Konstantinos Kolokotronis

Konstantinos Kolokotronis was the father of Theodoros Kolokotronis, one of the protagonists of the Greek War of Independence.

Biography

He was born around 1745 and he was one of Yanis Kolokotronis's five children. He had medium height and was dark-skinned. When he was still young he worked as a mercenary in Corinth under the command of Halil Bey for four years. He developed close connections with some of the strongest families of the Peloponnese and soon grew into power. He even got to the point of affecting where the Pashas of the Peloponnese would be appointed. During his four years of service under Halil Bey, he developed the plan of driving the Turks out of the Peloponnese. He became close friends with the renowned klepht Panagiotaros. In 1762 he quit his job as a mercenary, climbed the mountain Taygetus and with Panagiotaros's help he built a castle at Kastanitsa of Mani and two small houses close to it. From there many raids against the Turks started.

In 1770, he became a member of the Orlov Revolt and took part in the battles that followed, where both his father and two of his brothers were killed. He fought the Turks around all of the Peloponnese and dealt a significant amount of damage to them. Once, he stood guard at the bridge of Birbaga in Katsana, where he managed to kill one of the most infamous generals of the Arvanites, Bekiaris, alongside his 36 soldiers. At an another incident, near Androusa, he managed to kill another infamous Arvanite general called Veizos and his 24 soldiers as well. With these deeds, he managed to encourage around 5.000 Greeks to go to the mountains and become klephts. After the carnage of Arvanitia, where Kolokotronis, with only 3.000 men, faced off 12.000 Arvanite soldiers and won. After that, Kolokotronis's name was famous among all Greeks. The Turks's hatred was so much that Hassan Tsezaerlis, alongside his fleet's grand dragoman Mauroyenis, gathered ships and a force of 14.000 soldiers and went to Gytheio in order to capture him. Konstantinos and Panagiotaros made their last stand at the Siege of Kastania, where Panagiotaros was captured alive and butchered. Konstantinos received an almost fatal blow from a sword. While he was ready to die, he was found by 7 Turkish soldiers, who cut him to pieces as well. They threw his head in a hole and his body over a cliff.

Sources