Name Alexios Alexis | ||
Alexios Alexis (1692-1786) was a Cretan from Lassithi Plateau on the island of Crete. He played a major role in the Cretan wars for independence. Due to his patriotism and his ninety-four year life, Alexios managed to establish contact with people so that a lasting and solid mutual trust was formed quickly. Stories of his life still resound through the country. His father was the nobleman Misser Alexis (1637 - ? ). Alexios led a large and eminent family and some of his descendents reached high ranks in Hellas and abroad. A few could be named as Nicholas Alexios Alexis, Antonios Papadakis, Ismail Selim Pasha, the Army General Ioannis Sotiris Alexakis, but there were many others.
Contents
Early life, Ottoman rule, retaliations and causes
In 1692, when Alexios was born in the village of Potamous and just an infant, some Ottoman Turks beat his fifty-five years old father almost to death and pursued everyone named Alexis. Furthermore, the entire fortune of the Alexis family was confiscated. Because of that, the two older brothers, Manolis and Yiannis (aged 22 to 29), retaliated and war began in Zenia, a nearby village in Lassithi Plateau, forcing them to move Alexios from Potamous to Marmaketo to save him from vengeance.
Years later, after Alexios had grown up in the village named Marmaketo, he regained some of the estates of his father which had been seized and illegally sold by the Turks. The Christian villagers, who had bought Alexis’ property from the Turks, rushed to return it to Alexios Alexis whenever he appeared in their villages. For years Alexios Alexis moved about; from Marmaketo to Houmeriako, Psychro, Mirabello, Viannos, Malia, Megalo Kastro-Heraklion and elsewhere. On these trips through the towns he wore simple clothes to avoid attention; he had but one fellow-traveller who rode on a donkey, while Alexios walked ahead of him, incognito. This role-playing was to avert the Turks’ attention and to pass unnoticed.
The struggle against the Ottoman rule, his role
His walking journeys and mountain hikes had also another much more important reason. Thereby he communicated with other prominent Cretans with whom he discussed, collaborated and planned the revolutionary uprising of Crete against the Ottoman tyranny. Until a very advanced age, Alexios travelled up and down the treacherously steep roads with donkey that connected the mountainous Lassithi Plateau with the surrounding provinces on both sides of the Mount Dikti (2148m).
Leadership and national contributions
Alexios, enjoyed respect from his countrymen, especially from Lassithi where he was appreciated for several reasons: He was kind, generous and had a national vision; members of his large family, were constantly hounded by the oppressors; the name Alexis was considered a Byzantine name and Byzantine names were deemed to be a link between Hellenism and Byzantine culture; his father had, in Lassithi and elsewhere, estates such as orchards and hereditary fiefs from the Byzantine period (961-1204), most of which were given to the Prefectures; he donated property (a Byzantine feudal estate) in Viannos, to become a resort in Crete. Byzantine nobleman Alexis Kallergis and his family (formerly the Phokas family) used Lassithi as a base during the Cretan revolutions of 1283 and 1364. According to tradition, the Alexis family had an affinity with the Cretan Callergi or (Kallergi) family, which had many members named Alexis and, like other legendary freedom fighters of Crete, were patriotic people involved with issues and beliefs that benefited their homeland. Alexis’ largesse also involved donating properties to the Monastery of Agias Pelagias and the Crystallenias or (Croustallenias) Monastery
Marriages and adult life
In 1715 Alexios married his first wife who was from Kritsa. She bore him six children, three sons and three daughters. She died in 1735. In 1737 he remarried but his second wife, named Chryssie, did not procreate. In 1760, at 68 years of age, he remarried for the third time. She, much younger than he, was Annezina from Simi and gave birth to a child named Nicholas. This son Nicholas Alexios Alexis (1761-1818), later became the priest in the nearby village of Magoulas and father of fourteen children.
The immediate aftermath
The six children of Alexios from his first wife were persecuted and forced into exile by the Ottomans or had to move to other places where they assumed different names in order to hide and survive. However, the first son was killed by the Turks in the village named Farsaro. The other two sons and three daughters by his first wife were married in Kritsa and Psychro. They had four sons: Marcos settled in the village of Farsaro, Nicholas in Myrtos and later settled in Psychro; Alexios in Karavados and then in Psychro; and the Captain Manolis Alexis changed his name to Manolis Kazanis in Kritsa.
A revered figure with a national reputation
Due to his renowned family name and his great age, he was known towards the end of his life in Crete and in Venice as Alexisthe elder. Descendants of Alexios Alexis were explorers, scientists, benefactors and/or national donors. Members of his descendants' large families were fighters during Cretan wars for Liberty in 1841, 1867, 1878, 1889, 1895 - 1898, 1912, 1914 - 1918, 1940 - 1944. Here are some of his grandsons, great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons: Alexandris N. Alexis(1790-1820); Alexis of Maleviziou was said to be the one who signed on 14/10/1830 the letter for peace sent to La Fayette; the warrior chieftain, Captain Nicholas Papadakis-Alexis(1860-1913); the General Ioannis Sotiris Alexakis (1885-1980) who liberated Thessaloniki; and other historical personalities in Hellas and abroad. Alexios’ father, Misser Alexis, born while Crete was part of the Venetian Republic, is mentioned in historical documents and archives in Venice, Ca' Vendramin Calergi Library.
Note
"Lassithi has small villages, but all have God’s gift. Small villages, which gave birth to great men" (M. Dialinas).
Footnote
All reference material and information mentioned above or below can be found in The National Library of Greece, Athens, http://www.nlg.gr or in Vikelaia Municipal Library, Tel: 2810-409702 and 2810-301543, Crete, http://www.vikelaia.gr