Romanian politician
Portrait of Iancu Manu by Ion Negulici .
Ioan M. Manu , also known as Iancu Manu (1803 – November 29 O.S. , 1874), was a Romanian boyar and politician.
Biography
He was the son of Mihail G. Manu , born into a family of Venetian origins that had moved from Istanbul to Wallachia in the mid-18th century, where it was one of the noble families of Phanariotes . Ioan Manu studied at home and then at the Romanian school of Ion Heliade Rădulescu , Simeon Marcovici and others.
Ioan Manu, 1820s
During the rule of Imperial Russian governor Pavel Kiselyov (see Regulamentul Organic ), he was a prefect of Galaţi , then a prefect of Giurgiu and in 1833, he settled in the capital Bucharest , holding several offices in succession: a Vornic during the reign of Prince Alexandru II Ghica , a secretary of the National Assembly , and an Aga (prefect of police) during the reign of Gheorghe Bibescu (when he organized the first Firefighters ' Corps in Wallachia). In exchange for his leadership during the Great Fire of Bucharest (1847), Manu was awarded a "sword of honour" by the city.
During the 1848 Wallachian Revolution , he fled the country, returning after some time, but staying out of politics for a while. He later became a Postelnic (Foreign Minister) during the reign of Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei . In his political activity, Manu climbed all the boyar ranks, eventually reaching the highest one, that of Great Vornic .
In 1858, after the Crimean War removed the country from Russian overseeing, he was, with Emanoil Băleanu and Ioan Al. Filipescu , one of the three Caimacams who administered Wallachia pending the election of a new prince by the ad hoc Divan . In 1859, he supported the former prince Bibescu instead of Alexandru Ioan Cuza , and, during the latter's rule as Domnitor of the United Principalities , he retired from public life. Manu returned only when Carol I replaced Cuza, being elected a member of the Parliament of Romania in the first electoral college (that of landowners), as a representative of Ilfov County .
References
Dimitrie R. Rosetti, Dicţionarul contimporanilor , Editura Lito-Tipografiei "Populara", 1897
External links
Media related to Ioan Manu at Wikimedia Commons