A History of Venice, John Julius Norwich, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1982
(1977, 1981)

Summary of the second half of this book:

24 "The Fall of Constantinople" 1453 (325-333): Venice responded slowly
to urgent appeals. Venetians at Constantinople fought bravely and lost
heavily. Constantinople fell. After lengthy negotiations, the Ottoman
ruler renewed trade with Venice.

25 "The Two Foscari" 1453-1457 (334-341): The doge's son was accused of
crimes, including murder and dealing with the Sultan. He was exiled
twice. He died. Grieving, the aging doge ceased performing his duties.
After six months, the Council of Ten forced his retirement. He died; he
was given a splendid funeral.

26 "The Ottoman Menace" 1457-1481 (342-358): Pasquale Malipiero became
doge in 1457. During his five years Turkish expansion continued. His
successor, Cristoforo Moro, agreed to join Pope Pius II on a crusade.
Pius died; the crusade fizzled. Turks continued their advance. In 1470
Negropont fell. Nicolo Canal, too timid to attempt the relief of this
key city, was exiled. In 1480 Turks seized Otranto in Italy; they were
repulsed when they attacked Rhodes the same year. In 1481 Sultan Mehmet
II died; his successor was less hostile.

27 "The Ferrara War and the Queen of Cyprus" 1481-1488 (357-368): Other
Italians envied and hated Venice:

   They made no attempt to understand her position; she for her part
   scarcely deigned to explain it, but pursued her own policies with
   all that arrogance, that quiet assumption of her own superiority
   that they had long learned to expect but to which they could never
   become reconciled. p. 359

Ferrara's attempt to break Venice's salt monopoly was vigorously
resisted. In 1483 fire caused great damage to the doge's palace.
Caterina, Venetian Queen of Cyprus, was supported through a coup, but
deprived of effective rule and in 1489 forced back to Venice. She held
glorious and cultivated court until her death in 1510.

28 "France on the March" 1489-1500 (369-382): Asserting his claim to
Naples, France's Charles VIII led a large French army into Italy. He
enjoyed largely uncontested success. Opposed departing, he retained
most of his army, losing luggage, loot and Naples. France spread
Renaissance art and syphilis, recently arrived from America. Charles
died in 1498. His cousin Louis XII claimed Milan. Venice allied with
him. In 1499 he swiftly took Milan.

29 "Double Disaster" 1499-1503 (383-389): When Charles left Naples,
Venice acquired Apulian ports, including Brindisi and Otranto. Italian
rivals assured the Sultan that the Franco-Venetian alliance targeted
him. Turks defeated a Venetian fleet and seized key Venetian centres in
the Peloponnese. In 1499 Vasco da Gama returned demonstrating a trade
route bypassing Venice.

30 "The League of Cambrai" 1503-1509 (390-402): In 1503 Pope Alexander
died. Cesare Borgia fell ill. The rulers of Romagna states he'd taken
returned with Venetian support. Pope Julius II invited France and
Austria to oppose Venice. In 1508 an Austrian invasion was thrust back.
In 1509 there was a large explosion at Venice's Arsenal, a French
invasion and stunning victory. Venice lost much of her mainland
holdings.

31 "Capitulation and Absolution" 1509-1510 (403-413): Some mainland
places returned to Venetian control. A determined Austrian attack at
Padua was repulsed. The Pope implaccable, the anti Venice alliance
still strong, Venice appealed more widely. The Sultan did not reply.
England's Henry VIII provided sympathy. In 1510 Venice conceded and
received papal absolution. France continued to inflict harm. Venetian
art, scholarship, printing and spectacular displays continued.

32 "Shifting Alliances" 1510-1513 (414-426): Pope Julius II turned
toward France. France won, including the Battle of Ravenna, fought on
Easter Sunday 1512. This cost France dearly:

   It had indeed been a Pyrrhic victory. The infantry alone had lost
   well over 4,000 men; of the fifteen German captains, twelve lay
   dead, while of Bayard's French companions-in-arms, who had fought at
   his side for the past dozen years, scarcely any remained. Worst of
   all, Nemours himself had falled at the moment of victory, in a
   characteristically impetuous attempt to head off the Spanish
   retreat. His loss was irreparable, and had left his army bewildered
   and rudderless. p. 422

England threatened France itself. Remaining French troops returned
home. Excluded from the peace settlement, Venice allied with France.

33 "The New Venice" 1513-1516 (427-433): In 1513 Giovanni de Medici
became Pope Leo X. France and Venice attacked Milan. Swiss mercenaries
routed the French. Venice held Padua. Geography stopped an advance on
Venice. In 1515 Francis I led a large French force against Milan. Swiss
mercenaries struck hard. Venetian reinforcements turned the tide. The
peace restored much of Venice's previous Italian holdings. Now, clearly
facing west, Venice felt weak; she refined diplomacy and espionage.

34 "The Imperial Triumph" 1516-1530 (434-445): Charles V became Emperor
and king of Spain, Naples, etc. In 1523 multilingual (English, French,
Spanish, Greek, Latin, Turkish, etc.) Andrea Gritti became doge. Venice
reached agreement with Charles; she assured Francis she remained
friendly. In 1522 Suleiman the Magnificent took Rhodes. In 1525 France
lost the Battle of Pavia, Francis I becoming a prisoner. In 1529 the
Ladies' Peace ended Franco-Imperial strife. France yielded Italian
claims. In 1529 unusually bad weather blunted Suleiman's siege of
Vienna.

35 "Peace" 1530-1564 (449-463): Others fought; Venice preferred peace.
Francis I asked Suleiman to join in attacking the Empire. Suleiman
invited Venice; she very politely avoided agreeing. He responded. Corfu
repulsed a Turkish attack. Many other sites were taken. In Venice
spectacle and artistic enhancement continued. Doge after doge carefully
avoided conflicts.

36 "The Loss of Cyprus" 1564-1570 (464-480): In 1565 Suleiman failed to
take Malta. In 1566 he died. His successor, Selim II, demanded Venice
yield Cyprus. A combined fleet sent to oppose the invasion did not
engage the enemy. Turkish forces were formidable. Nicosia fell rather
quickly, Famagusta after a lengthy siege.

37 "Lepanto" 1570-1571 (481-488): this last major battle of oared
galleys was fought on October 7, 1571. Spain and Venice totally
defeated the Turks.

38 "The Twilight of the Century" 1571-1595 (489-505): Spain deterred
the victory's followup. Venice made peace with Turkey. France's Henry
III was impressively received in Venice. Plague carried off some one
fourth of the population. A beautiful girl ran off with a boy to Milan,
where she became Francesco de Medici's mistress, then wife. The couple
died in October 1587. The conduct and powers of the Council of Ten were
considered. Venice was first to recognize Henry of Bourbon as France's
king.

39 "The Last Interdict" 1595-1607 (506-517): In 1595 enormously wealthy
Marino Grimani became doge. Pope Clement VII found Venetian religious
tolerance unacceptable. Paul V, even more hardline, in 1605 issued an
ultimatum on Church rights. Doge Leonardo Dona called on canon law
expert Paolo Sarpi. He replied that Venice accepted papal spiritual
authority. A papal interdict was declared invalid as it related to
temporal affairs. After a year Rome relented. The interdict had failed
and was not used again. Paolo Sarpi survived three assassination
attempts.

40 "Treason and Plot" 1607-1622 (518-529): Leonardo Dona, hardworking,
attentive to detail, intensely disliked due to his lack of generosity,
was succeeded by three short reigning doges. In an age of intrigue and
tourism, Venice was a key destination. A complicated Spanish plot was
betrayed. The Ten acted swiftly and efficiently. Another matter was
less successfully accomplished and executed Antonio Foscari granted a
bust and inscription attesting his innocence.

41 "Zen Against the Ten" 1623-1631 (530-541): Renier Zen opposed Doge
Giovanni Corner's unconstitutional nepotism and other infractions. The
manner of Zen's interacting with the nobility seems to have gained him
little with contemporary nobles or with this historian; Norwich does
state that Zen was popular with the people of Venice. In 1630 Venice
vainly opposed an imperial advance on Mantua. It fell and was looted;
the peace removed the imperials. Plague devastated them. It did more;
one third of Venetians died. 

42 "The Cretan War" 1631-1670 (542-560): In 1631 Francesco Erizzo
became doge. His first twelve years were peaceful. A ship of prominent
pilgrims was attacked by Christians; Turks took Crete, after a twenty
two year siege.

43 "Morosini and the Morea" 1670-1700 (561-574): Fifteen peaceful years
followed. In 1683 Turks suffered a serious defeat attacking Vienna.
Admiral Francesco Morosini led a force through the Morea. He moved on
Athens. On September 26, 1687 the Parthenon was badly damaged. In 1688
Morosini was selected doge. Disease defeated his attack on Negropont.
Morosoni returned home without further victories. In 1693 he led
another campaign with modest success. Other powers pushed back Turks in
the Balkans. Morosini died in 1694. A peace treaty was signed in 1699.

44 "Passarowitz and Peace" 1700-1718 (575-582): The War of the Spanish
Succession had Venice courted by both sides and her neutral territory
respected by neither. However, fighting shifted and she was left at
peace for the latter half of the war. The Treaty of Utrecht preserved
her borders. In 1715 the Turks regained the Morea. In 1716 they struck
at Corfu. The Empire attacked the Turks. Corfu held. In 1718 peace came
and it held until Napoleon.

45 "The Eighteenth Century" 1718-1789 (583-604):

   Doges come and go; but the salient features of their reigns tend to
   be less often things that they did than things that they managed not
   to do-the wars they avoided, the alliances they escaped, the
   responsibilities they ignored. p. 584

   How important is it to be a Great Power of Europe, or even a capital
   of Empire? Is the pursuit of pleasure, which creates much that is
   beautiful and harms nobody, really more reprehensible than the
   pursuit of wealth, territory or military glory, which kills
   thousands and devastates and destroys wholesale? Eighty years of
   peace is, in itself, no small tribute to wise government and
   successful diplomacy. p. 584

Venice embellished the arts, hospitably welcomed tourists coming from
across Europe to see her beauty. One Englishman, Joseph Smith, coming
at eighteen, stayed for seventy years, helping Venetian artists sell to
English clients. He himself was an avid collector of art and books.

Venice was humane and tolerant. One male of a noble family married per
generation to ensure concentration of wealth. Many women entered
convents; the city had many courtesans. Nobles, required to wear silk
and forbidden commercial employment, could access free accommodations,
etc., if single. Occasionally, new blood was allowed into the nobility,
for one hundred thousand ducats.

46 "The Fall" 1789-1797 (605-631): Venice declined joining alliances
against French revolutionaries. When Napoleon swept across Italy and
invited Venice to join with France, she declined and armed militias
which killed French soldiers. Napoleon, advancing on Vienna, issued an
ultimatum that these be disarmed. He made peace with Austria; she gave
up Belgium, etc. and received Venetian territory. A French gunboat was
attacked, its captain among the dead, its attackers rewarded. Napoleon,
furious previously, threatened Venice's envoys he would be her Attila.
His demands for French occupation and the dissolution of Venice's
autocratic government were accepted.

"Epilogue" (632-639): Venice passed to Austrian control in 1798, to the
Napoleonic Italian Kingdom in 1805 and back to Austria in 1815. Venice
rose in 1848-9 and in 1866 joined Cavour's Italy. Venice had been
envied and disliked for its arrogance, its unconcern for others, its
cold, calculating, self interest.

The book lists the doges and has bibliography, index and eight pages of
maps.


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