TheIonian Senate (Greek:Ιόνιος Γερουσία) was the executive and later legislative body of theSeptinsular Republic (1800–1807/1814) and the executive council of its successor, theUnited States of the Ionian Islands (1815–1864). During most of its history it was housed at thePalace of St. Michael and St. George inCorfu, where its meeting room can still be seen with the original furniture.
After the end of theFrench rule over theIonian Islands by a joint Russo-Ottoman fleet in 1798–99, on 6 May [O.S. 24 April] 1800, the commanders of the two fleets announced that the Ionian Islands would comprise a single state, governed by a Senate (Γερουσία) in Corfu city, composed of three representatives each fromCorfu,Cephalonia, andZakynthos, two fromLefkada, and one each fromIthaca,Kythira, andPaxoi. The Venetian noblemanAngelo Orio, the last Venetianprovveditore ofArgostoli, was appointed head of the Senate.[1] After Orio was sent toConstantinople to negotiate the new state's constitution, the presidency of the Senate passed toCountSpyridon Georgios Theotokis.[2]
According to the so-called "Byzantine Constitution" in 1800, the Senate would remain the highest authority in the new, federal,Septinsular Republic. It would be composed of the representatives of the islands, and its president would be the Republic's head of state.[3][4] In February 1803, the Senate was reformed to comprise seventeen members, with four members each from Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zakynthos, two from Lefkada, and one each from the other islands. Election to the Senate was through electoral colleges, the so-calledsincliti, which were restricted to the aristocracy.[5] The new constitution, promulgated in October 1803, introduced the principle ofseparation of powers, and instituted a new body, the censors (censori) who were to safeguard compliance to the constitution and function as advisors to the Senate.[5][6] The Senate remained the main executive body, with three branches for foreign affairs, interior and finance affairs, and military affairs.[5] After Theotokis's death on 24 November, a new president of the Senate and head of state of the Republic was elected,Antonios Komoutos from Zakynthos.[5][7]
The Senate was converted into a legislative body with the 1806 "Russian Constitution", still with seventeen members: four each for Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zakynthos, two for Lefkada, and one each for the minor islands, of whom nine served for three years and eight for four. Executive authority was instead vested in a five-member college, theprincipato.[8] After the cession of the Republic to France in theTreaty of Tilsit and the start of thesecond period of French rule, the Senate was retained, alone among the Septinsular Republic's institutions, but its members were now appointed rather than elected by the French governor-general.[9]
After thedownfall of Napoleon and therestoration ofLouis XVIII, and the surrender of Corfu to the British, the Ionian Senate, declaring that the Republic had been suspended but not abolished under the French and British occupation, tried to advocate for the independence of the Islands in theCongress of Vienna, but the British governor-general,Sir James Campbell, refused to accept this view, holding that the Republic had ceased to exist after Tilsit, and regarding the appointed Senate as not representative of the Ionian people.[10]
According to the 1817 constitution of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands, the Ionian Senate was the executive body (the legislative body being theIonian Assembly [de]). It had six members, elected by the Assembly for five-year terms: a president, one delegate for each of the major four islands (Corfu, Lefkada, Cephalonia and Zakynthos), and one delegate rotating between the minor three (Paxoi, Ithaca and Kythira). The Ionian Senate was abolished with theUnion of the Ionian Islands with Greece in 1864.[citation needed]