History & Culture > Messinian History
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3.000 b.C. - 459 b.C.   371 b.C. - 1838 a.C.  

For the next 150 years, Messinia was tied to Sparta. The rising that led to the third Messinian War (see “History of Lakonia”: making enemies), ended with a new victory of Spartans. It was then that Atheneans yielded Nafpakto to the Messinian refugees (459B.C.)

Freedom and submission

Approximately a century later, in 371 B.C, Sparta was at war with Thebes. Theban Epaminondas was crossing Peloponnese, creating cities in order to isolate Sparta. Mantinia was rebuilt and people from 40 settlements came together to form Megalopoli. In 369 B.C., Epaminondas reached Messinia, aroused people and founded Messini. He fortified it and made it the center of the rebellion against Sparta. Messinians rushed to inhabit it and Spartans to conquer it, but without success.

After Epaminondas was killed, Spartans tried to reconquer the new city. Argeans, Arcadians and Atheneans came to support Messinians. In 355 B.C., Sparta finally recognised the liberty of Messinians. This liberty was preserved through many adventures and destructions until 191 B.C., when Messinians were obliged to integrate into the Achaean Confederation, which included entire Peloponnese.
Since then, the fate of Messinia was connected to Peloponnese; it went under Roman domination and later it became a part of the East Roman Nation (see “The history of Peloponnese”: in the roman times).

Since the 8th century B.C., Messinians started to establish coastal settlements that evolved to new cities. Thus were created the cities of Kalamata, Arkadia (in ancient Kiparissia) and Navarino, where nowadays Pylos is situated. Methoni and Koroni developped and became mighty fortresses.
In 1204 A.C., Godefreidos Vilarduinos arrived to Methoni. His short cooperation with Byzantine Ioannis Katakouzinos had persuaded him to conquer Morias and set up the Achaean princey (see “The History of Achaea”: setting up the princey). For himself he kept the baronies of Kalamata and Arkadia and offered Steniklaro to a baron named Loukas. The castles of Koroni and Methoni were taken by Venetians. They possesed them, along with Navarino, when Franks left Morias, where extended the despoty of Mistra.

During turkish occupation, when Peloponnese was divided into seven provinces, the prefecture of Methoni was created in West Messinia, with Methoni being its capital. It included the areas of Methoni, Navarino and Arkadia, where the bishop’s seat was. Also, the prefecture of Koroni was created, with Koroni for capital and the areas of Koroni, Androussa (nowadays Messini) and Kalamata.

Kalamata was the first city that was liberated during the Greek revolution of 1821. Soon, entire Messinia, with the exception of the castles of Koroni and Methoni, was liberated as well.
Methoni was the disembarkation place for the Egyptian powers of Ibrahim, in February 1825. He defeated Greeks in Kremmydi, occupied Navarino and formed a secure triangle with the three fortresses: Koroni, Methoni and Navarino. It was Papaflessas who came out to face him in Maniaki.

“I shall fight Ibrahim and I shall die or win”.

Obsessed, passionate, provocative. And a priest all the same. A true explosive cocktail, Grigorios Flessas- Dikaios never took a step backwards. Especially when he grabbed Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos from the throat, explaining to him in a non-christian way that the only chance for him to get away alive was to confess everything. Anagnostopoulos was staring at Papaflessas’s face, trying to understand if he was bluffing or not. But the archimandrite’s eyes were sparkling, his cheeks were burning. It was obvious that some merciful god was controlling him.
Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos was among the leaders of the “Philikí Etaireía” (“Friendly Society”) and had the others’ approval to get in touch with the crazy priest. Papaflessas definitely confirmed his reputation. Born in 1788 in Poliani of Messinia, he had studied at the clerical school of Dimitsana and had become a monk.
But the cloth had not managed to control his passion. Always ready to start fighting, it came as no surprise that he sore like a trooper at the powerful Turk ruler of the area and ended up running chased by an entire military detachment until he got in a small boat and went across to Zakinthos. From there, he went to Constantinopolis, where he served at the patriarchate and became an archimandrite. His fervent love for his country was more than obvious. The founders of the Philiki Etaireia wanted him on their side but they were afraid that he would ruin everything with his typical foolhardiness. In 1818, they decided to fish him and entrusted this difficult mission to Anagnostopoulos.

For some days, Papaflessas pretended he had no idea about the situation. When the leader realised that, instead of fishing the priest, the priest was fishing him, it was already too late. As soon as the archimandrite was convinced that there was a revolutionary organization, he grabbed the man from the throat and obliged him to reveal everything. And then, he had himself led straight to the Superior Authority. Surprised, Emmanouel Ksanthos and Athanasios Tsakalof saw him pop out in front of them. They accepted his demands and Papaflessas was given a high post at the Supreme Authority of the Philiki Etaireia, at the same level as Nikolaos Skoufas who had died in July of the same year.
Anyway, things were far from ideal for the organization. Its leaders were gathered in Constantinopolis, under the Turks’ nose, in order to decide about their future actions. It was a stormy gathering. Tsakalof even faced the possibility of a dissolution, but on September 22nd 1818, the big desicion was taken: they would move on.

In 1819, Georgios Leventis, a fabulously rich and powerful man in the area of Moldavia, also entered the Supreme Authority of the Philiki Etaireia. In 1820, a great leader, Aleksandros Ypsilantis, took the leadership of the organization. A “general plan”, an action plan about the way the revolution would take place, was made by Papaflessas and Leventis and approved by Aleksandros Ypsilantis in October 7th 1820, after some modifications. As the “Day X” was chosen the 25th of March 1821. While Ali Pasa was fighting in Giannena, Ypsilantis would revolt in the territories near the Danube and Papaflessas would be responsible of Morias.
The archimandrite wrote to Kolokotroni ordering him to go to Mani, acquired some documents that presented him as “the patriarchical exarch”, crossed Ayvalik, loaded a ship with gunpowder and guns, sent it to Mani and crossed the Aegean Sea. In the middle of December 1820, he was in Mani too. Turks in Morias had been informed of his arrival and they were willing to help him move around. Without knowing the real reason he was there for, the rulers and bishop Palaion Patron Germanos treated him with hostility. In January 6th 1821, Theodoros Kolokotronis also arrived to Mani. The “patriarchical exarch” went to Achaea and discovered the serious disputes between the monasteries of Agia Lavra and Taksiarhes over land. A meeting was arranged in Vostitsa (see “The history of the Aegean”: the meeting in Vostitsa), where Papaflessas announced the scheduled date when the Revolutin would be declared. After that, he set off to Mani, after having some incidents organised by people in the Philiki Etaireia, so that the local authorities would be exposed to the Turks. This way, he would keep them under his power.
The Kotzampasis were in a state of nervous irritation. Some proposed to hand over the crazy priest to turkish authorities; some others prefered to have him killed and stop to worry about him. Neither was easy. The priest never walked around alone, while the arranged incidents had made Turks uneasy and dangerous.

The ship with ammunition from Ayvalik reached Mani in the middle of March. Papaflessas tricked Petrobeyis Mavromichalis into arranging the customs clearance. He divided the ammunition and assigned their transportation to two teams, the first one led by Nikitas Stamatopoulos (later known as the Τurks-killer Nikitaras) and the second one by Christos Anagnostaras. Commandant of Kalamata Suleyman aga Arnavutoglu learned that some armed men were transfering cargoes. He was reassured that those were some villagers carrying oil, armed because “of the rumors about thieves in the area”. The aga was convinced and he asked Petrobeyis to send his son Helias in order to reinforce city’s guard! In March 17th 1821 everything was ready. The warriors gathered in the Chyrch of Taksiarhes, in Areopoli of Mani, where there was a doxology and the banners of the Cause were blessed. On the 29th, Helias Mavromichalis entered Kalamata with 150 men in order to “reinforce the guard”. He said to Arnavutoglu that there was information about many thieves and more should come for the guard. The commandant consented to that.

On March 22nd, Theodoros Kolokotronis, with the Mourtzinoi and 2.200 men occupied the hills towards Sparta. Papaflessas with Anagnostaras and Stamatelopoulos occupied the opposite side. Arnavutoglu realised womething was wrong but by then it was too late for him to react. On the 23rd, the rebels entered the city. Turks surrendered. At noon, bells were ringing festively and 24 priests were blessing the flags and administered the oath to the warriors. At the same time, Vostitsa was also conquered. On the 26, Turks in Kalavrita gave up as well. The revolution had begun.

Papaflessas did not stay with his arms crossed. Either in head of military detachments or on the side of Theodoros Kolokotronis or Dimitrios Ypsilantis, he fought recklessly at battles. On December 1821, as the delegate at the meeting in Epidauros, he got involved in politics. At the second meeting (in Astros) in 1823, he was elected Minister of Foreign Affairs. As a concequence, he was fully involved in the civil war that followed.
He started playing two roles, proving that, apart from a passionate patriot, he could easily be “ambitious, arrogant, trouble maker”. Many accuse him of trying to turn situation to his favour, so that he would become the country’s leader. He belonged with the government of Koudouriotis, while Kolokotronis, Zaimis and Lontos were imprisoned in February 1825 and Ibrahim was disembarking to Methoni.

Papaflessas proposed an amnesty, so that all the prisonners would be set free and people could face the intruder united. However, desire for power was more convincing than danger and his suggestion was rejected. Furious, he took the speach at the Parliament and announced he would gather 10.000 armed men, fight Ibrahim and die or win. He promised that, if he succeeded, he would come back with his army and free the prisoners himself.
His calculations were wrong. He barely gathered 2.000 warriors. He proceeded against the intruder and reached Maniaki, near Navarino, first. That seemed to him as a good spot for a battle. He had makeshift fortifications made and waited for the enemy.

The egyptian army appeared numerous and frightening. The embattled were terrified and most of them fled. Papaflessas was left with three hundred people. The priest, infuriated, stepped on a rock and made a fiery speech, trying to convince them they had the guts to win!

On May 20th 1825 the battle reached its peak. Egyptians were dashing against Greeks in great numbers and were pushed back. However, after each attack, the defenders remained less and less. Egyptians, on the other side, were still thousands. Even though six hundred of them were lying dead, Ibrahim kept ordering new attacks. At dusk, all the defenders were dead.
Ibrahim had the leader’s corps found and set up on his feet, leaning to a tree. It is said that he stood there looking at his enemy for a long time. And, then, he stood on his toes and kissed him on the forehead.

After two weeks, on June 13rd 1825, Ioannis Makrigiannis was going to stop Ibrahim at Mili, on the road to Tripoli through Nafplio. That was going to be the first and decisive victory against the Egyptians.

The three-nation flee announced freedom.

Ibrahim continued his action in Peloponnese, crowned with the radiance of glory for having conquered Messologgi. However, the heroic resistance of Messologgi against the Turkish-Egyptian siege was a miracolous event for people in Europe and America. The extended defense spread enthousiasm everywhere. People were pushing governments to help fighting Greeks. On the 4th April 1826, the new tsar of Russia Nikolaos Α´ (1796 -1855) signed the Protocol of Petroulopi with England. It is the first document where the word Greece is mentioned in the international diplomacy. It was considered a self-commanded country, under the sultan’s dominion.

After the heroic exodus and the slaughters that followed on April 10th 1826, pressure to governments became more intense. The appeals for helping Greeks had signatures with an international appeal, such as Victor Hugo’s (1802-1848) and Pierre de Beranger’s (1780-1857). There were demands for isolating Metternich’s Austria and the “de facto” recognition of the greek state. The defense of the Acropol in Athens gave a new boost to philhellenic movement. At the time, today’s capital was a small insignificant village, but its great past was of great importance to the Philhellenist intellectuals.

Since Mesologgi was conquered, Kiutali and Ibrahim were determined to supress the Greek revolution. Ibrahim was responsible of Peloponnese and Kiutahi of the mainland. Kiutahi, with 10.000 men and 26 canons, crossed Roumeli, reached Athens on July 3rd 1826 and camped at Patissia, starting the seige. Omer Pasa came from Euboea and took over Philopappou Hill (July 11th) but Gouras fought back and chased him away. During the entire month of July, Turks were bombing the city and, on August 3rd, they conquered its walls with an assault.

The Greeks were covered in the Acropolis. Two days later arrived Karaiskakis and Favieros in head of the reinforcements and camped at Chaidari. At the battle that lasted eight hours (August 6th), Greeks defeated Turks who tried (August 8th) to take over the Acropolis with a general attack.
They were pushed back. Gkouras was killed (September 30th) but Greeks resisted. On the 29th to 30th of November they were supported by Favieros who climbed the Acropolis despite the turkish bullets that were storming.

So, while Kiutahi was bound in Athens, Karaiskakis was crossing the mainland, winning every battle and renewing the Revolution. In the spring of 1827, an army of 10.000 Greeks came to Athens to support defense. They arrived with Karaiskais and English Chorch was appointed the leader of the army, making one mistake after the other.

British admiral Kodrigton

On May 25th 1827, the Acropolis of Athens was given to Turks. Almost at the same time, France joined the protocol of Petroupoli. This pressure from people all around Europe brought results on July 6th 1827, when London’s treaty was signed between England, France and Russia. According to it, an independent Greek state was recognised, extending from the line Ambrakikos-Pagasitikos to the south-under the sultan’s dominion.

But the most important was that the treaty included secret articles which dictated the dispatch of a three-nation fleet to Peloponnese, ordered to impose the decisions. Executors of the treaty were admirals Eric Daniel Gautier count Derigny (1782 -1835) of France, Edward Kodrigton (1770 - 1851) of England and Loggin Heyden (1772 - 1840) of Russia.
Unaware of the secret articles, Turkey rejected the treaty’s terms. The fleets of the three powers set off with destination Greece.

The three admirals arrived with their fleet to the open sea of West Peloponnese. Turkey sent reinforcements to Ibrahim, who led his fleet to Navarino. The Turkish-Egyptian fleet counted 89 ship with 2.458 canons and 16.000 men. The three-nation only 27 ship with 1.276 canons.
On October 8th 1827, the three-nation fleet entered the port of Navarino. The three admirals’aim was convince Ibrahim to stop looting Messinia. Kodrigton sent some officers in a boat in order to suggest a way of meeting with Ibrahim. However, a Turk shot and killed the greek navigator. The boat and the French flagship shot back and an Egyptian ship responded with cannonades.

All of a sudden, the battle ended at sunset. The result was tragic for Ibrahim: he had lost sixty ship and 6.000 men. The three-nation fleet had lost 172 men but all the ships were there, ready to start a battle again if needed. This was not the case, since this time, 27 war-ship of the three-nation fleet were going to fight against 29 of the turkish-egyptian fleet.
A year later, 14.000 men under French Maison came to Peloponnese to evacuate it from Turks and Egyptians. Ibrahim prefered to evacuate Peloponnese himself. When Ioannis Kapodistrias arrived in Greece, Morias was already free.

The rebellion against Κapodistrias

Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias found hard opponents in the members of the Mavromichalis family in Mani. As a result of the hostility that had broken out between them, the governor removed the Mavromichalides from every public position. This dispute caused Kapodistrias to consider Petrobeyis responsible for all the misfortunes in Mani. In order to put an end to this rivalty, he sent to Mani a commandant, Genovelis, who was overcome with officiousness. Genoveli’s commandment resulted in a local revolution that broke out in Easter 1830. The leader was Tzannis Mavromichalis, Petrobeyis’s brother and commonly known as “king of Mani”.

Tzannis went to Nafplio, where he was invited for negotiations. He was arrested and imprisonned along with his son, Katsakos. On January 1831, Tzannis managed to escape. He arrived to Mani and revived the revolution that was spreading in Messinia and has been recorded as “the Messinian revolt”. Petrobeyis was put in prison and Konstantinos Mavromichalis was put under police supervision. Messinia was still revolted when Ioannis Kapodistrias was murdered. Spirits were put at ease with the arrival of king Othonas.

The Messinian revolution

Theodoros Kolokotronis and Dimitrios Plapoutas were sentenced to death for conspiracy against the Bavarian regime that was established in Greece with Othonas’s arrival.
It was July 1834 when a revolution broke out in Messinia demanding the warriors’ release and the creation of a constitution. In charge of the revolution was Mitropetrovas and Giannakis Gkritzalis, both loyal to Kolokotronis until death.

Petrovas Mitros, known with the nickname Mitropetrovas, was born in Garatza of Messinia and was a contemporary of Konstantis Kolokotronis, Theodoros’s father. At the battle of Valtetsi he stood out for his shooting ability and was considered among the main contributors to victory. Kolokotronis’ aide-de-camp Fotakos (Fotios Chrisanthakopoulos) called him “the best rifle in Messinia”. He also took part in the siege of Tripolis and followed Kolokotronis’s orders blindly. In 1825, he was imprisoned with him in Hidra. He was released with the amnesty granted when Ibrahim threatened revolution and, in spite of his old age, he rushed to fight the intruder.

Giannakis Gritzalis was a chieftain from Psari in Trifyllia and Mitropetrovas’s son in law. After taking over Tripoli, he organised his own revolutionary body. As a loyal follower of Kolokotronis, he was also imprisoned in Hidra. He was released with the amnesty in order to fight against Ibrahim. During the commandment of Kapodistrias he was the commandant of a military body that consisted of five hundred men.
When Kolokotronis and Plapoutas were sentenced to death, Mitroperovas and Gritzalis organised the rebellion, while in Mani there were troubles that brought about Bavarians’ decision to disarm 800 towers.

People of Mani relaxed when they were assured that this was not a complete disarment. However in Messinia, on July 29th 1834, Giannakis Gkritzalis and the chieftains Giorgis Megalis, Konstantinos Melios, Antonios Ntaras, Anagnostis Sampris, Antonios Syrakos, the Mpountouras family, the Pipilaios family and others with their men took over Kyparissia and arrested the city’s authorities.

On the same day, July 29th 1834, Mitropetrovas and his men rushed to reinforce Anastasios Tzamalis who was fighting against government forces on the road to Messini. Government people retreated to Messini, followed by Mitropetrovas and Tzamalis.
Rebels conquered the city. The revolution was extended to Andritsaina, Gortynia, Dimitsana and other areas in Arkadia.

On August 16th 1834, Kolettis’s government declared a military law. Bavarian general Hr. Smaltz was appointed the leader of government forces. The revolution was drown in its warriors’ blood after a series of battles where the rebels were defeated. Immediately the “Extraordinary Military Court of Messinia and of Messinia and Karytaina” came.

Giannakis Gritzalis and Anastasios Tzamalis were sentenced to death and executed. Old man Mitropetrovas was also sentenced to death but Othonas made his sentence a life penalty. He was released on March 25th1835 and retired to his village Garatza. When he died, on March 12th1838, he was over a hundred years old.

Kolokotronis and Palpoutas were granted an amnesty.