Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis

Who was Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis?

Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis Greek: Κυριακούλης Μαυρομιχάλης was a Greek revolutionary who fought in the Greek War of Independence.

He was born in Limeni in the Mani Peninsula, the son of Pierros Pierrakos with Katerina Koutsogrigorakos and was the baby brother of Petrobey. He died fighting in Splantza in 1822.

When the Greek War of Independence broke out he organised a band of young Maniots into a fighting force. Kyriakoulis fought at Kalamata, Methoni, Koroni and was present at the Siege of Tripolitsa operation as commander-in-charge of the Valtetsi headquarters in the incipient revolutionary army.

He successfully defended the camp, twice, in the Battle of Valtetsi, leading a far inferior force to strengthen their positions, allowing new reinforcements to succeed in repelling the Turkish attack.

With the war against Ali Pasha over, the Souliotes - who had sided with the Albanian against the Ottomans - were in mortal danger because of Hursid Pasha's constant attacks and siege. To deal with this, an inexpert commander Alexandros Mavrokordatos, who was not a soldier but a politician and future statesman, chose Kyriakoulis to command an expedition to bring relief and reinforcements.

On his way to Kiafa, his expeditionary force met action with a Turkish vanguard near the seaside village Mourtos, completely defeating their foes and taking a large number of prisoners. His decision to take his captives to imprisonment in the Peloponnesus rather than to massacre them, as was then common, showed his military ethics, but at the same time weakened his already small regiment composed by 500 Maniots plus some Philhellenes, mostly former Bonapartist French soldiers and young romantic Italian revolutionaries.