Elisavet Ypsilanti

Elisavet Ypsilanti (Ελισάβετ Υψηλάντη; Elisabeta Văcărescu; 1768-1866) was a Greek aristocrat and an important figure during the pre-revolutionary period of 1821.

Biography
Elisavet Ypsilanti was born in 1768 in Iași, Moldavia. She was the daughter of Prince Constantin Văcărescu and Safta Kretzulescu. She came from the Văcărescu family, an important family of Moldavia originally from Northern Epirus.

She became a second wife of the ruler of Moldavia Constantine Ypsilantis. Together they had 7 children, the first of whom were the fighters and filikoi Alexandros, Dimitrios and Nikolaos:
 * Aikaterini 1791-1835
 * Alexandros 1792-1828, leader of Filiki Eteria
 * Dimitrios 1793-1832, member of Filiki Eteria
 * Nikolaos 1796-1833, leader of the Sacred Band
 * Maria 1798/1802-1846, wife of A. Schina
 * Georgios 1801-1829
 * Grigorios 1805-1835

Elisavet was called the "First Lady of Filikoi", as during the years of preparation for the Greek Revolution of 1821, she was the person who organized the preliminary meetings of personalities of the time in her salons, under the guise of literary meetings, which eventually led to the establishment of Filiki Eteria, of which she herself was probably one of the first female members.

It is said that in the house of this particular family, in the presence of Elisavet, the filikoi gathered in February 1821 to decide on the start of the revolution and to prepare the relevant declaration.

After the death of her husband in 1816 and the confiscation of the property of the Ypsilantis family by the Sultan, Elisavet was one of the main sponsors of the Greek Revolution, for which she offered the rest of her property. The result was that she fell into great poverty. Despite all the privations, however, she continued to support the vision of national liberation in every way.

She died in Odesa on 2 October 1866.