Sometimes a princely family rises in prominence from fairly humble origins, burns brightly, then disappears. Often this occurs in zones of conflict between great powers, where huge opportunities can be seized by the bold or the crafty. One such family were the Cantemir, ruling princes of Moldavia, then princes of the Russian Empire. Their dynastic history lasts just over one hundred years. They are also interesting in the history of European dukes and princes in that they were—or at least claimed to be—descendants of Mongol khans.
The last three decades of the 17th century was a remarkable period for the Balkan provinces, including Moldavia, a semi-autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire since the late 15th century, as the balance of power between the Christian West and the Muslim East began irretrievably to shift. The first significant defeat of the previously undefeatable armies of the Ottoman Empire, at the siege of Vienna in 1683, was followed by wave after wave of victories led by Habsburg armies, liberating Buda and Belgrade by 1689, and reincorporating the Principality of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Hungary by 1699 (see blog about Transylvanian princes). Further south, the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia remained vassals of the Turks, but a new stirring of Romanian nationalist consciousness was awakened, and a new protector from the far north began to emerge: Orthodox Russia.
One family at the heart of this transformation was the House of Cantemir or Cantemirești. Their time as leaders of Moldavia was fairly brief, but more broadly they were central to this awakening of Romanian and Orthodox identities, as patrons of an emerging Moldavian nationalist literature, and as protected clients of the Russian Empire. They patronised one of the first translations of the Bible into Romanian, for example, and wrote one of the first scholarly histories of the land and its people. Yet they also worked very hard to establish an identity for themselves that was quite different from Romanian or Moldavian, perhaps to position themselves more securely on the international and diplomatic stage as an important family with excellent connections, able to act as middlemen between Ottomans and Russians. Moldavia (today’s Moldova) had to wait until the 19th century to be liberated from Turkish rule—half of it was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1812, while the rest was joined to a newly independent Romania in the 1860s.
Modern genealogical research has established that the Cantemir family originated in Moldavia in the early 16th century, in the area of the hamlet of Silișteni (recently re-named Dimitrie Cantemir), just west of the river Prut, the river that today divides independent Moldova from the Romanian province of Moldavia. Yet the established family tradition, put forth as early as the first years of the 18th century, was that the family were of Tatar origin, descendants of Tamerlane.
Timur (d. 1405), or ‘Timur the Lame’ as he was known to Europeans, was a Mongol khan who founded a great empire in Central Asia and whose descendants dominated both the Persian and Mughal empires for the next three hundred years. The Tatars were kin to the Mongols—both groups were a complex mix of Mongolic and Turkic language and culture—and with the disintegration of the Khanate of the Golden Horde in the 15th century, several Tatar khanates emerged in the areas around the lower Volga and north of the Black Sea. One of these, the Crimean Khanate, remained a powerful force well into the 18th century, though from 1475 they were formally vassals of the Ottomans, just like the Christian princes of the Balkans. This area was known to European writers as ‘Tartary’.
Demetrius Cantemir, in his History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire—a book he wrote about 1715, and which was eventually translated and published in England (1734)—said himself that his surname was derived from can-temur, the ‘blood of Timur’. Other sources suggest an ancestor called ‘Khan Temir’. Why choose this as a family’s ancestor? In the early 18th century, Tamerlane was an incredibly popular figure in theatre and opera, and represented the oldest enemies of the Ottoman Turks—a factor perhaps the author thought might bring him favour at the Russian court. Demetrius suggested that a warrior named Cantemir from the Crimea moved to Moldavia to aid the army of Prince Stephen the Great (r. 1457-1504) in his fight against the Turks. Indeed, Cantemir does not appear to be a Moldavian name. The idea of Tatar origins had emerged earlier in Demetrius’ career, when he was in service of the Ottomans, perhaps as a qualification to allow him to serve as a diplomat to the Crimean Khan, but later, once he had sought asylum in the Russian Empire, playing up a claim to having Tatar origins may have been a strategy to obtain princely rank, as there was already a precedent for the nobility from former sovereign Tatar and Mongol dynasties being recognised as princes once they were annexed by Russia. Yet Prince Demetrius Cantemir also considered himself to be thoroughly Moldavian, and his children added another dynastic layer, the idea of Byzantine ancestry through their Cantacuzene mother. Whatever the truth of their origins, the facts show that by the early 17th century, the family were minor boyar landowners on the middle Prut valley, not too far south of the principality’s capital, Jassy.
The first to bear the name Cantemir for certain was Constantine (‘the Old’) (1612-1693) who served as a mercenary in the Polish army fighting against Tatars and Swedes. From the 1660s, he switched allegiances and served in the Ottoman armies against Austria. He rose to become governor of a town, then prefect of a district back in Moldavia, and in 1681 was named Grand Sommelier to the Prince of Moldavia (Gheorghe Duca). He married three times, each time to a cousin of the reigning prince, and mostly to grand heiresses, so by the 1680s he was a very wealthy man, and respected by both Moldavian high nobility and the Ottoman authorities. Indeed, in 1672 and 1676 he served as a personal guide to Sultan Mehmet IV in his campaigns against the Poles. Due to these personal connections in both Jassy and Istanbul, Constantine Cantemir was chosen by the boyars to be Prince of Moldavia in 1685 (age 73, hence the nickname ‘the Old’), soon confirmed by the Sultan. His older son, Antiochus, was sent to the Sultan’s court to ‘ensure loyalty’, and when the Poles invaded the Balkans in 1686 and 1691, Prince Constantine assured them of his Christian faith, but did not betray his master the Sultan. Yet in 1690, he did make a secret treaty with Emperor Leopold, saying that if the Austrians could successfully occupy his principality, he would submit to Imperial authority, in return for confirmation that his son would succeed to his throne.
In March 1693, old Prince Constantine Cantemir died, and the boyars chose as prince of Moldavia his second son, Demetrius (age 19), since the elder son was still in Istanbul. His reign lasted only three weeks, as the Sultan objected and replaced him with Constantine Duca. Demetrius (Dimitrie in Moldavian) was ordered to move to Istanbul where he would remain as a ‘guest’ for the next seventeen years. Here he lived in the Moldavian residence, the Boğdan Saray (or Bogdania Palace), in the northeast quarter of the city—the Greek Orthodox district of Phanarion, today’s Fener, near the great western wall. Built in at least the 14th century (possibly the 12th) Bogdania Palace remained a residence for Christian diplomats to the Ottoman Empire until it was mostly destroyed by fire in the 1780s, and was completely in ruins by the end of the 19th century.
Back in 1695, Demetrius’ brother Antiochus (Antioh in Moldavian) became Prince of Moldavia, and established his rule in the capital of Jassy. Demetrius thus acted as his brother’s agent in Istanbul (and a willing hostage to ensure loyalty). The treaty of Karlowitz (1699) between the Austrians and the Ottomans was a major humiliation for the Turks, so in retrenching their power in the Balkans, Prince Antiochus Cantemir was replaced in 1700—but he was restored in 1705, then deposed again in 1707, and also brought to live in Istanbul.
While Demetrius was in Istanbul, several marriages were proposed for him by the Sultan: a Brancovan, a Mavrocordatos, but in 1700 he married Cassandra, daughter of a former Prince of Wallachia, Serban Cantacuzeno (d. 1688). The Romanian Cantacuzeno family claimed descent from the noble Byzantine house of Kantakouzenos (who contributed two emperors in the 14th century), and Prince Serban had reputedly made plans for allying with the West, marching on Constantinople, and claiming the Byzantine throne. This marriage alliance would certainly boost the prestige of the new Cantemir dynasty. Demetrius engaged with the local Orthodox scholarly community in Istanbul, studied their art and literature, and became a musician and composer too, Stating on good terms with the Ottomans, he also became one of the few Christians who was an accepted part of the artistic patronage network of the Sultan, Ahmed III, and a welcome visitor to his court.
(the modern music ensemble ‘Constantinople’ plays music composed by Demetrius Cantemir at the Ottoman court: https://constantinople.ca/en/creations/dimitrie-cantemir-the-composer-prince/ )
In 1710, perhaps due to this closeness and trust, Sultan Ahmed appointed Demetrius once more as Prince of Moldavia. War was about to start, this time from a different direction: the north. While peace with Austria and Western Europe had been established in 1699, the Russian Empire, led by a young and vigorous Tsar Peter I, was just getting started as an aggressive military power. Peter dreamed of re-establishing an Orthodox monarchy on the Bosporus, and, having defeated his great northern enemy, Sweden, at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, was now ready to fight for this dream in the south. Probably due to this external threat, Demetrius as Prince of Moldavia was given extra distinctions than his predecessors had been, for example, the title of pasha with three queues (rather than the ordinary two); an expensive and honorific caftan made of many colours and gold and silver thread; and an exemption from the usual tributes and gifts demanded by Ottoman overlords. So he returned to Jassy. Here he tried to establish a more authoritarian rule over the boyars, and tried to get the rich monasteries to support the war financially. But an intellectual reformer was not received well in conservative Moldavia, and his attempts were mostly blocked.
War was declared by Russia in February 1711. In April, Prince Demetrius surprised everyone by signing his own separate treaty with Tsar Peter: Russia would agree to liberate Moldavia and support a hereditary ruler there (with expanded borders and no tribute to Russia); but also would protect Cantemir and his family if the invasion was unsuccessful, and would grant him lands and palaces in Russia equivalent to those he would certainly lose in the Ottoman domains. It was a great gamble. In early June, Russian troops entered the principality, and by the end of the month, Demetrius declared war on the Sultan. Peter himself came to Jassy and was entertained by Demetrius and his court. But the Moldavian army was small, and only the Russian avant-garde had arrived and was quickly surrounded by the massive Ottoman army and its Crimean Tatar allies. The allied Russo-Moldavian troops were crushed at Stănilești on the Prut on the 22nd of July. Peter made a quick treaty with the Sultan (a humiliation, losing the great prize, the port of Azov), and whisked Prince Demetrius away—some said he was hidden in the carriage of the Empress Catherine.
In August, Peter accorded his new ally, and now protected refugee, the title ‘Prince of Russia’ (with the rank of ‘Serene Highness’), augmented his coat-of-arms with a Russian double-headed eagle, and pledged to return one day to Moldavia to restore his throne. He was soon given the estates confiscated from a Russian traitor near Kharkov (and promised tax exemptions on these lands), and was given the task to rebuilt that city (now Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine). This estate of about 57 villages (and 15,000 serfs) was centred on the estate of Komarichoia, on the main road between Kiev and Moscow. Here the Prince built a wooden manor, a mill and a Romanian Orthodox church in a village he renamed for himself, Dmitrovska (later called Dmitrovsk; now in Russia according to today’s borders). Prince Demetrius also was given an estate at Solomino (on the Donets, to the east). A small colony of Moldavians was formed, consisting of about 4,000 soldiers, boyars and administrators who had accompanied Demetrius and still considered him their hospodar, or prince (the Tsar allowed him to exercise jurisdiction over these people). But after about a year, most of these returned to Moldavia, and Demetrius was ordered to move to Moscow. The family was given a stone residence in Moscow (a big deal in a city still mostly built of wood), and the Prince built a new Romanian style church which would become the family sepulchre. His sons were soon given positions in the Russian court and in the prestigious Preobrazhensky Guard. Their integration process into the Russian aristocracy had begun.
But there remained hope of a return to Moldavia: in 1716, the Austrians defeated the Ottomans, and Demetrius’s brother-in-law, Gheorghe Cantacuzeno, defected to the Austrian camp. Prince Cantemir tried to get Tsar Peter to grant him a passport (and funds) to go raise an army of support in the Balkans, but his request was denied, and by 1718, the Austrians made a new peace treaty.
By this point, Peter the Great’s interests were focused on building his ‘window to the west’, the new city of Saint Petersburg, and Prince Demetrius Cantemir was not far behind. He purchased an estate a bit to the south of the new city, Chornye Griazi, which later, in the 1770s, was purchased by Catherine II and transformed into the Imperial summer residence town of Tsarskoe Selo. In the newly emerging city, the Prince built a small wooden house on the banks of the Neva, which he replaced in 1720/21 with a grand palace of marble, one of the first Russian commissions for the Italian architect Francesco Rastrelli (later famous for Smolny Cathedral and the Winter Palace). This residence was built next to the Summer Palace, so was one of the most in-demand sites (in what later became known as ‘Millionaire Street’) and therefore passed through many hands, purchased first by Catherine the Great in 1762, then remodelled by later owners in the 19th century before becoming—perhaps ironically—the Turkish Embassy in the years leading up to the First World War. This was a busy period for Prince Cantemir as an intellectual—he wrote twelve books between 1711 and 1723, mostly histories of Romania and the Ottoman Empire. He was elected as a member of the Academy of Berlin in 1714.
In 1720, Demetrius married for a second time, Princess Anastasia, daughter of Prince Ivan Trubetskoi, one of the inner circle of Peter the Great. He shaved his beard and adopted Western dress. He tried to use his great favour with the Tsar to hatch a plan to rescue his brother Antiochus from Istanbul, with French naval assistance, but Peter was not interested in provoking the Sultan again. In 1721, Cantemir was named a Privy Councillor and Senator of the Empire, and it is suggested by some historians that it was in this capacity as Senator that he proposed the idea of formally recognising Peter as ‘Emperor’ (which they did in November). This was his way of gently reminding Peter that his true destiny lay in reconquering Constantinople and restoring the Orthodox faith (and his own principality). At the about this time, the Holy Roman Emperor recognised (or created) Prince Cantemir as a prince of the Empire—perhaps as a means of encouraging an alliance with Russia and intervention in this Balkans against the Ottomans. Indeed, in May 1722, a large Russian army did march out, and headed south, but not to the Bosporus; Peter intended to subdue the region north of the Caucasus Mountains, and Demetrius was brought along as a special advisor and interpreter—and a composer of propaganda messages in courtly Turkish to be distributed amongst the local chiefs. The Russian troops had some successes in Dagestan, but were blocked by the Persian governor in Baku, and soon returned north. By the end of the campaign, Prince Demetrius was very ill; he retired to his estates at Dmitrovka where he died in August 1723.
Demetrius Cantemir’s will was very confusing, leaving the choice of the main heir to Emperor Peter, who died before he could make it. It wasn’t until 1729 that the court confirmed the eldest son, Constantine (1703-1747), as the heir. He was already in favour, having been married since 1727 to Princess Anastasia Golitsyna, daughter of the minister-favourite of Emperor Peter II. The youngest son, Antiochus (1708-1744), instead became the intellectual heir of his father, and went on to establish his name across Europe as a member of the Enlightened ‘Republic of Letters’. He supported Empress Anna Ivanovna in her coup against the old aristocracy in 1730, and in 1731 was appointed ambassador to London (aged only 22!—it is possible he was in fact being sent away from the court, as someone who had witnessed the secrets of the coup). In London he helped bring about a new treaty of friendship between Great Britain and Russia in 1734, and was gradually pulled towards making similar efforts in Paris (where tensions were heating up with Russia over Poland), though he was not formally ambassador there until 1738. Antiochus Cantemir’s job was to secure France’s recognition of his master’s title of ‘emperor’ (which they refused to do), and to keep France from allying with the Ottomans if a new war broke out.
A new war did break out between Russia and the Ottomans in 1739, and Russian troops entered Moldavia. With this army was Prince Constantine Cantemir, who was proposed as its new ruling prince. But once again, peace was soon brokered, Moldavia was returned to Ottoman rule, and the port of Azov returned to Russia.
In 1742, it was rumoured that Antiochus Cantemir was to be recalled from France, by the new empress (Elizabeth Petrovna), and named President of the Russian Academy, in recognition of his reputation as a writer. He is revered as one of the founders of modern Russian poetry, and left behind various publications of poetry and prose, re-edited his father’s historical works, and wrote an epic history of Peter the Great. He had indeed done very much to improve the view most westerners had of Russia. But instead of receiving this post, he was instead confirmed in his post as ambassador to France, then suddenly died in Spring 1744.
Prince Demetrius’ daughters also swiftly established themselves in Russian high society. Princess Maria is thought to have been a mistress of Peter I while he was on the Caucasus campaign of 1722/23 (and possibly had a child by him). Perceived as a threat by Peter’s wife Catherine, she was sent away from court, but later obtained posts as lady-in-waiting to Grand Duchess Natalia in 1727-28 (sister of Peter II) and to Empress Anna in 1730-31. She never married, but was a salon hostess in Saint Petersburg with her widowed step-mother. The much younger Princess Catherine (born in Russia in 1720) obtained a position at court as lady-in-waiting to Empress Elizabeth, and was a well-known beauty (known as ‘Smaragda’ (emerald), and an admired keyboardist. She eventually married Prince Dmitri Golitsyn in a grand ceremony at the Russian court, and went with him to Versailles where he was posted in the embassy and later named ambassador (1760). A year later he was posted as ambassador to Vienna, but she died in France before they departed.
The eldest brother, Prince Constantine, was also involved with the Golitsyn family: he married one (as we’ve seen), and was caught up in their disgrace when they tried to limit the powers of Empress Anna on her accession in 1730. He was exiled to Siberia for a time, then died childless in 1747, so the estates were divided between his surviving brothers Sergei and Matvei. Neither of these made much of a mark in Russian history, and neither had children, so in 1780, the Cantemir estates reverted to the Crown, and not to the descendants of Prince Antiochus (senior; who had died in Moldavia in 1726), who had finally come to Russia during the war of 1736-39.
Of these, Prince Constantine became a Russian general, and was succeeded by his son, Dmitri (1749-1820), a colonel who participated in yet another Russian occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1768/74. In 1773, he was named head of the council to administer the region of Oltenia (part of Wallachia), but he left in disgrace and was later confined due to madness. He left no successors.
Today the family name lives on thorough the Russian town of Kantemirovka (in Voronezh Oblast; formerly known as Konstantinovka, named for Prince Constantine); and the town of Cantemir in Moldova (named as such in 1967), not to mention the town of Dimitrie Cantemir in the Moldavian part of Romania, as above. One of the daughters of General Constantine married a prominent Wallachian nobleman, and their descendants, who took the name Câmpineanu-Cantemir, were leaders of the liberal movement in Romania in the later 19th century. There was a Romanian film about Prince Demetrius in 1973, and occasionally, original works of Prince Antiochus turn on at antique book sales.
(images Wikimedia Commons)
Dukes and Princes 