Heroes


Manto Mavrogenous
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manto Mavrogenous

Lithography of Manto Mavrogenous by Adam Friedel, 1827
Born
Died
July 1840
ParosGreece
Nationality
Manto Mavrogenous (GreekΜαντώ Μαυρογένους) (1796 - July 1840) was a Greek heroine of the Greek War of Independence. A rich woman, she spent all her fortune for the Hellenic cause. Under her encouragement, her European friends contributed money and guns to the revolution.
Early life
Manto Mavrogenous was born in Trieste, then in the Austrian Empire, now part of Italy. She was daughter of the merchant and member of the Filiki Eteria, Nikolaos Mavrogenes, and Zacharati Chatzi Bati. One of her ancestors, the great-uncle of her father, Nicholas Mavrogenes, was dragoman of the Ottoman Empire's fleet andPrince of Wallachia.
A beautiful woman of aristocratic lineage, she grew up in an educated family, influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. She studied ancient Greek philosophy and history at a college in Trieste, and spoke French,Italian and Turkish fluently.
War of Independence
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Bust of Manto Mavrogenous in Athens.
In 1809, she moved to Paros with her family, where she learned from her father that the Filiki Eteria was preparing what would become known as the Greek Revolution and later, in 1818, after her father's death, she left for Tinos. When the struggle began, she went to Mykonos, the island of her origin, and invited the leaders of Mykonos to join the revolution.
She equipped, manned and "privateered" at her own expense, two ships with which she pursued the pirates who attacked Mykonos and other islands of Cyclades. On 22 October 1822, the Mykonians repulsed the Ottoman Turks, who had debarked on the island, under her leadership. She also equipped 150 men to campaign in the Peloponneseand sent forces and financial support to Samos, when the island was threatened by the Turks. Later, Mavrogenous sent another corps of fifty men to Peloponnese, who took part in the Siege of Tripolitsa and the fall of the town to the Greek rebels. Together, she spent money for the relief of the soldiers and their families, the preparation of a campaign to Northern Greece and the support of several philhellenes.
She later put together a fleet of six ships and an infantry consisting of sixteen companies, with fifty men each, and took part in the battle in Karystos in 1822, and funded a campaign to Chios, but she did not prevent it from themassacre. Another group of fifty men was sent to reinforce Nikitaras in the Battle of Dervenakia. When the Ottoman fleet appeared in Cyclades, she returned to Tinos and sold her jewelry to finance the equipment of 200 men who fought the enemy and cherish two thousand people who had survived from the first siege of Missolonghi. Her men participated in several other battles like those of PelionPhthiotis and Livadeia.
Mavrogenous led enlightenment expeditions in Europe and addressed an appeal to the women of Paris, to side up with the Greeks. She moved to Nafplio in 1823, in order to be in the core of the struggle, leaving her family as she was despised even by her mother because of her choices. It is the time that Mavrogenous met Demetrius Ypsilanti, with whom she was engaged. Soon, she become famous around Europe for her beauty and bravery. But in May of the same year, her home was totally burnt and her fortune was stolen, and as a result she went to Tripoli to live with Ypsilanti, while Papaflessas provided her with food.
"The Greeks, born to be liberal, will owe their independence only to themselves. So I don't ask your intervention to force your compatriots to help us. But only to change the idea of sending help to our enemies. The war spreads the horrible death..."
The letter of Manto Mavrogenous to the women of Paris
When Ypsilanti broke up with Mavrogenous, she went back to Nafplio, where she almost lived, deeply depressed, as a hobo and was not paid the debts of the money she had given for various battles. After Ypsilanti's death and her political conflicts with Ioannis Kolettis, she was exiled from Nafplio and returned to Mykonos, where she occupied with the writing of her memoirs. While spending her fortune for the sake of the Greek war, she used to live in great poverty.
When the war ended Ioannis Kapodistrias awarded her the rank of the Lieutenant General and granted her a dwelling in Nafplio, where she moved. She owned a treasurable sword, with the inscription "Δίκασον Κύριε τους αδικούντας με, τους πολεμούντας με, βασίλευε των Βασιλευόντων", which is translated to 'Lord, judge those who wrong me, who battle me, rule over the Kings'. That sword is said to come from the times ofConstantine the Great and Mavrogenous gave it to Kapodistrias.
Later years
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Portrait of Manto Mavrogenous.
Mavrogenous moved to Paros in 1840, where some of her relatives resided, and lived on the island where her home still stands as a historical monument, located close to the Panagia Ekatontapyliani (the Church of the Virgin Mary) which, tradition says, was founded by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. She died on Paros in July 1848, in oblivion and poverty, having spent all her fortune for the War of Independence.
Culture
To pay homage to Mavrogenous, the people of Mykonos have named after her Chora's central square where her bust has been raised. Greece has honored this heroine by naming several streets after her. The Greek government has released several commemorative coins in her honor.[1] A film was also made about her life, titled Manto Mavrogenous (1971), in which she was portrayed by Tzeni Karezi.
Mavrogenous was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 2 drachmas coin of 1988-2001.[2]



Theodoros Kolokotronis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Kolokotronis)

Theodoros Kolokotronis
Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης
Nickname
O Geros tou Moria (The old man of Morea)
Ο Γέρος του Μοριά
Born
3 April 1770
Ramavouni, Morea
Greece
Died
4 February 1843 (aged 72)
AthensGreece
Buried at
Allegiance
 GreeceUnited States of the Ionian Islands
Rank
Theodoros Kolokotronis (GreekΘεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης) (3 April 1770 – 4 February 1843) was aGreek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
Kolokotronis' greatest success was the defeat of the Ottoman army under Mahmud Dramali Pasha at the Battle of Dervenakia in 1822. In 1825, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in the Peloponnese. Today, Kolokotronis ranks among the most revered of the protagonists of the War of Independence.

Kolokotronis was born at Ramavouni in Messenia, and grew up in Libovitsi in Arcadia. The Kolokotroneoi (original clan name: "Tzeryinis"—çirgin) were a powerful and respected clan in Arcadia in the 18th century. Their legendary pride and insubordination is commemorated in a well-known folk song of that time:
Ahorse they go to church,
Ahorse they kiss the icons,
Ahorse they receive communion
From the priest's hand.
His father, Constantine Kolokotronis, took part in an armed rebellion, the Orlov Revolt, instigated by the administration of Catherine the Great of Russia. He was killed in 1780 in an engagement with Turkish troops, along with two of his brothers George and Apostolis.[1]
Theodoros joined the ranks of a Peloponnesian guerrilla band, and by age fifteen was the leader (kapetanios: captain, warlord) of his own band. He had a brief stint at sea as a corsair, then in 1805 he took service on a series of ships in the Russian fleet in the Russo-Turkish War. After 1810 he served in a corps of Greek infantry in British service on Zakynthos, then a British possession, and was awarded the brevet rank of brigadier for his service against the French. From his service in the regular Russian and British forces, Kolokotronis gained valuable insights that he would later use in his career. But in the Heptanese he came also into contact with the revolutionary ideas of the era and was influenced by them:

According to my judgement, the 
French Revolution and the doings of Napoleon opened the eyes of the world. The nations knew nothing before and the people thought that kings were gods upon the earth and that they were bound to say that whatever they did as well done.
War of Independence
Outbreak
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Plan of the Siege of Tripolitsa. The detachments of Kolokotronis' division, which have surrounded the town are symbolized by the letter "O".
Kolokotronis returned to the mainland just prior to the outbreak of the war (officially, 25 March 1821) and formed a confederation of irregular Moreot klepht bands. These he tried to train and organize into something resembling a modern army. In May, he was named archistrategos or Commander-in-Chief. He was already 50 years old by this time, a fact which contributed to his sobriquet O Geros tou Morea or "The Elder of Morea," whereby Morea was another name describing the Peloponnese. Kolokotronis' first action was the defense of Valtetsi, the village near Tripoliwhere his army was mustering. Later, he was also the Commander of the Greek forces during the Siege of Tripolitsa.
Nafplion
He next commanded Greek troops in the siege of the coastal town of Nafplion. He took the port, and the Ottoman garrison in the town's twin citadels was running low on supplies, but the disorganized Greek provisional government atArgos, just to the north, could not complete negotiations for its surrender before a large Ottoman force began marching southward to crush the revolutionaries. Panicked, government officials abandoned Argos and began evacuations by sea at Nafplion. Only an under-strength battalion under Demetrios Ypsilantis remained to hold Larissa castle, the fortress of Argos.
As liberator
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The Palamidi Castle at Nafplion.
Kolokotronis gathered the klephts together to march to the relief of Ypsilantis. This was quite a feat in itself, considering the near-collapse of the government and the notoriously quarrelsome nature of the klephtic bands. Even the troublesome Souliotes lent a hand. The Ottoman army from the north commanded by Mahmud Dramali Pasha, after taking Corinth, had marched to the plain of Argos. The castle of Larissa was an excellent position, commanding the whole plain. To leave such a stronghold straddling Ottoman supply lines was far too dangerous. Dramali would have to reduce the fortress before moving on. Scaling the cliffs, breaching the castle's stout walls and overcoming its resolute defenders would be no easy task.
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Statue of Kolokotronis atDervenakia.
Yet, there was one weakness Dramali was unaware of: Larissa, unlike the famousAcropolis in Athens, had no spring and consequently fresh water had to be supplied from cisterns. Unfortunately for the Greeks, it was July and no rains were falling to fill the cisterns. Ypsilantis bluffed the Ottomans as long as he could, but towards the end of the month had to sneak his men out in the middle of the night. Dramali's men plundered the castle the next day, and he was now free to march them toward the coast to resupply (the Greeks had pursued a scorched earth policy, and the large Ottoman force was eating through its food supplies rather quickly). Ypsilantis' defense had bought Kolokotronis and the klephts valuable time.
To his dismay, Dramali found himself cut off from his supply fleet, which had intended to land at Nafplio but was successfully blockaded by the Greek fleet under Admiral Andreas Miaoulis.[citation needed] Dramali reluctantly decided upon a retreat toward Corinth through the Dervenaki Pass, through which he had just come unmolested. This was exactly what Kolokotronis had been hoping for. In August 1822 his quicker-moving guerrilla forces trapped the Ottomans in the pass and annihilated them. A devastated Sultan Mahmud II in Constantinople was forced to turn to Muhammad Ali, ruler of the nominally Ottoman pashaluk of Egypt, for help.
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The weapons and armour of General Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843).
The Greeks resumed the siege against the fortresses at Nafplio, which fell in December. Kolokotronis is said to have ridden his horse up the steep slopes of Kastro Palamidi to celebrate his victory there; a statue in the town square commemorates the event. He is attired in something resembling the costume of a hussar topped with a plumed Corinthian helmet, which he was fond of wearing, and which foreign Philhellenes were even fonder of seeing him in. (While he seems to have enjoyed dressing like a western European cavalryman cum ancient Greek hoplite, he is also frequently depicted wearing the more traditional fustanella and other traditional accoutrements).
Parliamentary crisis
From December 1823 to February 1825, he took part in the civil wars among the various Greek factions; when his party was finally defeated, he was jailed in Hydra with some of his followers in March 1825, and was released only when an Egyptian army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha invaded the Morea.
Ibrahim's campaign
Ibrahim was fresh from fighting the Wahhabi rebels in Arabia, and so was used to fighting guerrillas. His troops were armed with the most modern equipment and trained by European experts. The sultan had promised his father the island of Creteas an appanage for young Ibrahim if he could crush the rebels. With his eye on the prize, he burned his way through the Peloponnese, gaining much territory but arousing much hostility in western European public opinion, which in the long run proved disastrous for the Ottomans.
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Statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis inAthens. A work of Lazaros Sochos.
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Lithography of Kolokotronis by Karl Krazeisen used for the 5,000 drachmabanknote.
The island of Sphacteria and Navarino had already fallen into Ibrahim's hands, and to make matters worse for Kolokotronis, he still had to be on guard against the machinations of Petros Mavromichalis even as he was bracing himself against the new threat. Kolokotronis used guerrilla tactics to wear Ibrahim's forces down; but given his limited resources, was unable to prevent the widespread destruction that Ibrahim left in his wake. Still, in 1825, in recognition of his military acumen and many services to the Greek cause, he was appointed commander-in-chief of Greek forces in the Peloponnese.
Postbellum activities
After the war, Kolokotronis became a supporter of Count Ioannis Kapodistrias and a proponent of alliance withRussia. When the count was assassinated on 8 October 1831, Kolokotronis created his own administration in support of Prince Otto of Bavaria as a King of Greece. However, later he opposed the Bavarian-dominated regencyduring his rule. He was charged with treason and on 7 June 1834 sentenced to death; but he was pardoned in 1835. Theodoros Kolokotronis died in 1843 in Athens one day after his son's Konstantinos (Kollinos) wedding.
Epilogue
In the twilight of his life, Kolokotronis had learned to write in order to complete his memoirs, which have been a perennial favorite in Greece, and have been translated several times in English and other languages. Kolokotronis' famed helmet, along with the rest of his arms and armor, may today be seen in the National History Museum of Greece in Athens. In addition to the Nafplio statue mentioned earlier, there is another to be seen in Athens, in the forecourt of the Old Parliament building on Stadiou Street, near Syntagma Square.
Legacy
Kolokotronis is also the name of military barracks near Tripolis. Κοlokotronis was so famous in popular culture that one can find references about him in strange places, like a gravure sculpted by knife on a stony sterna inside a cave in one of the holes in mount Ntaouli opposite the village Lyrkeia in the valley of river Inarhos. A portrait of Kolokotronis by Karl Krazeisen depicted on the obverse of the Greek 5000 drachmas banknote of 1984-2001.[2]

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