John George Caradja, also known by his regnal name Ioan Gheorghe Caragea (Greek: Ἰωάννης Γεωργίου Καρατζάς, romanized: Ioanni Georgiou Karatzas; pre-modern Romanian: Ioan Gheorghie Caragea, Cyrillic: Їωан Геωргïє Караџѣ; French: Jean Georges Caradja, Caradgea, or Caradgia; Italian: Giovanni Caradza, Caragia, or Caraggia; Turkish: Yoan Corc Karaca; 1754 – 27 December 1844), was a Phanariote Greek Prince of Wallachia, who reigned between August 1812 and September 1818.

Caradja's reign came at the apex of Phanariote influence in the Danubian Principalities, a time marked by political corruption, outside interference, and, increasingly, the affirmation of Romanian nationalism as an alternative to Greek hegemony.

He arrived in Bucharest just as Wallachia was recovering from a Russian occupation, and was involved in punishing those whom he regarded as Russophiles—his clampdown resulted in the death of Abdullah Ramiz Efendi and the expulsion of Manuc Bei; the latter spent his remaining years attempting to have Caradja deposed.

Caradja was then involved in securing jobs for his Greek retinue or in trafficking high offices in exchange for bribes; in order to meet Ottoman fiscal demands, but also his own financial goals, he created an infamous system of spoliation which perplexed foreign observers and angered the Wallachian public.

In his late sixties, he tried but failed to impose himself as a figure of influence in the Hellenic State; he eventually returned to live as a regular citizen in the newly formed Kingdom of Greece, publishing editions of his translations from Goldoni, and dedicating himself to advancing theatrical life in general.

[14] Little is known about John himself before the age of 55, when he took over as Great Dragoman; an oil portrait, probably done in 1795 (four years after Nicholas' death) shows him wearing the clothes of a high Ottoman dignitary, though it remains unclear whether he actually held any offices at that time.

[15] He first came into contact with military and political figures of the Habsburg monarchy during the preceding Habsburg–Ottoman War, when he served as a translator for armistice negotiations in Giurgiu (September 1790); in early 1792, he visited Prussia and performed similar duties.

"[38] The investiture also arrived with what was widely read as bad omens such, including a major frost described by the Wallachian scribe Dionisie Fotino: "[during the 1812–1813 winter there were] scores of calamities, with thousands of cattle big and small, as well as people, being wiped out by the weather which caught them out on the fields, or on the roads.

According to reports left by Caradja's enemy Manuc Bei, fiscal innovations were inaugurated by Caimacam Argyropoulos, who pressured Wallachian citizens into paying an additional contribution of 2.1 million piasters, claiming that these were upkeep they still owed to the Russian troops.

[80] By contrast, Manuc accuses the administration of irregularities in this respect as well: "They say that a destitute man will always be on the winning side when he engages in commerce; true enough, but only when the surplus stays with the wretched, when they only have to pay off the customs fee, and not when they are subject to oppression.

[115] Historical memoirist Ion Ghica reports that, in Bucharest's Dudești neighborhood, syndicates of beggars and undertakers, identified by their red scarves, unceremoniously executed the sick or simply left them to die in the open field, after taking their valuables.

Merișescu, who wandered about Muntenia during the plague, reports that rural areas were quickly pacified for fear of Caradja's "strictness": "should anyone happen to have dropped something along the roads, nobody would pick it up, and there were no thieves to speak of.

[124] After catching news of France's defeat at Leipzig, the Prince endorsed Russian orders to expel Ledoulx and his staff from Wallachia, which inaugurated a lasting dispute with Antoine-François Andréossy, the French Ambassador to the Porte.

[131] Historian Constantin Iordachi proposes that, in its function as a compilation of private law, Caradja's text was mainly based on the modernizing Napoleonic Code, though still maintaining "an uneven combination on enlightened principles and medieval privileges.

"[132] Literary scholar Nicolae Liu similarly notes that Caradja shared the Enlightenment's ambition "of achieving the 'common good' or 'general welfare' by legislative means"; he underscores that Legiuirea, along with other codes of the era, "intended to impose the image of certain Phanariote princes as 'trustees of the country' with a paternalistic regard for the people".

[135] Overall, Caradja's code repressed a tradition of relative gender equality previously sustained by Wallachia's common law, introducing strict agnatic primogeniture, and requiring male children to provide for their sisters.

[138] These legislators were also vague when it came to the naturalization of foreigners: they paid lip service to earlier nativist and discriminatory laws but, as Iordachi argues, never actually enforced them—showing the political power still held by Phanariote families.

Laurençon reports that one tax collector beat up a pregnant woman who died as a result; Caradja had the culprit tried and sentenced to partial mutilation, after which "he returned home to surely perform more such misdeeds.

[167] On 1 January 1817, during the New Years' Feast at the home of his son-in-law Constantin Vlahutzi, Caradja announced his court that he intended to cut down on taxes and expenditures; this was days after opening up to the "National Party", by making Brâncoveanu his Spatharios.

"[193] He was similarly interested in the dramatic arts, producing translations of various plays by Carlo Goldoni (including Il vero amico, Pamela maritata, and as many as twelve others) while still a reigning Prince;[194] these were done in Demotic Greek (the "simple language").

As recounted by scholar Ion Heliade Rădulescu, the Eforie debates were heated, with Caradja pretending to seek expert counsel from Benjamin on each new proposal, and receiving the answer nu se poate, stăpâne ("no can do, my liege").

[197] In 1816, responding to demands made by Fleischhackl, the Prince banned a secretive society, called "Brotherhood of the Oka"; its founder, Henri de Mondonville, was a French émigré portraitist with liberal sympathies, who had extended membership to like-minded Wallachians.

[202] Citing earlier pronouncements made by Andrei Oțetea, Ionașcu argues that Caradja's slashing of tax bills was duplicitous, "meant to encumber his successor on the throne with a heavy burden and to leave the somewhat relieved popular masses with the memory of a reign that had been good for the country's finances.

[245] On 12 October 1818, the Ottoman Shaykh al-Islām, Çerkes Halil Efendi, argued before Mahmud that Halet had forced Caradja to flee, by asking him to perform acts he defined as mugâyir-i rızâ-yı 'âli ("against the Sultan's consent").

[250] In reality, the vacancy led to diplomatic conflicts and to a lasting political uncertainty: Strogonov made the case that, as per the international treaties in place, the Ottomans needed to establish Caradja's guilt before finding him a replacement.

[259] Instead, he financed the nationalist and Philhellene movement, forming a war aid society in Tuscany, funding Jean-Gabriel Eynard's similar venture in Geneva, and sending regular gifts to fighters such as Georgios Karaiskakis, Theodoros Kolokotronis, and Andreas Miaoulis.

[263] As noted by Hellenist Nestor Camariano, Prince John's residence in Pisa was "not unlike France's famous salons", counting Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley among its celebrity guests.

[286] Historian Paul Cernovodeanu provides an overview of Caradja's political legacy: he notes that, unlike his uncle Nicholas, who enjoyed a sound reputation in Wallachian literary sources, John was vilified and cursed as the "great predator".

"[290] A similar work, tentatively attributed to Naum Râmniceanu, inflamed passions by suggesting that Caradja and Ștefan Bellu wanted to set up a "New Greece" in Wallachia, which required them to decimate the boyar population.

[298] Scholar Walter Puchner notes that Caradja's translations were important cultural landmarks, for completing "the first phase of Goldoni's reception in Greece, under the auspices of the Enlightenment", but also that they were never used for actual stage productions.