George Barbu Știrbei
As a protege of Prince Grigore IV Ghica in the 1820s, George's grandfather Dumitrachi married Ecaterina, a member of the Văcărescu family, and made friends with her tutor, Vornic Barbu C. Știrbei.[6][7] When his son was born, Barbu Bibescu-Știrbei was merely a Clucer, trailing behind his more ambitious brother Gheorghe;[8] his climb was moreover interrupted by the Russian Empire, with its invasion of Wallachia.His graduation from the latter came in August 1850, when he published with Firmin Didot his thesis De Condictione indebite ou Des obligations qui se forment sans contrat.During that interval, his sister Elena married count Leo Larisch von Mönnich from Cieszyn Silesia; George and his mother sailed to Vienna to attend the wedding.[21] Russia's defeat restored his father to the throne, allowing Știrbei to be decommissioned and to return home; Wallachia and Moldavia had by then been placed under international supervision, ending Regulamentul Organic.From Bucharest, George Știrbei left on new diplomatic tours, visiting Moldavia and approaching its Prince, Grigore Alexandru Ghica; he also had contacts with Austria through Count Coronini.[38] At the time, the Beizadea approached France's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys, asking him to provide training for Wallachian militias in the event of war with the Ottomans;[31] he also obtained the recall of a hostile consul, Eugène Poujade.[39] Through his son, Prince Barbu also communicated his plans for establishing the "United Principalities" of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Southern Bessarabia, with perpetual neutrality and full independence, to guard the mouths of the Danube against Russian encroachment.[40] Drouyn de Lhuys promised to uphold these principles at the subsequent Vienna Conference of 1855, but modified them crucially, endorsing instead Moldavia and Wallachia's annexation by Austria, in exchange for a Franco–Austrian alliance treaty; this project failed to materialize.[21] Attending the Paris Peace Conference in 1856, the Beizadea resigned himself to the discovery that his father's mandate would not be renewed, and from that point on demanded that a foreign dynasty be placed on Wallachia's throne.[41] Expatriate Moldavian author V. A. Urechia claimed that, in order to secure the "moldy throne" of Wallachia, young Știrbei was actively courting Count von Buol's daughter, Josephine.[42] Appointed Caimacam in July 1856, Alexandru II Ghica immediately ordered State Secretary Plagino and Spatharios Știrbei to be stripped of their offices, and announced a formal investigation of the deposed regime, which caused an uproar among the Știrbeists.[54] A set of circumstances, utilized to its advantage by the National Party, resulted in the election to the throne of a Moldavian, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, as Domnitor of both countries—now officially the "United Principalities".[59] The policies supported by Știrbei already blended with those of extreme conservatism: he and Florescu proposed an illiberal press law, drawing protests from their fellow deputy, the journalist Cezar Bolliac.Already in July 1859, while seemingly vacationing at Mont-Dore-les-Bains, Beizadea Știrbei attacked Cuza in a protest paper addressed to the foreign powers, alleging that the new regime equated anarchy.[73] In effect, the Știrbeis' protector, Kiselyov, who was by then the Russian Ambassador to France, pledged some support for bringing the Principalities under a foreign-born Domnitor; George saw Nicholas Maximilianovich de Beauharnais as the most worthy choice for the throne.[56] Together, Știrbei, Alexandru Constantin Moruzi and Manolache Costache Epureanu pushed the Assembly into a deadlock, filibustering over Cuza's attempt to introduce a copyhold (embatic), set aside for landless peasants and supplied from the monastery land reserve.[75] In July 1861, Știrbei and Catargiu, who was by then the Prime Minister of Romania, reviewed with alarm a meeting of the left-wing liberals on Filaret Hill, which had demanded increased political representation.[78] During the interview, the Beizadea expressed his worries that Cuza was an all-out radical who cultivated a friendship with the "socialist" Rosetti, noting that he and the entire landowning class were threatened with physical extermination.Alongside a bipartisan committee (comprising Rosetti, Brătianu, Panu, Ion Ghica, Anton I. Arion, Grigore Arghiropol and Nicolae Golescu), he now supported the sale of state land to the landless."[93] Publicly, Știrbei Sr had joined a group of former dignitaries in offering some financial support to Cuza's promise of land reform, donating to a compensatory fund for the monastery estates.[94] By April, the process was blocked: according to Aghiuță, the Assembly uncharacteristically decided that a vote on expropriation could not take place as long as a number of deputies, including both Panu and Beizadea Știrbei, were absent from the proceedings.In the aftermath, Cuza began sending out signals that he intended to establish a Romanian dynasty, allowing references to his illegitimate son, Alexandru "Sașa", as "heir to the throne".In his note to Drouyn de Lhuys, Știrbei spoke about the "compact and homogeneous race" of Romanians settled "from the Dniester down to the Theiss", united in the aspiration of becoming a single national polity.In September, his father, who was living his final years in Nice, made a show of his loyalty by visiting Carol in Bucharest, pledging his and his sons' "industrious and faithful" support.Its magazine, Ghimpele, claimed that Știrbei was a comical man, "stuffed on princely might and pride", whose activity as minister amounted to "continuously advising the empires" on how to handle Romania.[111] Știrbei was residing in Nice by February 1868, when he attended a gala for the European Squadron, alongside Alfred Le Roux, Ludwig II of Bavaria, and the Duke of Parma."[124] During the cultural purge that followed the proclamation of a Third French Republic, Știrbei protected and sponsored sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, the aging Bonapartist,[125] purchasing his various works.[134] He built up the rest of his art collection with samples from other artists, notably Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Giulio Bergonzoli, Emilio Zocchi, and Valérie Simonin.[152] From the 1880s onward, he had slowly divided his art objects between the Louvre, the École des Beaux-Arts, and the Angers and Valenciennes Museums; others remained preserved at their original location in Bécon.
Georges Achille FouldForeign Minister of the Principality of RomaniaCarol IPetre MavrogheniȘtefan GolescuBucharestWallachiaValérie SimoninConsuelo FouldBarbu Dimitrie ȘtirbeiAlexandru B. ȘtirbeiGheorghe BibescuIon Emanuel FlorescuAlexandru PlaginoAntoine BibescoGeorge Valentin BibescuEliza BrătianuBarbu ȘtirbeyAnna de NoaillesWallachian militiaCrimean Wartransitional CyrillicFrancizedWallachianRomanianMinister of Foreign AffairsPrince of WallachiaBeizadeaFrench EmpireSpathariosUnited PrincipalitiesDolj CountyDomnitorAlexandru Ioan Cuzatoppled in 1866Carol of HohenzollernAustria-HungaryPrime Minister of Romanianaturalized FrenchJean-Baptiste CarpeauxConsueloboyar nobilityOlteniaPhanariotesRegulamentul OrganicGrigore IV GhicaVăcărescu familyVornicElisabetaCantacuzino familyMoldaviaClucerRussian Empireinvasion of WallachiaAlexandru II GhicaWesternizingPavel KiselyovDanubian PrincipalitiesBonapartistAlecu Filipescu-VulpeaAlexandruKingdom of FranceLycée Louis-le-GrandBaccalauréatCollège de FranceParis Law FacultyFirmin DidotFrench Revolution of 1848Wallachian Revolution1842 electionOttoman EmpireWallachian military forcesTelegaSaint PetersburgHermannstadtIstanbulNicolas IKings of AssyriaCostache CaragialeBucharest TheaterPostelnicIoan ManuCieszyn SilesiaViennathe Baroness WallerseeLogotheteMikhail Dmitrievich GorchakovFrench ArmyVersaillesaide de campSecond French EmpireRoyal Sardinian ArmyAustrian EmpireGreat BritainKingdom of PrussiaPiedmont-SardiniaPrinceGrigore Alexandru GhicaCount CoroniniPrussian Military AcademyMilitary School of Saint-CyrTheodor AmanRomani slavesCzernowitzEmperorFranz JosephÉdouard Drouyn de LhuysCossackOttoman soldiersupportersIn crestredroot pigweedSouthern Bessarabiamouths of the DanubeParis Peace ConferenceKronstadtOltenițaV. A. UrechiaCount von BuolCaimacamGrigore AlexandrescuNational Partyad-hoc DivanSeptember 1857 raceRomanați Countythaler