From Northern Europe to the Aegean Archipelago: Lord Effingham's Military Tour with the Russian Navy in 1770

Ch. 15. P. 245–258.

Smilyanskaya E., Leikin J.

The year 1770, which Thomas Howard, the third Earl of Effingham
spent in the Archipelago, coincided with a cultural rediscovery of
the classical civilization in southern Europe. Alongside the Greek
Enlightenment, an intellectual and cultural revival coupled with a
rediscovery of ancient Greek cultural heritage, the British elite were
rediscovering Greek civilization.British philhellenism, which found
its romantic apex in Lord Byron’s verses, was finding its footing. The
uprising in the Morea in 1770, which was readily covered by the European
press, cast a light on the struggles and commenced a new European
philhellenic discourse. In their own way, the English volunteers who set
out to the Archipelago to fight for Greek liberation were at the forefront
of a new kind of movement. Although Effingham did not become a fullfledged
philhellene, his journey to the Archipelago might have clarified
his understanding of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’ — sentiments which he
later applied to the rebel American colonies.

Keywords: Greece, Greek revolution, foreign travelers, Russian navy

In book

Magic, Texts, and Travel: Homage to a Scholar, Will Ryan

L.: Study Group on Eighteenth Century Russia, 2021.