page_title: Alexander Ypsilantis
section_title: Campaign in Moldavia and Wallachia
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Ypsilantis / Campaign in Moldavia and Wallachia
caption_attribution_description: English: Alexander Ypsilantis (1792–1828) crossing River Pruth into the Danubian Principalities (1821-02-22)
context_page_description: Alexandros Ypsilantis was a Greek nationalist politician who was member of a prominent Phanariot Greek family, a prince of the Danubian Principalities, a senior officer of the Imperial Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars, and a leader of the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization that coordinated the beginning of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
context_section_description: Because information regarding the existence and the activities of the Filiki Eteria had leaked to the Ottoman authorities, Ypsilantis hastened the outbreak of the revolt in Wallachia and participated personally in it. Beginning the revolution in the Danubian Principalities had the added benefit that they, being autonomous under the joint suzerainty of Russia and the Ottoman Empire, did not have Ottoman garrisons, while in turn the local leaders were entitled to maintain small armed retinues for their own protection. Legally, the Ottomans could not move their forces into Wallachia or Moldavia without Russia's permission, and if the Ottomans sent their forces in unilaterally, Russia might go to war. The hospodar (governor) of Moldavia, Michael Soutsos was a Phanariot Greek who was secretly a member of the Philiki Eteria, but at the same time however, Soutsos was an opportunist who hedged his bets by secretly informing the Sublime Porte of the planned invasion. Therefore, on 22 February 1821 (O.S.) or 25 March (N.S), accompanied by several other Greek officers in Russian service, Ypsilantis crossed the Prut river at Sculeni into the Principalities. Two days later, at Iaşi he issued a proclamation, announcing that he had "the support of a great power" (meaning Russia).
  Ypsilantis hoped that a revolt would ultimately lead to a Russian intervention: since the Ottomans would have to invade and quell the rebellion, the Orthodox Russians would certainly intervene in favour of their fellow Orthodox. In this hope he was justified, since eventually, the Greek rebellion led to the Russo-Turkish War of 1828 in which Russian troops marched to the outskirts of Constantinople and forced the Sultan to recognize the autonomy of the new Greek state. In 1821 however, Tsar Alexander was still a committed member of the Holy Alliance, and acted swiftly to disassociate himself from Ypsilantis: Count Capodistria denounced Ypsilantis for having misused the Tsar's trust, stripped him of his rank and commanded him to lay down arms. Soon after, Capodistria himself had to take an "indefinite leave of absence" from his post.
  These moves emboldened the Turks, who began assembling a large number of troops to quell the insurrection in Wallachia. Ypsilantis marched from Iaşi to Bucharest, trying to enlist volunteers. Ypsilantis was constantly short of money and his men turned to plundering the region. At Galatz, one of Ypsilantis' officers, Vasilios Karavias murdered the local Turkish merchants to raise funds while in Jassy the local Ottoman guard of 50 men were killed after surrendering and received promises that their lives would be spared. It was then that the Sacred Band was formed, comprising young Greek volunteers from all over Europe. Ypsilantis advanced slowly, not entering Wallachia until early April, by which time Tudor Vladimirescu had seized Bucharest. A further problem aroused when the Patriarch Grigorios placed an anathema on Ypsilantis as an enemy of the Orthodox faith, called on true believers to remain loyal to the Sultan, and denounced Ypsilantis for "a foul, impious and foolish work".
  In Bucharest, where he had arrived after some weeks' delay, it became plain that he could not rely on the Wallachian Pandurs to continue their Oltenian-based revolt for assistance to the Greek cause; Ypsilantis was met with mistrust by the Pandur leader Tudor Vladimirescu, who, as a nominal ally to the Eteria, had started the rebellion as a move to prevent Scarlat Callimachi from reaching the throne in Bucharest, while trying to maintain relations with both Russia and the Ottomans. More fundamentally, Ypsilantis and other Greek leaders relied on the support of the Wallachians and Moldavians, on the base of their common Christian Orthodox faith, and underestimated the increasing resentment of Greek domination in the Principalities and the first stirrings of what would become Romanian nationalism.
  Further, Vladimirescu regarded the Russian renunciation of Ypsilantis as absolving him from any further commitment to the Filiki Eteria. As a result, a conflict eru
caption: Alexandros Ypsilantis crosses the Pruth by Peter von Hess, Benaki Museum, Athens.
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