Historian and radical leader of the Wallachian Revolution of 1848 who argued for land reform and universal suffrage
Born in 1819 into a family of low-ranking nobility in Bucharest, he was imprisoned for two years after a conspiracy of 1840 against Prince Alexandru II Ghica and contracted tuberculosis there. After his release he led the secret society Frăția, edited a historical magazine and wrote for land reform that would take the boyars' large estates for landless peasants. In Paris in 1846 he led the Society of Romanian Students. After taking part in the rising in France in 1848 he returned to Bucharest for the June revolution and was for two days minister and secretary of state of the provisional government. Arrested by the Ottoman authorities in September and expelled from Transylvania, he met Kossuth at Debrecen in May 1849 to mediate between the Hungarian government and Avram Iancu's Romanian force. He died of tuberculosis in exile in Palermo in 1852.
Also known as: Nicolae Balcescu
Activities and affiliations
- 1844–1852
- 1848
Career Timeline
- 1836Joined the Wallachian Army
- 1840–1842Imprisoned in Mărgineni Monastery for the plot against Prince Ghica
- 1844Co-editor of Magazin istoric pentru Dacia
- 1848Minister and secretary of state of the Wallachian provisional government
- 1849Mediated between Kossuth and the Transylvanian Romanians at Debrecen
Related historical events
- 1848.03–1849.10The Hungarian Revolution and War of IndependenceWallachian revolutionary who negotiated with KossuthMet Kossuth at Debrecen in May 1849 and tried to mediate between the Hungarian government and the Transylvanian Romanians.
- 1848–1849The Revolutions of 1848Radical leader of the Wallachian revolutionAs minister in the provisional government he argued for land reform and universal suffrage, and in 1849 tried to mediate between Kossuth and the Romanians.