Krokodeilos Kladas

Μilitary leader from the Peloponnese

Krokodeilos Kladas (Greek: Κροκόδειλος Κλαδάς, 1425–1490),^[1] also known as Korkodeilos, Krokondeilos, or Korkondelos, was a military leader from the Peloponnese who fought against the Ottomans on behalf of the Republic of Venice during the late 15th century.^[2]

Biography

Krokodeilos Kladas was born in Koroni in 1425.^[3] His father was the military chief Theodore Kladas.^[2]

When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446 and 1451–1481) took the Morea in 1460, Kladas handed over his castle of Saint George (Agios Giorgios) and was given in exchange the castle of Vardounia in Upper Mani and the territory of Elos.^[4] By 1465, the Kladas brothers, Krokodeilos and Epifani, were leading bands of stratioti (warrior bands) on behalf of Venice against the Turks. They put Vardounia and their lands into Venetian possession, for which Epifani then acted as governor. The Kladas brothers were frequently complimented by Venetian officials, and received generous Venetian gifts. Krokodeilos Kladas and his followers stood as rebels against Mehmed, but the Venetian-Ottoman peace settlement, while giving them a full pardon, also returned territorial boundaries to what they had been in 1463, so this put the Venetian-Kladas land holdings back into Ottoman possession. Kladas moved to Venetian-held Koroni.

On October 9, 1480, Kladas led stratioti from Koroni to attack Ottoman holdings in Mani. A group of Albanian insurgents led by Kladas became a matter of dispute between the Ottomans and Venetians in the Morea on the issue of responsibility about damage caused by them.^[5] Both the Ottomans and the Venetians put a price on his head; the latter, specifically, "put a bounty of 10,000 hyperpyrai from the mint of Methone on Kladas' head."^[6] This revolt was joined in December by stratioti from Nafplion led by Theodore Bua and Mexas Bozikis.^[7] An army sent by the Sultan was defeated between Passavas and Oitylo in February 1481. Later that month, a larger force under Mohammed Bey drove Kladas to Porto Kagio where he was taken on board a Neapolitan galley, leaving his revolt to wither in his absence. A peaceful settlement of the revolt was negotiated by the Ottoman governor of the Morea and Venetian official Bartolomeo Minio. Meanwhile, Kladas went with a Neapolitan army to Albania to aid an anti-Ottoman revolt there. It is not known when he returned to Mani. He was captured in battle near Monemvasia in 1490 and flayed alive.^[8]

Family

The Kladas family is known in records from the Morea since 1296, when a "Corcondille" managed to capture a Frankish-held castle for the Byzantines.^[9]^[10] According to one view – initially proposed by Constantine Sathas – the family had migrated from Epirus to Peloponnese;^[11] but this isn't based on any evidence.^[12] More recent extensive research shows that Kladas was a Byzantine family, that was most likely of turcopole ultimate origin. The family can be traced back to a group, composed of the descendants and soldiers of Kaykaus II (sultan of the Sultanate of Rum who was deposed in 1262), who acted as mercenaries (turcopoles) in the troops of Michael VIII and Andronikos II Palaiologos. It came to the Peloponnese at the beginning of 1263, as part of the army of sebastokrator Constantine Palaiologos, in order to face the Franks (Principality of Achaea) in the war of 1263-1264. After the war, it received lands and was fully integrated in the Byzantine society of the Morean Despotate, through alliances and marriages made with local archontes, to the point that it managed to gain possession of extensive pieces of land with paroikoi settled there. Because of the power it had amassed, we see its members as privileged interlocutors of the Venetians, after the fall of the Despotate to the Ottomans.^[13]

Members of the family made donations to a monastery at Mystras in 1366 and 1375.^[14] A Krokodeilos is identified as one of the rebels against the Emperor Manuel II in 1415. The "Crocodile" pun made there is a single appearance and never appears in contemporary documents relating to this Krokodeilos Kladas.^[15] The carved inscription on a donation to a church in Karytaina with the name transliterated as "Krokontēlos" is probably not related to him, and the carving is dated to the mid-14th century.^[16] He and his brothers are strongly praised in Venetian sources.^[17] Kladas had been awarded a Venetian knighthood (and a gold robe) just before the 1480 revolt.^[18] Members of the family moved to Kefalonia and continued to lead stratioti in Venetian service for at least another hundred years.

References

Citations

^ Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum 1992, p. 308
^ ^a ^b Papadopoulos 1969, p. 115: Μετά τον θάνατον του Πέτρου Μπούα και τον ανασκολοπισμόν του Μιχαήλ Ράλλη, την αντίστασιν των Ελλήνων εναντίον των Τούρκων συνέχισεν ο οπλαρχηγός Κροκόδειλος Κλαδάς υιός του οπλαρχηγού Θεοδώρου Κλαδά, όστις καταδιωκόμενος υπό των Τούρκων [...]"
^ Kampouroglou n.d., p. 59.
^ Philippides & Sphrantzes 1980, 40.9.
^ Burghartz, S. (2016). Sites of Mediation: Connected Histories of Places, Processes, and Objects in Europe and Beyond, 1450–1650. Brill. p. 88.
^ Trombley 2009, p. 270.
^ Korre 2018, pp. 524–525: "Με τους ιππείς του Κλαδά ενώθηκαν οι αρχηγοί stradioti Μέξας Μποζίκης και Θεόδωρος Μπούας Γρίβας ερχόμενοι από το Ναύπλιο."
^ Kladas 1872, p. 11, quoting earlier testimony. Cited in Wright 1999, Appendix 8.
^ Longnon 1911, pp. 803–817
^ Korre 2018, pp. 434, 439
^ Trombley 2009, p. 269
^ Korre 2018, p. 435: "Η εκτίμηση Σάθα ότι ο οίκος Κλαδά προέρχεται από την γεωγραφική περιοχή της Ηπείρου, την οποία έκανε πεπεισμένος ότι η πλειονότητα των μισθοφόρων stradioti προέρχονται από εκείνη τη γεωγραφική περιοχή και κατέβηκαν στο Μοριά στα τέλη του 14ου αιώνα, είναι εντελώς αστήρικτη· Σάθας, Έλληνες Στρατιώται, σ. 131."
^ Korre 2018, p. 16: "Μελετά τρία παραδείγματα stradioti, οι οποίοι διαφοροποιούνται μεταξύ τους ως προς την εθνοτική και κοινωνική προέλευση: τον Μερκούριο Μπούα από τον οίκο των αρβανιτών Μπουαίων· τον Κροκόδειλο Κλαδά, από τον βυζαντινό οίκο των Κλαδαίων (Κλαδιώτη), με πιθανότατα οθωμανική απώτερη καταγωγή· τον Θεόδωρο Παλαιολόγο, που πιθανότατα προέρχεται από τον βυζαντινό οίκο των Παλαιολόγων."; Korre 2018, p. 95: "Σύμφωνα με τον Γρηγορά, επρόκειτο για απογόνους αλλά και στρατιώτες του έκπτωτου Καϊκαούση Β΄, σουλτάνου των Σελτζουκιδών του Ικονίου, οι οποίοι εγκαταστάθηκαν στη Θράκη και έδρασαν ως πολυπληθείς (άτακτοι) μισθοφόροι στα στρατεύματα των Μιχαήλ Η΄ και Ανδρονίκου Β΄ Παλαιολόγων. Τα σώματα αυτά έλαβαν εκτάσεις γης στο βυζαντινό κράτος της ύστερης περιόδου, αρχικά στην περιοχή της Βέροιας για δημογραφικούς λόγους και αργότερα στον Μοριά, για λόγους πολεμικής προπαρασκευής έναντι των Φράγκων."; Korre 2018, pp. 96: "«Τούρκοι» μισθοφόροι ήρθαν στις αρχές του 1263 στην Πελοπόννησο ως τμήματα του στρατού του σεβαστοκράτορα Κωνσταντίνου Παλαιολόγου, προκειμενου να αντιμετωπίσουν τους Φράγκους στον πόλεμο του 1263–1264. ... Συμφωνα με τον Α. Σαββίδη, πρέπει να ήταν εκχριστιανισμένοι τουρκόπουλοι· ..."; Korre 2018, p. 98: "Στην περίπτωση αυτή, η οικογένεια πρέπει να κατέβηκε μαζί με τα σώματα των τούρκων ιππέων [τουρκόπουλων] σελτζουκικής προέλευσης στον Μοριά για να αντιμετωπιστούν οι Φράγκοι και να παρέμειναν εκεί γύρω από την περιοχή του κάστρου του Αγίου Γεωργίου των Σκορτών (1262-1263). Όπως και οι Μελίκη, η οικογένεια των Κλα(υ)διώτη ενσωματώθηκε γρήγορα στην τοπική κοινωνία συμμαχώντας με τοπικούς άρχοντες και συγγενεύοντας μαζί τους, ώστε την τελευταία περίοδο τη βρίσκουμε νομέα εκτεταμένων εκτάσεων, με παροίκους και σημαντική δύναμη στο χώρο· την αμέσως επόμενη περίοδο δε και εξαιτίας ακριβώς αυτής της δύναμης, προνομιακό συνομιλητή των Βενετών μετά την πτώση του Δεσποτάτου στους Οθωμανούς."
^ Miklosich & Müller 1860, p. 482; Beēs 1907, pp. 247–248.
^ Mazaris & Seminar Classics 609 1975, 84.12–12.
^ Feissel & Philippidis-Braat 1985, pp. 353–354.
^ For examples, see Sathas 1885, Vol. 6, pp. 40–41; Barbarigo 1466, passim.
^ Magno 1885, p. 220.

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