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Ypsilanti (Fanariot family claiming)

a Fanariot family claiming descent from the Comneni. Its most conspicuous members are:

ALEXANDER, born 1725, a dragoman of the Porte, hospodar of Wallachia from 1774 to 1782, and again in 1790. He was carried prisoner to Brünn in 1792. Released, he returned to Constantinople, propounded a scheme for the fusion of the Greek and Turkish people, but having incurred the suspicion of the Porte, was executed in 1805.

CONSTANTINE, his son, born in Constantinople, in 1760, early planned the freedom of Greece. His scheme was prematurely discovered, and he fled to Vienna. Pardoned by the Sultan, he was hospodar of Moldavia from 1799 till 1805, when he went to Russia, but returned to Bucharest with 20,000 men, again bent on freeing Greece. But the peace of Tilsit interrupting his plans, he returned to Russia, and died in Kiev, July 28, 1816.

ALEXANDER, eldest son of the preceding, born in Constantinople, Dec. 12, 1792, followed his father to Russia, entered the army, and served with distinction in various campaigns. In March, 1821, he entered the Moldavia, and raised the standard of revolt among the Rumanians. Russia, however, frowned on his enterprise; the natives were apathetic, and he was defeated by the Turks at Dragaschen, near Galatz, June 19, 1821. He fled to Austria, and was interned at Munkacs, in Hungary. He died in Vienna, Jan. 31, 1828.

DEMETRIOS, brother of the preceding, born Dec. 25, 1793, served in the Russian army, and in 1821 went to the Morea, where he played a brilliant part in the struggle. But, though a brave soldier and a successful general, as his victory at Tripolitza and his splendid defense of Argos show, his influence was constantly undermined by the "native" party, who never forgot that he was a Fanariot, and therefore half a foreigner.

In 1827, however, he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Greek army, but the unhandsome treatment he received of from the government of Capo d'Istria compelled him to resign his post, Jan. 1, 1830. He then withdrew from public affairs, and died in Vienna, Jan. 3, 1832.