The Mavromichalis family did not perceive themselves as “criminals,” but as defenders of the freedom and honor of Mani. Within their own value system, their act was political and national, not personal.
This is historically documented:
they did not act as common murderers, but as men who believed they were killing a tyrant.
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Anyone who takes the time and interest to form an overall picture from the reviews of the controversial film “I. Kapodistrias” by Smaragdis (which broke box-office records) will not be surprised either by the type of audience that “enjoyed” it (the familiar devotees of the triptych “fatherland–religion–family”), nor by why the systemic state — with its “pen-pushers and microphones” at the forefront in its own Goebbels-land — allows no alternative HISTORICAL voice to be heard regarding the imposed “assassination” of the first governor of the small country.
That is, no one is allowed to expose the reasons that necessitated the EXECUTION OF A TYRANT by those who, had they not undertaken it and carried it out at the cost of their own lives, would have left the image of their sacrifice for the War of Liberation blurred on the pages of History.
Both of these things are self-evident and absolutely clear to anyone who has natural and attentive ears to recognize the genuine voice of History and to distinguish it from the seductive song of the Sirens of historical fiction.
For this reason, we proceed once again today with a selection of our texts here, in order to set forth, with a sense of historical responsibility, the reasons for the execution of the first governor by the heroic tyrant-slayers of the historic Maniot family of Mavromichalis.
These are the same people who once again did not hesitate to rise to the level of their mission, as their tradition had required for centuries: the execution of the Tsar’s representative, I. Kapodistrias, in the place of the Sultan, whose authority these same protagonists, only a few years earlier, had overthrown through the collective struggle of the “rayahs.”
The Mavromichalis family did exactly what they were obliged to do. Had they not done so, that would have been the historical paradox.
Our historical view on the killing of Ioannis Kapodistrias by the Mavromichalis family has already been presented and developed (HOMO-NATURALIS.GR: The Execution of Ioannis Kapodistrias. Giorgakis Mavromichalis: “We killed the tyrant, we killed the tyrant!”).
We have also pointed out that Anastasios Paschalinos, from the author’s own family, took direct part in that execution; at the time he was the British vice-consul based in Epitálio (Agoulinítsa).
The profession of historian does not allow us, in any case, to imitate Mrs. Kapodistrias in her judgments about her own “grandfather,” even out of incompetence. Such judgments are understandable only because of… blood. Nothing else she says has any historical value or contains even a trace of historical truth.
Briefly, regarding this participation, we present the following:
1.
Our family is of Italian origin. The surname Paschalinos was originally a title: the Papal envoy (cf. Catholic Synaxarion, Lives of Saints of the Western Church).
Indeed, Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos (the fourth member of the Filiki Etaireia and Kapodistrias’s “right-hand man” in Nafplio on security matters) mocks the surname in his letters, calling the vice-consul sometimes Paschalino, sometimes Pascual, sometimes Pascalin — implying that he was not a “genuine Greek” like themselves.
The Paschalinos family must have arrived in Andritsaina together with many Maniots as refugees, probably from some Aegean island under Venetian rule at the time. They may also have come from the nearby Ionian Islands, also under Italian rule then.
In any case, the fact that they chose to settle (to “hide”) in Koufópoulo, isolated, 2–3 km outside Andritsaina — a “deaf” place with groves of centuries-old chestnut trees that no “human eye” could see into — shows that the new settlers had reasons to hide.
Most of the new inhabitants, whom the Andritsainans collectively called “Maniaouria,” came from Mani and originally from Epirus: at least ten families, Kaplanis, Tzavelas, Birbilis, and the Italian Paschalinos, Barounis, Karvounis, Baskozo, etc.
2.
From contracts of the time it appears that the Paschalinos family “from Andritsaina,” during Ottoman rule, had bought lands in the areas of Platiana and Krestaina.
This explains the presence of Anastasios Paschalinos in nearby Agoulinitsa (today Epitálio), where the British appointed him vice-consul.
From that point on, documents and letters of the time show Paschalinos as having a leading role in the planned execution of Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias, which was carried out in Nafplio by the Mavromichalis family under surveillance and under his guidance.
3.
The Governor knew of his activity and the names of all those involved.
Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos, sent from Nafplio to Andritsaina and then to Agoulinitsa, informed Kapodistrias in detail, stating that the center of the conspiracy was the vice-consul’s house.
Kapodistrias ordered their arrest, but Αnagnostopoulos and his close friend advised him not to rush and above all not to confront the British, because the arrest of their vice-consul would be “deafening.”
Kapodistrias agreed, and instead merely warned the conspirators that their actions were known and that they must immediately withdraw and not approach Paschalinos’s house, which was put under surveillance.
The exposure of the plot seems to have pushed the vice-consul to accelerate the execution, and the British, after being informed, gave their man the green light.
4.
The reasons why the British, with French consent, decided on Kapodistrias’s execution were:
a) They had allowed the Tsar to place his own man as governor. Kapodistrias, former Russian foreign minister, was installed through Russian intrigues — intolerable to the British.
b) Kapodistrias aimed to turn Greece into a Russian military base against the Ottoman Empire. He launched repression against non-Russophile fighters and ruled as a tyrant.
c) He imprisoned Petrobey Mavromichalis, his brother Konstantinos, and his son Giorgakis without serious cause.
d) Poverty, disease, and repression turned popular discontent into hatred.
5–7.
The execution was the will of the people, not merely of the British and French.
The Mavromichalis family believed they were killing a foreign tyrant, not a Greek patriot.
They did not hide; they acted in broad daylight, shouting “We killed the tyrant!”
They went to the French consul as agreed.
The French betrayed them.
The British vice-consul Paschalinos was also abandoned and later persecuted.