Английская Википедия:Demetrio Stefanopoli
Demetrio Stefanopoli (12 November 1749 – 8 August 1821) was a Corsican notable and military officer in French service. A member of the Greek community of Corsica, in 1782 he received letters patent from Louis XVI recognizing him as the descendant and heir of David Komnenos, the last Emperor of Trebizond, after which he was known in French as Démétrius Stephanopoli Comnène.
Origin and family
Demetrio Stephanopoli was the son of Constantino Busacci Stephanopoli, himself the son of the hereditary head of the Greek community of Paomia,Шаблон:Sfn a village in Corsica founded by Greeks from Vitylo in the Mani Peninsula in 1676, the same community that military leader Napoleon Bonaparte belonged to.Шаблон:Sfn Like the rest of the Greek community, which had sided with Genoa in the Corsican Revolution of 1729–1731,Шаблон:Sfn the family had lost their lands and were subsisting in Ajaccio on Constantino's salary and pension as a captain in a cavalry unit of the French army. As a result, when he died in 1772, his widow had to write to the French Minister of War for succour for herself and her offspring.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn
Demetrio had two brothers and a sister: Giorgio, Laura-Maria, and Giovanni-Stefano. His sister Panoria was the mother of Laure Junot, duchess d'Abrantès.Шаблон:Sfn
Biography
To escape poverty, Constantino sent his sons to the clergy. Demetrio was enrolled in the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide Шаблон:Circa, where he remained at least until his father's death. He was never ordained, and returned to Corsica, where he worked as a forestry official, and then as a lawyer.Шаблон:Sfn Constantino had tried to dispute the leadership of the Greek community with his cousin, Georges-Marie Stephanopoli, but the French had recognized the latter as its head in 1769.Шаблон:Sfn
Georges-Marie advocated the establishment of a new Greek settlement at Cargèse (close to the site of Paomia), a project which Constantino and Demetrio vehemently opposed on various grounds, for fear of losing their traditional influence.Шаблон:Sfn Demetrio also came into conflict with the French authorities, who insisted that the lands allocated to the Greek community in Cargèse were to be equally distributed among its members. The Stefanopoli, who had been major landowners, refused to accept this, and requested a compensation, in vain. Demetrio's in violent opposition to the Cargèse project led to his exile for three months to Bonifacio.Шаблон:Sfn In 1776, he joined his sister and her husband in Paris, where they pressured the French court on the matter of the compensation. They had mixed success: on 16 January 1777, the King accorded the family a huge estate at Coti-Chiavari. At 3,000 arpents, it was about 150 times the size of the land allocated to the other Greeks at Cargèse. However, it was marshy and not very productive, despite Demetrio's repeated and costly attempts to make it profitable.Шаблон:Sfn
In 1779, he secured a brevet as a cavalry captain, under the name of Шаблон:Lang. The second part of this title referred to his family's origin from Mani in the Peloponnese, where their ancestors had been headsmen (Шаблон:Transl, Шаблон:Lit.).Шаблон:Sfn His claim to the surname Шаблон:Lang, referring to the Byzantine Komnenos dynasty, first appears in this document,Шаблон:Sfn but it apparently reflects a well-established tradition: in his Шаблон:Lang, the Florentine historian Gioacchino Cambiagi devoted an entire chapter (Vol. XII, pp. 287–312) to the family's descent from Alexios I Komnenos, and its subsequent history, drawn in part from oral accounts of the Greeks of Corsica.Шаблон:Sfn The family claimed descent from a supposed "Nikephoros Komnenos", the youngest son of the last Emperor of Trebizond, David Komnenos (Шаблон:Reign), who had allegedly been sent to safety with his cousin, Despina Khatun, and then settled in Mani and became a Шаблон:Transl there.Шаблон:Sfn However, no son of such name is known for the emperor, who was executed along with his sons in November 1463 by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II.Шаблон:Sfn
In 1781, Demetrio submitted his genealogy to the royal genealogist, and in April 1782, King Louis XVI recognized his claim to the surname.Шаблон:Sfn In accordance with his new status, he was given the right to mount the royal carriage, and his marriage contract in 1785 was signed by the royal family. His wife, Шаблон:Lang Edmée Marie de la Chaussée de Boucherville, was presented to the royal court by none other than the Countess of La Tour d'Auvergne.Шаблон:Sfn
Following the French Revolution, he initially joined the counter-revolutionary Army of Condé. Following the French conquest of Italy in 1796–1797, he was employed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his schemes to exploit the Greek aspirations for independence from the Ottoman Empire; Napoleon sent Stefanopoli as his agent to Greece in 1797, and reportedly even considered him as a potential candidate for the Greek throne. The French invasion of Egypt put an end to Napoleon's plans for a Greek insurrection, and Stefanopoli returned to France, where he published his Voyage en Grèce in 1800.
With the Bourbon Restoration, Louis XVIII named him Шаблон:Lang.Шаблон:Sfn He died childless at Paris on 8 August 1821. His younger brother Giorgio and then his nephew, Adolphe de Geouffre, were his heirs.
Writings
- Démètre Stephanopoli de Comnène, Notes archéologiques, Ajaccio, 1841
- Démètre Stephanopoli de Comnène, Précis d'histoire de la maison de Comnène, Paris
- Voyage de Dimo et Nicolo Stephanopoli en Grèce, Paris, an VIII
References
Sources
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit
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