Ioannis Orlandos

Ioannis Orlandos (Greek: Ιωάννης Ορλάνδος) was a Greek politician and revolutionary. Orlandos was born on circa 1770 in Spetses and died on 1852 in Hydra.

Early life and Greek Revolution

Ioannis Orlandos

In Hydra where he was living since 1811 he married the sister of Georgios and Lazaros Kountouriotis, Hydriote landlords and shipowners. He was also a significant shipowner before the revolution. At the start of it, he gave all his ships to the revolutionary government. He became a delegate from Hydra at the First National Assembly at Epidaurus and a member of the twelve-member committee that modified the text of the first constitution. He had the position of the vice-president of the legislative corps from 13 January until April 1823. On 26 April and after Lazaros Kountouriotis denied the position, he was elected president of the legislative corps. A month later, on 22 May 1823, disappointed from the way politics had taken and anticipating the upcoming civil war, he resigned from his post. His political opponents had already accused him of factionalism due to the assistance he provided to Kountouriotis. In June 1823 he became a member of a committee jointly with Andreas Louriotis and Andreas Zaimis to negotiate about a loan in London. Before departing for the British capital, he wrote a letter about the need of unity and avoidance of civil wars. Also, on November 1823 he visited Lord Byron in Cephalonia. In January 1824, he and Louriotis, a man of Mavrokordatos, were the Greek ambassadors who made the negotiations and finally borrowed the first British loan during the revolution, 800,000£. In London they were formally welcomed and they even met the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning. He was a member of the delegation who, on 1825, summed the second loan, 2,000,000£. He returned to Greece on 1825 and continued representing Hydra at the National Assemblies.

Life in independent Greece

Orlandos was a member of the English Party, considering the UK as the most effective country as of helping the revolution. He selected them due to the Kingdom's liberal political heritage and also its superiority in sea. Then he joined the anti-capodistrian faction stating that he preferred Greece a British protectorate instead of tolerating Ioannis Kapodistrias' authoritarian administration. So he was in the anti-capodistrian demonstrations of Hydra, on the summer of 1831. After all these and in searching for scapegoats to apologise for the loans, he and Louriotis were accused of wrongful administration. They were firstly acquitted but, in 1835 the court characterised them responsible for the loss of 28,769£. On 1839 they published their huge apology in two volumes which they later renounced. On 1837 he was one of the founding members of the Archaeological Society of Athens.

References