Only a year after the Sultan's ambassador Ali Bey had come and gone from Venice, a report came in from Venice's holdings in the east.
Sanudo Diaries: November 13, 1518 (26:200); "This morning Janus di Campo Fregoso, a condottiere in our army, came before the Collegio. He returned yesterday from an inspection tour of Corfu, Candia [Crete], and Napoli di romania [Nauplion] whose purpose was to determine how best to fortify those cities against all eventualities. He sailed as far as Istra on the galley commanded by ser Bernardin Taiapiera. Reporting on what he had seen, he concluded that those cities can be fortified at little expense and that if their inhabitants want to hold them, particularly against the Turks, they will be able to do so, especially if a strong armada is available. He went on to report on all the important things he had seen. The doge, with a pleased expression, thanked him for the trouble he had taken, saying that he should talk to the savi and remind them of what was needed."
nedits: There were lots of places that Venice felt needed tending even at this late date. Our editor's make it plain.
Editor's footnote: "The shape of the Terraferma was, in the words of one Venetian military commander in 1579, 'long and narrow... nothing but frontier', that of the stata del Mara, as the sea possessions were called, was 'a series of clusters of islands and ports ending in two widely spaced and weighty pendants, Crete and Cyprus.' Mallet and Hale ,1984, 412, 428." p. 89
Editor's note: "Beyond its preservation of the peace, prosperity, and integrity of the city and its canals, the government of Sanudo's day attended to a great empire. In the early sixteenth century it stretched from Crete, Cyprus, and the Morea (Peloponnesus) [aka Nauplion, Greece] in the east to Brescia, Cremona, and Bergamo in the west. In addition, the Adriatic litoral was for the most part in Venetian hands, as were certain pockets in Lombardy, Romagna, and Apulia. This disparate collection of territories was administered by Venetian civil, military and ecclesiastical personnel and ruled by a system that was both centralizing and relatively tolerant of local custom and style. It was a dominion acquired over time, and each territory, with its own character and problems, challenged the Venetian administrative systems." pp. 88-89
"... when the proposal was made to fund these fortifications [in Crete, Cyprus, Nauplion] with monies taken from funds established to fortify Padua, Verona, and Brescia, it was much debated. It was only passed after the argument was made that the fortifications of Padua, Verona, and Brescia "did not matter so much, for there was nothing to fear from the emperor [Maximilian I who would die in a couple months], with whom there is a truce. And anyway, no other funds were available to aid [in the fortification of Corfu, Candia, and Napoli di Romagna] but these" (26:228)." p. 89.
nedits: Maximillian I did die in January 1518 and for Venice it was a relief. He had been a royal pain as far as Venice was concerned. In 1509 he took Padua. Just the previous year, 1517 had Venice taken back her traditional holdings on Terraferma from Max's armies. The war had lasted nearly ten years. Many internal changes had to turn over and then evolve and she remained heavily in debt. But north Italy was essentially split between France and Venice at this time. What she didn't know was that the next emperor Charles V would not overtly be bothered with Venice. He had bigger ambitions and succeeded and surpassed most of them and then retired from office in 1558.
By the time of Charles V accession as Holy Roman Emperor, after the death of Maximillian, he had been King of Aragon and Castile, with his mother crazy Queen Joanna for two short years. In that short time he had to convince the Spanish he could be their king. A no small task for a youth of sixteen who was raised most of his life in Germany and Burgundy. But by the time he entered the world stage he seemed quite ready.
Another famous monarch, in 1515, the day after he turned twenty-one, Francis I of France took Milan after beating the Swiss troops hired to protect it by Ludovico Sforza, last Duke of Milan. Francis and his forces had swooped down over the alps in the spring and at the small burned out town of Marignano, Italy some 15 km south of Milan met the Swiss forces and broke their packed lances again and again. The battle lasted through the night with neither side giving ground until the following mid-morning when Venetian forces arrived under Bartolomeo d'Alviano who arrived and shattered the last resistance. The famous Swiss halberds ran away. For Francis I, Venice and France it was a huge victory.
By comparison, in 1522 Charles V took Milan back from France and in 1525, Charles took the king of France, himself. Francis I was captured in Padua at the famous battle there. That was to end the designs of France in Italy and Charles, as son of Maximillian and King of Spain and Aragon meant he was king of Naples as well as emperor in Holland and the Lowlands and Germany and Hungary too. He had to quell revolts in Holland but then turned and spent the remaining years losing but then stopping the Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. eventually, at Vienna in 1529. Busy guy.
This is a good place to mention Padua as the seat of the University that Venice was protector for and provider of necessaries. Proud of it if even they couldn't pay for it. Between the many wars Venice did encourage Padua in her academic pursuits.
Sanudo Diaries: November 13, 1521: (32:132); "In the morning there were no letters of any importance, nor any noteworthy events. Ser Marin Zorzi, university laureate, appeared before the Collegio dressed in black velvet to make his report. He has just returned from being podesta of Padua, having been replaced Sunday by ser Piero Marzello. First [he spoke] about justice and the procedures of that palace, complaining that the [state] attorneys prevented justice from being done by suspending sentences. [this remained a widespread problem at all her holdings].... He spoke of the university and the quality of the professors, describing it as a flourishing and excellent university more so than it has been for many years, with a good number of students, among whom are twenty noblemen who maintain retinues of twenty, thirty and forty persons apiece. He spoke a little about the fortifications and the city.... He was praised according to custom by the doge in the usual way."
Editor's footnote: "The Palazzo della Ragione, the seat of the Venetian government in Padua, where judicial procedures were administered by a variety of local and Venetian bodies." p. 453
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll, editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008
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