), and had to deal with Osman Pazvantoğlu's incursion in Oltenia (1800). Powerless against the latter's destructive attacks, he asked to be relieved of his position, and, as a highly unusual gesture, paid off Ottoman authorities in exchange for his own replacement.[2]
At the insistence of the French Empire, he was again appointed Prince of Moldavia (1802–1806 and 1806–1807), but was ultimately dismissed through another French intervention at the Porte - on August 12, 1806, Horace Sébastiani, the French Ambassador to Turkey, called on Selim III to punish Constantine Ypsilantis' pro-Russian activities in Wallachia, and to prevent a Moldavian-Wallachian-Russian alliance.[3] This last event constituted one of the causes for the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812.
During his rules in Bucharest, Mourousis notably rebuilt Curtea Nouă, reopened a cloth manufacture in Ilfov County (and reformed its system of worker employment and payment), instituted a boyar office as centralized tax collection in the capital city, and increased the water supply by tapping sources in the Cotroceni area.[4] Like his father before him, he founded schools and funded scholarships.
| Preceded by: Russian occupation |
Prince of Moldavia 1792 |
Succeeded by: Mihai Suţu |
| Preceded by: Caimacam Iordache Conta |
Prince of Moldavia 1802 - 1806 |
Succeeded by: Scarlat Callimachi |
| Preceded by: Scarlat Callimachi |
Prince of Moldavia 1806 - 1807 |
Succeeded by: Russian occupation |
| Preceded by: Mihai Suţu |
Prince of Wallachia 1793 - 1796 |
Succeeded by: Alexandru Ipsilanti |
| Preceded by: Constantin Hangerli |
Prince of Wallachia 1799 - 1801 |
Succeeded by: Mihai Suţu |
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne ("Between Orient and Occident. The Romanian Lands at the beginning of the modern era"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995
- Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Bucureştilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre ("History of Bucharest. From the earliest times until our day"), Ed. Pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1966
- Marinescu, Florin, Etude genealogique sur la famille Mourouzi ("Genealogical study of the Mourousis family"), Centre de Recherches Néohelléniques, Athens, 1987
