Grigore Alexandru Ghica or Ghika (1803 or 1807 – August 24, 1857) was a Prince of Moldavia

Moldavia

Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

 between October 14, 1849 and June 1853, and again between October 30, 1854 and June 3, 1856. His wife was Helena, a member of the Sturdza family

Sturdza family

Sturdza, Sturza or Stourdza is the name of an old Romanian family, whose origins can be traced back to the 1540s.The Sturdza family has been long and intimately associated with the government first of Moldavia and afterwards of Romania...

 and daughter of Ioan Sturdza

Ioan Sturdza

Ioan Sturdza was a Prince of Moldavia and the most famous descendant of Alexandru Sturdza...

, who had been Prince of Moldavia from 1822 to 1828.

Early life and first rule

Born sometime between 1800 and 1810, Grigore Alexandru was a member of the Ghica family

Ghica family

The Ghica family were a Romanian noble family, active in Wallachia, Moldavia and in the Kingdom of Romania. In the 18th century, several branches of the family went through a process of Hellenization...

 of boyars, and a descendant of Phanariotes

Phanariotes

Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...

. After being educated in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the German Confederation

German Confederation

The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...

, he returned to his native country and rallied with the nationalist

Romantic nationalism

Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...

 and liberal

Liberalism and radicalism in Romania

This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...

 opposition to Prince Mihail Sturdza

Mihail Sturdza

Mihail Sturdza was a prince of Moldavia from 1834 to 1849. A man of liberal education, he established the Mihaileana Academy, a kind of university, in Iaşi. He brought scholars from foreign countries to act as teachers, and gave a very powerful stimulus to the educational development of the...

 under the Regulamentul Organic

Regulamentul Organic

Regulamentul Organic was a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced in 1834–1835 by the Imperial Russian authorities in Moldavia and Wallachia...

 regime. Following the 1848 Revolution

Moldavian Revolution of 1848

The Moldavian Revolution of 1848 was an unsuccessful Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist revolt in the principality of Moldavia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the successful uprising in Wallachia, it sought to overturn the administration imposed by Imperial...

 and Sturdza's deposition, despite his political choices, with Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

's approval, the Moldavian Divan appointed Ghica as ruler for a seven-year term (recognition from the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, the country's other overseer, was obtained through the Treaty of Balta Liman

Treaty of Balta Liman

The Treaties of Balta Liman were both signed in Balta-Liman with the Ottoman Empire as one of its signatories.-1838:The Treaty of Balta Liman was a commercial treaty signed in 1838 between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, regulating international trade...

).

Soon after receiving the throne in Iaşi

Iasi

Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...

, Ghica carried out a series of moderate reforms, and prepared to implement more radical ones. He was responsible for creating a corps of Gendarmes

Gendarmerie

A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...

 (April 3, 1850), which was to serve as an embryo for the present-day Romanian Gendarmerie

Jandarmeria Româna

Jandarmeria Română is the military branch of the two Romanian police forces .The gendarmerie is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform and does not have responsibility for policing the Romanian Armed Forces...

. In 1851, he nominated the Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

n-born intellectual August Treboniu Laurian

August Treboniu Laurian

August Treboniu Laurian was a Transylvanian Romanian politician, historian and linguist. He was born in the village of Fofeldea in Nocrich. He was a participant at the 1848 revolution, an organizer of the Romanian school and one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.Laurian was a member...

, himself a noted supporter of ethnic Romanian

Romanians

The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....

 nationalism, as Inspector of the Schools in Moldavia. Additionally, his rule relaxed censorship

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

, and became noted for an increase in literary activities.

Grigore Alexandru Ghica's program was ended by the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

, when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities

Danubian Principalities

Danubian Principalities was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common...

 as a means to attack the Ottoman Empire. Deposed in June 1853, he went into exile in October, crossing into the Austrian Empire

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 and settling in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. When occupying troops were forced to retreat the following year, and Russian influence remained marginal, he was allowed to regain his position, and attempted to fulfill his platform.

Second rule and reforms

As such, Ghica ordered the abolition

Abolitionism

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 of Roma

Roma minority in Romania

The Roma constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,140 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians...

 slavery

Slavery in Romania

Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma ethnicity...

. This came at the end of a gradual process: since slaves owned by the state and the Orthodox Church

Romanian Orthodox Church

The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...

 had been set free by Mihail Sturdza in 1844, the order applied to the sizable category of privately-owned Roma. The legislative project was drafted by Mihail Kogălniceanu

Mihail Kogalniceanu

Mihail Kogălniceanu was a Moldavian-born Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania October 11, 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He...

 and Petre Mavrogheni

Petre Mavrogheni

Petre Mavrogheni also known as Petru Mavrogheni was a Romanian politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 11 until July 13, 1866 and as the Minister of Finance.-Life and career:...

, and passed with the Divan's unanimous vote on December 22, 1855, providing compensation for all adult and able Roma, part of which was to be collected from former state-owned slaves. In the end, as the sums owed were threatening to drain state resources, payment was settled with state bonds

Government bond

A government bond is a bond issued by a national government denominated in the country's own currency. Bonds are debt investments whereby an investor loans a certain amount of money, for a certain amount of time, with a certain interest rate, to a company or country...

 (while 264 boyars agreed to free their slaves at no expense to the state). As many as 30,000 Roma or as few as 5,000 gained their freedom as a direct result of the move.

The order was the direct consequence of a public scandal involving the family of Dimitrie Cantacuzino-Paşcanu, who had been Moldavia's logofăt during the 1830s. Dimitrie's widow Profira had adopted and educated Dincă, a son of her husband's from an adulterous relationship with a Roma slave, who served the estate as a cook. As a result of his upbringing, Dincă had emancipated himself and was even allowed access to French high-society, when he accompanied Profira Cantacuzino to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. While there, he made the acquaintance of a chambermaid, Clémentine, who became his fiancée and agreed to accompany him back to Moldavia. Upon his return, Dincă's status as a slave was exposed — impressed by the situation, Ghica agreed to advocate his release, but met opposition from Profira Cantacuzino, who argued that Dincă reminded her of her deceased husband, and stressed that she could not allow him to grow estranged. Confronted with the news and aware that he would not be allowed to marry a free woman, Dincă shot his wife and then himself, an event which served to draw additional support for the abolitionist cause.

Ghica's overt approval of the nationalist program, which called for uniting Moldavia and Wallachia and implied measures to support Partida Naţională

Partida Nationala

The Partida Naţională was a liberal Romanian political party active between 1856 and 1859. It was a loose group which supported the union of the Danubian Principalities....

s activities, provoked the opposition of Austria and the Ottoman Empire. During the late years of his rule, he appointed several Partida Naţională representatives to government positions.

In 1856, Prince Grigore legislated an end to censorship and instituted freedom of the press

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...

. A notable cultural event during the later years of his rule was a debate over the authenticity of the Chronicle of Huru

Chronicle of Huru

The Chronicle of Huru was a forged narrative, first published in 1856-1857; it claimed to be an official chronicle of the medieval Moldavian court and to shed light on Romanian presence in Moldavia from Roman Dacia and up to the 13th century, thus offering an explanation of problematic issues...

, a document which claimed to shed light on obscure events in Moldavian history, and which received ideological support from the anti-unionist Gheorghe Asachi

Gheorghe Asachi

Gheorghe Asachi was a Moldavian-born Romanian prose writer, poet, painter, historian, dramatist and translator. An Enlightenment-educated polymath and polyglot, he was one of the most influential people of his generation...

. Ghica appointed a Commission of experts, comprising Laurian, Kogălniceanu, and Costache Negruzzi, which reported that the document was a forgery.

Later years and suicide

After his term expired, Ghica left the country and moved to Paris. In his place, after a short hiatus, the Porte appointed a Teodor Balş

Teodor Balş

Teodor Balș was a kaymakam who ruled Moldavia between July 20, 1856 and March 1, 1857. The Porte appointed him replacing the previous domnitor Grigore Alexandru Ghica, whos mandate finished after seven years...

, with the title of Caimacam. A noted adversary of the unionist cause, Balş focused his attention on becoming titular Prince. Having retreated to his property in Le Mée-sur-Seine

Le Mée-sur-Seine

Le Mée-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris from the center.-History:* B.C. : the Sénons may have lived here....

, the former ruler continued to advocate the union, which had by then been made more probable by the 1856 Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Paris (1856)

The Treaty of Paris of 1856 settled the Crimean War between Russia and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, Second French Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The treaty, signed on March 30, 1856 at the Congress of Paris, made the Black Sea neutral territory, closing it to all...

, and, to this end, attempted to determine the Second French Empire

Second French Empire

The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...

 to issue formal approval for free and transparent elections to be carried out in Moldavia — annulling the electoral fraud carried out by Nicolae Vogoride

Nicolae Vogoride

Prince Nicolae Vogoride was the Ottoman-nominated Governor of Moldavia following the Crimean War...

 (who had since replaced Balş). This brought him to the attention of anti-unionists, who began publicizing various inflammatory allegations in reference to Ghica. Feeling insulted by the arguments, Ghica also grew disenchanted by Emperor Napoleon III

Napoleon III of France

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...

's refusal to grant him an audience (despite the fact that, by then, the French monarch had chosen to endorse new Moldavian elections).

He committed suicide in his home. Shortly before this, he drafted his last will, which was introduced by the statement:

"I am the victim of a foul deed and cannot live any longer, although I know myself to be completely innocent. The day shall come when truth will be exposed. I await my enemies in front of God's court

Last Judgment

The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...

."

Legacy

Just two days after his death, Ottoman authorities agreed to overturn the elections sanctioned by Vogoride. When the Moldo-Wallachian union was effected by the 1859 double election of Alexander John Cuza

Alexander John Cuza

Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...

, who reigned as Domnitor

Domnitor

Domnitor was the official title of the ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866....

, Ghica's law on censorship served as a model for new legislation, and was generalized throughout Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. In recognition of his role in creating the Gendarmerie

Jandarmeria Româna

Jandarmeria Română is the military branch of the two Romanian police forces .The gendarmerie is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform and does not have responsibility for policing the Romanian Armed Forces...

, the School for Subordinate Officers in Drăgăşani

Dragasani

Drăgăşani is a city in Vâlcea County, Romania, near the right bank of the Olt river, and on the railway between Caracal and Râmnicu Vâlcea. The city is well known for the vineyards on the neighboring hills that produce some of the best Wallachian wines....

 (originally located in Bumbeşti-Jiu

Bumbesti-Jiu

Bumbeşti-Jiu is a town in Gorj County, western Wallachia, Romania, on the river Jiu with a population of 10,617 . It administers four villages: Curtişoara, Lăzăreşti, Pleşa and Tetila....

) was named after him.

A section Ion Creangă

Ion Creanga

Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...

's book Amintiri din copilărie, which details the Prince's visit to the school in Târgu Neamţ

Târgu Neamt

Târgu Neamţ is a town in Neamţ County, Romania, on the Neamţ River. It had, , a population of 20,496. Three villages are administered by the town: Blebea, Humuleşti and Humuleştii Noi.- History :...

 at a time when Creangă was a student there, contains an admiring portrait of Ghica ("handsome in features and gentle"), as well as a section of his speech on the occasion.

Grigore Alexandru Ghica was the grandfather of Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 Archbishop Vladimir Ghika

Vladimir Ghika

Vladimir Ghika was a prince, diplomat, writer, man of charity and the Romanian minister's nephew Grigore Alexandru Ghika, the last prince of Moldavia. Ghika Vladimir's father was John Gregory Ghika, minister of foriegn affairs of Romania. His brother was Dimitrie I. Ghika...

, who was a victim of the Romanian Communist regime

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

.