Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea | |
|---|---|
 Anton Chladek's portrait of Vulpea, c. 1830 | |
| Finance Minister of Wallachia | |
| In office March – April 1821 | |
| In office 1828 – ca. 1830 | |
| Justice Minister (Logothete) of Wallachia | |
| In office ca. 1828 – ca. 1833 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1775 Bucharest |
| Died | November 1856 (aged 80 or 81) |
| Resting place | Mavrogheni Church, Bucharest |
| Nationality | Wallachian |
| Political party | Filiki Eteria (ca. 1816) National Party (ca. 1816–1820) |
| Relations | Ioan Alecu Filipescu-Vulpache (son) Mitică Filipescu (nephew) Gheorghe Bibescu (co-father-in-law) |
| Profession | Civil administrator, philanthropist, innkeeper |
Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, also known as Aleco Filipescul, Alecsandru R. Filipescu[1] or Alexandru Răducanu Filipescu[2] (1775 – November 1856), was a Wallachian administrator and high-ranking boyar, who played an important part in the politics of the late Phanariote era and of the Regulamentul Organic regime. Beginning in the 1810s, he took an anti-Phanariote stand, conspiring alongside the National Party and the Filiki Eteria to institute new constitutional norms. Clashing with the National Party over the distribution of spoils, and only obtaining relatively minor positions in the administration of Bucharest, Filipescu eventually joined a clique of boyars that cooperated closely with the Russian Empire. His conditional support for the Eterists played out during the Wallachian uprising of 1821, when Vulpea manipulated all sides against each other, ensuring safety for the boyars. He returned to prominence under Prince Grigore IV Ghica, but sabotaged the monarch's political reform effort and also seduced his wife Maria. She was probably the mother of his only son, Ioan Alecu Filipescu-Vulpache.
Both Vulpea and Vulpache had important roles in political life under the Russian occupation of 1829–1854. Filipescu Sr worked for the beautification of Bucharest under Pavel Kiselyov, then presided over the departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs. The owner of lucrative estates and an inn in the Bucegi Mountains, he was also a philanthropist, and served for decades on the Wallachian school board alongside his protégé Petrache Poenaru. Although perceived as a committed Russophile, Alecu was a pragmatic conservative who continued seeking alternatives to Russian control, also envisaging a political unification of the Danubian Principalities. He mounted the opposition to Alexandru II Ghica, reluctantly siding with Gheorghe Bibescu and Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei, before running against them in the 1842 election for the Wallachian throne. Bibescu emerged as the winner and then co-opted Vulpea into his circle, making Vulpache his son-in-law. The three of them oversaw the charity established for Princess Zoe, Așezămintele Brâncovenești.
In 1845, Vulpea was created Ban, but was only marginally active before and after the Wallachian Revolution of 1848. Serving Prince Știrbei as adviser on agrarian matters, he died three years before Wallachia's incorporation into the United Principalities, whose administration co-opted his son. His profile endures in political theater from as early as the Phanariote period and was revived to serve as the antagonist in literary works by Camil Petrescu.