Staikos Staikopoulos was a participant in the Greek War of Independence

Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...

.

Biography

Staikopoulos was born at Zatouna

Zatouna

Zatouna is a Greek settlement in the west-southwest of Arcadia. It is in the municipal unit of Dimitsana in the Peloponnese. Zatouna is connected with the road linking Dimitsana as well as the Karytaina-Dimitsana Road. Zatouna had a 2001 population of 75 for the village and 203 for the municipal...

, Gortynia

Gortynia

Gortynia is a municipality in the Arcadia peripheral unit, Peloponnese Periphery, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Dimitsana.-Municipality:...

, in Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...

 and from an early age was involved in the fur trade. On the island of Hydra

Hydra, Saronic Islands

Hydra is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece, located in the Aegean Sea between the Saronic Gulf and the Argolic Gulf. It is separated from the Peloponnese by narrow strip of water...

, where he went in 1818, he was recruited to the Friendly Society

Friendly society

A friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose...

 by Nikolaos Speliotopoulos.

In 1821, upon the outbreak of the war, he raised his own company of troops and departed Hydra for Argos

Argos

Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...

. He began at once a siege of Nafplio and quickly turned one of its commanders to his side. At last on 29 November, 1822, along with Demetrios Moschonesios, he took the fortress of Palamidi

Palamidi

Palamidi is a military fortress to the east of the Acronauplia in the town of Nafplion in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. Nestled on the crest of a 216-metre high hill, the fortress was built by the Venetians during their second occupation of the area .The fortress was a very large and...

, the feat for which he is best remembered in the history books. Afterwards he was promoted from chiliarch

Chiliarch

Chiliarch , in the Greek army of the Hellenistic period, was a commander of a 1,000 men unit, roughly equivalent to a modern battalion. The office was an adaptation by Alexander the Great of the Persian Achaemenid empire's hazarapatish. A chiliarch held duties both martial and civil...

 to strategos

Strategos

Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...

 (general

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

). Following this he laid siege to the fort of Corinth

Corinth

Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...

, which fell under his occupation. He was the first to face Ibrahim Pasha

Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt

Ibrahim Pasha was the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Wāli and unrecognised Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He served as a general in the Egyptian army that his father established during his reign, taking his first command of Egyptian forces was when he was merely a teenager...

, from whom he took thirty prisoners, who were sent to Nafplio. He had a seat in the Second National Assembly at Astros

Second National Assembly at Astros

The Second National Assembly at Astros was the second Greek National Assembly, a national representative body of the Greeks who had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire....

. By leave of King Othon

Otto of Greece

Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...

he remained in the army, although under guard, since he was opposed to the king's government.

Death

He died on 21 February, 1835, the day of his release from prison, in the guardhouse of Leonardou in Nafplio, from the wounds and hardships of war, and was buried in the old city cemetery.

Memorial

Today the municipality maintains in his honour a Staikopoulos Park, where every year on November 29 a commendation ceremony is held. In recognition of the fact that Zatouna is his birthplace and Nafplio the place of his death, the two have become sister-cities. Staikopoulos was married to Katerina Demetrakopoulou and had a daughter, Zacharoula.