The extraordinary city of Venice
– ‘Queen of the Adriatic’. Behind the elegant façade of its famous
domes and canals, lies the dramatic history of a thousand-year empire – a maritime
republic, and formidable naval power. But this great city had unlikely origins. At the height of the Roman Empire, these coastal lagoons were home
only to small fishing communities. But in the 5th century AD, the Western Roman
Empire was overrun by ‘barbarian’ tribes. As Italy became a battleground for Huns, Goths, Eastern Romans and Lombards, many
sought refuge among the lagoons. In 726, these refugees elected Orso to
be their duke, or doge - the first in an unbroken line of 117 Doges who’d
rule Venice for a thousand years. For nearly 200 years, much of Italy was ruled by
a resurgent Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire. Its Italian province, known as ‘the Exarchate
of Ravenna’, fell to the Lombards in 751. Only Venice held out, protected by its lagoons. Answering the pope’s call for
aid, Charlemagne and the Franks came to Italy and crushed the Lombards
– but they also failed to take Venice. Charlemagne’s son Pepin, King of Italy, was
said to have died from a fever caught in the marshes that surrounded Venice,
as he tried to attack the city. In the following decades, Venice asserted
its independence from the Byzantine empire… And thanks to its location, flourished as
a trading hub between Europe and the East. Venetian merchants sold Italian grain and
wine to the great city of Constantinople, where they bought spices and
silk to sell to Western Europe. Above all, Venice’s early success came
from the trade of salt – the vital food preservative of the medieval world,
harvested from salt pans and lagoons. The Venetians went so far as to describe salt as ‘il vero fondamento del nostro stato’
– the true foundation of our state. In 828, two Venetian merchants visiting
Alexandria smuggled the supposed body of St.Mark back to Venice, to boost the standing
of their home city. The saint’s relics were interred in the city’s great new church – the
Basilica di San Marco. The first basilica was destroyed by fire in 976. Today’s cathedral,
consecrated in 1094, stands on the same site. St.Mark became the city’s patron
saint; his emblem, the winged lion, became the symbol of the Republic
- and decorated its standard. Venetian trade routes to the east were plagued by
pirates from the Balkan and North African coasts. So Venice built a navy to
drive them from the seas, and garrisoned strategic harbours
and islands along the Adriatic shore. By the year 1000, Doges of Venice were also
styling themselves ‘Dukes of Dalmatia’. The distinctive Venetian warship was the galley, powered by up to 150 oars, and triangular
‘lateen’ sails, rigged fore-and-aft. Weapons included a battering
ram, and around 30 crossbowmen. Galleys were also used to transport high-value
cargo, such as spices, silks or precious stones. In 1103, construction began of Venice’s
famous Arsenale - a giant state-owned shipyard that would become one of
Europe’s largest industrial centres, employing around 2,000 workmen, and
turning out hundreds of ships a year. The Arsenale pioneered many
modern industrial techniques, and underpinned Venetian
naval power for centuries. Armed with a powerful navy, and lucrative
trading concessions from the Byzantine Emperor, Venice rose to become the greatest commercial
and naval power in the Eastern Mediterranean. But Venetian power also came through
shrewd negotiation and self-interest. This was the age of the Crusades,
and Venice was closely-involved with Crusader states as allies and trading partners. In 1202, the Fourth Crusade arrived in
Venice seeking ships to take them to Egypt, but with no money to pay for them. Doge Enrico Dandolo sensed an opportunity. In exchange for loans, he first persuaded the
crusaders to capture Zadar for Venice… then, relations having soured between Venice and the
Byzantines, to attack Constantinople itself. In 1204 the world’s greatest
Christian city was sacked and plundered by self-proclaimed warriors of Christ. Venice took its share of the loot, including, most famously, four bronze
horses from the Hippodrome of Constantine… which found a new home on the façade of
St.Mark’s Basilica in the centre of Venice. Doge Enrico and the Crusaders carved
up the Byzantine Empire between them: Venice got the islands of the Aegean… Crete…
and the strategically-placed ports of Modone and Corone, known henceforth
as ‘the eyes of the Republic’. Empire brought Venice unprecedented wealth and power – but fuelled a bitter rivalry with
another Italian maritime republic: Genoa. For more than a century, these two Italian
city-states vied for supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean, their wars ranging from the Levant,
to Sicily, the Aegean, Black Sea and Adriatic. During these wars a Venetian captain named
Marco Polo was taken prisoner… and used his time in a Genoese jail to dictate
an account of his travels in China. The rivalry became a regional conflict: Genoa
making alliances with the Hapsburg Duke of Austria, the King of Hungary, and Padua; Venice
with a revived Byzantine Empire, Cyprus and Milan. The fortunes of war ebbed and flowed, until in
1379 Venice came under attack from land and sea, with a Genoese force occupying Chioggia,
just 15 miles south of the city. But Venice miraculously turned the
tables, using galleys, armed with gunpowder artillery for the first time,
to trap and capture the Genoese fleet. The wars finally ended in
1381 with the Peace of Turin. Venice had to make significant concessions,
and like Genoa, had been exhausted by war. But while Genoa soon fell
victim to internal feuding, Venice would stage an astonishing
recovery – thanks, in large part, to the unique system of government
by which the Republic was now ruled. “The most miraculous city of Venice, rich in
gold but richer in fame, strong in power but stronger in virtue, built on both solid
marble and the harmony of its citizens.” Petrarch While Western Europe was dominated by kings who
claimed to rule by divine right, several Italian city-states harked back to classical forms of
government – chiefly, the idea of the republic. Res-publica, the thing of the people. However at the height of its power,
Venice’s republic, La Serenissima, as it was known, was firmly
in the hands of its nobility. Only those whose names were listed in
the Golden Book – the city’s registry of nobility – could join the Great Council, which appointed all senior officials through
a complex system of voting and drawing lots. They chose 40 of their members to form the
Quarantia, who supervised economic affairs, and two to three hundred to form the
Senate, the main legislative body, attended in addition by the Republic’s
admirals, generals and diplomats. The elected head of government remained
the Doge. His powers had been steadily diminished until by the 1400s, he
was no more, Venetians joked, than ‘a tavern sign’ – a decorative symbol of power
– though he continued to wield huge influence. The Republic’s day-to-day government was the
Signoria, made up of the Doge, the six members of his Minor Council, and three representatives
of the Quarantia. They could be joined by three boards of special advisors known as the Savi,
or ‘wise men’… to form the Full College. The Council of Ten, meanwhile, had a
special remit to sniff out subversion. It was a system that eventually
acquired so many checks and balances that change – for good or ill – seemed
both unimaginable, and undesirable. “The constitution of Venice… an insuperable
monument of wisdom and efficiency.” Gasparo Contarini. Over time, an idea developed across
Europe that Venice’s constitution contained the three classical forms
of government - democracy, oligarchy, and monarchy - in perfect balance, and
so ensured social harmony and stability. ‘The myth of Venice’, as this became
known, overlooked the Republic’s healthy tradition of attempted coups,
rampant corruption and social tension. But the Venetians did achieve something
rare in the medieval and Renaissance world: a durable, stable and effective government. The Serene Republic had one further, strikingly
modern feature: the best diplomats in Europe: skilled ambassadors in every capital and court, sending information back to Venice in
secret code from across the continent. Venice would need every advantage, for the
years ahead would be dominated by bitter wars with her Italian neighbours,
and new challenges to her empire… “You Venetians are very wrong to
disturb the peace of other states rather than to rest content with
the most splendid state of Italy, which you already possess. If you
knew how you are universally hated, your hair would stand on end ... You are
alone, with all the world against you...” Galeazzo Sforza. For centuries, Venice had stood
apart from the territorial wars of her Italian neighbours – focusing
instead on her maritime empire. But the war with Genoa – and particularly, the Genoese occupation of Chioggia - had shown
the Venetians that their city was vulnerable. In 1404, she was attacked again, by former
allies, the Carrara family of Padua. But the Republic assembled a large army
from across her empire, and was victorious, annexing Padua, and conquering
Verona. More gains followed in Friuli. Doge Francesco Foscari - whose 34-year reign
was the longest of any Doge – was determined that Venice must continue to expand her
territory in Italy for her own security. He used the republic’s enormous
wealth to hire bands of mercenaries, led by captains known in Italy as ‘condottieri’. Their name came from the Italian word ‘condotta’, or contract - and they had been an important
feature of Italian warfare since the 1300s. Initially, these mercenary bands were led by, and made up of, foreigners - Catalans,
Germans, Hungarians, even Englishmen. But by the 1400s, Italian condottieri were
leading these armies, waging wars on behalf of competing states, and sometimes even
conquering Italian states for themselves. Condottieri would often switch
their allegiance to the highest bidder. Their soldiers were equally
disloyal, and notoriously unruly. Since they fought for nothing but personal gain,
and often switched sides, they had no interest in slaughter. And so their battles were often
theatrical, and virtually bloodless, affairs. The ambitions of the Venetian Doge,
and his condottieri, put Venice on a collision course with the leading power
in northern Italy, the Duchy of Milan. A long war began between the
two states and their allies, with the Venetians winning
a great victory at Maclodio. In the treaty that followed,
Venice gained yet more territory, pushing west past Bergamo, to the River Adda. But war soon broke out again.
For nearly three decades, northern Italy was ravaged
by bands of mercenaries. Their leaders were immortalised
by the great artists of the day: men such as Francesco Sforza,
and Bartolomeo Colleoni. Finally, by the Peace of Lodi, Venice
secured her Domini di Terraferma – her ‘mainland state’ – to go with her
Stato da Mar, her overseas empire. Forty years of relative peace
followed... shattered in 1494, when the King of France, Charles the
Eighth, invaded Italy with a large army. His goal: to enforce his hereditary
claim to the Kingdom of Naples – but his actions united even bitter enemies
like Milan and Venice against him. The Italian states formed the League of Venice,
led by the Borgia Pope Alexander the Sixth, and fought King Charles at Fornovo.. but
could not prevent his escape back to France. It was the beginning of a long conflict,
known simply as ‘The Italian Wars’, which saw northern Italy become
the primary battleground in the bitter contest between the Kings of
France, and the Habsburg Emperors. It was fought against the backdrop of
the Italian Renaissance, and Protestant Reformation – a complex and sprawling
conflict, that would last six decades. The early display of Italian
unity was short-lived. Venice soon switched sides, allying
with the King of France against Milan, in order to share in the spoils of her defeat. Venetian ambition was now regarded as a
major threat by her Italian neighbours. Of these, none was more ruthless... than the Pope. Pope Julius the Second – the man who commissioned
Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, and created the Pope’s famous Swiss Guard
– was determined to crush Venetian power. Venice, he declared, would be returned
to the status of a fishing village. Pope Julius issued a papal decree excommunicating
the entire Venetian Republic – a bold move that effectively declared open season on the
Venetian state, its assets, and citizens. He also assembled a formidable
alliance against Venice – the League of Cambrai – the mightiest
ever faced by a single Italian state. Venice faced an existential threat. In 1509, at the Battle of Agnadello, her forces suffered a crushing defeat
at the hands of the French king. One contemporary, the Florentine
diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, wrote that Venice had ‘lost in one day what it
had taken her eight hundred years to conquer.’ However, the Italian Wars were notorious
not just for their many atrocities, but their shifting alliances, twists and turns. Within a year the Pope had switched sides,
forming an alliance with Venice to fight the French. Then Venice switched sides,
siding with France against the Pope… and helping to win a crushing victory over
the Pope’s Swiss mercenaries at Marignano. Just eight years after Venice faced
destruction by the League of Cambrai, the Treaty of Noyon restored
nearly all her former territories. The Republic had run the gauntlet of foreign
powers and formidable alliances... but through sharp diplomacy, political flexibility, and
a little good fortune, she had survived. “It is the most triumphant
city that I have ever seen...” Philippe de Commynes. Despite the long years of war, the
Venetian Republic was a driving force of the Italian Renaissance, and the 15th
and 16th centuries were its golden age. Venice was home to great Renaissance painters such as Giovanni and Gentile Bellini... Vittore
Carpaccio... Titian... and Tintoretto... Architects like Palladio... and scholars like Francesco Barbaro. He was one of the new ‘humanists’, who
devoted their lives to the rediscovery, study and sharing of texts
from ancient Greece and Rome. Venice became a beacon for the
greatest European minds of the age. Visitors included the great Dutch
philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam... and the Italian astronomer Galileo, who
demonstrated his telescope for the Doge. But Venetians had a reputation
as doers rather than thinkers. Their city was renowned as
a centre of craftsmanship, producing Europe’s finest glassware.. as
well as silks.. cottons.. and wood carvings. Nowhere were the city’s mercantile and
scholarly traditions more brilliantly combined than in the world of printing. Doge Cristoforo Moro issued the
city’s first printing licence in 1469. 30 years later, Venice was producing more books
than Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples combined. Venice was where Aldus Manutius
invented the paperback, and set out to publish every surviving
great work from classical Greece. By the end of the 15th century, Venice
was the printing capital of the world. Such industry, against a backdrop of a city often
described as the most beautiful in the world. The Venetians combined Renaissance architectural ideals with their city’s unique lagoon
setting, and created a masterpiece. The famous Grand Canal. The Rialto Bridge.
And the Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners got their last glimpse of the beauty of
Venice, before descending into its cells. And all along the Grand Canal, the palaces
of the city’s great merchant families. Because for all its grandeur, business
here was never less than cut-throat. Venetian merchants were ‘the most treacherous,
lying, thieving scoundrels such as I never believed existed on earth’, according to one
visitor, the German printmaker Albrecht Dürer. “Do not awake our terrible sword, for
we shall wage most cruel war against you everywhere. Neither put your trust in your
treasure, for we shall cause it suddenly to run from you like a torrent. Beware,
therefore, lest you arouse our wrath...” Ottoman Sultan Selim the Second,
to the Signoria of Venice. While Venetian culture flourished, across the
seas, her empire faced a new and terrible threat. In 1453, the Byzantine Empire, which Venice had helped to weaken two centuries
before, fell to the Ottoman Turks. Initially, the relationship between
Venice and the Ottomans was business-like: Venetian merchants were allowed
to remain in Constantinople, with the same trading privileges they’d
always had under the Byzantine Empire. But there could be no illusions
about the Turks’ next target… Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror had
the Venetian Empire firmly in his sights. The onslaught was not long in coming. Argos and Negroponte fell first, as Venice struggled to defend her
empire against Ottoman military might. This conflict would last, on and
off, for more than two centuries. The Venetian fleet – once so dominant –
was overwhelmed by Ottoman naval forces, led by skilled admirals such
as Hayreddin Barbarossa. By 1500, even ‘the twin eyes of the Republic’,
Modone and Corone, had been put out. Successive Doges could only watch on, powerless,
as the Venetian powerbase in the east crumbled. In 1570, the Ottomans came for Cyprus. The garrison of Famagusta only surrendered
after an 11-month siege. In violation of the terms of surrender, the Venetian commander
Marcantonio Bragadin was flayed alive. After a century of Venetian defeats, efforts to
form a Christian alliance against the Ottomans finally paid off, and the Holy League, led by
Venice and Spain, sent a powerful fleet east. They met the Ottomans in the greatest
galley battle in history, at Lepanto. The Venetians, fired on by their desire
to avenge Bragadin’s terrible death, led the Christian fleet to a stunning victory. But for all its fame, Lepanto did little to
shift the balance of power in the Mediterranean. The Ottoman onslaught had been
merely blunted.. not defeated. “The dominion of Crete is Italy's outer
defence, the gate whereby the insidious force of the Turk may penetrate, to the
great hurt of the major part of Europe.” Venetian Ambassador Giovanni
Sagredo to Oliver Cromwell. A period of peace followed. But
Venice was now a fading power. The Republic’s prestige had always been
linked to her dominance of the seas, but this was in steep decline. Crucially, she’d fallen behind
in shipbuilding technology. While Venice clung onto her old galleys, Portuguese and Spanish captains sailed
their caravels and carracks out into the Atlantic – pioneering new sea routes west
to America... East to India... and East Asia. For centuries, the wealth of Venice had relied on eastern trade via the Byzantine and then
Ottoman Empires. Now she had been cut out. And while Venice fought costly wars
in Italy and the Mediterranean, the city was repeatedly ravaged by plague. The Black Death of 1348 was the first. But outbreaks in 1575 and
1629 were almost as lethal, each killing about a third
of the city’s population. The government did what it could to prevent the
spread of infection. Residents were ordered to stay home – though an exception was made for the
funeral of the city’s most famous artist, Titian. New arrivals had to isolate themselves
aboard ship for 40 days – the ‘quarantena’, that’s the origin of ‘quarantine’. With Venice weakened by war and plague,
the Ottomans sensed an easy victory. In 1645, they attacked Venice’s last
major overseas possession – Crete. The Republic rallied: funds
were raised from the nobility, and appeals went out to the crowned heads of
Europe to fight once more for Christendom. But this time, Venice would stand alone. Most of Crete was quickly overrun. But under the leadership of Francesco
Morosini, said to always enter battle with his cat by his side, the port of
Candia mounted a heroic resistance, that was to last 21 years – one
of the longest sieges in history. Simultaneously, an epic struggle raged across the Aegean Sea – Venetians and Ottomans
now almost equal in naval power. Ultimately, the Venetians on
their own could not save Crete. In 1669, with many thousands dead and the city
in ruins, Candia surrendered to the Ottomans. After 465 years of Venetian
rule, Crete had finally fallen. 15 years later, Venice – and Doge
Morosini – had their chance for revenge. In 1683, the Ottomans were defeated at
the gates of Vienna, and Venice joined the grand counter-offensive,
known as the Great Turkish War. Morosini led an expedition
that recaptured Lefkada, and the Greek Peloponnese,
then known as the Morea. But during the Venetian siege of Athens,
one of their shells hit the Parthenon, where the Ottomans were storing ammunition. The resulting explosion tore
through the 2,000-year-old temple, smashing columns and collapsing the roof. Venice’s restored empire in
Greece did not last long. By 1714, the Ottomans had recovered sufficiently to launch a swift campaign,
that reconquered the Morea. This, the seventh war between Venice and
the Ottoman Empire, would prove the last. The reason was simple - Venice was
no longer a Mediterranean power. “She is reduced to a passive existence. She has
no more wars to sustain, peaces to conclude, or desires to express. A mere spectator of events, in her determination to take no part in events,
she pretends to take no interest in them ... Count Paul Daru The 18th century saw Venice continue
to shine as a cultural beacon – a city that dazzled visitors with its
canals, churches, opera, and art. Bereft of empire, Venice ‘crystallised’ into
a state of glorious, luxurious stagnation, rigidly conservative, incapable of reform. Industry, commerce and
military power were neglected. So when the French Revolutionary
Wars turned northern Italy into a battleground once more -
Venice was ripe for picking. In 1796, a young French general named Napoleon Bonaparte, backed by a powerful army,
demanded the Republic’s surrender. There was nothing the Doge and Great
Council could do, but accept his terms. The French, assisted by Italian
revolutionaries, tore down symbols of the ancien régime, and La Serenissima’s
proud history as an independent Republic. The Horses of Saint Mark were among hundreds
of artworks crated up and sent to Paris. At the ‘Feast of Liberty’, the
insignia and robes of the last Doge, and the famous Golden Book, were brought
to the Piazza San Marco and burned. A thousand years of Venetian
independence was at an end. Venice was awarded to Austria in 1797, later
incorporated into Napoleon’s Kingdom of Italy, and then after his defeat, returned to Austria,
as part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. But Venetian patriotism had not been
completely snuffed out. In 1848, inspired by revolutions across Europe, its
citizens rose up against the Austrians, declaring the formation of
the Republic of San Marco. Austria gradually regained control
of its Italian territories, but Venice, aided by its old
ally, the sea, held out longest. The Austrians even tried floating
balloons carrying bombs into the city - the world’s first aerial bombardment
- though results were disappointing. After a 17-month siege, Venice surrendered,
and returned to Austrian control. But the 1848 revolutions had stoked the flames of Italian
nationalism, and desire for unification. The dreams of ‘the Risorgimento’
were realised in the 1860s, and Venice became part of a new
national state, the Kingdom of Italy. Though its empire is long gone,
the splendour of Venice endures. It has remained a magnet for artists and poets, its light and lagoon fascinating
painters like Turner and Monet... its romantic waterways seducing writers
from Lord Byron to Ernest Hemingway. Now La Serenissima faces the challenges
of mass tourism, and rising seas. Venetians are fighting back where they
can, successfully pressuring authorities to reroute the largest cruise ships,
and limit the size of tourist groups. But Venice now finds itself on the
frontline of the global climate crisis. There are fears that it could be engulfed
by the sea before the end of the century. This extraordinary city, the centre of a powerful maritime empire that lasted more than a
thousand years, has more battles to come. If you can’t wait for your next fix of
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