Constantine Mavrocordatos

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Constantine Mavrocordatos (Κωνσταντίνος

Μαυροκορδάτος)

Prince of Wallachia and Moldavia

Constantine Mavrocordatos, 1763

Reign 1731–1733, 1735–1741, 1744 - 1748, 1756 - 1758, 1761 -

1763, 1741–1748, 1748–1749, 1769

Born 1711

Birthplace Constantinople, Ottoman Empire

Died 1769
 Place of death Wallachia

Predecessor Scarlat Ghica

Successor Constantin Racoviţă

Constantine Mavrocordatos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Μαυροκορδάτος, Romanian: Constantin Mavrocordat;

February 27, 1711-November 23, 1769) was a Greek noble who served
as Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia at several intervals. As a ruler he issued reforms in the laws of each
of the two Danubian Principalities, ensuring a more adequate taxation and a series of measures amounting to the
emancipation of serfs.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Life

o 1.1 First rules

o 1.2 Reforms and downfall

• 2 Notes

• 3 References

[edit]Life

[edit]First rules
Born in Constantinople (now Istanbul) as a Phanariote member of the Mavrocordatos family, Constantine
succeeded his father,Nicholas Mavrocordatos, as Prince of Wallachia in 1730, after obtaining boyar support. He
was deprived in the same year, but again ruled the principality five more times from 1731 to 1733, from 1735 to
1741, from 1744 to 1748, from 1756 and 1758 and from 1761 to 1763. He managed to regain control
over Oltenia through the Treaty of Belgrade from 1739 after the Austro-Turkish War of 1737-39. He was the son of
Mimia Mavrocordat and Ciuran Mavrocordat He ruled Moldavia four times from 1733 to 1735, from 1741 to 1743,
from 1748 to 1749 and in 1769. He entered a personal rivalry with Grigore II Ghica; Ioan Neculce noted
"Constantin-Voivode went lengths to replace Grigorie-Voivode's rule in Wallachia (...)", and subsequently "(...) as
soon as they were seated on their thrones [during one of Constantine's rules in Wallachia], they began to quarrell
and to report each other to the Porte without concealment".

[edit]Reforms and downfall

His reigns were distinguished by numerous tentative reforms in the fiscal and administrative systems, partly
influenced by those of the Habsburg Monarchy during their presence in Oltenia; initiated in Wallachia, they were to
be applied consistently in Moldavia as well.
He was responsible for the annulment of several indirect taxes, such as the văcărit (the taxation per head of
cattle), and replaced them with a single tax of 10 löwenthaler, which could be paid in four annual "quarters". Faced
with the exodus of serfs to neighbouring Transylvania, Mavrocordatos allowed them freedom of movement from
one boyar estate to another, in exchange for a 10 löwenthaler fee (the effective abolition of serfdom: 1746 in
Wallachia, 1749 in Moldavia).[1] At the same time, he imposed aquitrent, a the 12 days-corvée, and allowed the
boyars a retinue of serfs (scutelnici) that were exempted from the state tax (and owed taxes only to their liege
lord).[2] On these reforms as experienced in Moldavia, Neculce expressed his view that "were he not to have this
heavy retinue of his father's, with all those insatiable people, and were he not prone on removing his cousin
Grigore-Voivode from Wallachia, there would not have been such plunder in the country".

The prince attempted to impose a degree of centralism in the face of boyar privilege, and, despite boyar protests,
created an administration which relied on a more professional, salarized apparatus, consisting of ispravnici he
himself appointed to office, and who could act as judges; he also merged the traditional personal treasury of
princes with that of the Wallachian administrative body, and decided to deny boyar title to families whose members
no longer held official appointments.[3]In 1761, due to the reforms' effects, the Ban of Oltenia moved his seat
from Craiova to Bucharest, leaving the region to be ruled by a kaymakam.[4]

Mavrocordatos was wounded and taken prisoner by the Russian troops of Catherine II, after his resistance
in Galaţi during the Fifth Russo-Turkish War, on November 5, 1769. He was taken to Iaşi where he died in
captivity. Despite their attempts to have the reforms overturned, boyars had to deal with their effects, as
successive rulers confirmed the laws' scope.[5]

Preceded by Prince of Wallachia Succeeded by

Nicholas Mavrocordato 1730 Mihai Racoviţă

Preceded by Prince of Wallachia Succeeded by

Mihai Racoviţă 1731 - 1733 Grigore II Ghica

Preceded by Prince of Wallachia Succeeded by

Grigore II Ghica 1735 - 1741 Mihai Racoviţă

Preceded by Prince of Wallachia Succeeded by

Mihai Racoviţă 1744 - 1748 Grigore II Ghica

Preceded by Prince of Wallachia Succeeded by

Constantin Racoviţă 1756 - 1758 Scarlat Ghica

Preceded by Prince of Wallachia Succeeded by

Scarlat Ghica 1761 - 1763 Constantin Racoviţă

Preceded by Prince of Moldavia Succeeded by

Grigore II Ghica 1733 - 1735 Grigore II Ghica

Preceded by Prince of Moldavia Succeeded by

Grigore II Ghica 1741 - 1743 Ioan Mavrocordat

Preceded by Prince of Moldavia Succeeded by

Grigore II Ghica 1748 - 1749 Iordache Stavrachi
 Preceded by Prince of Moldavia Succeeded by
Grigore Callimachi 1769 Russian occupation

[edit]Notes

1. ^ Djuvara, p.48, 66-68, 254-255

2. ^ Djuvara, p.227-228

3. ^ Djuvara, p.64, 71, 125

4. ^ Djuvara, p.59; Giurescu, p.93

5. ^ Djuvara, p.256

[edit]References

 This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in
the public domain.

 Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne, Humanitas,
Bucharest, 1995

 Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Bucureştilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre, Ed. Pentru
Literatură, Bucharest, 1966

 Ion Neculce, Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei, Chapters XXIII-XXV

Categories: 1711 births | 1769 deaths | People from Istanbul | People of the Ottoman Empire | Mavrocordatos
family | Rulers of Moldavia | Rulers of Wallachia | 18th-century Greek people

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