UN „AMIC AL ȚĂRANILOR”, DIMITRIE SCARLAT MICLESCU
DIMITRIE SCARLAT MICLESCU, “A FRIEND OF THE PEASANTS”

Summary/Abstract: Dimitrie Scarlat Miclescu was born on the 29th of February 1820 in Iași, as the member of an old and important boyar family of Moldavia. One of his brothers was Calinic Miclescu (1822-1886), Metropolitan of Moldavia since 1865 and of Romania starting with 1875, while Sofronie Miclescu (1790-1861), Metropolitan of Moldavia, was one of his uncles.The biography of Dimitrie Scarlat Miclescu includes his writing activity, as he was a dramatist and a publicist, as well as his administrative and political activity. Magistrate and lawyer, he was a minister of the first Government of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (1859). He singled out while being the commissioner responsible for the application of the rural law (1864), when he was named “the friend of the peasants” as, for a while, he switched the boyar clothing with the peasant one. After the abdication of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, he stepped back from the political life, but returned as elected deputy in 1872-1875 and 1876, during the reign of Carol I. His merits were recognized, Mihail Kogălniceanu considering him “a person who played an important role in this country, who had one of the greatest names of Moldavia”, so that in 1891 the Parliament granted him a monthly pension for “multiple and important services that he made for the country, as a good patriot”. He died on the 21st of November 1896 and on the obelisk of his grave from the “Eternitatea” Graveyard in Botoșani the following epitaph is written: “Here lies Dumitru Sc. Miclescu, the friend of the peasants, 1820-1896”.

• Details
• Contents