See also: National Assembly
The First National Assembly of Épidaure (in Greek modern: Α' Εθνοσυνέλευση της Επιδαύρου ) (1821 - 1822) was the first meeting of what nowadays became the Hellenic Parlement. She was a big step of the Guerre of Greek independence.
The assembly
Context
See also: War of Greek independence
The war of Greek independence was a war of liberation against the Othoman occupation.
February 22nd (Julien) /March 6th (Gregorian) 1821, Alexandre Ypsilántis, military Greek with the service of the Tsar of Russia and chief of the Hétairie, crosses the Prout, entering in Moldavie, where he sought to raise the population. The insurrection was started. It took Jassy, without encumbers, the very same day. March 8th, 1821 it published the proclamation which was the official signal of the beginning of the war of Greek independence. But, the Balkan populations did not answer the call to the insurrection of the Greeks. Ypsilántis was beaten by the Ottoman Empire in Moldavie and Valachie after nine months of rough combat. On the Greek territory, the first confrontations took place in the Peloponnese and in Épire. There Ali Pasha de Janina had revolted against the Sultan Mahmud II. It had been combined with the Greek patriots organized in the Hétairie and who prepared national rising since the end of the 18th siècle.
While the Othoman troops tried to reduce Ali Pasha, the Greek insurrection was started in the Peloponnese. It started between the 15 and on March 20th 1821, on all the Northern coast of the Peloponnese (Patras, Vostitsa, Kalavryta) and in the Magne. The March 25th, the archbishop of Patras Germanos, proclaimed the war of liberation nationale.
The first victories had been Greek: from March to September, the Othomans moved back everywhere. September 23rd (Julien) /October 5th (Gregorian) , Theódoros Kolokotrónis had conquered Tripolitza, the capital of Morée. The Greeks were Masters everywhere: the Peloponnese was free, as well as central Greece of Makrinoros to the Thermopyles. The Othomans held nothing any more but Vonitza, Naupacte, Antirrhion and Athens.
The Greeks had organized local governments in the various insurgent areas. A Sénat (or “Gérousia”) of the Peloponnese was set up initially in a spontaneous way at Kalamata in the form of Gérousia de Messénie on April 6th, 1821, then in the mountains of Laconie on June 7th for the whole of the peninsula. It was about an assembly notable (“middle-class man”, priests, war leaders the) representative one but not elected. The notable ones of Étolie and Acarnanie had met as a Parliament of continental Greece of the Occident mid-November with Missolonghi. They had set up a Sénat (or “Gérousia”) of continental Greece of the Occident , directed by Aléxandros Mavrokordátos. It was thus necessary to try to organize the country on a level supérieur.
The Senate of the Peloponnese had set besides like objective the catch of Tripolitza. It had then envisaged to dissolve and convene an assembly for the whole of Greece. The town of Argos had initially been selected to bring together the delegates of all Grèce.
Among the representatives, one counted: twenty landowners, thirteen ship-owners, twelve intellectuals, four war leaders, three members of the high clergy and three merchants.
The representatives of the Greeks were then divided into two parties: that of the “policies” and that of the “captains”.
The party of the policies dominated in the Peloponnese. It had the support of the three islands and the bishops. It was thus dominating in the Parliament of Épidaure at the beginning of work. It was directed by Mavrokordátos what gave him also the support of part of continental Greece of the Occident. The party of the policies was rather liberal, defending the concept of national sovereignty, with Western (January 13rd (Julien) /January 25th (Gregorian) ) the
- the abolition of slavery
- the drafting of a new civil code, while waiting, the Basilica , translation under Leon Wise the, towards 900 of the Corpus juris civilis of Justinien, remained in application, like French Commercial law of 1807.
The Parliament indicated then a legislative Senate of thirty-three members (the sources diverge), whose president was Dimitrios Ypsilantis and the vice-president Petrobey
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