Grégoire Kallimachis

Grigore Callimachi (1735 – 9 September 1769) was Prince of Moldavia from 1761 to 1764 and 1767 to 1769.

Grégoire Kallimachis was the son of the Grand Drogman then Prince of Moldova Jean Théodore Kallimachis and Ralitsa Chrysoskoléos. He became hospodar of Moldova as successor of his father in May 1761. Replaced by Grigore III Ghica in March 1764, he returned to his throne in January 1767.

It was the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774 that led to an untimely death: accused of collusion with the Russian Empire, he was deposed in June 1769 and sent to Istanbul where he was tried and sentenced to death for treason with the great Drogman Nicolas Soutzo and the Grand Vizier of the moment, a pasha by the name of Yağlıkçızade Mehmed Emin. In September 1769, Grégoire Kallimachis is tied up and his decapitated head is exposed to Bâb-e-Hümâyûn, that is to say to the outer door of the imperial palace with a yafta (explanatory notice) specifying his crimes.

Grégoire Kallimachis married Hélène Mavrocordato, from whom he had two children:

• Smaragda, wife in 1788 of Alexander Hangerli, hospodar of Moldavia.
• Mariora (1762-1822), wife of the logothete Grigore Sturdza of which she had Mihail Sturdza, future prince of Moldavia.

• Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol Histoire des Roumains de la Dacie trajane : Depuis les origines jusqu'à l'union des principautés. E Leroux Paris (1896)
• Nicolas Iorga Histoire des Roumains et de la romanité orientale. (1920)
• (in Romanian) Constantin C. Giurescu & Dinu C. Giurescu, Istoria Românilor Volume III (depuis 1606), éd. Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucarest, 1977.
• Matei Cazacu, chapitre La mort infâme dans Les Ottomans et la mort de Gilles Veinstein 1996, ISBN 9004105050.
• Joëlle Dalegre Grecs et Ottomans 1453-1923. De la chute de Constantinople à la fin de l’Empire Ottoman, L’Harmattan 2002, ISBN 2747521621.
• Jean Nouzille La Moldavie, Histoire tragique d'une région européenne, éd. Bieler 2004, ISBN 2-9520012-1-9.
• Traian Sandu, Histoire de la Roumanie, éd. Perrin 2008.