Roxani Karatza-Soutzos (Greek: Ρωξάνη Καρατζά Σούτσου or Σούτζου, also Ρωξάνη Βόδα Σούτσου, Roxani Voda Soutsou, Romanian: Roxandra or Roxana Caragea Suțu[l], Cyrillic: Роѯандра [Караџѣ] Сȣцȣл, French: Roxane Soutzo or Suzzo; 1783 – April 1868) was a Phanariote Greek cultural animator, initially active inside the Ottoman Empire; the daughter of John Caradja, sister of Rallou Karatza-Argyropoulos, and wife of Michael Soutzos, she served as Princess-consort of Moldavia in June 1819 – April 1821.

During her short reign, Roxani fully backed her husband's cooperation with the Filiki Eteria, and helped instigate the Greek War of Independence, which began on Moldavian soil in February 1821.

They were left financially destitute after the Eterist adventure, obtaining intercessions on their behalf from Swiss banker Jean-Gabriel Eynard; for a while, Michael took his family to Geneva.

Following Eynard's interventions, Michael was assigned to be a Greek diplomatic envoy in Bourbon France (which became the July Monarchy during his tenure), but ultimately marginalized as a dangerous supporter of the Russian Party.

[15] As reported by Prussian diplomats in October 1815, at a time when Caradja had disappointed Sultan Mahmud II, Michael Soutzos was a favorite for the throne in Bucharest.

[16] He finally took over as Great Dragoman in October 1817, after purchasing support from Halet Efendi, the influential Ottoman courtier, who was also his alleged partner in fraudulent deals.

[18] In Wallachia, the Caradjas were promoting Greek culture—in late 1817, Princess Rallou founded in Bucharest "the first professional (Greek-language) theatrical troupe in the Romanian lands.

This is thanks to Moldavia being visited by an artist from the Frenchman Louis Dupré, who drew portraits of Michael, Eleni, and, more unusually, a picture of the princely tent, which includes Roxani and two of her daughters.

[33] Despite Ottoman expectations, Soutzos' short reign was marked by his full support for the Eteria, which had established bases in the Bessarabia Governorate (on Russia's new border with Moldavia).

[34] In February 1821 a Russian spy, Pavel Pestel, recorded rumors that Soutzos was made aware that the Eterists and the Arnauts were preparing a revolt, but had asked his boyars to keep quiet.

[39] In a letter to her father, dated 19 March, Roxani expressed the hope that the new government in Bucharest, formed around Postelnic Constantin Negri, would be fully Eterist.

They lived in Kishinev, the gubernial capital, bunking with the Bessarabians Bogdan and Petrache Mavrogheni, in whose home they met Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Chancellor Klemens von Metternich, who "would not allow any Greek to cross over from his states into Greece", had Michael deported to Gorizia, in the Kingdom of Illyria.

[49] Initial rumors, that Michael had been granted a Russian passport allowing him safe passage to Livorno, and then by sea to the Peloponnese, were officially dismissed that April.

"[57] In June 1828, Michael, described in Le Figaro as "Moldavia's last Greek hospodar",[58] was in Geneva, where he enlisted three of his sons at Rodolphe Töpffer's Lyceum.

He obtained several letters of recommendation: one from Alphonse de Lamartine, the celebrated French poet, and his wife Elisa, another from Ignatios Babalos, the exiled former Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia, and several from the Swiss banker Jean-Gabriel Eynard.

In his thank-you letters, Michael describes his own destitute condition, which meant living in the Plainpalais, a working-class area, alongside his two parents, his daughters, and his youngest boy, Konstantinos.

[63] Michael moved permanently to Paris around 18 April, with the press calling him a diplomatic envoy of the new Greek state;[64] this status was only acknowledged by Kapodistria in late June.

[66] Roxani and her children joined him on his new mission in May, when they registered in Paris at the Hôtel de Bruxelles;[67] two months after their arrival, France went through a liberal revolution which toppled Charles X and created the July Monarchy.

[68] One of Kapodistrias' letters to Eynard shows that, in November 1830, Soutzos and his "large family" were still struggling financially: "You plead that we grant him 36,000 francs each year, by act of government.

His appointment doubled as a demotion—it came shortly after the attempted coup by Theodoros Kolokotronis, which had revealed the spread and power held by Greece's Russian Party; as an adherent of the latter, Soutzos could not be sacked, but he also could not continue to serve in Paris.

[72] A branch of the family, headed by Roxani's mother-in-law Safta Dudescu, had remained in Bucharest; in February 1836, Michael called on her to sell Dudeasca Inn.

[76] Ioannis "Michalvoda" continued to serve as a diplomat in Russia, where he married Yekaterina Dmitrievna Obreskova, daughter of a Privy Councillor,[77] and herself noted for sponsoring composer Frédéric Chopin.

[38] Michael died in Athens on 12 June 1864,[75] leaving Roxani a widower to her death, which occurred in that same city in April 1868,[82] 47 years after the end of her stint as Princess-consort.

"[82] The Phanariotes had by then divided themselves into various branches, generally split between Greece and the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, whose first ruler, or Domnitor, was Alexandru Ioan Cuza, son of Roxani's chambermaid.