The Philhellenes – Honor and Glory*

By Vassilis Platis, philologist-doctor of History A.P.Th.

One of the aspects of the Struggle for Independence that was highlighted during the bicentennial anniversary of the start of the Greek Revolution was the Philhellenism movement. Its explosion and spread in Europe – but also beyond – is inextricably linked to the internationalization of the Greek issue, while, on the ground, it had a significant contribution to the final outcome of the Greeks’ war project, which was announced at the beginning and denounced by the powerful European decision-making centers of the time.

Thus, by Presidential Decree, the Greek State, recognizing the contribution of the Philhellenic people in the War of Independence, established in 2008, April 19, the day of Lord Byron’s death in Messolonghi, as “Day of Philhellenism and International Solidarity”. On this day, various events of honor and commemoration are organized for the multifaceted contribution of the Philhellenes in the Struggle for Independence. In Larissa, this year, important relics from the actions of the Philhellenes in the Revolution (collections of the National Historical Museum and the well-known collector Vassiliou Nikoltsios) are on display on the ground floor of the city’s Guard Officers’ Club.

In the text that follows, the identity of the Philhellenic people, their motivations and their contribution to the spread of the revolutionary message from Greece to Europe and the known world at the time is discussed.

So who were the Philhellenes? They were citizens of the world at the beginning of the 19th century, coming from different geographical points or state entities, mainly in Europe, with certain common ‒ in many cases ‒ identifying characteristics.

They were people of origin from the upper strata of their societies, so that the designation “milord” that the revolutionary Greeks attributed to representatives of British Philhellenism did not ring out of place. They were distinguished for their antiquities to the point of veneration for classical antiquity. They were imbued with the principles of romanticism, an intellectual movement that invested in the “discovery” of the glorious past within modern societies, in order for the latter to find their stride.

Finally, they were devotees of liberalism ‒ in some cases radicals ‒ and they abhorred the absolutist way of government and it returned to the old continent after the Napoleonic Wars and the consolidation of the “Holy Alliance”, monarchy. There were, of course, no shortage of adventurers, who followed the footsteps of the Great Tour in the glorious ancient Greek space more to gain their own benefits than to serve the just struggle of the Greeks.

The unequal David-Goliath battle, the massacre of the uneducated or at best half-educated inhabitants of a peripheral province of the Ottoman Empire (at least that is how many of the revolutionaries thought…) combined with the fierce and in many cases brutal reaction of the non-religious tyrant cultivated high feelings and he led the steps of the citizens of Europe and the newly formed United States of America to the land of Homer and the classics.

Many of them became a sacrifice in the Struggle of the Greeks, with the famous romantic poet of that time, Byron, who died in Messolonghi on April 19, 1824 and with his death inspired civilized Europe in favor of the Greeks. A large number of Philhellenes fell on the battlefields: the “flower” of Europe, from the scattered German countries, France, Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland, Poland, the Iberian Peninsula and the distant United States of America.

Others contributed to the transformation of the negative climate that prevailed in Europe with the outbreak of the Revolution, gradually favoring the Struggle for Independence of the Greeks, until the catalytic intervention of the Three Great Powers (England, France and Russia) in Navarino, on October 20, 1827. Most important of among them the English Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Canning, who from 1823 began to strike to change the balance in the European political arena.

The importance of the men of war who descended on this small corner of the European south, as groups of mischievous warriors with sledges in them tested the endurance of the Ottoman dynasty and defied danger in the face of freedom, approached in several cases great “heights”: from the “gunpowder-smoked » on the battlefields of the Napoleonic Era Richard Church to the morally questionable but best sailor of the era Thomas Cochrane but also Thomas Gordon and Nicolas-Joseph Maison. The latter was also distinguished for the infrastructure projects that the French army bequeathed to him in the Peloponnese, in the context of its liquidation actions against Ibrahim.

The Struggle was financially supported by the powerful Swiss friend of the Kapodistrian banker Ioannis-Gabriel Einardos, while the charity of the American doctor Samuel Howe saved lives and laid the foundations for the creation of a rudimentary public health system. The Swiss Iakovos Mayer, editor of the “Hellenic Chronicles” of Messolonghi, conveyed the pulse of the besieged to the outside world and contributed, together with other Philhellenes who possessed the knowledge of typography, to the spread of the Greek Struggle.

Obviously, the enumeration of many other important Philhellenes or even insignificant citizens of the then known world, mainly Europeans, who contributed substantially to the Greek struggle for freedom, exceeds the limits of this text. After all, historical research in recent years, both in Greece and abroad, has focused on the question of Philhellenism.

It is, however, a fact that from very early on, in its birth, the Greek state linked its fortunes with Europe, of which it is an integral member and partner. Also, the active participation of Philhellenes in the Greek struggle highlighted the global dimension of the Greek Revolution. Furthermore, the need to “awaken” the Philhellenic movement is imperative even nowadays, as threats to the territorial integrity of the country are often unleashed by revisionist forces and, therefore, it is self-evident that it needs to build strong alliances and friendships for the risk prevention.

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