Soutzos family
File:Soutzos arms (Constantin M. Suțu version).svg]]
The House of Soutzos or Soutsos ({{langx|el|Σούτσος}} or {{lang|el|Σούτζος}}, {{langx|ro|Suțu}} or {{lang|ro|Sutzu}}) was a Phanariote family which grew into prominence and power in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) during the last centuries of Ottoman Empire and gave several hospodars to the Danubian Principalities, like Alexandros Soutzos, Michael (I) Drakos Soutzos and Michael (II) Soutzos.{{Cite web| title=Famille Suţu / Sutzu / Soutzo | url=http://ghika.org/Familles/Soutzo/Sutzu_01.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919004449/http://ghika.org/Familles/Soutzo/Sutzu_01.pdf | archive-date=2013-09-19}}Livre d'or de la noblesse phanariote et des familles princières de Valachie et de Moldavie. Par E. R. R. [i.e. E. Rhizos Rhankabej.] Deuxième édition. Athenes, 1904Dictionnaire historique et généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople, Paris: L'Auteur, 1983
History
The origins of the Soutzos family are unclear. Some authors theorize Albanian{{Cite book |last1=A ́goston |first1=Ga ́bor |title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire |last2=Masters |first2=Bruce Alan |date=2008 |publisher=Infobase Publishing, NY |isbn=978-0-8160-6259-1 |page=458}} "...the Ghikas and Soutsos families were of Albanian origin..." or Byzantine Greek descent for the family,{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=Peter C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=flEMQoDtZtkC |title=The Canadian Establishment |date=1989 |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |isbn=978-0-7710-6778-5 |pages=474 |language=en |quote=The Soutzo family were Phanariots, Greeks of Byzantine descent}}{{Cite book |last=Daskalov |first=Roumen Dontchev |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/851157146 |title=Entangled Histories of the Balkans : Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. |date=2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-1-299-69103-2 |pages=547 |oclc=851157146 |quote=Soutzos family (Phanariote Greeks)}} with a suggested region of origin being the island Chios.{{Cite book |last=Fermor |first=Patrick Leigh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BUw2EAAAQBAJ |title=Μάνη |date=2021 |publisher=Metaichmio Publications |isbn=978-618-03-2837-0 |pages=Οι πιο αντιπροσωπευτικοί από τους Φαναριώτες είναι οι οικογένειες Γκίκα (νοτιοαλβανικής καταγωγής), Μαυροκορδάτου και Σούτσου (από τη Χίο) |language=el}}{{Cite book |last=Sitwell |first=Sacheverell |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/793201669 |title=Roumanian journey |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Reader |isbn=978-1-4482-0468-7 |location=London |pages=51 |oclc=793201669 |quote=the Ghika family were originally Albanian; Mavrocordato, Soutzo are Phanariots.}} Its first members appear in the 17th century in Constantinople, while it is assumed that it descended from the Drakos family of Epirus.{{cn|date=February 2024}} It is speculated that one of the members had an important role in the plumbing of Constantinople. Since then the Turks called the Drakos Soutzides and the Greeks used the more Greek Soutsos.Πολυχρόνης Ενεπεκίδης, Οι Σούτσοι εις το Παρίσι, στο: Ρήγας-Υψηλάντης-Καποδίστριας. Έρευναι εις τα αρχεία της Αυστρίας, Γερμανίας, Ιταλίας, Γαλλίας και Ελλάδας, ed. Βιβλιοπωλείον της Εστίας, Athens, 1965, p. 268
Konstantinos Drako, son of a rhetor of the patriarchate (Diamantaki Drako), was the first Soutzos to rise to prominence.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} In 1714, he married Princess Maria Rusetaina, daughter of a long-established Phanariote family (her mother was Helena Mavrokordataina and her paternal grandfather Antonie had even held the princely rule in the Danubian countries under Ottoman overlordship).{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Konstantinos' in-laws raised Konstantinos to high positions in Danubian principalities, and his sons were kin with everybody who mattered in Phanar. Later, in the 1780s—1790s, one of the sons (Mihai Draco-Sutzu) rose to the thrones of Walachia and Moldavia and was the first Prince of their surname.{{Citaiton needed|date=August 2022}}
After prince Mihai, his nephew Alexandru Suțu, and his namesake grandson Mihail Suțu also ruled as Princes.
Significant members of the family include the two brother poets Panagiotis Soutsos and Alexandros Soutsos, of whom the first set the cornerstone for the revival of the Olympic Games and the latter was the founder of the Greek Romantic school of poetry. The main branch of the above family is now found in Athens, Greece. Alexandru A. Suțu and Mihail C. Suțu both became members of the Romanian Academy in the 1880s.
References
Alexandre Negresco-Soutzo (ro), Livre d’Or de la Famille Soutzo, chez l'auteur, Paris, 2005.
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