Charilaos Trikoupis

His Excellency Charilaos Trikoupis Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης
Charilaos Trikoupis - Athens, Photographic Archive of Hellenic Literary and Historical Museum
Prime Minister of Greece
In office May 8, 1875 – October 27, 1875
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Dimitrios Voulgaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Koumoundouros
In office November 2, 1878 – November 7, 1878
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Alexandros Koumoundouros
Succeeded by	Alexandros Koumoundouros
In office March 22, 1880 – October 25, 1880
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Alexandros Koumoundouros
Succeeded by	Alexandros Koumoundouros
In office March 15, 1882 – May 1, 1885
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Alexandros Koumoundouros
Succeeded by	Theodoros Deligiannis
In office May 21, 1886 – November 5, 1890
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Dimitrios Valvis
Succeeded by	Theodoros Deligiannis
In office June 22, 1892 – May 15, 1893
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Konstantinos Konstantopoulos
Succeeded by	Sotirios Sotiropoulos
In office November 11, 1893 – January 24, 1895
Monarch	George I
Preceded by	Sotirios Sotiropoulos
Succeeded by	Nikolaos Deligiannis
Personal details
Born	(1832-06-11)June 11, 1832 Nafplion, Greece
Died	March 30, 1896(1896-03-30) (aged 63) Cannes, France
Resting place	Athens, Greece
Political party	Modernist Party
Religion	Greek Orthodox

Charilaos Trikoupis (Greek: Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης; July 11, 1832 – March 30, 1896) was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.

Born in Nauplion in 1832, with family ties to Messolonghi, he was the son of Spiridon Trikoupis, a politician who was Prime Minister of Greece briefly in 1833, and Ekaterini Mavrokordatou, sister of Alexandros Mavrokordatos, who also served as a Prime Minister.

After studying law and literature in University of Athens and in Paris, where he obtained his doctorate, he was sent to London in 1852 as an attaché of the Greek legation. By 1863, he had risen to be chargé d'affaires, but he aimed rather at a political not a diplomatic career. Trikoupis' family had been original supporters of the English Party; that and his reserved nature bestowed on him the nickname "the Englishman."

In 1865, after he had concluded the negotiations for the cession by United Kingdom to Greece of the Ionian Islands, he returned to Athens and in 1865 he was elected to the Hellenic Parliament, and in the following year was made Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the young age of thirty-four.

In 1872 he created his own party, called the Fifth Party (Πέμπτο Κόμμα) on a reformist agenda. On June 29, 1874 (Julian calendar) he published a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to blame?" (Τις Πταίει;), naming the King as the answer. Specifically, he condemned the king for bypassing public opinion expressed in elections in his selection of Prime Ministers. Trikoupis wrote that the political instability, which characterized the public life was due to the privilege of the crown as far as the appointment and ousting of governments was concerned. This privilege may have derived from the Greek Constitution of 1864, but it resulted in the formation of weak minority governments based exclusively on the royal favor.