Nicolae Golescu

Nicolae Golescu (1810–1877) was a Wallachian Romanian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Romania in 1860 and May–November 1868.

A member of the Golescu family of boyars, Nicolae was born in Câmpulung as the son of Dinicu Golescu; he was educated together with his other three brothers in Switzerland. Nicolae and his brother Ștefan returned in 1830 to join the Wallachian Army, where Nicolae became a major in 1834.

In the same year he joined the Philarmonic Society, a group similar to the Freemasonry. In 1840 he was a prosecutor in the trial of the participants in the Mitică Filipescu plot, and later on he was Wallachia's Minister of Internal Affairs.

In 1842, Wallachia was under the protectorate of Imperial Russia, and Nicolae Golescu tried to obtain the mandate of Prince of Wallachia from Emperor Nicholas, but was denied and remained a Minister of Internal Affairs until 1847. In the meantime, he began taking part in gatherings of various revolutionary societies.

He joined the radical liberals, being part of the 1848 revolutionary committee, together with Ion Ghica, Nicolae Bălcescu, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and others (including his brother Ștefan and his cousin Alexandru G. Golescu).

Afterwards, on 11 June 1848, when the Wallachian revolution started in Bucharest, Nicolae Golescu was a Minister of Internal Affairs for the Provisional Government. The following week, he and Ana Ipătescu took initiative in rallying civilians in defense of the revolutionary power, as it was threatened by conservative plot (June 19).

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