Ghica

The Ghica family (Romanian: Ghica, Albanian: Gjika, Greek: Gikas, Γκίκαs) was a noble family active in Wallachia, Moldavia and in the Kingdom of Romania, between the 17th and 19th centuries. In the 18th century, several branches of the family went through a process of Hellenization (into the Phanariote social network). The Ghicas also held the (agnatic) rank of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire (fürst), a title first bestowed upon Grigore II Ghica in 1673 by Leopold I.

The family's history and fame, as well as its putative Albanian origins, are mostly known to the Western readers from Princess Elena Ghica's memories, Gli Albanesi in Rumenia. Storia dei principi Ghika ("The Albanians in Romania. The history of the Ghica Princes"). For Dora d'Istria (Elena Ghica's nom de plume), the crumbly theory of an Albanian origin of the family's founder, resurrected after several centuries of latent existence, proved to be very lucrative: it gave a new sense for her Romantic involvement in the Balkan people's emancipation struggle (having previously adopted — and later abandoned — a Hellenophile attitude, by courtesy of her Greek maternal ancestry and under the influence of her Greek tutor Gregorios Papadopoulos), as well as in her anti-establishment attitude generated by the entrenching of the Hohenzollern in the Romanian Principality to the detriment of her family who had high hopes for a return on the throne. She started learning Albanian history, and eventually became — since 1866 — the main advocate in Western Europe of the Albanian cause, despite the fact that she never knew or learned the Albanian language. Her book, Gli Albanesi in Rumenia. Storia dei principi Ghika, which upon its publication in 1873 in Florence caused the wrath of her family, repudiating her, managed to forever shift the public perception towards the Albanian theory for the origin the family, at the expense of the Aromanian one. The book was preceded by a series of articles on the nationalities from South-Eastern Europe and their struggle for independence. After articles on the Romanian (1859), Greek (1860) and Serbian (1865) ethnic identity, Dora d'Istria published in 1866 the article entitled The Albanian nationality according to folksongs. The study was translated into Albanian in 1867 by the Italo-Albanian patriot Dhimitër Kamarda, and was prefaced by a poem with a revolutionary content, written by an Albanian author and addressed to his countrymen, urging them to rise up against the Ottomans. Henceforth, Dora d'Istria became popular in Albanian nationalists circles, whose members did not hesitate to use her name for gaining support for their cause. This development was accepted and nurtured by the Romanian author, and she cultivated correspondences with several notable Albanian patriots, including Kamarda and Jeronim de Rada. After the publication of Gli Albanesi in Romania..., the Albanian nationalists in Italy proceeded to declare Elena Ghica as the uncrowned queen of Albania. These speculations were tacitly entertained by Elena Ghica; similarly, other members of the family were drawn into this Albanian nationalistic tradition: at the end of the century, another member of the family, Romanian writer and socialite Albert Ghica would likewise key up vocal demands for the Albanian throne.

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