Alexandru Cantacuzino-Deleanu or Alexandros Kantakouzinos (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Καντακουζηνός: 1787 in Iași, Moldavia – 1841 in Athens, Greece) was a Phanariote Romanian-Greek magnate and politician.

Biography

Alexandros Kantakouzinos was born in Iași, in the principality of Moldavia, as a younger son of the boyar Matei Cantacuzino-Deleanu (c. 1750 – c. 1817), justiciar of Moldavia and state councillor of the Russian Empire, and his wife princess Ralou ('Rhalouka', 'Ralitza') Callimachi (1763–1837). Matei Cantacuzino belonged to the Phanariote Greek Cantacuzino family, which had long settled in the Danubian Principalities.

Alexandros Kantakouzinos was born during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792, during which Russia occupied parts of the Danubian Principalities for several years. In 1791, Matei Cantacuzino entered Russian service, and the family followed the departing Russian troops to the Russian Empire. Alexandros Kantakouzinos served as a chamberlain to the Russian tsar. As young man, he married the Ukrainian noblewoman Elisabeta Darahan, a grand-niece of the last Hetman of Ukraine, the last sovereign lord of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The matrimony made Alexandros a married-in-member of the influential Rozumovski clan – his wife's cousins, who at this time held such eminent positions as Amb*ador to the Austrian court in Vienna, and Minister of Education in St. Petersburg. His brother, Grigore Cantacuzino-Deleanu served in the Imperial Russian Army and rose to the rank of colonel, before being killed in the Battle of Borodino in 1812 against Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

In 1812, after another Russo-Turkish war, Eastern Moldavia was annexed to the Russian Empire, and Alexandros' father, his mother and his siblings and their families returned to their ancestral home. In 1821, along with his brother Gheorghe (1786–1857), Alexandros joined the forces of Alexandros Ypsilantis, the leader of the Greek secret society Filiki Etaireia, when he crossed the Pruth into Moldavia and launched an anti-Ottoman revolt. The rebellion in the Danubian Principalities was swiftly crushed, but before its final defeat, Ypsilantis sent his younger brother Dimitrios along with Alexandros Kantakouzinos to the Peloponnese in Greece, where a parallel rebellion had broken out in March.

Kantakouzinos participated in the capture of Monemvasia and the Siege of Tripolitsa, but in 1822 he fell out with Dimitrios Ypsilantis and joined the camp of his rival, the Phanariote Alexandros Mavrokordatos. He later left Greece and settled in Dresden. He returned to Greece in 1829, after Count Ioannis Kapodistrias became Governor of Greece. As Greek independence became internationally recognized, he bought up the estates (çifliks) of several Ottoman grandees in Attica, most notably the mufti of Athens and Omer Pasha of Karystos, from whom he purchased Tatoi (the future summer residence of the Greek royal family).

Alexandros Kantakouzinos died in 1841 in Athens.

Family

His children included:

• Elpis (Nadine) Kantakouzini, (before 1820 – 7 January 1883), heiress of some of her father's estates, such as Tatoi, in 1834 she married the Phanariote general Skarlatos Soutsos (1808–1887)
• Helene Kantakouzini (1819–1845) wife of Count Maurice O'Donnell of Tyrconnell
• Matthaios Kantakouzinos (1809–1842)
• Mikael Kantakouzenos (1812–1881), marshal of nobility of Bessarabia, an officer in the Greek and Russian military and a politician in Romania, married with countess Louise Armansperg (c 1817–1835), eldest daughter of count Josef Ludwig von Armansperg, Prime Minister of Greece
• Alexandru Cantacuzino (1813–1884), author, lawyer in Bucharest and Foreign Minister of Romania.
• Dimitrios Kantakouzinos (1817–1877), Greek Army officer and husband of countess Sophia Armansperg, heiress of Loham, sister of the abovementioned Louise, and co-heiress of estates in Bavaria and Austria such as their seat the Schloss Egg as well as Breitenried in Austria. The two countesses, sisters Armansperg, had a double wedding while their father was a leader of Greek politics.
• Alexandros Kantakouzinos, the maternal grandfather of the writer Elisa Soutzos (1837-1887) and of Dimitrios Soutzos (1846-1904), mayor of Athens (1879..1887).

Greek EnlightenmentEuropean intervention and
Greek involvement in
the Napoleonic Wars

• Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)
• Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca
• Greek Plan of Catherine the Great
• Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)
• French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
  • Fall of the Republic of Venice
  • Republican French rule in the Ionian Islands
  • Septinsular Republic
  • Greek Legion
  • Imperial French rule in the Ionian Islands
  • Albanian Regiment
  • Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814
  • 1st Regiment Greek Light Infantry
• United States of the Ionian Islands

Ideas

• Greek nationalism
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity
• Liberalism
• Cons*utionalism
• Monarchism

EventsSieges

• Patras
• Salona
• Navarino
• Livadeia
• 1st Acropolis
• Tripolitsa
• Arta
• Acrocorinth
• Nauplia
• 1st Messolonghi
• 2nd Messolonghi
• 3rd Messolonghi
• 2nd Acropolis

Battles

• Kalamata
• Wallachian uprising
• Alamana
• Gravia
• Valtetsi
• Doliana
• Lalas
• Vasilika
• Dragashani
• Sculeni
• Vasilika
• Trench
• Peta
• Dervenakia
• Kar*i
• Greek civil wars
• Sphacteria
• Maniaki
• Lerna Mills
• Mani
• Distomo
• Arachova
• Kamatero
• Phaleron
• Chios expedition
• Martino
• Koronisia
• Petra

M*acres

• Constantinople
• Thessaloniki
• Navarino
• Tripolitsa
• Naousa
• Samothrace
• Chios
• Psara
• Kasos
• Cyprus

Naval conflicts

• Eresos
• Chios
• Nauplia
• Samos
• Andros
• Sphacteria
• Gerontas
• Souda
• Alexandria
• Volos
• Itea
• Navarino

Ships

• Greek sloop Karteria
• Greek brig Aris

Greek regional councils and statutes

• Messenian Senate
• Directorate of Achaea
• Peloponnesian Senate
• Senate of Western Continental Greece
• Areopagus of Eastern Continental Greece
• Provisional Regime of Crete
• Military-Political System of Samos

Greek national *emblies

• First (Epidaurus) (Executive of 1822)
• Second (Astros)
• Third (Troezen)
• Fourth (Argos)
• Fifth (Nafplion)

International Conferences,
Treaties and Protocols

• Congress of Laibach
• Congress of Verona
• Protocol of St. Petersburg (1826)
• Treaty of London
• Conference of Poros
• London Protocol of 1828
• London Protocol of 1829
• Treaty of Adrianople
• London Protocol of 1830
• London Conference
• Treaty of Constantinople

Related

• Greek expedition to Syria (1825)
• Russo-Turkish War (1828-29)

PersonalitiesGreece

• Chian Committee
• Odysseas Androutsos
• Anagnostaras
• Markos Botsaris
• Laskarina Bouboulina
• Constantin Denis Bourbaki
• Hatzimichalis Dalianis
• Kanellos Deligiannis
• Athanasios Diakos
• Germanos III of Old Patras
• Nikolaos Galatis
• Dimitrios Kallergis
• Athanasios Kanakaris
• Konstantinos Kanaris
• Ioannis Kapodistrias
• Stamatios Kapsas
• Panagiotis Karatzas
• Georgios Karaiskakis
• Nikolaos Kasomoulis
• Ioannis Kolettis
• Theodoros Kolokotronis
• Georgios Kountouriotis
• Antonios Kriezis
• Nikolaos Kriezotis
• Kyprianos of Cyprus
• Georgios L*anis
• Lykourgos Logothetis
• Andreas Londos
• Yannis Makriyannis
• Manto Mavrogenous
• Alexandros Mavrokordatos
• Petrobey Mavromichalis
• Andreas Metaxas
• Andreas Miaoulis
• Theodoros Negris
• Nikitaras
• Antonis Oikonomou
• Ioannis Orlandos
• Papaflessas
• Dimitrios Papanikolis
• Emmanouel Pappas
• Christoforos Perraivos
• Nikolaos Petimezas
• Vasileios Petimezas
• Panagiotis Rodios
• Georgios Sachtouris
• Georgios Sisinis
• Iakovos Tombazis
• Anastasios Tsamados
• Meletis Vasileiou
• Demetrios Ypsilantis

Philhellenes

• António Figueira d'Almeida
• Michail Komninos Afentoulief
• Joseph Balestra
• Lord Byron
• François-René de Chateaubriand
• Richard Church
• Giuseppe Chiappe
• Lord Cochrane
• Vincenzo Gallina
• Charles Fabvier
• Thomas Gordon
• Frank Abney Hastings
• Carl von Heideck
• Vasos Mavrovouniotis
• Johann Jakob Meyer
  • Ellinika Chronika
• Karl Normann
• Maxime Raybaud
• Giuseppe Rosaroll
• Santorre di Santa Rosa
• Friedrich Thiersch
• Auguste Hilarion Touret
• German Legion:
• Serbs
• Olivier Voutier

Moldavia and Wallachia
(Danubian Principalities)

• Alexander Ypsilantis
• Sacred Band
• Nikolaos Ypsilantis
• Alexandros Kantakouzinos
• Georgios Kantakouzinos
• Athanasios Agrafiotis
• Giorgakis Olympios
• Yiannis Pharmakis
• Dimitrie Macedonski
• Tudor Vladimirescu
• Konstantinos Xenokratis
• Anastasios Manakis
• Stamatios Kleanthis

Ottoman Empire, Algeria, and Egypt

• Sultan Mahmud II
• Hurshid Pasha
• Nasuhzade Ali Pasha
• Ismael Gibraltar
• Omer Vrioni
• Kara Mehmet
• Mahmud Dramali Pasha
• Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha
• Reşid Mehmed Pasha
• Yussuf Pasha
• Ibrahim Pasha
• Soliman Pasha al-Faransawi

Britain, France and Russia

• George Canning
• Stratford Canning
• Edward Codrington
• Henri de Rigny
• Lodewijk van Heiden
• Alexander I of Russia
• Nicholas I of Russia

Financial aid

• London Philhellenic Committee
• Ludwig I of Bavaria
• Jean-Gabriel Eynard
• Lazaros Kountouriotis
• Ioannis Papafis
• Georgios Stavros
• Ioannis Varvakis
• Rothschild & Co

Morea expeditionHistorians/Memoirists

• Dimitrios Ainian
• Fotis Chrysanthopoulos
• Ioannis Filimon
• George Finlay
• Ambrosios Frantzis
• Konstantinos Metaxas
• Panoutsos Notaras
• Panagiotis Papatsonis
• Anastasios Polyzoidis
• Georgios Tertsetis
• Spyridon Trikoupis

Art

• Eugène Delacroix
• Louis Dupré
• Peter von Hess
• Victor Hugo
• François Pouqueville
• Alexander Pushkin
• Karl Krazeisen
• Andreas Kalvos
• Dionysios Solomos
• Theodoros Vryzakis
• Hellas
• The Reception of Lord Byron at Missolonghi
• Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
• Le siège de Corinthe
• The M*acre at Chios
• The Free Besieged
• Hymn to Liberty
• The Archipelago on Fire
• Loukis Laras
• The Apotheosis of Athanasios Diakos

Remembrance

• 25 March (Independence Day)
• Hymn to Liberty
• Eleftheria i thanatos
• Pedion tou Areos
• Propylaea (Munich)
• Garden of Heroes (Missolonghi)
• Royal Phalanx
• Evzones (Presidential Guard)