That Greece Might Still Be Free: The Philhellenes in the War of Independence

478 Pages·2008·19.908 MB·English

by  William St Clair

William St Clair
That Greece Might Still Be Free
The Philhellenes in the War of Independence
From reviews of the first edition:
‘A brilliant and bitter history’. Richard Holmes, The Times
‘an author who aspires to the highest standards of scholarship and prose. . .
the last word on its subject and likely to remain so for many years’. Sunday
Telegraph
‘a magnificent narrative based on thorough research and careful judgment’.
The Guardian
‘Mr. St Clair looks at the war as it involved the philhellenes. . . whose names
are now associated with the myth of the glorious fight for Greek Freedom. . .
His diligent and wide research has paid a rich dividend. He has added to the
book’s value by including many portraits, paintings, and maps’. The
Economist
‘tells their melancholy story with sardonic relish and lucid scholarship. Like
his previous book on ‘Lord Elgin and the Marbles’ it is a brilliant and elegant
performance that puts all previous work in the shade’. C.M. Woodhouse,
The Observer
One can pick a hero figure out of almost page of a classical dictionary, and
without this magic appeal of antiquity it is improbable that Greece would
have obtained independence so early in the century. As William St Clair
points out in “That Greece Might Still Be Free” the bloody revolt of the Serbs
against the Turks in 1808 aroused no interest in Western Europe. Yet when
the Greek revolution broke out in 1821 Philhellene foreigners volunteered by
the shipload to join a non-existent Greek army’. Daily Telegraph
'Mr. St Clair's study of the philhellenes in the Greek revolution is
noteworthy for its sprightly narrative and vivid biographical sketches. . . the
implausible yet fascinating activities of assorted opportunists, idealists,
impostors, adventurers, and secret agents. Their collective impact on the
course of events was by no means negligible and so far as the Western
public was concerned, they were involved in a cause that roused deeper
passions than any similar event until the Spanish Civil War more than a
century later’. American Historical Review
‘he hates the sentimental bosh and unreal idealism which drew so many
young men to needless and squalid deaths; which dresses up bandit chiefs
in heroic costumes. His heroes are the Americans who, at the end of the war,
brought relief to the starving Greek population’. Irish Independent
‘These philhellenes are Mr St Clair’s subject, and he goes beyond it to give us
an excellent history of the war and a vivid picture of emergent Greece. His
book is thoroughly researched, written with elegance and trenchancy, and
altogether fascinating to read. The dominant theme is the contrast between
the philhellenic vision of Greece and the Greek reality’. New Statesman
For the student of Greek or European history this book is most valuable:
furthermore no Greek library should be without a copy’. Greek Review
‘William St Clair, we may be sure from the non-punch-pulling exposure he
has previously made of the history of Lord Elgin and the acquisition of the
Parthenon marbles, is no writer to conceal unglamorous truth with smooth
and even frayed face-saving formulae for ‘his own side’. Detached, he has
repeated this tonic process—the just consideration of historic fact. . . It is a
fine piece of dispassionate writing about the well-intentioned, the
blundering, the effective, the interested and the often calamitous assistance
given to the new-born and yet-battling State, between 1821 and 1829’. Athens
Daily Post
‘Mr St Clair has dug deep into much primary source material: English,
French, German, Swedish, American, Swiss, Danish and Italian; he has
produced a brilliant and well-nigh unsurpassable book’. Asia and Africa
Review
‘a readable and scholarly contribution to modern Greek history which
should prove useful to all but the smallest libraries’. Library Journal
‘It is a book no Greek house should or can miss. Every historical page of the
Nation belongs to us’. Hellenic News, Montreal [trans.]
‘It is both a fascinating study in itself and a valuable account of the
background to Byron’s last adventure’. The Year’s Work in English Studies
‘The author is best, however, at describing the clash of “European” and
“Eastern” cultures’. Slavic Review
‘Mr St Clair’s narrative is exceptionally lucid and entertaining; it has
momentum and just enough of the tincture of irony. . .This is a book which
impressed me with the foolishness of striding around in history, or in day to
day affairs, history as it is going on, in clumsy mental boots’. Geoffrey
Grigson, Country Life
THAT GREECE MIGHT STILL BE FREE

William St Clair, FBA, FRSL, is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of
English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and of
the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge. His works
include Lord Elgin and the Marbles and The Reading Nation in the Romantic
Period.
http://ies.sas.ac.uk/fellows/senior research fellows/williamstclair.htm

Roderick Beaton is Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine
History, Language and Literature at King’s College London.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/bmgs/staff/beaton
Lord Byron as Philhellenic soldier.
William St Clair
THAT GREECE
MIGHT STILL BE FREE
The Philhellenes in
the War of Independence
New edition, revised, corrected, and with additional illustrations and
updated bibliography
With a new Introduction by Roderick Beaton
The mountains look on Marathon—
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream’d that Greece might still be free.
Lord Byron
Cambridge

2008
Published by

40 Devonshire Road, Cambridge, CB1 2BL, United Kingdom
http://www.openbookpublishers.com

First edition published in 1972 by Oxford University Press.

© 2008 William St Clair (except for the Introduction)
Introduction © 2008 Roderick Beaton
Some rights are reserved. This book is made available under the Creative
Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK:
England & Wales Licence. This licence allows for copying any part of the
work for personal and non-commercial use, providing author attribution is
clearly stated. Details of allowance and restrictions are available at:
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As with all Open Book Publishers titles, digital material and resources
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ISBN Hardback: 978-1-906924-01-0
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-906924-00-3
ISBN Digital (pdf): 978-1-906924-02-7
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Contents

Acknowledgements xii
Introduction by Roderick Beaton xiii
1 The Outbreak 1
2 The Return of the Ancient Hellenes 13
3 The Regiment 23
4 Two Kinds of War 35
5 The Cause of Greece, the Cause of Europe 51
6 The Road to Marseilles 66
7 Chios 78
8 The Battalion of Philhellenes 82
9 The Battle of Peta 92
10 The Triumph of the Captains 103
11 The Return Home 111
12 The German Legion 119
13 Knights and Crusaders 127
14 Secrets of State 132
15 Enter the British 138
16 Lord Byron joins the Cause 150
17 ‘To bring Freedom and Knowledge to Greece’ 155
18 Arrivals at Missolonghi 164
19 The Byron Brigade 173
20 Essays in Regeneration 185
21 The New Apostles 195
22 The English Gold 205
23 The Coming of the Arabs 224
24 The Shade of Napoleon 244
25 ‘No freedom to fight for at home’ 251
26 French Idealism and French Cynicism 263
27 Regulars Again 277
28 A New Fleet 294
29 Athens and Navarino 314
30 America to the Rescue 334
31 Later 348
Appendix I. Remarks on Numbers 354
II. The Principal Philhellenic Expeditions 357
Note on the Select Bibliography 360
Select Bibliography 361
Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Material Published Since 1972 366
Notes 375
Index 401
Illustrations

Cover
Lord Byron dreaming of Greek freedom. From a lithograph by Adam
Friedel in the Gennadios Library, Athens.
Frontispiece
Lord Byron as Philhellenic soldier. Lithograph, allegedly sketched from
the life, published in London by Friedel in February, 1825, private
collection.
1. Greece before the Revolution (I) Facing page
a. A tower belonging to a wealthy Turkish landowner in the
Peloponnese, surrounded by extensive cultivated fields, plantations,
orchards, vineyards, and gardens. One of many that ‘the moon
devoured’ in 1821.
b. The fortress of Coron (Koroni) that, although besieged, remained
in Ottoman hands throughout the revolution.
From A.L. Castellan, Lettres sur la Morée, L’Hellespont, et Constantinople
(Paris 1820). 2
2. Greece before the Revolution (II)
An Albanian woman living near the ruins of the ancient temple at
Sounion, in Attica. From F.C. H. L. Pouqueville, Travels in Southern
Epirus, Acarnania, Aetolia, Attica (London 1822). 3
3. Greece before the Revolution (III)
a. An Albanian soldier. The Ottoman garrisons employed Albanians
who had lived there for so long that nobody knew when they had
first arrived.
b. The bazaar at Larissa in Thessaly.
From J. S, Bartholdy, Voyage en Grèce (Paris 1808). 12
4. Philhellenism before Byron
‘I wrote while my companion drew’. French travellers recording and
contemplating the ruins of ancient civilization. From M. Guys, Voyage
Littéraire de la Grèce (3rd edition Paris 1783). 13
5. Greece calls on Europe for help, 1821
Frontispiece to Salpisma polemisterion [in Greek ‘A Trumpet Call to
War’], pamphlet by Adamantios Koraes that purports to have been
printed ‘In the Peloponnese from the Hellenic Press of Fearless of
Marathon’, but was printed in Paris by overseas Greeks, 1821. 16
Illustrations ix
6. Leaders of the Revolution
a. Hypsilantes
b. Mavrocordato
c. Colocotrones
d. Odysseus
From Friedel. 17
7. The Greeks defending the ancient ruins of Corinth, from
Krazeisen. 26
8. A European view of the first siege of Missolonghi, from an
engraving published in Augsburg in 1823, in the Benaki Museum, Athens. 27
9. a. Two Philhellenes with members of the Regiment Tarella, from a
lithograph by an unknown artist published by A. Cheyère in Paris in 1822,
in the National Historical Museum, Athens.
b. Some of the Philhellenes of 1822, from a lithograph by an unknown
artist published by A. Cheyère in Paris in 1822, in the National Historical
Museum, Athens. 74
10. Phihellenic leaders
a. General Normann, from Taschenbuch der Geschichte des Griechischen
Volkes, private collection.
b. Colonel Gordon, from Krazeisen.
c Baleste, the first Commander of the Regiment, from Friedel. 75
11. Part of a Philhellenic Calendar for 1823, from the Gennadios Library,
Athens. Following page 79
12. Scenes from the massacres of Scio, from the painting by Delacroix
now in the Louvre. 82
13. a. Commandant Dania, Commander of the Battalion of
Philhellenes, from a lithograph by an unknown artist published by A.
Cheyère in Paris in 1822 from the National Historical Museum, Athens.
b. Letter of Recommendation issued to ‘Prince Alepso’ by the
Stuttgart Greek Society, British Library. 83
14. a. Lord Byron and his suite riding outside Missolonghi attended
by his Suliotes.
b. Lord Byron on his death bed.
From Parry’s Last Days of Lord Byron. 180
15. A Contemporary cartoon on the scandal of the Greek Loan, from
the British Museum. 181