Battle of Gallipoli (1416)
Battle of Gallipoli | |||||||
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Part of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars | |||||||
Map of the Dardanelles and their vicinity. Gallipoli (Gelibolu) is marked on the northern entrance of the straits. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Republic of Venice | Ottoman Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Pietro Loredan (WIA) | Çali Bey † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
10 galleys | 32 galleys & galleots | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
12 killed 340 wounded |
4,000 killed 1,100 captured (several hundred executed) 12–27 ships captured |
The Battle of Gallipoli occurred on 29 May 1416 between the fleets of the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire off the port city of Gallipoli, the main Ottoman naval base. The battle was the main episode of a brief conflict between the two powers, resulting from Ottoman attacks against possessions and shipping of the Venetians and their allies in the Aegean Sea in 1414–1415. The Venetian fleet, under Pietro Loredan, was charged with transporting a Venetian embassy to the Ottoman sultan, but was authorized to attack if the Ottomans refused to negotiate. The subsequent events are known chiefly from a detailed letter written by Loredan after the battle.
The Ottomans exchanged fire with the Venetian ships as soon as the Venetian fleet approached Gallipoli on 27 May, forcing the Venetians to withdraw. On the next day, the two fleets manoeuvred and fought off Gallipoli, but during the evening, Loredan managed to contact the Ottoman authorities and inform them of his diplomatic mission. Despite assurances that the Ottomans would welcome the ambassadors, when the Venetian fleet approached the city on the next day, 29 May, the Ottoman fleet sailed to meet the Venetians and the two sides quickly became embroiled in battle. The Venetians scored a crushing victory, killing the Ottoman commander, capturing a large part of the Ottoman fleet, and taking large numbers of Ottoman crews prisoner, of whom many—particularly the Christians serving voluntarily in the Ottoman fleet—were executed. The Venetians then retired to Tenedos to replenish their supplies and rest. Although it confirmed Venetian naval superiority in the Aegean Sea for the next few decades, the battle had little impact: a peace agreement was brokered but refused by the Venetian Senate, and a settlement of the conflict was delayed until a peace treaty was signed in 1419.
Background
Relations of Venice and the Ottoman Empire
In 1413, the Ottoman prince Mehmed I ended the civil war of the Ottoman Interregnum and established himself as sultan and the sole master of the Ottoman Turkish realm.[1] The Republic of Venice, as the premier maritime and commercial power in the area, endeavoured to renew the treaties it had concluded with Mehmed's predecessors during the civil war, and in May 1414, its bailo in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, Francesco Foscarini, was instructed to proceed to the Sultan's court to that effect. Foscarini failed, as Mehmed was away campaigning in Anatolia, and Venetian envoys were traditionally instructed not to move too far from the shore (and the Republic's reach); Foscarini had yet to meet the Sultan by July 1415, when Mehmed's displeasure at this delay was conveyed to the Venetian authorities.[2] In the meantime, tensions between the two powers mounted, as the Ottomans moved to re-establish a sizeable navy and launched several raids that challenged Venetian naval hegemony in the Aegean Sea.[3]
Ottoman raids in the Aegean in 1414–1415
During his 1414 campaign in Anatolia, Mehmed came to
Apart from the attacks on Naxos, Ottoman raids were also directed against immediate Venetian interests. In June 1414, Ottoman ships also raided the Venetian colony of
Diplomatic and military response of Venice
In response to the Ottoman raids, the
While Foscolo was charged with a mission to the
Role of Gallipoli
The main target of Loredan's fleet was to be Gallipoli. The city is described by the Italian naval historian Camillo Manfroni as the "key of the Dardanelles",[27] and was one of the most important strategic positions in the Eastern Mediterranean. At the time it was also the main Turkish naval base and provided a safe haven for their corsairs raiding Venetian colonies in the Aegean.[27] With Constantinople still in Christian hands, Gallipoli had also for decades been the main crossing point for the Ottoman armies from Anatolia to Europe. As a result of its strategic importance, Sultan Bayezid I took care to improve its fortifications, rebuilding the citadel and strengthening the harbour defences. The harbour had a seaward wall and a narrow entrance leading to an outer basin, separated from an inner basin by a bridge, where Bayezid erected a three-storey tower (the Birghoz-i Gelibolu). When Ruy González de Clavijo visited the city in 1403, he reported seeing its citadel full of troops, a large arsenal, and 40 ships in the harbour.[28]
Bayezid aimed to use his warships in Gallipoli to control (and tax) the passage of shipping through the Dardanelles, an ambition which brought him into direct conflict with Venetian interests in the area. While the Ottoman fleet was not yet strong enough to face the Venetians, it forced the latter to provide armed escort to their trade convoys passing through the Dardanelles. Securing right of unimpeded passage through the Dardanelles was a chief issue in Venice's diplomatic relations with the Ottomans: the Republic had secured this in the 1411 treaty with Musa Çelebi, but the failure to renew that agreement in 1414 had again rendered Gallipoli, in the words of the 20th-century Ottomanist Halil İnalcık, "the main object of dispute in Venetian-Ottoman relations".[29] The Ottoman naval raids in 1415, launched from Gallipoli, further underscored its importance.[29]
Battle
The events before and during the battle are described in detail in a letter sent by Loredan to the Signoria on 2 June 1416, which was included by Marino Sanuto in his History of the Doges of Venice,
Arrival of the Venetian fleet on 27 May
According to Loredan's letter, his fleet—four galleys from Venice, four from Candia, and one each from Negroponte and Napoli di Romania
First clashes and negotiations on 28 May
At dawn on the next day (28 May), Loredan sent two galleys, bearing the Banner of Saint Mark, to the entry of the port of Gallipoli to open negotiations. In response the Turks sent 32 ships to attack them. Loredan withdrew his two galleys, and began to withdraw, while shooting at the Turkish ships, in order to lure them away from Gallipoli.[31][43] As the Ottoman ships could not keep up with their oars, they set sail as well; on the Venetian side, the galley from Napoli di Romania tarried during the manoeuvre and was in danger of being caught by the pursuing Ottoman ships, so that Loredan likewise ordered his ships to set sail.[43] Once they were made ready for combat, Loredan ordered his ten galleys to lower sails, turn about, and face the Ottoman fleet. At that point, the eastern wind rose suddenly, and the Ottomans decided to break off the pursuit and head back to Gallipoli. Loredan in turn tried to catch up with the Ottomans, firing at them with his guns and crossbows and launching grappling hooks at the Turkish ships, but the wind and the current allowed the Ottomans to retreat speedily behind the fortifications of Gallipoli, where they went to anchor in battle formation, with their prows to the open sea. According to Loredan, the engagement lasted until late in the afternoon.[43][44]
Loredan then sent a messenger to the Ottoman fleet commander to complain about the attack, insisting that his intentions were pacific, and that his sole purpose was to convey the two ambassadors to the Sultan. The Ottoman commander replied that he was ignorant of that fact, and that his fleet was meant to sail to the Danube and stop Mehmed's brother and rival for the throne, Mustafa Çelebi, from crossing from Wallachia into Ottoman Rumelia. The Ottoman commander informed Loredan that he and his crews could land and provision themselves without fear, and that the members of the embassy would be conveyed with the appropriate honours and safety to their destination. Loredan sent a notary, Thomas, with an interpreter to the Ottoman commander and the captain of the garrison of Gallipoli to express his regrets, but also to gauge the number, equipment, and dispositions of the Ottoman galleys. The Ottoman dignitaries reassured Thomas of their good will, and proposed to provide an armed escort for the ambassadors to bring them to the court of Sultan Mehmed.[45][46]
After the envoy returned, the Venetian fleet, sailing with difficulty against the eastern wind, departed and sailed to a nearby bay to spend the night.[47] During the night, a council of war was conducted. The provveditore Venier and the Candiot sopracomito Albano Capello urged to seize the opportunity to attack the Ottoman fleet in its harbour, since the Ottoman fleet was disorganized, and its crews largely composed of Christian slaves, who were likely to use the opportunity to escape. Loredan and the other sopracomiti hesitated to go against their instructions, or to attack the enemy fleet, protected as it was by a powerful fortress and close to reinforcements from the land troops.[48][49][50] The episode is omitted by Sanudo but provided by Morosini, likely because it sheds unfavourable light on Venier's judgment; Sanudo himself had a Venier mother, and may have been eager to conceal this embarrassing episode of family history.[51] During the same night, the Turkish ships left their anchorage and deployed in a line of battle opposite the Venetians, without however making any hostile moves; but at and around Gallipoli, numerous troop movements could be observed, with soldiers boarding vessels of every kind. As Manfroni comments, this "was perhaps a measure of precaution and surveillance, so that with the favour of the night the Venetians would not ferry Mustafa's militias"—the Ottoman commander was naturally unaware of the Venetians' instructions not to seek to treat with Mustafa except in the event of the failure of negotiations with Mehmed. However, to the Venetians, the Turkish moves looked like a deliberate provocation.[52] Loredan managed to move his ships about half a mile (c. 800–900 m) away from the Turks; but he also modified his orders to his fleet, commanding them to be ready for combat at any moment.[53]
Battle of 29 May
On the next day, in accordance to the messages exchanged the previous day, Loredan led his ships towards Gallipoli to replenish his supplies of water, while leaving three galleys—those of his brother, of Dandolo, and of Capello of Candia—as a reserve in his rear. As soon as the Venetians approached the town, the Ottoman fleet sailed to meet them, and one of their galleys approached and fired a few cannon shots at the Venetian vessels.[54] According to the account by Doukas, the Venetians were pursuing a merchant vessel[d] of Lesbos, thought to be of Turkish origin, coming from Constantinople. The Ottomans likewise thought that the merchant vessel was one of their own, and one of their galleys moved to defend the vessel, bringing the two fleets into battle.[36] This version, which suggests that the ensuing battle was the result of a misunderstanding, is completely absent from the account of Loredan and the Venetian sources.[56]
The galley from Napoli, which sailed to his left, was again having trouble keeping with the battle formation, so Loredan ordered it moved to the right, away from the approaching Turks.[e] Loredan had his ships withdraw a while, in order to draw the Turks further from Gallipoli and have the sun to the Venetians' back.[f] Both Zancaruolo and Chalkokondyles report that the Napoli galley opened the battle by advancing ahead of the Venetian fleet—its captain, Girolamo Minotto, misinterpreted Loredan's signals to stay back, according to Chalkokondyles—and attacking the Ottoman flagship, after which Loredan with the rest of the Venetian fleet joined the battle.[59] Loredan himself describes his own ship's attack on the leading Ottoman galley. Its crew offered determined resistance, and the other Ottoman galleys came astern of Loredan's ship to his left, and launched volleys of arrows against him and his men. Loredan himself was wounded by an arrow below the eye and the nose, and by another that passed through his left hand, as well as other arrows that struck him with lesser effect. Nevertheless, the galley was captured after most of its crew was killed, and Loredan, after leaving a few men of his crew to guard it, turned against a galleot, which he captured as well. Again leaving a few of his men and his flag on it, he turned on the other Ottoman ships.[53][60] The fight lasted from dawn to the second hour.[g] Both Venetian and Byzantine sources agree that many of the Ottoman crews simply jumped into the sea and abandoned their ships, and that the Ottomans retreated once the battle clearly turned against them.[62]
The Venetians defeated the Ottoman fleet, killing its commander Çali Bey (Cialasi-beg Zeberth) and many of the captains and crews, and capturing six great galleys and nine galleots, according to Loredan's account.
The Venetian fleet then approached Gallipoli and bombarded the port, without response from the Ottomans within the walls. The Venetians then retired about a mile from Gallipoli to recover their strength and tend to their wounded.
Aftermath
One of the Turkish captains that had been taken prisoner composed a letter to the Sultan, stating that the Venetians had been attacked without cause.[66] He also informed Loredan that the remnants of the Ottoman fleet were such that they posed no threat to him: a single galley and a few galleots and smaller vessels were seaworthy, while the rest of the galleys in Gallipoli were out of commission.[72] At Tenedos, Loredan held a council of war, where the prevailing opinion was to return to Negroponte for provisions, for offloading the wounded, and for selling three of the galleys for prize money for the crews. Loredan disagreed, believing that they should keep up the pressure on the Turks, and resolved to return to Gallipoli to press for the passage of the ambassadors to the Sultan's court. He sent his brother with his ship to bring the more heavily wounded to Negroponte, and burned three of the captured galleys since they were too much of a burden—in his letter to the Signoria, he expressed the hope that his men would still be recompensed for them, his shipwrights estimating their value at 600 gold ducats.[73]
Abortive peace settlement
The news of the victory at Gallipoli were received with much enthusiasm in Venice, as it was the first major naval engagement since the
Landing the ambassadors was delayed until July,
Continued negotiations and the peace of 1419
Loredan returned to Venice in December 1416, to a triumphal welcome.
Over the following years, the Venetian position deteriorated:
The victory at Gallipoli ensured Venetian naval superiority for decades to come, but also led the Venetians to complacency and over-confidence, as, according to historian Seth Parry, the "seemingly effortless trouncing of the Ottoman fleet confirmed the Venetians in their beliefs that they were vastly superior to the Turks in naval warfare".[93] Even so, during the Siege of Thessalonica in 1422–1430 and subsequent conflicts over the course of the century, "the Venetians would learn to their discomfiture that naval superiority alone could not guarantee an everlasting position of strength in the eastern Mediterranean".[93]
Notes
- sopracomiti (captains) for the galleys to be outfitted in Venice. The commanders of the galleys equipped by Venetian colonies were decided by the local colonists.[17]
- ^ For further medieval and modern literature, cf. Christ 2018, p. 144 (note 22)
- ^ The sopracomiti of the Candiot galleys were Domenico Venier, Lorenzo Barbarigo, Albano Capello, and a Trevisan; of the galley of Negroponte, Marco Grimani; and of Napoli, Girolamo Minotto.[39]
- ^ Zancaruolo also mentions the presence of a Venetian cargo vessel carrying raisins, without giving further detail.[55]
- ^ Chalkokondyles gives their strength as 25 'triremes' and 80 other vessels.[57]
- ^ Sphrantzes and Chalkokondyles both assert that the battle took place in the open waters between Gallipoli and Marmara Island.[58]
- ^ Zancaruolo writes that the battle lasted three hours in total.[61]
- ^ Tenedos had been depopulated and demilitarized under the terms of the Treaty of Turin in 1381, between Venice and Genoa.[69]
References
- ^ a b İnalcık 1991, p. 975.
- ^ Fabris 1992, p. 172.
- ^ Fabris 1992, pp. 172, 173.
- ^ Magoulias 1975, pp. 116–118.
- ^ Miller 1908, pp. 598–599.
- ^ Magoulias 1975, p. 118.
- ^ İnalcık 1991, p. 976.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, col. 899.
- ^ Laugier 1760, pp. 426–427.
- ^ Fabris 1992, p. 174.
- ^ a b Sanudo 1733, cols. 899–900.
- ^ a b Manfroni 1902, pp. 137–138.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 137.
- ^ Setton 1978, p. 8 (note 16).
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 139.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 138.
- ^ Stahl 2009, p. 45.
- ^ a b Sanudo 1733, col. 900.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 139–140.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 142 (note 3).
- ^ Fabris 1992, pp. 173–174.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 140–141.
- ^ Stahl 2009, p. 63.
- ^ a b Setton 1978, p. 7.
- ^ a b c Manfroni 1902, p. 141.
- ^ Gullino 1996.
- ^ a b Manfroni 1902, p. 25.
- ^ İnalcık 1965, pp. 983–984.
- ^ a b c d e f İnalcık 1965, p. 984.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 901–909.
- ^ a b c d Manfroni 1902, p. 143.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 270–271.
- ^ Setton 1978, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Melville-Jones 2017, p. 216.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 267–271, 276.
- ^ a b Magoulias 1975, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 277–278.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 278–280.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 143 (note 1).
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 142–143.
- ^ a b Sanudo 1733, col. 901.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 901–902.
- ^ a b c Sanudo 1733, col. 902.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 143–144.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 902–903.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 144.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, col. 903.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 145.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, p. 272.
- ^ Melville-Jones 2017, pp. 216–217.
- ^ Melville-Jones 2017, p. 218.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 145–146.
- ^ a b c d e Manfroni 1902, p. 146.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 903–904.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, p. 268.
- ^ Christ 2018, p. 145.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, p. 280.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 279, 280.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 268–269, 280.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, col. 904.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, p. 273 (note 5).
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, pp. 273, 280.
- ^ a b c Sanudo 1733, col. 905.
- ^ Antoniadis 1966, p. 273.
- ^ a b c Magoulias 1975, p. 119.
- ^ a b Sanudo 1733, col. 907.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 905–906.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 146–147.
- ^ Setton 1976, pp. 321–326.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 906–907.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 147.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 908–909.
- ^ Sanudo 1733, cols. 907–908.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 147–148.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 148.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 149.
- ^ Christ 2018, pp. 145–146.
- ^ Christ 2018, p. 149.
- ^ Christ 2018, p. 146.
- ^ Fabris 1992, pp. 174–175.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 149–150, 152.
- ^ a b Fabris 1992, p. 176.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, p. 150.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 150–151.
- ^ Christ 2018, p. 148.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 151, 153–154.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 151–153.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 154–156.
- ^ Setton 1978, p. 8.
- ^ Fabris 1992, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Manfroni 1902, pp. 156–157.
- ^ a b Parry 2008, p. 106.
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