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IV. John Capodistrias and the Greeks Before 1821

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

C. W. Crawley
C. W. Crawley
Affiliation:
Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
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Extract

The career of John Capodistrias (1776–1831) is briefly described, and his personality is discussed, in every work which deals with the diplomatic history of Europe and of Russia during the second half of the reign of the Tsar Alexander I. Entering the Russian foreign service in 1809, he rose five years later to a leading position in it and retired, disappointed, to Switzerland in 1822. As President of Greece from March 1827 until his death in October 1831 he became a more central, and a still more controversial, figure in the history of that country; this period still has a special fascination for Greek writers, and much has been added in recent years to the number of published works, including more than one biography, several studies of one period or one aspect of his career and a host of books which, directly or indirectly, throw some light upon it. But the modern Greek language is a barrier to many readers outside Greece, and there has been no biographical study in a more ‘accessible’ language since K. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's book, Graf Kapodistrias (1864) which was intended to be sympathetic but reflected strongly the outlook of a German liberal constitutionalist of that age. Much of the early writing about Capodistrias was also coloured by the fear and suspicion of Russia which prevailed in Western Europe in the half century after his death. No English writer seems to have been attracted to him except in relation to British foreign policy; the most detailed modern study in French, perhaps, is to be found in E. Driault and M. L'Héritier, Histoire diplomatique de la Grèce de 1821 à nos jours (in vols. 1–11, 1925–6); but this is confined, as the title shows, to the diplomatic side and, though valuable, is not free from some rash judgments.

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Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , 1957 , pp. 162 - 182
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1957

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References

1 When he left Russia in 1822, he still kept his house in St Petersburg for some time. In a letter of 1825 there is a reference to the arrival of his library at Le Havre (by sea from Russia). His earlier papers may have come with his library or may have remained in Russia. An inventory, dated 23 Oct. 1827, of his furniture at Le Havre includes 1000 books (not listed) but no reference to papers. There is practically nothing about his career in Russia among the papers at Corfu.

2 M. Schina, in his introduction to the Correspondence (1839), vol. 1. N. Speliádes, who later served under the President, says in Ἀπομνημονεύματα (3 vols., Athens, 1851–7), iii, 478, that he was taught the philosophy of Locke and Condillac, but inclined by nature more to Plato and Pythagoras. His strongly religious bent makes this very probable.

3 N. Speliádes says (op. cit. III, 480) that on this occasion the Cross was first publicly displayed in the Turkish capital, when Capodis-rias' father took part in a procession to the Patriarch's house.

4 For details of these Ionian constitutions and for the next paragraph, see Lascaris, S. T., Capodistrias avant la Révolution grecque (sa carrière politique jusqu'en 1822) (Lausanne, 1918).Google Scholar This is the most useful factual summary of the first part of Capodistrias' career. Cf. Rodocanachi, E., Bonaparte et les Iles Ioniennes (Paris, 1899).Google Scholar

5 Aperçu [de ma carrière…1798–1822], in Sbornik III (1868), 166ff.Google Scholar

6 The Mémoires de la Comtesse Edling (written in 1829, published in Moscow, 1888) end in 1815.Google Scholar For details of her relations with Capodistrias, with her cousin Alexander Ypsilantes and with Mme de Krudener, who was probably introduced to the tsar by her agency, see also the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich's work, L'Impératrice Elisabeth, épouse d'Alexandre I, (3 vols., St Petersburg, 1908), II, 478, 494, 503; III, 448.Google Scholar Also D. Gatópoulos, I. Καποδίστριας.

7 Theotókes, Sp. M., ‘H’ Εθνικὴ Συνείδωσις τοῦ Καποδίστρια καὶ ἡ Ἑλληνικὴ Γλῶσσα (in Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀκαδημίας Ἀθηνῶν, VII (1932), 130–42.Google Scholar Photiádes, E. P., Περὶ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν Ἐπιστολῶν τοῦ I. Καποδίστρια, in Ἑλληνικά, IV (1931), 249–56.Google Scholar There is no doubt that Capodistrias could and did read ancient Greek, and that he could use spoken Greek well enough; but he never became fluent in the new literary language, though he could compose a letter when he had leisure or motive for doing so.

8 Lascaris, M. Th., Ἑλληνες καὶ Σέρβοι κατὰ τοὺς ἀπελευθερωτικοὺς τῶν Ἅγωνας, 1804–30 (Athens, 1936), 44 n. 1. The letter, addressed to Count Rumiantsev on 5 June 1809, is among the Capodistrias papers at Corfu.Google Scholar

9 Mémoires de [l'Amiral P.] Tchitchagof, ed. Lahovery, C. G. (Paris, 1912), Part II, p. 395 and chs. 10–14 passim.Google Scholar

10 Aperçu, 172.

11 Mémoires de Tchitchagof, 387–9. (Memo. of 28 July 1812.)

12 Oechsli, W., Geschichte der Schweiz, II (Leipzig, 1913), 591ff. In 1819 Fellenberg had in his charge, for example, the sons of several German Princes, the grandsons of General Suvorov, the morganatic sons of the Empress Marie-Louise, and Robert Owen's son. By this time, he was suspect to Metternich, and was alleged to have acted as a spy for Napoleon.Google Scholar

13 The phrase was used by Gentz, who had earlier been rather friendly, in a letter to Metternich, 28 Feb. 1822. Briefe von und an F. v. Gentz, ed. Wittichen, F. C., III. 2 (München-Berlin, 1913), 39ff.Google Scholar

14 Gentz wrote, 1 Jan. 1816, ‘au Congrès de Vienne le nom de l'Empire Ottoman n'a jamais été articulé’. Dépêches inédites aux Hospodars de Moldavie et de Valachie (Paris, 1876), 1, 199. Symbolically, though not literally, that was true, and true also of the negotiations for the first and second Peace of Paris, and of the Congresses of 1818 and 1820.Google Scholar

15 Aperçu, 240.

16 Aperçu, 215–20. According to one account, Galátes, who claimed to be a relative of Capodistrias, was so indiscreet about the plans of the Philikè Hetairía, of which he was a member, that he got other innocent Greeks in St Petersburg into trouble. He recruited a number of Greek merchants in the capital and in Moscow. Later, he was found so unreliable that one of the organizers of this society contrived to have him assassinated (Nov. 1819) in the Peloponnese. Philemon, I., Δοκίμιον Ἱστορικὸν περὶ τῆς Φιλικῆς Ἑταιρίας (Nauplia, 1834), 178–89, 220–32.Google Scholar

17 Aperçu, 239–42.

18 de Martens, F., Recueil de Traités et Conventions conclus par la Russie (St Petersburg, 1874), III (Autriche), 177–9, cit. M. T. Lascaris, op. cit. 50–1.Google Scholar

19 Aperçu, 207–11.

20 Gentz's comments reflect the varying temperature of these negotiations. Austria's role was often that of persuading the Sultan to prefer lesser evils to greater ones. Dépêches Inédites, 1, 278, 389; 11, 32 (Feb. 1817-June 1820).

21 Aperçu, 228–9.

22 On the Friends of the Muses, see a short article by Sourmelos, D., in Ὁ Βιβλιόϕιλος (ed. Zambakes, A.), II. 3 (1948), 6ff. Also Capodistrias, Aperçu, 195.Google Scholar

23 The most useful short work on Koraés is that of Chaconas, S. G., Adamantios Korais: a study in Greek nationalism (New York, 1942). In my opinion, the early character of Greek nationalism, as it developed in fact, owed less to the writings of Koraés than is suggested by the sub-titles (and by the author's comments, e.g. pp. 42, 163); but his copious summaries of Koraés' political opinions are most useful. Koraés' political Prolegomena began in 1799; the 27 volumes of the ‘Hellenic Library’ of Greek classics were spread over the years 1805–27 and were distributed at specially cheap prices for Greek schools in Smyrna, the Aegean Islands and the Peloponnese. His anonymous poems and tracts, amounting to calls to insurrection, appeared in 1800 and 1801 (both reprinted in 1821), in 1817–18 and in 1820. In the Prolegomena to the edition of Arrian and Epictetus (2 vols., Paris, 1827), I, 30–1, the personage who represents Koraés himself in the dialogue is made to say that he knows Capodistrias and regards him as personally upright, but as no more to be trusted than any other man in a position of sole authority. This is dated 11 Aug. 1827, just after the death of Canning, ‘the friend of liberty’ (p. 43).Google Scholar

24 Philemon, I., Δοκίμιον Ἱστορικὸν περὶ τῆς Φιλικῆς Ἑταιρίας (Nauplia, 1834). For what follows, see esp. pp. 178 ff., 200.Google Scholar

25 I. Philemon, op. cit. Introd. p. 3 and pp. 7ff., 135ff.

26 Xanthos, E., Ἀπομνημονεύματα περὶ τῆς Φιλικῆς Ἑταιρίας (Athens, 1845). A brief narrative (pp. 1–35) is followed by some 200 pp. of documents, mostly letters to Xanthos, 8 Aug. 1817–30 Aug. 1839. Philemon had in 1834 criticized an anonymous writer, whom he believed to be Xanthos. I cannot trace this, but it may have been an earlier version of Xanthos' acknowledged work of 1845.Google Scholar

27 Vakalópoulos, A., Συμβολὴ στὴν ἱστορία καὶ ὀργάνωση τῆς Φιλικῆς Ἑταιρίας (Salonica, 1951)Google Scholar, from Ἑλληνικά, vol. XII (summarized in Bulletin analytique de Bibliographie Hellènique, XII (1951), no. 731.Google Scholar

28 Μεγάλη Ἑλληνικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία, vol. 13 (1930). Article on Tsakálov.

29 See the relevant articles in the Μεγάλη Ἑλληνικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία.

30 I. Philemon, op. cit. Introd. p. 6, note α.

31 Article on Ἡ Ἑταιρία τοῦ Ῥῆγα in Ὁ Βιβλιόϕιλος (ed. A. Zambákes), VI (1952), no. 3, pp. 123–6.

32 Kandelóros, T., Ἡ Φιλικὴ Ἑταιρία, 1814–21 (Athens, 1926). I have been unable to find a copy either in London or in Athens, but its conclusions are summarized by D. Kókkinos, Ἡ Ἑλληνικὴ Ἐπανάστασις (2nd ed. Athens, 1940), vol. I, Introd. and ch. 1. V. G. Mexas, in Οἱ Φιλικοί (Athens, 1937), describes the Sekéres archives, which are in the Department of MSS. of the Ethnological Society at Athens (Κώδιξ 327). I found Mexas' book in Corfu.Google Scholar

33 D. Kókkinos (op. cit. II, 107–10) describes the solemn initiation of Theodore Kolokotrónes in a church at Zante in 1820.

34 It is said that, when approached on behalf of the Society, he stipulated for hegemony in Northern Greece and a protecting role over the Peloponnese too, while the Greek emissary demanded that he should first be baptized. Philemon, op. cit. 207–8, 260.

35 Philemon, op. cit. 211. The first emissary to Italy died on the way in 1819, but Tsakálov visited Ignatius at Pisa in 1820.

36 Aperçu, 253–4. Capodistrias probably felt in 1826 that the new tsar might listen to tales of his earlier commitments to the Hetairía, for he took the trouble to submit with his Aperçu (as the only supporting document) the draft of his reply to Petrobey, dated 20 Feb. 1820 and handed to Kamarínos on 13 April 1820. According to N. Speliádes, Ἀπομνημονεύματα (3 vols. Athens, 1851, 1852, 1857), 1, 5–10, Capodistrias advised Kamarínos verbally that the Greeks should keep quiet for the present, but that, if they must act, they should start under the umbrella of a rebellious Turkish Pasha, while Maina might reassert its traditional autonomy, and finally that, in the last resort, Russia would hardly allow them to be crushed. Speliádes was, before 1821, secretary to a merchant, A. Mavros, one of the Hetairist Ephors at Constantinople; in 1828 he became Capodistrias' principal secretary in the department of foreign affairs.

37 Xanthos, op. cit. 16–17. This visit is not mentioned by Capodistrias in his Aperçu, but the story is accepted without question by D. Kókkinos, op. cit. I, 145 ff. Speliádes (op. cit. I, 4) speaks of two visits by Xanthos to Capodistrias, one in 1818 and one in 1820, but this is mistaken. It appears that Xanthos was given the job at the end of 1818, but owing to lack of funds failed to reach the capital until January 1820. Philemon, op. cit. 231, 250.

38 In his Aperçu (p. 256), Capodistrias said that his advice to Ypsilántes, at his interview in the winter of 1820, was to steer clear of ‘faiseurs de projets …, misérables commis de négociants ruinés par inconduite …‘But it was at this point that, if he really wished to discredit the Society's plans, he could surely have got the tsar to forbid Ypsilántes (still a serving officer in the Russian army) to leave Russia on any pretext. As a cousin of the Stourdzas, Ypsilántes was already well known to Capodistrias. During the Congress of Vienna, he was staying with the Stourdzas there. Mile. Stourdza related that, when the tsar agreed to attend an Orthodox service in Vienna, she had the party's carriages directed, not to the church of the Greeks who were Austrian subjects, but to a different church which had been founded by an ancestor of hers for Greeks in Vienna who were Ottoman subjects. The appearance of the tsar and his suite filling one side of the church, and of Capodistrias sitting conspicuously with Ypsilántes on the other side, caused great enthusiasm in the congregation and some arinoyance to the Austrian authorities. Capodistrias himself was apparently displeased at having been tricked into what looked like a politically significant incident. Comtesse Edling, Mémoires, 169–73.

39 There is not much serious contradiction between the various early accounts of the events of the last few months before the revolt began. For the divergent plans of Ypsilántes and the leaders of the Hetairía, see I. Philemon, op. cit. 268–307, and N. Speliádes, op. cit. I, chs. 1–2. (Xanthos, op. cit. 21–8, has little to say on these points.) Speliádes, as secretary, wrote the letter from the ‘ephors’ at Constantinople to the Arché, describing their plan to set fire to the city, kidnap the Sultan and seize the naval arsenal (with the help of Greek workmen there), the artillery depot and the Treasury (Speliádes, op. cit. I, 8–9). None of these things was even attempted.

40 Speliádes, op. cit. I, 36–40, quotes in full the proclamation to the Greeks, which included the words ‘Unite, my friends, and you will see a great Power which will champion your rights’.

41 Aperçu, 263–5.