Ypsilantis

a family of Greek aristocrats.

Alexandras Ypsilantis. Born 1726 in Istanbul; died there Jan. 13, 1807. Grand dragoman of the Porte (1774) and hospodar of Walachia (1774–82, 1796–97) and Moldavia (1786–88). He undertook a number of measures designed to regulate taxation and develop trade and crafts in both principalities. He codified the laws in Walachia.

Konstantinos Ypsilantis. Born 1760 in Istanbul; died June 24, 1816, in Kiev. Grand dragoman of the Porte (1796–99) and hospodar of Moldavia (1799–1802) and Walachia (1802–06). Son of Alexandros. In 1807 he emigrated with his family to Russia.

Alexandros Ypsilantis. Born Dec. 12, 1792, in Constantinople; died Jan. 31, 1828, in Vienna. Major general in the Russian army (1817); participant in the Patriotic War of 1812. Son of Konstantinos. In 1816–17 he served as adjutant to Tsar Alexander I. In April 1820 he joined the secret Greek revolutionary society Philiki Etairia and became its leader. On Feb. 22 (Mar. 6), 1821, he arrived in Iaşi with the aim of raising the Balkan peoples in revolt against the Turkish yoke. In February (March) he appealed to the Greek people to rebel, formed an insurgent army, and incited a rebellion in Moldavia, which served as the signal for the beginning of the Greek War of Independence (1821–29). His position, however, was weakened by his conflict with T. Vladimirescu, the leader of the Walachian Uprising of 1821. In June 1821 Ypsilantis’ forces were crushed by the Turks in a battle near Drăgăşani.

Demetrios Ypsilantis.Born 1793; died Aug. 16, 1832, in Nav-plion. Officer in the Russian army. Alexandros’ brother. In June 1821 he came as a representative of the chief committee of the Philiki Etairia to the Peloponnesus, which was in revolt. In January 1822 the National Assembly in Epidaurus elected him chairman of the Legislative Body. In 1828 the president of Greece, Capodistrias, appointed him commander in chief of the troops of eastern Greece, and he succeeded in driving the Turks from Greek territory.