Dimitrios Kallergis (Greek: Δημήτριος Καλλέργης; 1803:– 8 April 1867) was a fighter of the Greek War of Independence, major general, politician and one of the most important protagonists of the 3 September 1843 Revolution.

Contents

• 1 Life
  • 1.1 Early life
  • 1.2 Greek War of Independence
  • 1.3 After Independence
• 2 References

Life

Early life

Kallergis was born in 1803 in Crete. Hailing from the distinguished Cretan Kallergis family, a historic family of Mylopotamos, the roots of which lay in the Byzantine Empire and which had risen to prominence under the Venetian domination of the island. He was left fatherless at an early age and he was sent to Russia to the care of the Tsar's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Nesselrode, who appears in some sources is mentioned as his uncle. After completing his general studies he went to Vienna in order to study medicine. On the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence went to the Morea and joined the insurgents.

Greek War of Independence

On 19 January 1822 he disembarked with his relatives, Emmanuel and Nikolaos Kallergis, and the officer Valianos in Hydra bringing with them ammunitions, whose worth was 100.000 rubles and a recommendation letter of bishop Ignatius Oungrovlachias.

During the summer of 1825 he took on along with his compatriot Emmanuel Antoniadis the leadership of the campaign in Crete. On 2 August 200 revolutionaries occupied the fortress of Gramvousa, in which many pirates *embled during the next months. The campaign failed while, according to the American Philhellene Samuel Gridley Howe, Kallergis was unsuitable for the leader’s position. Subsequently he participated in the expedition of Georgios Karaiskakis in Roumeli and he was distinguished. In October 1826 he participated in the failed attack of Colonel Fabvier against Thebes (it was sent as reinforcement by Karaiskakis).

On January 30, 1827 he took part in the victorious Battle of Kastella where he had significant contributions and on February 20 he defended strongly the area of the Three Towers, which was eventually conquered by the Ottomans but she had suffered several losses. He was captured by the enemy forces during the disastrous Battle of Phaleron, where he was leader of the Cretan fighters. Finally, he was released after his family paid a large sum for his ransom but during his captivity, one of his ears was cut by the Ottomans.

After Independence

During the government of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Kallergis was one of his supporters. He served as his adjutant and he proceeded to the organization of a regular body of the cavalry, where he became deputy commander. After the governor’s **ination he had sided with Augustinos Kapodistrias and he actively participated in the civil conflicts of the time. During January 1832 he fought as a cavalry officer in the Battle of Argos and in March in the Battle of Loutraki where his forces and those of Nikitaras were defeated by the troops of Ioannis Kolettis.

At the same time, he followed a military career as an officer in the regular army while he was actively involved in the political issues of that period, first as a follower of the Russian Party and then of the French Party. In 1834, during the Bavarian regency and the Kolettis government he was imprisoned as a supporter of the Russian Party, whose significant members had made at that time various uprisings in the Greek territory.

Kallergis depicted on horseback during the 3 September 1843 Revolution. Kallergis in military uniform as a Major General.

In 1843, as colonel of the cavalry, he was a leading figure of the 3 September 1843 Revolution against Otto which forced the king to dismiss his Bavarian ministers and grant a cons*ution. He was appointed military commandant of Athens, promoted to Major General and aide de camp to the king. In 1845 he was dismissed by the army and withdrew from Greece, following an incident between him and Queen Amalia. He went to London, where he became friend with Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I and later Emperor of the French, which he followed later in Paris and so he became follower of the French policy.

In 1848 he made an abortive descent on the Greek coast, in the hope of launching a revolution in the Greek kingdom. He was captured, but soon released and, after a stay in the island of Zante, went to Paris (1853). In 1854, during the Crimean War, he served as Minister of Military Affairs in the Alexandros Mavrokordatos cabinet—imposed by the British and French, and hence called "Ministry of Occupation" by the Greeks. Until Mavrokordatos’ arrival, Kallergis exercised authority as dictator, with the full support of the French occupation troops. This particular government recalled all the Greek officers who participated in the anti-Ottoman revolutionary movements in Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia to return to Greece while by personal requirement of Kallergis, Otto's adjutants—Gennaios Kolokotronis, Spyromilios, Ioannis Mamouris and Gardikiotis Grivas—were dismissed, while the hitherto Minister of Military Affairs, Skarlatos Soutsos, was suspended.

When he was minister, Kallergis formed for the first time in Greece a fire brigade. In September 1855, a serious episode of Kallergis with the royal couple entailed the fall of Mavrokordatos’ government. In 1861 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary in Paris, in which capacity he took an important part in the negotiations which followed the fall of the Bavarian dynasty and led to the accession of Prince George of Denmark to the Greek throne.

In 1866 he participated in the two-day government of Dimitrios Voulgaris as Minister of Military Affairs. In mid-1866 he returned to Greece as chief equerry of King George I. He proposed to the king to *ign him the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arguing that with the help of the governments of France and Italy he would be able to accomplish the vision of the Megali Idea, but King George didn’t believe it. In the summer of the same year he was elected by the Cretans as leader of the Cretan Revolt, but in September he refused the post because of health problems.

In January 1867 he was appointed as Amb*ador of Greece to the United States but during the trip he fell ill in Paris and returned to Athens, where he died on 8 April 1867 of hemiplegia.

Kallergis was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 50 drachmas commemorative coin issued in 1994 for the 150th anniversary of the first Greek Cons*ution.

References

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)