Restless Lord Byron

The Greek notables met at the Convent of Valtetzi, on June 7th, 1821.  The declaration of independence was made on the 27th. of the following January.

Continuing Lord Byron and the Greek War of Independence.
Today is our final installment from Lewis Sergeant and then we begin the second part of the series with John Nichol. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Lord Byron and the Greek War of Independence.

Time: 1821
Place: Greece

Greece had to wage with Europe a struggle more difficult and more protracted than its struggle with the Turks. It had to persuade the great powers — the great powers of the days of Laybach and Verona, of Metternich and Castlereagh — that it deserved its independence. Not only so, but it had to overcome the indifference, the selfishness, in some instances the direct hostility, of these powers, and to enlist them actively on its side. It was not enough to gain the ear of Britain, the favor of Russia, the consent of France. Turkey must be smitten by Europe, as well as by her Greek subjects, before she would be willing to resign herself to the loss of the peninsula. Who could be sanguine, in 1821, that all this would ever be accomplished? With Naples and Spain dragooned into submission, with the Wallachian patriots frowned down by Russia and snubbed by their own patriarch, who could have foreseen Navarino? The Greek outbreak was, in its first stages, a war of despair, and its most enthusiastic champions could scarcely tell how the sacrifice of their lives was likely to avail their cause. Men of discernment perceived that the freedom of Greece, though it depended in the first instance upon Greek patriotism, could never be definitely established without European aid; and it was for this aid that the best friends of Greece abroad were continually working and waiting.

Meanwhile the rising of the Greeks had already produced important results. Within three months a large part of the Peloponnese was liberated; the islands of Hydra, Spetzai, and Psara had proclaimed their union with the mainland; all the Cylades and many of the Sporades were following suit; in Eubcea, in Crete, in Samos, in parts of Macedonia, the example of the Morea was bearing fruit. A large fleet of small vessels was at once devoted to the purposes of what was looked upon as a holy war, and the Greek sailors took a noble part in the struggle. Tricoupi gives an interesting account of the tactics pursued by the combined fleet of the Hydriotes, Spetziotes, and Psarians. It was under the command of Jakomiki Tombazis, who, having fallen in with a Turkish man-of-war (the Moving Mountain, 74 guns) off the north of Chios, pursued it to the roads of Erissos, and fired upon it without effect. He then determined to have recourse to a device which his countrymen had formerly found serviceable — the use of fire-ships. The plan was to take an old hulk, and fix upon its fore-deck and along one side three or four large cases of pitch and other combustible materials. A train of gunpowder connected these cases, and in addition the sails and rigging of the ship were soaked with turpentine. When the time came for action, the prepared vessel was driven upon the enemy, and fixed to her side by means of grappling-irons. The hardy crew would then fire the train, and escape by the portholes into a small boat, taking their chance of surviving. In the case mentioned, one Pargios, of Psara, had the honor of making the first fire-ship in their war of independence; but his effort was unsuccessful. On the following day (June 18th.) he constructed two more, one of which burned itself out without injuring the Turk, while the other set her on fire and utterly destroyed her, very few of her crew contriving to escape.

The remainder of the year 1821 brought both good and bad fortunes to the Greeks. A Turkish fleet under Cara Ali penetrated to the bottom of the Gulf of Corinth, and laid Galaxidhi in ashes; while the patriots, on their part, under Colokotronis, Anagnostaras, Giatracos, and Petrobey, captured Tripolitza after a long siege, and butchered the inhabitants with almost incredible ferocity. But perhaps the most significant events of the first year of the revolution were the assembling of the Greek notables at the Convent of Valtetzi, on June 7th, and the declaration of independence on the 27th. of the following January.

John Nichol

Now we begin the second part of our series with our selection from Lord Byron by John Nichol published in 1899. The selection is presented in 4.5 easy 5-minute installments.

John Nichol (1833-1894) was Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow.

This romantic struggle, begun in April, 1821, was carried on for two years with such remarkable success that at the close of 1822 Greece was beginning to be recognized as an independent state: but in the following months the tide seemed to turn; dissensions broke out among the leaders, the spirit of intrigue seemed to stifle patriotism, and the energies of the insurgents were hampered for want of the sinews of war. There was a danger of the movement being starved out, and the committee of London sympathizers — of which Byron’s intimate friend and frequent correspondent, Douglas Kinnaird, and Captain Blaquiere, were leading promoters — was impressed with the necessity of procuring funds in support of the cause. With a view to this it seemed of consequence to attach to it some shining name, and men’s thoughts almost inevitably turned to Byron. No other Englishman seemed so fit to be associated with the enterprise as the war like poet, who twelve years before had linked his fame to that of “gray Marathon” and “Athena’s tower,” and, more recently, immortalized the isles on which he cast so many a longing glance.

Hobhouse broke the subject to him early in the spring of 1823: the committee opened communications in April. After hesitating through May, in June Byron consented to meet Blaquiere at Zantc, and, on hearing the results of the Captain’s expedition to the Morea, to decide on future steps. His share in this enterprise has been assigned to purely personal and comparatively mean motives. It is said he was disgusted with his periodical, sick of his editor, tired of his mistress, and bent on any change, from China to Peru, that would give him a new theatre for display. One grows weary of the perpetual half-truths of inveterate de traction. It is granted that Byron was restless, vain, imperious, never did anything without a desire to shine in the doing of it, and was to a great degree the slave of circumstances.

Lewis Sergeant began here.

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