Krokondeilos (or Krokodeilos, or Akrokodylos) Kladas was the son of Theodoros Kladas, an officer in the service of the Despots of Mystras. He was born in 1425 and as soon as he became a man he followed in his father's footsteps and became a "soldier". The origin of the family was from Epirus.
However, the first mention of Kladades in Moria is made in 1296 . The family was in the service of the Paleologues Krokondeilos lived through the Turkish conquest of the Peloponnese and briefly stopped fighting. However, with the outbreak of the first Turkish-Venetian war, in 1463, he took up arms again and fought, leading a body of soldiers, in favor of the Venetians and against the Ottomans.
Crocodile fought excellently throughout the war. But when the Venetians signed a peace treaty with Mohammed the conqueror, they also ordered the Greeks who fought for them to stop hostilities.
Based on the terms of the treaty, the arm of Mani was handed over by the Venetians to the Turks. Naturally, this term caused anger among the Laconians , who had already lavishly shed their blood for their freedom and for Venice. Krokondeilos was from the time of the Paleologues, lord of the castle of Agios Georgios. When the Turks occupied the Peloponnese, Muhammad himself had attempted to take him to his side, tempting him with offers of land.
Revolution
Kladas had then preferred to fight for freedom instead of the Turk's offers. He joined the Venetian army, in which he was declared commander-in-chief of the "Soldiers". . After the signing of the Venetian-Turkish agreement, Kladas decided to continue the war. He would never allow the Turks to "soil the soil of Mani"!
On October 9, 1479, he left Koroni at the head of a military corps of 1,600 men and marched towards Mani. As soon as he got there he announced his decision to continue the war and called the Greeks to arms, raising his banner, a blue flag with an all-white cross in the middle, next to the red war flag of the Paleologues with the double-headed eagle.
Many enthusiastically rushed to enlist in Klada's revolutionary army, which within a month numbered 16,000 men, according to Konstantinos Satha . To strengthen the will of the people, but also to force the Venetians to resume the war with the Turks, he publicly proclaimed that he was acting with the consent of Venice. He did not even hesitate to raise the flag of Agios Markos next to the Greek flags.
Having gathered enough strength, Kladas moved initially to liberate the forts of Mani , which the Venetians had ceded to the Turks. With great enthusiasm and shouting "Lord Mercy", his men rushed at the Turks and defeated them. The Turkish garrisons in the villages of Mani and Megalochori were annihilated, the fortresses of Trigofilos and Oitylos were captured and their guards were exterminated or captured .
The towers of Kastania, Gastela, Leftini, Androussa, Vaskos, Piagas and Papafigos were also captured, as were the mountain passes of Megalovouni and Maina. These victories caused excitement among the Christians, but also terror among the sultan. Muhammad's great fear was that Venice was aiding the rebellion.
At that time the Turks were also fighting hard on other fronts , in Anatolia, against the Turkoman races, in Egypt against the Mamluks and in Mesopotamia, against the Persians. So the outbreak of a new Turkish-Venetian war would be extremely damaging, perhaps even fatal for the Ottoman rule . But Venice, also exhausted by the previous long war, made the position clear to the sultan, declaring that it had nothing to do with the movement and was even willing to help suppress it.
As a sign of goodwill towards Muhammad, the Venetian commander of Koroni, Nicolos Kodarini, arrested the wife and children of Kladas, whom the Greek "Soldier" had left there for safety . Then they issued a proclamation, by which they excommunicated Kladas and forbade, under the penalty of death, the Greek subjects of "galinotati" to fight in favor of Kladas. The Venetians did not limit themselves to these, but proclaimed Kladas.
The attack of Ali Voumikos
Having calmed down from the "Venetian" threat, Muhammad decided to suppress the rebellion themselves. For this purpose, he ordered Ali Vumikos of Beilerbe to campaign against Kladas. After Ali Voumikos gathered 6,000 additional men - the sources do not mention the exact number of Voumikos' army - he left Mystras for Mani.
On January 16, 1481, the Ottoman army invaded Mani and attacked the tower of Trigofilos. The tower was defended by only three soldiers, while 16 civilians had also found shelter inside it, who of course helped in the defense. The few defenders resisted as long as they could, but in the end the tower was taken and all in it were cut to little pieces .
After his "great" victory, Voumikos moved into the interior of Mani and on January 19 he approached Oitylo. Kladas, however, had gathered his forces and did not hesitate to fight in line with the, until then, undefeated Ottomans.
Protected in the mountainous terrain, the foot soldiers of Kladas, archers in the majority of them, harvested the spachis of Voumicus. So when the cavalry "Soldiers" of Klada counterattacked, the Turks fled, leaving behind 700 dead and an unknown number of wounded . It was the first victory of the Greeks against the conqueror, since the fall of the city.
Humiliated, the Ottoman army stopped its flight when it reached the walls of Mystras. Meanwhile, the Venetians, in a flash of humanity, rejected Muhammad's proposal to surrender to him the family of Kladas, but they sent it to Venice, where they imprisoned its members. At the same time, the Venetians, to be sure that they would not create issues with Muhammad , they decided to demobilize most of the Greek charioteers they had in their service. One of them was Theodore Boas , father of the famous Mercury Bois .
Bois, enraged by the Venetians, left Nafplion at the head of 60 soldiers, intending to join Cladas. But instead of marching straight to Mani, he first went to Argos. There he ambushed a Turkish detachment, which he neutralized . Of the Turks, three were killed and the remaining 27 surrendered.
New Turkish invasion
Despite the defeat of the army, Muhammad was angry, but not disappointed. He assigned the command of a new army to Sanjakbey Ahmed, to whom he also assigned elite janissaries and disorderly Azaps. On February 16, 1481, Ahmed had encamped in Mystras, having gathered at least 10,000 men. On the other hand, the position of Kladas was weakening.
First of all, the revolution was particularly damaged by the dispute between Kladas and Buis and the latter's departure from Mani. But the attitude of Venice had also influenced many revolutionaries, who saw their success as impossible without the help of a foreign power. So slowly the power of Kladas weakened. Nevertheless, Ahmet did not venture to attack, except on April 4, when he and a Turkish galley sailed into the waters of Mani.
Her appearance further demoralized the rebels, with the result that the Kladas army was further reduced. The latter could now rely exclusively on his own Soldiers, light horsemen and their "zagradors" (representatives of mounted soldiers) on foot. With these powers he could not even imagine facing Ahmed Bey.
However, the Turk made the mistake of separating his forces and attacking with only 2,000 janissaries and horsemen against the village of Kastania. Kladas counterattacked this Turkish body, despite the fact that even against it his forces were dramatically outnumbered, and managed to defeat it. The Turks also launched new attacks. The battle in the village raged for a whole day and night. In the end the few men of Kladas were forced to retreat.
But they found themselves blocked from everywhere, as another Turkish body, led by the voivode of Kalamata, had moved to the rear of the Greeks. Panic ensued and the revolutionary army was disbanded. However, most of his men were saved, after they managed to break through the Turkish cordon with a desperate attack. Among those rescued was Kladas, who managed to regroup only 50 of his men. The rest of the Maniates rushed to their villages to defend them from the invading Turks.
Rescue and heroic end
Over the next few days Ahmed's army advanced without encountering organized resistance. Many villages were destroyed and the inhabitants were displaced. Kladas, meanwhile, besieged a tower with their few men. Fortunately for him, four (according to others three) galleys of the king of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand, a fanatical enemy of the Turks, had arrived in Mani in those days. . At the head of the flotilla was a good friend of Kladas, the chosen Iagos.
He, seeing the predicament of Kladas, sent a message, suggesting that he board the ships with his men. Kladas, after all, had no other choice, he accepted. But before leaving he decided to fight one last battle with Ahmet. Thus on the night of April 12-13, 1481, the Greeks made a surprise attack against the besieging Turks and slaughtered many of them in the confusion and panic that was caused.
Immediately afterwards they crossed the Turkish positions and rushed to Porto Cajo , where the Italian galleys had anchored. The next day they boarded them and left for Naples, Italy.
Cladas went into the service of the king of Naples and fought in Northern Epirus. In 1490 he fell into the hands of the Turks who killed him "by dismemberment , thus making him not only a defender of freedom but also a martyr of the Greek race.