Everything about Constantine Mavrocordatos totally explained
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.
Life
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 [duringone of Constantine's rules in Wallachia], they began to quarell and to report each other to the Porte without concealment".
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). At the same time, he imposed a
quitrent, a the 12 days-
corvée, and allowed the boyars a
retinue of serfs that were exempted from the state tax (and owed taxes only to their
liege lord). 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 wouldn't 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. 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.
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.
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