YPSILANTI, or HYPSILANTI  , the name of a family of Phanariot Greeks claiming descent from the Comneni . ALEXANDER YPSILANTI (1725—1805) was dragoman of the Porte, and from 1774 to 1782 hospodar of Wallachia, during which period he drew up a code for the principality . He was again appointed . hospodar just before the outbreak of the war with Austria and Russia in 1790 . He allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Austrians, and was interned at Briinn till 1792 . Returning to Constantinople, he fell under the suspicion of the sultan and was executed in 1805 . His son CONSTANTINE (d . 1816), who had joined in a conspiracy to liberate Greece and, on its discovery, fled to Vienna, had been pardoned by the sultan and in 1799 appointed by him hospodar of Moldavia . Deposed in 1805, he escaped to St Petersburg, and in 18o6, at the head of some 20,000 Russians, returned to Bucharest, where he set to work on a fresh attempt to liberate Greece . His plans were ruined by the peace of Tilsit; he retired to Russia, and died at Kiev . He left five sons, of whom two played a conspicuous part in the Greek war of independence .