Krokodeilos Kladas

Krokodeilos Kladas (Greek: Κροκόδειλος Κλαδάς, 1425–1490), also known as Korkodeilos, Krokondeilos, or Korkondelos, was a Greek military leader, specifically an armatolos, in the Morea (medieval Peloponnese) who fought against the Ottomans on behalf of the Republic of Venice during the latter 15th century.

Biography

Kladas was a member of the prominent Kladas clan. When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446 and 1451–1481) took the Morea in 1460, Kladas handed over his castle of Agios Giorgios and was given in exchange the castle of Vardounia in Upper Mani and the territory of Elos. By 1465, the Kladas brothers, Krokodēlos 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. Krokodēlos 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.