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98

DEATH OF PIUS II.

[CHAP. I. Morea. Their army in that country, under command of Bertoldo d'Este, numbered about 30,000 men, including 3,000 or 4,000 Cretan bowmen. Argos was recovered after a short siege, and Corinth was then invested both by sea and land. The wall of the Hexamilion was again repaired, to prevent the approach of succours from the north; and the labour of 30,000 men by day and night completed this structure in a fortnight. It was 12 feet high, and was fortified with 136 watch-towers and a deep ditch on both sides in the middle stood an altar for Mass, high over which floated the standard of St. Mark.'

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This defence, however, proved of little avail. It served, indeed, to arrest the advance of Omar Pasha, who was hastening from the south to the relief of Corinth; but the approach of Mahomet himself with a large army on the northern side struck a panic into the Venetians, whose numbers had been reduced by dysentery, and who had lost their commander. They resolved to abandon the isthmus and its defences, and all the guns, ammunition, and provisions were hastily embarked on board the fleet. This ill-considered step caused the loss of their possessions in the Morea. Scarce had the Venetian galleys departed when Mahomet appeared before the wall, breached it with his artillery, and, entering the Morea, speedily reduced the places which the Venetians had acquired either by revolt or capture. The year 1464 offers little of importance, except the death of Pius II. That learned and enthusiastic Pontiff, whose body was already broken down with age and disease, after a solemn service in St. Peter's, June 19th, set off in a litter for Ancona, accompanied by several Cardinals, to fulfil his intention of leading the crusade in person. But when, exhausted with the fatigue of his journey, he arrived at that port, he found neither soldiers, nor money, nor ships, but only a beggarly rabble without any means of transport. The last of those who had undertaken the crusade at their own expense, tired of waiting for the Venetian fleet, departed under the very eyes of the Pope, while the poorer sort were clamouring for employment and bread. This heartrending scene gave Pius his death-blow. The arrival of the Venetian fleet was signalled on the 10th of August; but on that very night Pius breathed his last, without having seen the Doge. In September, Pietro Barbo, a Venetian, and Cardinal of St. Mark,

1 Sanuto, ib. p. 1173; Sabellico, Historia Rerum Venetiarum, in the Istorici delle Cose Veneziane, Venezia, 1718, t. i.

p. 718, ap. Zinkeisen, B. ii. S. 300. Sabellico is an important authority for this

war.

CHAP. I.]

POPE PAUL II.-ITALIAN LEAGUE.

99

was elected his successor, and took the title of Paul II. The natural expectation that he would support his countrymen in their struggle with the Turks was not realized; and, indeed, he rather injured their cause, by directing against Bohemia the arm of Matthias Corvinus, the only ally of Venice. The high opinion formed of Paul's talent and virtue was disappointed, and he displayed in his conduct only passion, imprudence, perfidy, and ambition.

The ill success of the Venetians in the campaign of 1465 led them again to seek the alliance of the Albanian chieftain, Scanderbeg, whom Mahomet had long in vain endeavoured to subdue; and Kroja and Scutari received Venetian garrisons. In 1466, Mahomet marched against Albania with an apparently overwhelming force of 200,000 men; but the attacks of Scanderbeg, and the difficulty of providing for so numerous an army, compelled him to retire. In the following January, however, Scanderbeg died at Alessio, from the effects of a fever, recommending with his dying breath his son, John Castriot, a minor, to the protection of the Venetians. When Mahomet, some years afterwards, obtained possession of Alessio, he caused Scanderbeg's tomb to be opened, and his remains to be exhibited to the admiring Osmanlis. Pieces of his bones were sought for with avidity, to be converted into talismans, which were deemed capable of inspiring the wearers with some portion of the valour of that unconquered hero.1 For the next two or three years the Turkish and Venetian war offers little of importance. In July, 1470, the Turks made themselves masters of the important island of Negropont, the ancient Euboea. Towards the north, large bodies of their cavalry had penetrated in 1469 as far as Cilly in Styria, harrying all around, and carrying off 20,000 persons into slavery. The alarm inspired in Italy by their progress produced, at the instance of the Pope, a league, which, besides the Pontiff, included King Ferdinand I. of Naples, the Dukes of Milan and Modena, the Republics of Florence, Lucca, and Siena, and Ferdinand of Aragon, who had begun to reign in Sicily; yet it only added a reinforcement of nineteen Papal and Neapolitan galleys to the Venetian fleet, and achieved nothing of importance except the surprising, plundering, and burning of Smyrna, in 1472. Meanwhile, from their fortress of Schabatz on the Save the Turkish incursions were repeated every year, with a still increasing circle. The inhabitants of Laibach and Klagenfurt beheld those savage hordes sweeping up

1 Barletius, De Vita et Gestis Scanderbegi, in Lonicerus, Chron. Turc. t. iii. p. 230; Cf. Zinkeisen, B. ii. S. 396.

100

THE TURKS THREATEN VENICE.

[CHAP. I. to their very gates, devastating the surrounding country, and carrying off the peasants as well as their flocks and herds. Matthias Corvinus is said to have favoured some of these attacks on his old enemy Frederick; at all events he made no attempt to check them till 1475, when, after taking Schabatz, he penetrated with his army down the Save and Danube to Semendria, driving the enemy before him; a success which shows what might have been achieved by well-concerted efforts. Venetian writers accuse Matthias of having, through mediation of a Jew, concluded a secret peace with Mahomet,' to which the Neapolitan King was also a party. The Hungarian monarch had, in 1476, contracted a marriage with Beatrice, daughter of Ferdinand of Naples and it is certain that the bride, on passing through the Turkish army, on her way to Hungary, was treated with respect." In that year the Turks approached the Salzburg Alps, and the very border of Italy; and in the summer of 1477 their ravages were repeated in a still more dreadful manner. Crossing the Isonzo, they threatened Venice herself, and the sea-queen might have beheld from her towers the columns of fire that rose in the plains between the Tagliamento and the Piave. After the enemy had retired, the Venetians attempted to secure themselves from a repetition of this insult, by throwing up a lofty rampart on the banks of the Lower Isonzo, from Görz to the marshes of Aquileia, protected at each end by a fortified camp. But scarcely was it completed, when a fresh swarm of Osmanlis, under Omar Bey, broke through in several places, and 100 villages became a prey to the flames. The historian Sabellico, who beheld this fearful spectacle from a tower near Udine, likened the whole plain between the Isonzo and the Tagliamento to a sea of fire." In other respects the arms of the Turks had not been successful. An attempt on Kroja in 1477 had been repulsed; and in Greece Lepanto had been delivered by Loredano and his fleet. But the war had now lasted thirteen years, and the resources of Venice were almost exhausted. The withdrawal of the Pope and the King of Naples from the Italian League, a family alliance between Ferdinand and King Matthias, their reported treaty with the Sultan, their suspected designs on Northern Italy, a dreadful plague which ravaged the Venetian dominions, all these were causes which induced that Republic to enter into negotiations with Mahomet (1478), and their ambassador Malipiero was in3 Hist. Rer. Venet. p. 111, ap. Zinkeisen, B. ii. S. 377.

1 Cf. Philelphi, Epist. p. 195 (ed. 1502). Engel, B. iii. S. 349 f. und Anm.

2

CHAP. I.] PEACE BETWEEN VENICE AND THE PORTE. 101 structed to submit to his demands. But his terms rose with the concessions offered, and the Venetians in disgust resolved to continue the war. It went, however, in favour of the Turks. Kroja surrendered on a capitulation, which was not respected; Scutari was twice assaulted and then blockaded. Meanwhile the resources of Venice continued to decline, and Giovanni Dario, Secretary of the Senate, was despatched to Constantinople, with full powers, to conclude a peace on any conditions. A treaty was accordingly signed, January 26th, 1479, by which the Venetians ceded their claims to Scutari and its territory, Kroja, the islands of Lemnos and Negropont, and the highlands of Maina, and engaged to restore within two months all the places which they had captured during the war. They also agreed to pay the Grand Signor a yearly sum of 10,000 ducats, in lieu of all customs on Venetian goods imported into Turkish harbours. The Sultan, on his side, restored all the places in the Morea, Albania, and Dalmatia, except those before specified. Although the States of Europe had done little or nothing to help Venice in her arduous struggle with the Turk, they agreed in condemning the peace which necessity had imposed upon her.

While the Venetian commerce was secured by this treaty, that of the Genoese in the Black Sea had been nearly annihilated during the last few years of the war. In 1475, Caffa, their principal colony, fell into the hands of the Turks, whence Mahomet extended his dominion over the smaller settlements. Although Caffa had capitulated, the Turks, with their habitual disregard of such engagements, carried off 40,000 of the inhabitants; many of the principal citizens were barbarously tortured and killed, and fifteen hundred of the most promising youths were incorporated in the Janissaries.

The peace enabled Mahomet to direct his operations against Hungary and Italy. In 1479 the Turks made dreadful inroads into Slavonia, Hungary, and Transylvania; but Paul Kinis, Count of Temesvar, whose name was long a terror to them, and Stephen Bathory, Voyvode of Transylvania, inflicted on them a memorable defeat on the Brotfeld, near Szaszvaros, or Broos (October 13th). An anecdote will show the brutality of these wars. At a supper after the victory, the bodies of the slaughtered Turks were made to supply the place of tables, and Count Kinis himself fixed his teeth in one of them. This signal defeat put a stop for some time to the Turkish incursions.

1 Engel, B. iii. S. 366. The Hungarians adopted the Turkish custom of

102

RETROSPECT OF ITALIAN AFFAIRS.

[Снар. І. Mahomet soon after the peace wrested three of the Ionian Islands, St Maura, Zante, and Cephalonia, from the Despot of Arta. This conquest afforded the Sultan an opportunity to display one of those singular caprices in which despotic power alone can indulge. He caused some of the inhabitants to be conveyed to the islands in the Sea of Marmora, where he compelled them to intermarry with Africans, in order that he might have a race of coloured slaves!! The Turks also made an ineffectual attempt to take Rhodes, which was valiantly defended by the Knights under their Grand-Master, Pierre d'Aubusson.

The aid afforded to the Knights, on this occasion, by Ferdinand of Naples, determined Mahomet to undertake an expedition against that King. The state of Italy was favourable to such an attempt; but, before relating its progress, it will be proper to take a brief review of the history of that country.

The treaty of Lodi before mentioned, to which Alfonso, King of Aragon and the Sicilies, acceded in January, 1455, might have secured the peace of Italy, but for that monarch's implacable hatred of Genoa. The domestic factions of this city, and Alfonso's superiority at sea, compelled the Genoese to purchase the aid of France by submitting themselves to Charles VII., who invested John of Anjou, Duke of Calabria, with the government of Genoa. This appointment of his old enemy incited Alfonso to still more vigorous action, and the fall of Genoa appeared imminent, when she was unexpectedly delivered by the death of that King, June 27th, 1458.

In spite of some defects, Alfonso must be regarded as one of the greatest and most generous Princes of the fifteenth century. He was both wise and courageous, he loved and patronized literature, and he was remarkable for a liberality which not unfrequently degenerated into profusion. His chief defects were his immeasurable ambition and his unbridled licentiousness. His last amour with a certain Lucrezia d'Alagna, the daughter of a Neapolitan gentleman, has been recorded by the good Pontiff Pius II., witheut a word of censure, in the Commentaries written after he was seated on the papal throne.3

Alfonso, as we have said in the Introduction, appointed by

cutting off the heads of their fallen foes. Two waggon-loads of Turks' heads were exhibited to the Hungarian Diet in 1492 (ib. p. 48).

Cantacusino, ap. Zinkeisen, B. ii. S. 449. 2 Introduction, p. 55.

3 Lib. i. p. 27 (ed. Frankf. 1614). Pius, indeed, believed Lucrezia to be as chaste as her namesake of antiquity. The Life of Alfonso has been written by his counsellor and secretary, Antonio Biccatelli, called Panormita, from his birth

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