Early life and Bucharest princess Rallou was born in 1799 at
Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, as the second of three daughters from John's marriage to Eleni Caradja; the latter was from a Phanariote banking family, the Skanavis. Historian
Nicolae Iorga sees the Caradjas as having a distant "Asiatic origin", and traces the Skanavi lineage to
Chios. The couple's first child was daughter Roxani or Roxandra, born in 1783, who married
Michael Soutzos in 1812, while the youngest, Smaragda, married Spyridon Demetrios Mavrogenis; her two brothers were Georgios and Konstantinos (the latter was born "around 1799"). Through her father, Rallou was the great-granddaughter of
John II Mavrocordatos, who served as Phanariote
Prince of
Moldavia in the 1740s. This lineage also made her a very distant descendant of a 15th-century Moldavian ruler,
Stephen the Great. Around the time of Rallou's birth, John Caradja was emerging as a trusted diplomat of the
Sublime Porte, visiting Wallachia to negotiate a settlement with the
Habsburg monarchy, which ended
the preceding war, and traveling as far as the
Kingdom of Prussia. Rallou received a classical education, being especially versed in music and
Greek literature. According to literary historian Ioan-Nicolae Popa, she could speak Greek, French, German and
Ottoman Turkish;
Lady Morgan, who met Rallou in March 1819, contrarily reports that she and her sisters had only mastered Greek. Caradja first served as
Grand Dragoman between 19 October and 18 November 1808, just as
Sultan Mahmud II was consolidating power, returning for a second (and short) stint in 1812. Mahmud finally installed him on the Wallachian throne in August 1812. The new prince was despotic in his application of justice, and sometimes involved his daughter in the proceedings, placing her above the native
boyardom. In February 1813, Frenchman Auguste de Lagarde noted that Caradja "[broke] his
flail on a boyar of the court—a one-eyed man who stood accused of having insulted Princess Rallou". The young princess married Georgios (also known as Gheorghe or Iordache) Argyropoulos, who had served her father in various court offices. He was the country's
Caimacam (Regent), between Cardja's investiture on 27 August 1812 and 22 October, the date of his actual ascent to power. According to historian Paul Cernovodeanu, by May 1813 the couple were living in
Craiova, with Argyropoulos serving as the
Great Ban of
Oltenia. This identification is based on a diary kept by
British surgeon William Wittman, who visited the city and met its "Greek chief", as well as his "very beautiful" and scantly clad wife. Wittman describes the Ban (or
Caimacam) as a cultured polyglot, noting that he was carrying out archeological digs around
Caracal. Official Wallachian records for December 1812 have Argyropulous as a "former Great Ban" (
bivvel ban) and Dumitrache Racoviță as a titular
Caimacam of Oltenia. On 13 January 1813, Argyropoulos applied his
Caimacams seal, comprising the symbols of all
Oltenian counties, to one of his resolutions. A successor, the non-Greek
Radu Golescu, only took over in June of that year. Theatrical historian
Ioan Massoff reports rumors of Rallou's continued sexual promiscuity, and notes that she had given birth to several babies that she then abandoned in front of Bucharest churches, with her family's approval. In an 1822 letter, Prussian diplomat Ludwig Kreuchely von Schwerdtberg alleges that Prince Caradja "had a child by his own daughter, who is still alive" (
de sa propre fille eut un enfant, qui vit encore); the claim is seen by Iorga as a calumny, possibly hinting at Rallou. Rallou was known to have covered up her father's
spoils system, when, in February 1815, she bought
Conțești village from Caradja loyalist Ioan Hagi Moscu, in exchange for 115 thousand
thaler, only to sell it back in August for a much smaller sum. The princess had her own retinue, which included boyaress Sultana Gălășescu. According to a popular legend (partly validated by scholars M. Chopin and
Abdolonyme Ubicini) Sultana used her influence at the court to rescue the
hajduk Iancu Jianu from a
death sentence, already pronounced by Prince John, by agreeing to marry him. of
Oltenia (1813) The princess was also personally involved in the work of
Westernization that her father began to tolerate. She approved of
local Prussians, who introduced her and others at the court to their
lager, In contrast to accounts which date her first contribution to theater to 1812 (or even before), Hellenist Ariadna Camariano-Cioran argues that Princess Karatza only began her project in 1817, in a modest way—by improvising plays in her private quarters, to an audience of several boyars. According to scholar
Walter Puchner, the accounts actually refer to Rallou's work with the "Greek amateur stage at the 'Authentic Academy'" (namely, the
Princely Academy of Bucharest, whose trustees included her husband the Ban). That group had begun to stage adaptations of
Homer during 1816, with the princess taking over as director in spring–autumn 1817. She organized a new troupe, whose star pupils included
Costache Aristia; it moved to a new stage at the
princely complex, and had a repertoire comprising adaptions from
Euripides,
Longus,
Sophocles, as well as
Vittorio Alfieri and
Voltaire.
Cișmeaua Roșie Massoff proposes that Rallou was spurred on developments in
French theater, and specifically the
Comédie-Française; she may also have been familiarized with the status of theatrical life in the
Austrian Empire, through her friendly contacts with
Friedrich von Gentz (personal secretary of the
Austrian Chancellor,
Klemens von Metternich). Historian Yiannis Sideris views her as the first-ever director in the history of
Modern Greek theater; she also contributed directly on the Greek translation of the plays. According to various reports, Rallou also organized musical parties, which included what may have been the first renditions of
Ludwig van Beethoven in Wallachia (played on Bucharest's only piano). The autonomous institution finally established by Rallou at
Cișmeaua Roșie on
Podul Mogoșoaiei (December 1817) is described by Popa as "the first professional (Greek-language) theatrical troupe in the Romanian lands." Camariano-Cioran questions such assessments, noting that Rallou actually worked with "Gerger" or "Gherghy", a German-speaking troupe from the
Principality of Transylvania, which put up a version of ''
L'italiana in Algeri'' (by
Gioachino Rossini) on 8 September 1818. Enthusiastic at first, Wallachians stopped attending the shows when they found that the language barrier was impassible. The story of these early theatrical years remains mysterious to a degree: "the information from primary sources and the bibliography are contradictory." Examples of unreliable accounts include the claim that Rallou had sent Aristia to study with
François-Joseph Talma in
Paris, for which, as Puchner notes, "no evidence" exists. Several historians have placed Rallou's primacy as a Wallachian theatrical producer under some doubt. Anca Hațiegan, relying on an earlier text by Massoff, suggests that a theater had already been functioning in Bucharest in 1783–1784.
Constantin Gane mentions a Franco–Italian troupe performing in Bucharest in 1798, though he argues that most shows of the period were
street performances. He concludes that, before Rallou, "the people of Bucharest had no idea what theater was all about." M. Valsa argues that Konstantinos Iatropoulos had set up a Greek theater in Bucharest as early as 1810; his account is disputed by Camariano-Cioran, who believes that Valsa misread documents referring to 1820, and therefore to activities which took place after Rallou. Another challenge to Rallou's claim was brought up by her grandnephew,
Constantin Karadja, who notes that, during a
Russian occupation of Bucharest in the earliest 1810s,
Mikhail Kutuzov had been a patron of Italian and Polish companies relocated to Wallachia. Popa suggests that Rallou's own efforts may have been backed by a Wallachian boyar,
Iordache Slătineanu, who had already published Romanian translations from Western dramatists. Already in 1817,
Cișmeaua was a testing ground for
Greek nationalism in general, and the
Filiki Eteria society in particular; though he refrained from openly cultivating the Eterists, Prince John allowed his son Konstantinos, and his nephew
Alexandros Mavrokordatos, to join their ranks. Cultural historian Elisavet Papalexopoulou notes that there is no definitive way to prove that Rallou was ever initiated into the Eteria, though, like her sister Roxani, she "operated under the influence of the society, supported its revolutionary aims, and knew about its existence." According to Massoff, Rallou also had conservative tastes: she was partly responsible for introducing a taboo on the color white, which was now reserved for the princely family; Massoff believes that the fixation reflection the usage of
white as a monarchist color in the
restored Kingdom of France. A servant of the prince, Alexandru Brătășanu, kept a note of the exact date at which Rallou and her husband left Bucharest, as being the morning of 29 September (
New Style: 11 October). His note suggests that the Prince and his progeny left together with the other courtiers and family members, including Mavrokordatos, Constantin Vlahutzi, and
Aga Vlangăru; a woman named Sofiița (or Sofiica) was used as a scout. Chopin and Ubicini recount that the former Great Ban and his wife arranged for Prince Caradja to meet them in
Băneasa, before joining him on his trek to Austrian Transylvania. Papalexopoulou notes that, due to her hurried escape from the country, Rallou never actually had a chance to appear on stage at
Cișmeaua Roșie.
Cișmeaua continued to host theatrical events after her departure: in 1819, a theatrical committee was set up, introducing a program of Greek-language plays. One of the local productions was
Jean Racine's
Phèdre, in a mixture of French and Greek. It featured Marghioala Bogdăneasca, the first ethnic Romanian stage actress; she appeared alongside a woman simply known as Elena, whose background is unrecorded. Several members of the Karatzas company, including the known Eterist Aristia, were able to continue performing there. A French visitor, F. G. Laurençon, noted that, by late 1820, the otherwise "fickle" boyars had acquired an unusually stable taste for theatrical performances. An Italian troupe visited the location, but was chased away by the start of an
anti-Phanariote uprising in 1821. The
Cișmeaua location was finally destroyed in a fire during 1825 of early 1826. Meanwhile, Rallou's involvement in musical life was continued by her niece and singing pupil, Esmeralda Argyropoulos-Ghica.
Independence War and later life After passing through Transylvania, the
Kingdom of Hungary, and finally Austria-proper, the Caradjas, "accompanied by a sizable clientele", set for
Geneva, in the
restored Swiss Confederation. During their prolonged stay here, they frequented botanist
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. The latter recalled in 1862 that Rallou and her sisters, though stylish, were unable to carry a conversation (as noted by historian
Andrei Pippidi, such claims are to be seen as doubtful). After a six-month stay in Switzerland, the Caradjas relocated to the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with Rallou dividing her time between
Pisa and
Florence. The Prince was under the direct protection of Tuscan authorities, with censors intervening to remove any criticism of him in the local papers. At Pisa, Rallou entered a political correspondence with Tzanny Koutoumas, her father's agent in Paris. She had a young daughter, Eleni. Around 1819, she commissioned a portrait of her father, which copied an earlier work from the 1790s but added Eleni in his lap. Also in 1819, she translated
Madame de Lambert's ''Avis d'une mère à sa fille
, as Παραινέσεις μητρός προς θυγατέρα
. She is known to have penned a Greek translation of the History of Ancient Greece'', by
John Gillies. The family became involved in the
Greek War of Independence, with the former Prince providing funds for nationalists and
Philhellenes, notably by sending regular gifts to fighters such as
Georgios Karaiskakis,
Apostolis Kolokotronis, and
Andreas Miaoulis. His eldest son Konstantinos was briefly an active participant on the
Aetolian theater of war. John's home in Pisa welcomed supporters of the Greek cause, including
Lord Byron and
Percy Bysshe Shelley. By September 1822, Rallou had been acquainted with this group, and was corresponding with
Mary Shelley, sending her condolences on Percy's death (while also reporting that she was reading from
William Godwin). Shelley named a character in
The Last Man "Argyropolo", possibly as a tribute to her Pisan acquaintances. In the midst of war, Phanariote
Panagiotis Soutsos, who had met and secretly loved Rallou as a youth, was partly inspired by her story in writing
Ο Οδοιπόρος ("The Wanderer")—seen by Puchner as one of the first-ever Greek contributions to
Romantic literature. The princess relocated into the new
Hellenic State in 1830, at roughly the same time as her father. Her friend Hagi Moscu, who was liquidating his father's debtors in Wallachia, borrowed 1,000 thaler from her, and was paying her a monthly interest of 50 thaler by 1828. She also continued to draw revenue as a Wallachian landowner, obtaining from her brother Konstantinos the city of
Ploiești, as a nominal fief. In a letter she addressed to the
Boyars' Divan in 1829, she noted that opposition and sabotage by her tenants had made it impossible for her to collect income from that area. Both Rallou and her sister Roxani made their homes into "philological salons", pioneering women's education in Greece. In the early 1840s, as that country evolved into a
Kingdom of Greece, Prince John helped his daughter's friend Aristia set up the Philodramatic Society of
Athens. John died at Athens on 27 December 1844. According to a report by A. Bouchon, the Phanariotes were still disliked by the egalitarian Athenians, prompting Rallou to marry a commoner, Konstantinos Kolokotronis; this information conflated two Rallous: Karatza-Argyropoulos and her niece (her brother Georgios' daughter). In their late years, the elder Rallou and Georgios Argyropoulos moved to Thonberg, near
Leipzig, in the
Kingdom of Saxony, leaving their estate in Athens to be tended by John's other descendants. Rallou died in that town on 16 April 1870, some two years after Princess Roxani. As argued by heraldist Tudor-Radu Tiron, her Argyropoulos marriage may account for the usage of Caradja arms by other Argyropoulos branches, even those not directly descending from her. ==Legacy==