The House of Ghica [or Ghika] (Romanian : Ghica; Albanian : Gjika) was a noble family whose members held significant positions in Wallachia, Moldavia and later in the Kingdom of Romania, between the 17th and 19th centuries. [1] [2] The Ghica family produced many voivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia and two Prime Ministers of Romania. Several branches of the family still exist today.
The Ghica family is of Albanian origin. [3] The first recorded Ghica in historical records is Gheorghe Ghica. His family originally came from Albania and the wider region of Epirus and was possibly born in North Macedonia, south of the city of Skopje, in Köprülü (present-day Veles). [4] Köprülü as his birthplace may be a later mistake based on Ion Neculce's literary narrative about his ties to Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. Mihai Cantacuzino in the 18th century place his geographical origin from the Albanians of Zagora, in the region of Ianina. In all available historical sources, despite the discrepancies about his exact birthplace, he is always referred to as an Albanian, an indication of his origin's role in the patronage networks which supported his political career. [5] His father's name is unknown but Alexandru Ghica, a descendant of Gheorghe Ghica, suggested that his name was Matei (ca. 1565–1620). This figure hasn't been recorded in archival material and his existence is disputed. [6] Gheorghe Ghica was engaged in commerce in Constantinople and traveled as a merchant to Iași in the Romanian principalities. [7] Ghica quickly moved upwards in the Romanian principalities mainly because he supported and was supported by other Albanians in the central and regional Ottoman administration. Ghica joined Vasile Lupu, an Albanian emigre who was Voivode of Moldavia and became his most trusted officer and representative in the Ottoman court. [8] Miron Costin (1633–1691), a contemporary Romanian historian wrote about the clientelist relations in Ottoman hierarchy between figures of the same origin and noted that being of the same origin as him [Ghica] – that is Albanian – voievode Vasile brought him to the court and entrusted him some minor offices, and later [Ghica] reached the position of the Chief Judge of Lower Moldavia. [9] Lupu's fall brought Ghica to an alliance with another Albanian, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. In the Romanian principalities, Mehmed Pasha promoted an 'ethnicity-based patronage system' and chose to appoint Albanians as a means to strengthen his apparatus in the region. Gheorghe Ghica (voivode of Moldavia (1658–59), voivode of Wallachia (1859–1860)), his son Grigore (voivode of Wallachia, 1660–64), and Vasile Lupu's son, Ștefăniță Lupu (voivode of Moldavia, 1659–61) all were appointed by Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. [10] Ion Neculce (1672–1745), another contemporary Romanian historian who continued the tradition of Miron Costin, recorded a tale about Gheorge Gica and Mehmed Pasha. According to the tale, they came from poor families and had met when they were children in Constantinople. The future Mehmed Pasha promised that he would help Ghica when he became powerful. Years later when they met again Mehmed Pasha supposedly remembered their meeting and made Ghica, voivode of Moldavia. The tale is definitely a literary construction, but it has historical value because its narration highlights the existing patronage ties of its era. [3] Ghica married Smaragda (Smada) Lână, daughter of Stamate Lână, the Stolnic (Seneschal) of Broşteni. [11] Ghica rooted his family in the feudal class of Romania via the marriage of his son Grigore to the niece of Gheorghe Ștefan.
Following the power vacuum resulting from the failed Transylvanian-Wallachian-Moldavian anti-Ottoman uprising organized by Prince George II Rákóczi, Gheorghe Ghica managed to secure his position as Voivode of Moldavia, a position he held between 1658–1659 and 1659–1660. Unable to cope with the financial burdens imposed by the Porte, he was dismissed; nonetheless, following the intervention of Mehmed Pasha his son Grigore I Ghica became the new voivode. He was Gheorghe Ghica's oldest surviving son, born in Constantinople from a relationship he had with Ecaterina Vlasto, a Catholic from Pera. [12] He had followed his father to Moldavia, where he further raised his family into the ranks of the indigenous Great Boyars, by marrying Maria Sturdza, daughter of Vistiern (Treasurer) Mateiaș Sturdza of the Sturdza family, and niece of the Moldavian Prince Gheorghe Ștefan. [11] The Ghica formed a close alliance with the Sturdza and Cantacuzino families in the 17th century.
Grigore I Ghica's rule was also not free from disturbances due to the conflict with the Sublime Porte and especially because of the disputes between the Boyar parties. Through his political maneuvers and the assassination of his former mentor Constantine Cantacuzino, he instigated the hatred of nobility against him and his entourage. Taking advantage of the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Levice (1664), Grigore fled to Poland and then to Vienna, in search of Habsburg military aid. His hopes having not been materialized, he returned to Constantinople and acquired the Moldavian throne once again in 1672. During his short second reign, the animosity of the Cantacuzinos exploded violently, and after the defeat of the Turks at Khotyn in 1673, Grigore was forced to flee to Constantinople; the hostility of his opponents lost his throne and he will die in Constantinople in 1674. [11]
Grigore I Ghica's children, most notably Matei (Grigore) Ghica, assured the continuation of the lineage. Matei Ghica lived exclusively in Greek Phanar neighborhood of Constantinople. The marriage with Ruxandra Mavrocordat, daughter of Alexander Mavrocordatos, the Dragoman of the Sublime Porte, introduced Matei to the Phanariote nucleus – now the religious, cultural and political hegemons of the Christian Ottoman subjects and vassals – and ensured a path of political ascendancy for his descendants. [11] He became Grand Drogoman of The Fleet, and in 1739 he negotiated an agreement with the Sultan whereby the key position of Grand Dragoman of the Sublime Porte would remain within the fold – i.e. among the descendants of a family pact involving the Ghicas, Mavrocordatos and Racoviţăs. [13]
His son Grigore II Ghica, initiated in the intricacies of the Ottoman politics due to his rank as Dragoman, succeeded in acquiring the Moldavian throne on 26 September 1726. [11] During his rule in Moldavia, Grigore II Ghica made proof of great diplomatic skills by leveling an unfortunate conflict with the Crimean Khanate who threatened to ravage the country. In 1733 a swap of thrones took place, with Grigore II going to Wallachia in place of his cousin Constantine Mavrocordatos. Grigore II Ghica's diplomatic skills proved even more remarkable during the Russo-Austrian-Turkish War, when the Prince of Moldavia, at the request of the Porte, acted as the intermediary and mediator between the Ottomans and Russians through correspondence and exchange of envoys with the Russian Field Marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, with John Bell, the secretary of the British embassy in St. Petersburg, with the French ambassador to Constantinople, Louis Sauveur Villeneuve, as well as with the great Ottoman dignitaries. [11]
Moldavia is a historical region and former principality in Central and Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially independent and later autonomous state, it existed from the 14th century to 1859, when it united with Wallachia as the basis of the modern Romanian state; at various times, Moldavia included the regions of Bessarabia, all of Bukovina and Hertsa. The region of Pokuttya was also part of it for a period of time.
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Muntenia and Oltenia. Dobruja could sometimes be considered a third section due to its proximity and brief rule over it. Wallachia as a whole is sometimes referred to as Muntenia through identification with the larger of the two traditional sections.
Lupu Coci, known as Vasile Lupu, was a Voivode of Moldavia of Albanian and Greek origin between 1634 and 1653. Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years. Vasile was a capable administrator and a brilliant financier and was soon almost the richest man in the Christian East. His gifts to Ottoman leaders kept him on good terms with the Ottoman authorities.
George Ghica founder of the Ghica family, was Prince of Moldavia in 1658–1659 and Prince of Wallachia in 1659–1660.
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots were members of prominent Greek families in Phanar, the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is located, who traditionally occupied four important positions in the Ottoman Empire: Voivode of Moldavia, Voivode of Wallachia, Grand Dragoman of the Porte and Grand Dragoman of the Fleet. Despite their cosmopolitanism and often-Western education, the Phanariots were aware of their Greek ancestry and culture; according to Nicholas Mavrocordatos' Philotheou Parerga, "We are a race completely Hellenic".
The House of Cantacuzino is a Romanian aristocratic family of Greek origin. The family gave a number of princes to Wallachia and Moldavia, and it claimed descent from a branch of the Byzantine Kantakouzenos family, specifically from Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. After the Russo-Ottoman War of 1710–11, a lateral branch of the family settled in Russia, receiving the princely status. In 1944, Prince Ștefan Cantacuzino settled in Sweden, where his descendants form part of the unintroduced nobility of that country.
Grigore Alexandru Ghica or Ghika was a Prince of Moldavia between 14 October 1849, and June 1853, and again between 30 October 1854, and 3 June 1856. His wife was Helena, a member of the Sturdza family and daughter of Ioan Sturdza, who had been Prince of Moldavia from 1822 to 1828.
Grigore I Ghica, a member of the Ghica family, was Prince of Wallachia between September 1660 and December 1664 and again between March 1672 and November 1673.
Voivode George Ducas was three times prince of Moldavia, one time prince of Wallachia (1674–1678) and one time Hetman of Ottoman Ukraine (1681-1683).
Grigore II Ghica was Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia at four different intervals — from October 1726 to April 16, 1733, from November 27, 1735 to 14 September 1739, from October 1739 to September 1741 and from May 1747 to April 1748 — and twice Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia: April 16, 1733 – November 27, 1735 and April 1748 to September 3, 1752. He was son of Matei Ghica.
Albanians in Romania are an officially recognized ethnic minority, with one seat reserved in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies to the League of Albanians of Romania.
Freemasonry in Romania traces its origins to the 18th century. Following an intricate history, all organised Freemasonry in the country ceased during the Communist era, although some lodges continued to operate in exile overseas. Freemasonry returned to Romania in the 1990s.
The Moldavian Revolution of 1848 is the name used for the unsuccessful Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist movement inspired by the Revolutions of 1848 in the principality of Moldavia. Initially seeking accommodation within the political framework defined by the Regulamentul Organic, it eventually rejected it as imposed by foreign powers and called for more thorough political reforms. Led by a group of young intellectuals, the movement was mostly limited to petitioning and constitutional projects, unlike the successful uprising taking place later that year in neighbouring Wallachia, and it was quickly suppressed. This was despite the fact that the Moldavian revolutionaries were more moderate and willing to compromise in their demands for reforms than their Wallachian counterparts, as Moldavian political and social life continued to be dominated by a landed, conservative aristocracy, with the middle class still embryonic.
The House of Kogălniceanu, Kogălniceanul or Cogâlniceanu was one of the major political, intellectual and aristocratic families in Moldavia, with branches in modern Romania. Originally Bessarabian peasants, the first Kogălniceanus accumulated wealth and, as owners of the Scrivulenii (Râpile) estate, climbed into the boyar elite. They were also important as skilled members of the Moldavian bureaucracy, and, through brothers Constantin and Enache, also made contributions to 18th-century Romanian literature. Their work was matched and surpassed three generations later by possibly the most famous member of the family, historian and statesman Mihail Kogălniceanu, one of the founders of modern Romania and of Romanian liberalism.
Constantin Cantacuzino was a Romanian nobleman and historian who held high offices in the Principality of Wallachia. He was a humanist scholar who drew the first local map of Wallachia in 1700, and started to write a History of Wallachia which remained unfinished. In his History of Wallachia, he "accepted a Daco-Roman mixing" in connection with the origin of the Romanians. A promoter of a prudent anti-Ottoman policy, he was executed together with his son Ștefan.
Constantin G. Cantacuzino, also known as Costache Cantacozino or Costandin Cantacuzino, was the Caimacam (Regent) of Wallachia in September 1848–June 1849, appointed directly by the Ottoman Empire. A member of the Cantacuzino family, he had emerged as a leader of the conservative boyardom during the Regulamentul Organic period. As a commander in the Wallachian militia, he organized in 1831 the first elections for Bucharest's Town Council, and subsequently served as one of the Bucharest Governors. He first played a major part in national government from 1837 to 1842, when he served Prince Alexandru II Ghica as Postelnic and Logothete. During that interval, he clashed with his own brother Grigore Cantacuzino, who sided with the liberal current.
Gheorghe Balș was a Romanian engineer, architect and art historian.
The Paharnic was a historical Romanian rank, one of the non-hereditary positions ascribed to the boyar aristocracy in Moldavia and Wallachia. It was the local equivalent of a cup-bearer or cześnik, originally centered on pouring and obtaining wine for the court of Moldavian and Wallachian Princes. With time, it became a major administrative office and, in Wallachia, also had a lesser military function. The retinue of such boyars, usually called Păhărnicei, was in both countries also a private army.
Dumitrașcu Cantacuzino was Prince of Moldavia 1673, 1674 to 1675, and 1684 to 1685.
Gregory Callimachi was a Phanariote who served as Prince of Moldavia from 1761 to 1764, and 1767 to 1769.
musat moldavie albanie.
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