Nicolae Vogoride

Nicolae Vogoride.

Great Chancellor Costache Konaki, father in law of Nicolae. His wife was Smaranda Negri-Donici.

Prince (Knyaz or Bey) Nicolae Bogoridi (-Romanian version; Bulgarian: Никола or Николай Богориди, Nikola or Nikolay Bogoridi; Greek: Νικόλαος Βογορίδης, Nikolaos Vogoridis; Turkish: Nikolaki Bey; 1820 – April 23, 1863) was the Ottoman-nominated Governor (Turkish: kaymakam) of Moldavia (1857–1858) following the Crimean War. He was the son of Stefan Bogoridi, an Ottoman high official of Bulgarian ethnicity who also served as Moldavia's governor in 1820–1821, and brother of Alexander Bogoridi. His mother was Ralou Skilitzi.

Born in Iaşi, Vogoride studied in the Greek Orthodox College in Istanbul and later married into the wealthy Conachi family (1846), and sometimes thereafter used the name Nicolae Conachi-Vogoride. His wife was Princess Caterina Conachi, and they had four children: Prince Emanuel, Prince Constantin, Princess Maria and Princess Lucia.^[1] In 1856, as Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica was removed by the Treaty of Paris, although Moldavia remained technically under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, Vogoride was appointed as finance minister under the new government of caimacam Teodor Balş. When Balş died on March 1, 1857, Vogoride replaced him. He showed himself to be an ultra-conservative, and was against the union of Moldavia with Wallachia, the other Danubian Principality — the union project was advanced by the Romanian liberals who had taken part in the 1848 Moldavian revolution and, returning from exile, were organizing themselves as Partida Naţională.

The Treaty of Paris also required elections for the Moldavian Assembly, to be supervised by the Ottoman ambassadors of the signing parties. When these were held on July 19 of that year, Vogoride rigged the election lists to ensure a conservative majority with a strong Ottoman bias. When Sultan Abdülmecid I, with the assurances of Imperial Austria, did not void the election, Moldavia's other overseers (French Empire, Imperial Russia, Prussia and the Kingdom of Sardinia) broke diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire on August 4; by August 9, a compromise had been reached, the first election was annulled, and a new one was held on September 22. Not unsurprisingly, the majority of those elected were in favor of the union of the two principalities.

Vogoride was removed from office in October 1858. He died in Bucharest. His burial was in 1863 at Brăila.

One year later, his wife Princess Caterina married Emanuele Ruspoli, 1st Prince of Poggio Suasa.

References

1. ↑ Vogoride.

This article is based in part on material from the Bulgarian Wikipedia.