Kolettis was born in Syrrako, Epirus, and played a leading role in the political life of the Greek state in the 1830s and 1840s. Kolettis was of Vlach origin and studied medicine in Pisa, Italy, and was influenced by the Carbonari movement and started planning his return to Epirus in order to participate in Greece's independence struggles.

In 1813, he settled at Ioannina, where he served as a doctor and after gaining standing he was recruited as the personal doctor of Ali Pasa's son, Muqtar Pasa. He remained in Ioannina till March 1821, when he entered Filiki Eteria and left for Syrrako, together with chieftain Raggos, in order to spread the revolution into the Rumelia, but his efforts quickly failed because of the rapid reaction of the Ottoman army. Kolettis was the leader of the pro - French party and based his power on his relations with the leaders of Rumeli but also on his ability to eliminate his adversaries by acting behind the scenes.

In the First Greek National Assembly, at Epidavros, he participated as the representative of Epirus and in January, 1822 he became Minister of Internal Affairs. After the Second Greek National Assembly, at Astros in May, 1823 he was appointed sub - prefect of Euboea and managed to remove Turkish troops off the island. At the same time, he continued his political activities, resulting in his election as member of the Legislative Body (Νομοθετικόν), a position that he held till 1826.

At the end of 1824, during the civil war between the rebel factions, he was in charge of the Roumeliot (Central Greece) party and defeated the Moreot or Peloponnesian party, which opposed the Kountouriotis government. Nonetheless, in the Third Greek National Assembly, he supported the Peloponnesian party and with its support was assigned to train troops from Thessaly and Macedonia, with the aim of destroying Ottoman resource depots at Atalanti. However, the whole operation failed because of his inexperience in military affairs, which ruined his reputation.

When John Capodistria landed at Nafplio in January 1828 as Governor, he was appointed as governor of Samos and later, on July, 1829 as Minister of Defense. In October 1831, Capodistria was assassinated; in the ensuing civil war, which lasted until 1832, Kolettis was once again leader of the Roumeliot Party. He tried, along with Theodoros Kolokotronis and Augustinos Kapodistrias to form a government but due to severe disagreements the coalition was dissolved.

Until Otto of Greece reached adulthood, Kolettis was Minister of the Navy and Minister of Defense. In 1835, he was sent to France as the ambassador where he created connections with French politicians and intellectuals. He returned to Greece after the coup that broke out in Athens in September 1843, which forced King Otto to grant a constitution and Kolettis took part in the subsequent Constitutional Assembly. To contest the elections in 1844, he formed a party, the French Party (Γαλλικό Κόμμα) and together with Andreas Metaxas, leader of the English Party formed a government. When Metaxas resigned, he became Prime Minister and served as such until his death in 1847. He is credited with conceiving the Megali Idea or "Great Idea" which became the core of Greek foreign policy until the early 20th century.

Alexandros Koumoundouros (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Κουμουνδούρος, 1817 - 26 February 1883) was a Greek politician. Born in Kampos Avias located in the Messenian side of the Mani Peninsula, he was the son of Spirìdonas - Galànis Koumoundoùros who was the Bey of the area during the last period of the administration of the region by the Ottoman Empire.

He was a political personality famous for his work towards national progress, his patriotism and unselfishness, despite his having been in office during a very unsettled period of Greek history.

After the Greek War of Independence, he moved to Nafplion where he went to school, then to Athens to study law.

In 1841, he took part in the revolution in Crete despite believing it was a lost cause — the conditions were not right for such an undertaking at that time.

Koumoundouros’ long career encompassed many facets of political life, including serving in parliament, authoring of legislation, promotion of a democratic regime, restoration of the army, distribution of national farms to landless farmers, and the approval of major construction work (such as the Isthmus of Corinth).

During his 50 year long period of political involvement he tried to remain neutral, and to avoid confrontation both with the three Great Powers and with the smaller powers of that time. In this period he held various ministerial appointments eighteen times, was twice president of the Greek Parliament and ten times Prime Minister of Greece. Despite often experiencing inimical conditions, including at least three assassination attempts, he still managed to create a firm foundation for democracy in Greece.

Meanwhile, he was appointed as Public Prosecutor in the Tribunal of Kalamata, but he soon quit this position in order to become a politician. His first political distinction emerged in 1853 when he was elected deputy of the province of Messinia (the province of Kalamàta). Two years later he became President of the Greek Parliament, and the following year Minister of Economics.

He kept the same ministry in the new governments both of 1857 and 1859. After the overthrow of King Othon in 1862 he became Minister of Justice of the temporary government.

The first elections for a proper government after the fall of King Othon took place in 1863 and Koumoundouros remained as Minister of Justice, however, the extremely poor political stability led to new elections the following year.

In the succeeding government of 1864, Koumoundouros was moved to the Ministry of Religion and Education and later to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On March 25, 1865, he became Prime Minister of Greece for the first time and won the elections of 1866, too. Four years later, he retained the position of the Minister of Army and Internal Affairs, in addition to being Prime Minister. In 1875, Koumoundouros was successful in uniting all other parliamentary parties against Charilaos Trikoupis. In August 1875, he became President of the Parliament once again and in the elections of the same year he was made Prime Minister of the country once more.

Elections took place three times in 1876 and Koumoundouros was victorious in two of them. He also won the elections of 1878.

The time of Koumoundouros’ greatest achievement came in 1881 during his last (tenth) premiership, after diplomatic contacts with Turkey, he managed to bring about the annexation of the areas of Thesalìa and Àrta to the Greek mainland.

Right after this achievement he called for new elections so that representatives of the newly annexed regions could enter Parliament. Despite this concession, the new candidates elected the representative of the opposition party as President of Parliament. As a result, Koumoundouros resigned on March 3, 1882. He died some months later on February 26, 1883, in his home on Ludwig Square (now known as Koumoundourou Square), in Athens, and was buried at public expense in the First Cemetery of Athens.

After the end of the unsuccessful Cretan revolution, he married Ekaterìni Mavromichàli of the famed Maniot family and his first son Konstantìnos and daughter Marìa were born. Ekaterìni died young and Koumoundouros married Efthimìa Perotì who bore him his second son in 1858, Spirìdonas and in 1867 a daughter, Olga.