Lord Byron and the Greek War of Independence

This series has six easy 5-minute installments. This first installment: The Greek Revolt Begins.

Introduction
Europe, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, saw several significant revolutions. Of these, the Greek movement (1821-1829), which resulted in the overthrow of Turkish rule, was the most important. Notwithstanding much gross mismanagement and many ignoble failures, in its more heroic aspects it marked a glorious period in the history of modern Greece, recalling memories of her ancient renown, and arousing the sympathy and admiration of lovers of freedom in every land. It was largely through the aid of these that her cause was ultimately won.

In 1820 occurred a revolution in Spain, which might have been permanently successful but for the intervention of France. This was soon followed by risings in Naples, Sicily, and Piedmont, and all Europe was stirred by these outbreaks. The Greeks, who had long suffered under Turkish oppression, from which they had vainly attempted to free themselves fifty years before, were now encouraged to begin anew the struggle for independence.

This war of liberty appealed to the adventurous spirit of Lord Byron, and ” opened a new field for the exercise of his indomitable energy.” The story of his joining the Greeks and dying in their cause, the eyes of the world upon him, forms a most dramatic conclusion of a striking and sometimes spectacular career. In presenting Byron’s personality so prominently in connection with the Greek uprising, Nichol reproduces the figure which, to the general view, long dominated the history and typified the spirit of that movement. The best recent account of the opening events is that which immediately follows.

The selections are from:

• Greece in the Nineteenth Century, a Record of Hellenic Emancipation and Progress, 1821–1897 by Lewis Sergeant published in 1897.
• Lord Byron by John Nichol published in 1899.

For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

There’s 1.5 installments by Lewis Sergeant and 4.5 installments by John Nichol.

We begin with Lewis Sergeant (1841-1902). He was an English journalist and author.

Time: 1821
Place: Greece

“In the month of April, 1821,” says Finlay, “a Mussulman population, generally of the Greek race, amounting to upward of twenty thousand souls, was living dispersed in Greece, employed in agriculture. Before two months had elapsed, the greater part were slain — men, women, and children were murdered on their own hearths, without mercy or remorse. Old men still point to heaps of stones and tell the traveler, ‘ There stood the pyrgos [tower] of Ali Aga, and there we slew him, his harem, and his slaves’; and the old man walks calmly on to plough the fields that once belonged to Ali Aga, without a thought that any vengeful fury can attend his path. The crime was a nation’s crime, and whatever perturbations it may produce must be in a nation’s conscience, as the deed by which it can be expiated must be the act of a nation.”

The judgment is not unfair, thought it may be questioned whether the whole responsibility for this slaughter, the whole perturbation of conscience, do not properly belong to the nation of the oppressors rather than to the nation of the oppressed. Revolutions, it has been said, are not made with rose-water; they are made, as a rule, with the same machinery as that of the tyrannies that call them forth. In England people sign a monster petition, which requires two honorable members to carry it up the floor of the House; in France, a poet makes a speech, and the students raise a barricade. In the Greece of 1821 there was a terrible accumulation of wrongs to be revenged — from the kid napping of the tribute children to the cruelties of Veli and Khurshid and the extortions of the gypsy-haratcher. The revenge springs from the injury, the responsibility rests with the oppressor. We need not justify the extermination of the Turks in Greece, but we may fairly turn to the Ottoman Government for its expiation.

It would be useless to discuss the question where the Greek revolution first broke out. The general uprising had been appointed for March 25th (April 6th), but many massacres and revolts took place during the preceding days. The initial chapter in the history of New Greece was written simultaneously throughout the country. In the mountains of Achaia, especially at Bersova and in the Crathis Valley, at Calavryta, at Patras and Vostitza (Aigion), in the Maina, and other parts of Messene, in short, throughout the peninsula, this vindictive passion burst all bounds.

“No more Turks, either in the Morea or in the whole world.” It was sudden energy of instinct, a concentration of the passion of centuries. Over and over again a militant Christianity has exhibited such a paroxysm of bloodthirsty rage, matching the murderous fury of the followers of the Prophet.

The Greek war, as was inevitable, was a war of guerrilleros and Clephts, of raids and reprisals. The Hetairists had no great military leader at their service, and those who began by shunning the Hetairists were in no better position. One of the most prominent chiefs was Theodore Colokotronis, who, up to the time of the outbreak, had resided in one of the Ionian Islands, where he had attained the rank of major in the British army. It was told of his father, who died at Castanitza in 1870, that he had killed with his own hands seven hundred Turks. Major Colokotronis had done his best to persuade the British authorities that the cause of his countrymen deserved their active support but, failing in his endeavor, he had no hesitation about throwing in his lot with the Hetairists. He had been in constant communication with both Capo d’Istria and Hupsilantes, and, when the latter embarked on his ill-fated expedition in the Danubian provinces, Major Colokotronis set out for the Maina, in company with another notable Hetairist, Anagnostaras, formerly a klephtic hero in the band of Zacharias. Petros Mavromichaelis, bey of the Mainotes — the bold and independent inhabitants of the central promontory of the Morea — was generally expected to take the lead of his countrymen in their struggle for freedom. Another prominent patriot at the outset of the insurrection was Germanos, Archbishop of Patras, who had been initiated in the Philike Hetairia, and who has left a narrative of many of the events which came under his observation. The initial act of the revolution is held to have been the raising of the cross by Archbishop Germanos at the monastery of Laura, whither he had fled on being summoned to Tripolitza, March 25th. (April 6th.). This day is still celebrated by the Greeks as the anniversary of their restoration to independence.

John Nichol begins here.

More information here and here and below.