Septinsular Republic
Following the end of the Republic of Venice in 1797, Lefkada, like the other Venetian Ionian Islands, was occupied by the French, who held it until a Russo-Turkish expedition under Fyodor Ushakov captured it in 1799. In 1800, the Septinsular Republic was established, a Russian protectorate under "de jure" Ottoman suzerainty. The Russian Empire employed troops recruited from fugitive klephts and armatoloi in the Ionian Islands, particularly of Lefkada. Among these were captains Anastasios Tselios and Apostolos Levendakis, the latter who already in 1802 offered to raise a company of 60 fighters on Lefkada to support the Russians. Ali Pasha of Ioannina, who coveted possession of the Ionian Islands, besieged Lefkada in 1807. For this purpose he erected two forts on the mainland shore, the Tekke Castle and the St. George's Castle, but his attacks on the Castle of Santa Maura were successfully repulsed the local Russian and Greek forces of the Septinsular Republic. French rule was restored in 1807, after the Treaty of Tilsit, but in 1810, the British captured the island. In 1815, Great Britain set up the United States of the Ionian Islands as a protectorate, including Lefkada.