Alecu Beldiman

Alecu Beldiman, common rendition of Alexandru Beldiman, also known as Alecul or Aleco Beldiman, was a Moldavian statesman, translator and poet, one of the forerunners of Romanian nationalism. A scion of the boyar elite, he was the eldest son of Vornic Gheorghe Beldiman, and the nephew-in-law of chronicler Enache Kogălniceanu. Alecu himself held high commission in the Moldavian military forces and bureaucracy, but secretly resented the Phanariote regime which had awarded them. He may have affiliated with a loose group known as the "National Party", championing an alliance between Moldavia's independence from the Ottoman Empire and support for the French Republic.