Constantine Hangerli

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Constantine or Constantin Hangerli (also known as Constantin Hangerliu; d. February 18, 1799) was a Prince of Wallachia between 1797 and the time of his death.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Rule

A Phanariote who served as dragoman of the Ottoman Empire's Fleet, he amazed foreign diplomats through his appointment to the throne in Bucharest, in competition with the much more prestigious Alexander Ypsilantis.[1]

Hangerli reached Bucahrest on 4 January 1798 and like all Phanariotes, he stopped at Văcăreşti Monastery to prepare for the official inauguration. For unknown reasons, he stayed in there more than a month, before he settled temporary at the Saint Sava Monastery, until Curtea Nouă was completely repaired.[2]

Hangerli increased taxes to a very high level, and enforced extortion as a means to generate more state revenues (it is probable that several peasants were killed in an attempt to collect their entire possessions - "if they pay, no one will get killed" was supposedly a reply uttered by Hangerli himself).[3] These measures were prompted by the increased demands of the Porte, who was faced with the successful rebellion of Osman Pazvantoğlu (1798).

The taxation reached its peak with the re-introduction of the despised văcărit tax (per head of cattle owned) - Hangerli purchased the lifting of a curse on the latter (cast in 1763) from Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople.[4] The boyars refused to sign the decree, and Hangerli had to bribe four of them (among them Nicolae Brâncoveanu and Cornescu) in order to agree to countersign it; all the boyars were exempt from this new tax, to avoid a rebellion against Hangerli.[5]

The war ensuing between Ottomans and Pazvantoglu brought several defeats for the former. Kapudan Pasha Husein Küçük, fearing the anger of Sultan Selim III, attempted to throw the blame on Hangerli for not having raised enough funds. Catching news of this, the prince tried to intrigue against Küçük, but was disfavoured after a coalition of his political adversaries begain campaigning against him.[6] According to the chronicler Dionisie Eclesiarhul, Hangerli attempted to buy back Küçük's protection by having him attend a banquet during which prostitutes, disguised and introduced as members of the most powerful boyar families, competed for the pasha's attention.[7]

[edit] Execution

On February 11, 1799, the sultan issued a firman to execute Hangerli on the spot, and a kapucu was dispatched to Bucharest, accompanied by an executioner (whom Dionisie described as "a frightening Moor").[8]

Dismissing the warning of his postelnic (according to the contemporary account),[9] Hangerli, after being read the firman, was attacked by the two as he was attempting to call his guards: he was strangled by the Moor, shot twice in the chest and stabbed once by the kapucu, and finally decapitated.[10] The guards, who stormed in after hearing the shots, were shown the firman, and could no longer intervene.[11]

Zilot Românul, who wrote his verses sometime after, praised Sultan Selim for having "made good out of evil" by "unwittingly deliver[ing] us from the angarea [or angarà; ie: heavy tax]".[12]

Preceded by
Alexander Ypsilantis		 Prince of Wallachia
1797-1799		 Succeeded by
Alexander Mourousis

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Official correspondence, in Djuvara, p.44-45
  2. ^ Ionescu, p.244
  3. ^ Djuvara, p.72-73; Giurescu, p.107
  4. ^ Djuvara, p.72, 148
  5. ^ Ionescu, p.247-248
  6. ^ Djuvara, p.335
  7. ^ Dionisie, in Djuvara, p.17, in Giurescu, p.107
  8. ^ Dionisie, in Djuvara, p.18
  9. ^ Dionisie, in Djuvara, p.18
  10. ^ Dionisie, in Djuvara, p.19; Giurescu, p.107
  11. ^ Dionisie, in Djuvara, p.19
  12. ^ Zilot, in Hasdeu

[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
  • Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu, Ethymologicum Magnum Romaniae. Dicţionarul limbei istorice şi poporane a românilor (Pagini alese), Minerva, Bucharest, 1970: "Angarà", p.330-333
  • Ştefan Ionescu, Bucureştii în vremea fanarioţilor ("Bucharest in the Time of the Phanariotes"), Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1974.
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