Ottoman Venetian War (1463–1479)[edit] Main article: Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–79) According to the Byzantine historian Michael Critobulus, hostilities broke out because of the flight of an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens to the Venetian fortress of Coron (Koroni) with 100,000 silver aspers from his masters treasure. The fugitive then converted to Christianity, and demands for his rendition by the Ottomans were therefore refused by the Venetian authorities.[30] Using this as a pretext, in November 1462, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, the Ottoman commander in central Greece, attacked and nearly succeeded in taking the strategically important Venetian fortress of Lepanto (Nafpaktos). On 3 April 1463 however, the governor of the Morea, Isa Beg, took the Venetian-held town of Argos by treason.[30] The new alliance launched a two-pronged offensive against the Ottomans: a Venetian army, under the Captain General of the Sea Alvise Loredan, landed in the Morea, while Matthias Corvinus invaded Bosnia.[31] At the same time, Pius II began assembling an army at Ancona, hoping to lead it in person.[32] Negotiations were also began with other rivals of the Ottomans, such as Karamanids, Uzun Hassan and the Crimean Khanate.[32] In early August, the Venetians retook Argos and refortified the Isthmus of Corinth, restoring the Hexamilion wall and equipping it with many cannons.[33] They then proceeded to besiege the fortress of the Acrocorinth, which controlled the northwestern Peloponnese. The Venetians engaged in repeated clashes with the defenders and with Ömer Beys forces, until they suffered a major defeat on 20 October and were then forced to lift the siege and retreat to the Hexamilion and to Nauplia (Nafplion).[33] In Bosnia, Matthias Corvinus seized over sixty fortified places and succeeded in taking its capital, Jajce after a 3-month siege, on 16 December.[34] Ottoman reaction was swift and decisive: Sultan Mehmed II dispatched his Grand Vizier, Mahmud Pasha Angelović, with an army against the Venetians. To confront the Venetian fleet, which had taken station outside the entrance of the Dardanelles Straits, the Sultan further ordered the creation of the new shipyard of Kadirga Limani in the Golden Horn (named after the kadirga type of galley), and of two forts to guard the Straits, Kilidulbahr and Sultaniye.[35] The Morean campaign was swiftly victorious for the Ottomans they razed the Hexamilion, and advanced into the Morea. Argos fell, and several forts and localities that had recognized Venetian authority reverted to their Ottoman allegiance. Sultan Mehmed II, who was following Mahmud Pasha with another army to reinforce him, had reached Zeitounion (Lamia) before being apprised of his Viziers success. Immediately, he turned his men north, towards Bosnia.[35] However, the Sultans attempt to retake Jajce in July and August 1464 failed, with the Ottomans retreating hastily in the face of Corvinus approaching army. A new Ottoman army under Mahmud Pasha then forced Corvinus to withdraw, but Jajce was not retaken for many years after.[34] However, the death of Pope Pius II on 15 August in Ancona spelled the end of the Crusade.[32][36] In the meantime, for the upcoming campaign of 1464, the Republic had appointed Sigismondo Malatesta, he launched attacks against Ottoman forts, and engaged in a failed siege of Mistra in August–October. Small-scale warfare continued on both sides, with raids and counter-raids, but a shortage of manpower and money meant that the Venetians remained largely confined to their fortified bases, while Ömer Beys army roamed the countryside. In the Aegean, the new Venetians, tried to take Lesbos in the spring of 1464, and besieged the capital Mytilene for six weeks, until the arrival of an Ottoman fleet under Mahmud Pasha on 18 May forced them to withdraw.[37] Another attempt to capture the island shortly after also failed. The Venetian navy spent the remainder of the year in ultimately fruitless demonstrations of force before the Dardanelles.[37] In early 1465, Mehmed II sent peace feelers to the Venetian Senate in 1465. Distrusting the Sultans motives, these were rejected.[38] In April 1466, Vettore Cappello the Venetian war effort was reinvigorated: the fleet took the northern Aegean islands of Imbros, Thasos and Samothrace, and then sailed into the Saronic Gulf.[39] On 12 July, Cappello landed at Piraeus, and marched against Athens, the Ottomans major regional base. He failed to take the Acropolis and was forced to retreat to Patras. Patras, being the capital of Peloponnese and the seat of the Ottoman Bey, was being besieged by the joint forces of Venetians and Greeks.[40] Before Cappello could arrive there, and as the city seemed on the verge of falling, Ömer Bey suddenly appeared with 12,000 cavalry, and drove the outnumbered besiegers off. Six hundred Venetians and a hundred were taken prisoner out of a force of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself was killed.[41] Cappello, who arrived some days later, attacked the Ottomans, but was heavily defeated. Demoralized, he returned to Negroponte with the remains of his army. There Cappello fell ill and died on 13 March 1467.[42] In 1470 Mehmed personally led an Ottoman army to besiege Negropont, the Venetian navy was defeated and Negropont captured. Scene depicts the fifth and greatest assault upon the Shkodra Castle by Ottoman forces in the Siege of Shkodra, 1478–9 In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed marched with a large army against the Albanians. Under their leader, Skenderbeg, they had long resisted the Ottomans, and had repeatedly sought assistance from Italy.[31] Mehmed II responded by marching again against Albania but was unsuccessful. The winter brought an outbreak of plague, which would recur annually and sap the strength of the local resistance.[39] Skanderbeg himself died of malaria in the Venetian stronghold of Lissus (Lezhë), ending the ability of Venice to use the Albanian lords for its own advantage.[43] After Skanderbeg died, some Venetian-controlled northern Albanian garrisons continued to hold territories coveted by the Ottomans, such as Žabljak Crnojevića, Drisht, Lezha, and Shkodra—the most significant. Mehmed II sent his armies to take Shkodra in 1474[44] but failed. Then he went personally to lead the siege of Shkodra of 1478-79. The Venetians and Shkodrans resisted the assaults and continued to hold the fortress until Venice ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Constantinople as a condition of ending the war. The agreement was established as a result of the Ottomans having reached the outskirts of Venice. Based on the terms of the treaty, the Venetians were allowed to keep Ulcinj, Antivan, and Durrës. However, they ceded Shkodra (which had been under Ottoman siege for many months), as well as other territories on the Dalmatian coastline, as well as relinquished control of the Greek islands of Negroponte (Euboea) and Lemnos. Moreover, the Venetians were forced to pay 100,000 ducat indemnity[45] and agreed to a tribute of around 10,000 ducats per year in order to acquire trading privileges in the Black Sea. As a result of this treaty, Venice acquired a weakened position in the Levant.[46]
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 21:56:48 +0000
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