Andrei Mocioni de Foen (also spelled Andrea de Mocioni or Andreiu Mocionĭ, last name also Mocsonyi, Mocsoni, Mocionyi or Mocsony; German: Andreas Mocioni de Foen or Andreas von Mocsonyi, Hungarian: fényi Mocsonyi András; June 27, 1812 – April 23/May 5, 1880) was an Austrian and Hungarian jurist, politician, and informal leader of the ethnic Romanian community, one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy. Of a mixed Aromanian and Albanian background, raised as a Greek Orthodox, he belonged to the Mocioni family, which had been elevated to Hungarian nobility. He was brought up at his family estate in the Banat, at Foeni, where he joined the administrative apparatus, and identified as a Romanian since at least the 1830s. He rose to prominence during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848: he was a supporter of the House of Lorraine, trying to obtain increased autonomy for Banat Romanians in exchange for loyalism. The Austrians appointed Mocioni to an executive position over that region, but curbed his expectations by including the Banat as a whole into the Voivodeship of Serbia. This disappointment pushed Mocioni to renounce politics during much of the 1850s. The attempt by Austria to ensure a new administrative formula in the 1860s saw Mocioni's co-option into the Imperial Diet. He also organized, in 1860, the National Assembly in the Banat—an abortive project, seeking to obtain autonomy on ethnic grounds. He then oscillated between ethnic federalism within a nominal Hungarian realm and full centralism in Austria's custody, while failing in his bid to promote election boycott as a political weapon. He had noted political rivalries with Romanians who sided with Hungarian radicalism, in particular Eftimie Murgu. Serving one full term in the Diet of Hungary, Mocioni also turned to cooperation with the Romanians of Transylvania, and helped Andrei Șaguna to reestablish an independent Transylvanian Metropolis for Romanian Orthodox Christians. Alongside his brothers Gheorghe and Anton, and his lawyer Vincențiu Babeș, he founded the newspaper Albina of Vienna. The creation of Austria-Hungary and the Banat's absorption into the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen were significant blows for Mocioni's nationalist-loyalist campaign. Mocioni withdrew to Foeni, ailing and out of the public eye for the final decade of his life. He was still a noted philanthropist and sponsor of the Romanian press, but had conflicts with Krassó County voters and the Romanian peasants on his estates, a matter which contributed to his voluntary isolation. He was survived by his wife Laura, daughter of Petar Čarnojević, and by his nephew, the politician Alexandru Mocioni. Source: Wikipedia (en)