Siege of Santa Maura (1684)
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| Siege of Santa Maura | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War and the War of the Holy League | |||||||
 Engraving of the castle's bombardment by the Venetian fleet (Jacob Peeters, 1686) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Republic of Venice | Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Francesco Morosini | Bekir Agha | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
38 galleys 8 galleasses | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The siege of Santa Maura took place on 21 July – 6 August 1684 between the forces of the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire, and was the opening battle of the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War. From his base at Corfu the Venetian commander-in-chief, Francesco Morosini, led a fleet of 38 galleys, 8 galleasses and several auxiliary vessels to besiege the Fortress of Santa Maura on the island of Lefkada (also known as Santa Maura), that was under Ottoman rule. The besieging forces were swelled by Greek levies and volunteers from the Ionian Islands. The siege lasted until 6 August, when the commander Bekir Agha, bowing to pressure from the 500 Albanians and 200 Greeks in the fortress garrison, surrendered to the Venetians.
Background
[edit]The island of Lefkada, located close to the mainland coast of Epirus, was originally accorded to the Republic of Venice in the treaty of partition of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, but this never materialized, as the island became part of the Despotate of Epirus,[1] and later of the county palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos.[2] From the late 13th century on, the island and its principal fortified settlement were known by the name Santa Maura (Αγία Μαύρα).[3] Lefkada fell under the domination of the Ottoman Empire in 1479, in the immediate aftermath of the First Ottoman–Venetian War, when the Ottoman admiral Gedik Ahmed Pasha captured the last possessions of the Tocco family, which along with the county palatine had ruled much of Epirus.[4] The Venetians briefly occupied the island in 1502–03, during the Second Ottoman–Venetian War, but returned it to the Ottomans in the final peace settlement.[2][5] In the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Lepanto, the castle was unsuccessfully besieged by the forces of the Holy League. As a result, it was completely rebuilt and enlarged by the Kapudan Pasha Kılıç Ali Pasha in 1572–1574.[6] The new fortress was in the shape of an irregular hexagon, some 220 metres (720 ft) to 150 metres (490 ft) at its widest, and featured nine large round cannon bastions. The original medieval fortress was retained as a citadel on the northeastern corner of the fortress.[7]
Upon the outbreak of the Morean War in 1684, the Venetians held the initiative, as the Ottomans were preoccupied against the Habsburg forces in Central Europe and their fleet was in a poor state,[8][9] but the Venetians also did not have a clear strategy, with the Venetian government leaving the choice to its commander-in-chief, the Captain General of the Sea, Francesco Morosini, and his war council.[10] Lefkada became the first target of the Venetian fleet by accident: Morosini's main political rival, Girolamo Cornaro, had been appointed as Provveditore Generale da Mar,[11] and tried to pre-empt the arrival of Morosini and his expeditionary fleet at Corfu with a spectacular feat of his own. Encouraged by letters from the local Greek population, he intended to seize the castle of Santa Maura, which he believed to be lightly defended. With a small force he sailed from Corfu to the island, but finding the fortress strongly garrisoned, he turned back without attempting a landing.[12][13] As a result of this misadventure, Cornaro was sidelined for the first year of the war, during which he served as governor of the Ionian Islands, before he was appointed to command in Dalmatia in late 1685.[14]
Siege
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Soustal & Koder 1981, p. 195.
- ^ a b Brooks 2013, p. 102.
- ^ Soustal & Koder 1981, pp. 195, 203.
- ^ Kiel 1986, pp. 725–726.
- ^ Soustal & Koder 1981, p. 196.
- ^ Kiel 1986, pp. 725, 726.
- ^ Kiel 1986, p. 726.
- ^ Setton 1991, pp. 275–276.
- ^ Pinzelli 2003, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Pinzelli 2003, p. 85.
- ^ Pinzelli 2003, p. 84.
- ^ Paton 1940, p. 48.
- ^ Pinzelli 2003, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Paton 1940, pp. 48–49.
Sources
[edit]- Anderson, R. C. (1952). Naval Wars in the Levant 1559–1853. Princeton: Princeton University Press. OCLC 1015099422.
- Brooks, Allan (2013). Castles of Northwest Greece: From the Early Byzantine Period to the Eve of the First World War. Huddersfield: Aetos Press. ISBN 978-0-9575846-0-0.
- Chasiotis, Ioannis (1975). "Η κάμψη της Οθωμανικής δυνάμεως" [The decline of Ottoman power]. In Christopoulos, Georgios A. & Bastias, Ioannis K. (eds.). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΑ΄: Ο Ελληνισμός υπό ξένη κυριαρχία (περίοδος 1669 - 1821), Τουρκοκρατία - Λατινοκρατία [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XI: Hellenism under Foreign Rule (Period 1669 - 1821), Turkocracy – Latinocracy] (in Greek). Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon. ISBN 978-960-213-100-8.
- Kiel, M. (1986). "Levkas". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 725–728. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4663. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
- Paton, James Morton (1940). The Venetians in Athens, 1687–1688, from the Istoria of Cristoforo Ivanovich. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- Pinzelli, Eric (2003). Venise et la Morée: du triomphe a la désillusion (1684–1718) (PhD thesis) (in French). Université de Provence.
- Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1991). Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-192-2.
- Soustal, Peter; Koder, Johannes (1981). Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 3: Nikopolis und Kephallēnia (in German). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 978-3-7001-0399-8.