Mihail Sturdza
Mihail Sturdza, sometimes anglicized as Michael Stourdza, was prince of Moldavia from 1834 to 1849. He was cousin of Roxandra Sturdza and Alexandru Sturdza.Biography
A man of liberal education, he established in Iași, the Academia Mihăileană, the first University in Romania, a institution of higher education, and the precursor of the University of Iași. He brought scholars from foreign countries to act as teachers, and gave a very powerful stimulus to the educational development of the country.
In 1844 he decreed the emancipation of the Gypsies. Until then the Gypsies had been treated as slaves and owned by the Church or by private landowners; they had been bought and sold in the open market.
He attempted the secularization of monastic establishments, which was carried out by Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1864, and the utilization of their endowments for national purposes.
He quelled the attempted Moldavian Revolution of 1848 without bloodshed by arresting all the few conspirators and expelling them from the country.
His first wife was Elena Rosetti.
His second wife was Princesse Smaragda Vogoridis, a Bulgarian aristocrat, daughter of Stefan Bogoridi, ruler of Samos.
He vacationed with his family annually at Baden in Germany. When his and Vogoride's 16-year-old son was killed in Paris there in 1863, he erected a Greek Orthodox church on Michaelsberg to serve as his crypt.Gallery
