FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   >>   >|  
, under Turkish suzerainty, of the septinsular republic--a settlement negotiated at Constantinople by the elder Capo d'Istria--Giovanni, who had meanwhile studied medicine at Padua, entered the government service as secretary to the legislative council, and in one capacity or another exercised for the next seven years a determining voice in the affairs of the republic. At the beginning of 1807 he was appointed "extraordinary military governor" to organize the defence of Santa Maura against Ali Pasha of Iannina, an enterprise which brought him into contact with Theodores Kolokotrones and other future chiefs of the war of Greek independence, and awoke in him that wider Hellenic patriotism which was so largely to influence his career. Throughout the period of his official connexion with the Ionian government, Capo d'Istria had been a consistent upholder of Russian influence in the islands; and when the treaty of Tilsit (1807) dashed his hopes by handing over the Ionian republic to Napoleon, he did not relinquish his belief in Russia as the most reliable ally of the Greek cause. He accordingly refused the offers made to him by the French government, and accepted the invitation of the Russian chancellor Romanzov to enter the tsar's service. He went to St Petersburg in 1809, and was appointed to the honorary post of attache to the foreign office, but it was not till two years after, in 1811, that he was actually employed in diplomatic work as attache to Baron Stackelberg, the Russian ambassador at Vienna. His knowledge of the near East was here of great service, and in the following year he was attached, as chief of his diplomatic bureau, to Admiral Chichagov, on his mission to the Danubian principalities to stir up trouble in the Balkan peninsula as a diversion on the flank of Austria, and to attempt to supplement the treaty of Bucharest by an offensive and defensive alliance with the Ottoman empire. The Moscow campaign of 1812 intervened; Chichagov was disgraced in consequence of his failure to destroy Napoleon at the passage of the Beresina; but Capo d'Istria was not involved, was made a councillor of state and continued in his diplomatic functions. During the campaign of 1813 he was attached to the staff of Barclay de Tolly and was present at the battles of Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden and Leipzig. With the advance of the allies he was sent to Switzerland to secure the withdrawal of the republic from the French alliance. Here
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
republic
 

government

 

service

 

Russian

 

Istria

 
diplomatic
 
alliance
 

appointed

 
campaign
 

Ionian


French

 

attache

 
Napoleon
 

treaty

 
Chichagov
 

influence

 
attached
 
knowledge
 

Vienna

 

advance


Stackelberg

 

ambassador

 

Leipzig

 

bureau

 

Bautzen

 

Dresden

 

allies

 

foreign

 

withdrawal

 

honorary


Petersburg

 
office
 

secure

 

employed

 

Switzerland

 
Lutzen
 

Admiral

 
empire
 

Moscow

 
functions

Ottoman
 

During

 
offensive
 
defensive
 

intervened

 

consequence

 
failure
 

destroy

 
passage
 

involved