KAPODISTRIAS IOANNIS: (1776-1831) Greek Count and Statesman. One of the most distinguished diplomats of Europe. ...

KAPODISTRIAS IOANNIS: (1776-1831) Greek Count and Statesman. One of the most distinguished diplomats of Europe. First Head of State of independent Greece 1827-31. Widely considered the founder of the modern Greek state. Kapodistrias also served as the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Russian Empire 1816-22 under Alexander I, and was succeeded by Count Nesselrode. A very good L.S. `Kapodystrias´, with flourish and with holograph sentence above signature, four pages, 4to, St. Petersburg, 3rd/15th February 182o, to Prince Kozlowski, Stuttgart, in French. Kapodistrias states in part `The Emperor is aware of the content of your particularly confidential letter which you honoured me with.. You expressed to me your wish of leaving the service in order to take care of your health, somewhere in southern territories, and to obtain a life pension through the magnificence of His Imperial Majesty. I am authorized, my Prince, to announce to you that your three wishes have been granted to you.´ Kapodistrias further refers to the way Prince Kozlowski should present his demission, and states `Your successor has been designated. It is Mr. the General de Benkendorff who is at this time travelling in Italy…´, further again referring to this task which the Emperor has requested him, and to the respect and confidence his correspondent inspires. Before concluding Kapodistrias reports the amount granted as life pension `Adieu, my Prince, respond to me by the courier, and send to the Ministry a dispatch with which we will be able to issue the Ukase of your demission with the benefit of three thousand roubles, enhanced yearly, as life pension.´ With a holograph two lines `Accept my Prince the assurance of my sincere and invariable friendship´ in Kapodistrias´ hand. An interesting letter showing the eloquence and diplomatic skills of Kapodistrias. Small overall age wear, with two small stains and tear to the second sheet bottom edge, not affecting the text or signature. G to VG Prince Piotr Borisovich Kozlovsky (1783-1840) Russian Diplomat and a man of letters. In 1807, after the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit, Kozlovsky helped a group of French officers escape English captivity, for which he was awarded the Cross of the Légion d´Honneur by the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Kozlowski was close to Chateubriand and de Lamennais, under whose influence secretly converted to Catholicism from Russian Orthodoxy. In 1818, he was appointed ambassador simultaneously to the Kingdom of Wurttemberg in Stuttgart and the Grand Duchy of Baden, but in 1820 a political dispute with the Russian government, caused by his public defense of the beginnings of democratic government in these states, led to his resignation and self-imposed exile, although he continued to receive his pension. After the new government of Tsar Nicholas I, the new Tsar almost halved his pension in 1827. The present letter shows the diplomatic way the demission was suggested and accepted.