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The military history of the Republic of Venice covers a period from the 8th century to the 18th century and includes a variety of conflicts.
The Republic of Venice’s military history started shortly after its founding, with conflict between Venice and Italy beginning in the 9th century.
However, Venice first rose as a major military power through participation in the Fourth Crusade, where Venetian troops were among those effecting the conquest of Constantinople. Venice then fought a protracted series of wars with Genoa and Pisa for domination of the Mediterranean trading routes. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic lost its territories in the east as Cyprus and Venetian strongholds in Morea were occupied; at the same time, the rise of the Visconti of Milan drew Venice into the condottiere warfare of Italy.
The 14th century saw Venice successfully siege Zadar, a town in northern Dalmatia, as part of the Croatian-Venetian wars.
Bereft of her Mediterranean possessions, Venice turned to conquest on the Italian mainland, which brought it into conflict with Milan and the Papacy. Venetian participation in the Italian Wars eventually resulted in the War of the League of Cambrai, where Venice was nearly reduced. Following the War of the League of Cognac, Venice played little further role in mainland warfare. She continued to fight naval wars against the Ottomans, however, culminating in the victory at the Battle of Lepanto.
In the latter half of the 17th century further Ottoman designs on Crete caused another protracted period of warfare. The twenty-year Siege of Candia was followed by her involvement in the Great Turkish War, where the Republic briefly regained the Morea, only to return it some years later. The Republic of Venice was finally drawn into European warfare with Napoleon's invasion of Italy; unable to resist his armies, she was forced to surrender and become a French tributary state.
Pepin's siege of Venice (810)
As part of an 804 agreement between the exiled Patriarch of Grado, Fortunatus, and Doge Obelerio degli Antenori, Charlemagne's son King Pepin of Italy militarily intervened in the Republic in response to widespread discontent among the population. Pepin's army, which set out from Ravenna in 810, suceeded in putting down opposing forces in Chioggia and Pellestrina, but faced heavy resistance near the Malamocco channel, near the presently named Lido di Venezia. Constantine VII, the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, described in his historical treatsie De Administrando Imperio (written in the 10th century) the failed attemps of Pippin to siege Malamocco on Lido:[1]
[...] when king Pippin came against the Venetians with power and a large army, he blockaded them along the mainland [...] Well, when the Venetians saw king Pippin coming against them with his power and preparing to take ship with the horses to the island of Madamaucon [Malamocco] (for this is an island near the mainland), they laid down spars and off the whole crossing. The army of king Pippin, being brought to a stand (for it was not possible for them to cross at any other point), blockaded them along the mainland six months, fighting with them daily. The Venetians would man their ships and take up position behind the spars they had laid down, and king Pippin would take up position with his army along the shore. The Venetians assailed them with arrows and javelins, and stopped them from crossing over to the island. So then king Pippin, at a loss, said to the Venetians: "You are beneath my hand and my providence, since you are of my country and domain." But the Venetians answered him: "We want to be servants of the emperor of the Romans, and not of you." When, however, they had for long been straitened by the trouble that had come upon them, the Venetians made a treaty of peace with king Pippin, agreeing to pay him a very considerable tribute.
The siege lasted 6 months and resulted in the failure of Peppin to take Venice, with King Pepin dying on 8 July 810.[2] The failed siege resulted in Doge Obelerio's exile which lasted two decades.
Sack of Constantinople (1204)
War of Saint Sabas (1256-1270)
Siege of Zadar (1345–1346)
In 1345, as part of the Croatian-Venetian wars, some 20,000 or more Venetian troops were sent to capture Zadar, a Croatian city in northern Dalmatia. According to the 14th-century Croatian manuscript Obsidio Iadrensis (Latin, the English title is Siege of Zadar), these forces were joined by twelve ships arriving in Zadar on August 12, 1345, led by Commander-in-Chief Peter da Canale. A 16-month long siege ensued, with Venetian land and naval forces attempting a number of military operations to break the siege. The manuscript describes da Canale unsuccessfully attempting to break chains in Zadar's port at the beginning of the siege, on September 6, 1345.[3]
The harbour chain was eventually broken in January 1346, allowing greater Venetian control of the harbour. The Venetian army's first major offensive on the city started on May 16 but failed, leading to a large counterattack by combined Croatian-Hungarian forces (the Croatians were joined by King Louis' forces following the first offensive) on July 1. According to Obsidio Iadrensis, this counterattack was then defeated with the help of the Venetian fleet. Later in the year, on 21 December, Venetian forces led by land commander Marko Giustinian entered Zadar, breaking the siege.[4]
Until the beginning of the 15th century the Venetian power had been exclusively maritime, so that the entire military organization of the State had been focused on the fleet and the military corps linked to it: Arsenalotti, Schiavoni and Fanti da Mar. To this main nucleus were then added the cavalry corps provided by the maritime domains: Stradioti, Cimarioti and Sfaxioti.
It was only the conquest of the Stato de tera, rapidly developed at the beginning of the century, that generated the need for the Venetian State to equip itself with a land army. The solution, was the massive recourse to mercenary companies, which guaranteed a lesser weight on public finances, linked only to the war periods, and a certain reliability, if compared to the scarce experience of Venice in the country war. The recourse to mercenary troops, however, posed at the same time a problem linked to their possible unstable loyalty to the State. If, on the one hand, maritime power and complete control of the lagoons guaranteed security against possible coups d'état, on the other hand, entrusting the control of a mercenary army to the members of the Venetian patriciate, as well as not giving guarantees of ability in land warfare, could have created concentrations of power extremely dangerous for the political equilibrium of the Republic. For this reason, in times of war, when there was a massive recruitment of mercenaries, it was customary to assign the same title of Captain General of the Mainland to the same captains of fortune, assigning to the Venetian nobles tasks of support and control over the military operation.
Pandolfo Malatesta, Savelli and Galeazzo (1404-1405)
In 1404 Venice entered the war against the Carraresi of Padua, who threatened the territories of the Dogado and the trade routes to and from the hinterland. The command was given to Pandolfo Malatesta, appointed Captain General. In 1405 the command was transferred to Paolo Savelli, who soon died trying to take Padua. He then succeeded him as Captain General Galeazzo Cattaneo de Grumello, under whose leadership the city of Padua was finally conquered, putting an end to the lordship of the Carraresi.
Carmagnola (1425-1432)
In 1425 the Republic appointed Captain General Francesco Bussone, called the Carmagnola, in the war against the Visconti, which ended with victory at the Battle of Maclodio and the peace of 1428. Hostilities resumed in 1431, when the leader Bartolomeo Colleoni was also called to the service of Venice. The serious military upheavals suffered by the Venetian armies during this conflict, however, cost Carmagnola first the arrest on 8 April 1432, and finally the execution on 5 May of the same year.
Gattamelata (1434-1441)
A new Captain General was appointed in 1434, in the person of Erasmus of Narni called Il Gattamelata, leading the war against Milan until 1441.
Attendolo (1441-1448)
The Gattamelata was succeeded by the leader Michele Attendolo, already in the service of the Republic of Florence against Milan. During his command also operated under the Venetian insignia the mercenary captain Scaramuccia da Forlì, who distinguished himself in 1436 in the liberation of Brescia from the Visconti siege and in the liberation of Cremona in 1446. After the brief peace stipulated in 1447 with the Visconti, the rekindling of the conflict with the Ambrosian Republic led to the serious defeat in the battle of Caravaggio on 5th September 1448, against the forces led by his cousin Francesco Sforza: this defeat cost the Attendolo the deposition and confinement in the fortress of Conegliano. Venice, for its part, rose from the defeat first supporting Sforza himself in an attempt to gain control of Milan, then abandoning him abruptly to sign peace with the Ambrosian Republic.
Malatesta (1449-1453)
Soon the Republic was forced to take up arms again, entrusting the command to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, to support Milan, threatened by the Sforza, who nevertheless managed, in 1450, to overthrow the Ambrosian Republic and be proclaimed Duke of Milan. The conflict dragged on until 1453, when a treaty with the new Duke of Milan restored the borders to the pre-conflict conditions.
Colleoni (1453-1475)
From 1448 to 1451, Venice still availed itself of the service of the Colleoni, who, after several times having served the Republic and now the Sforza, in 1453 was appointed head of the armies of the Serenissima. The peace of Lodi signed the following year, however, forced the leader to a long inactivity, while remaining in the service of Venice until his death in 1475.
Sanseverino (1482-1485 and 1487)
In 1482 the Republic entered into conflict with Ferrara in the Salt War, declaring war on 2 May 1482 and at the same time entrusting the command of operations to Roberto di San Severino, appointed for the occasion Lieutenant General and patrician from Veneto, flanked by provveditore Antonio Loredan and Damiano Moro, captain of the fleet. Occupied Rovigo and the Polesine, on November 6th the battle of Argenta was won and the Po River was crossed. On 16 May 1483, faced with the defection of the papal allies, Venice also hired the Duke Renato di Lorena, while appointing Antonio Giustinian Captain General in Po, soon captured, however, by the Ferraresi. The conflict ended with the peace of Bagnolo on 7 August 1484, which recognised the occupation of Polesine and Rovigo. The Sanseverino then abandoned the arms of Venice in 1485 to pass under the papal insignia.
Remaining until that moment neutral in the Italian conflicts, in April 1487 the arrest of all Venetian merchants in the lands of the Archduchy of Austria pushed the Republic to the conflict. The commander Julius Caesar of Camerino was appointed Captain General, flanked by the provveditori Pietro Diedo and Girolamo Marcello. The fall of Rovereto pushed Venice to dismiss da Camerino, calling Roberto Sanseverino, accompanied by his son Antonio, back into service. Despite the reconquest of Rovereto, the defeat on 10 August at the castle of Petra caused a retreat that cost the life of the Captain General himself during the crossing of the Adige River. However, the serious losses also suffered by the Germans led to the signing of the peace treaty on 13 November of the same year.
Gonzaga (1489-1498)
In 1489 the command was entrusted to Francesco Gonzaga, with whom the First Italian War against France was victoriously conducted. Gonzaga left the service of Venice at the end of the conflict, in 1498, when, after being accused of not capturing the King of France Charles VIII during the battle of Fornovo, he passed into the service of the enemies of Venice.
Cretan War (1645-1669)
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