The war of the Morea : aspects of Hospitaller participation : 1684-1689

Abstract

Although the war officially ended with the Treaty of Carlowitz in 1699, the dissertation title makes emphasis to the word ‘Aspects’ as this dissertation shall only cover the war up till 1689, and this for both historical and practical reasons. First, it is impossible to properly document a 15-year war within an undergraduate dissertation as the word limit simply does not allow me to take that approach. Subsequently, as one shall discover, the biggest strategic conquests by the Christian forces made during this war were done during the 1680s, whilst the 1690s (although noted by some terrestrial victories) were mostly characterized by defeats and consolidation of gained territory by the Christian forces. The most significant terrestrial conquests were accomplished in the 1680s. Finally, since the Morean War period saw the tenure of three grandmasters (Caraffa, Wignacourt and Perellos), I decided to focus up till 1689 in order to conveniently focus on the Caraffa years of the Morean War (as Grandmaster Caraffa had died in 1690). I hope that perhaps this dissertation will inspire others to take up the remaining years of the Morean War in their academic work. On the contributions made by the Order, the most convenient secondary texts are Ettore Rossi’s Storia della Marina Dell’Ordine Di S. Giovanni di Gerusalemme Rodi e di Malta (Verona, Giovanni Berno, 1703) and Ulbadino Mori Ubaldini’s La Marina del sovrano militare Ordine di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta (Roma, Regionale Editrice, 1971). However Rossi’s work provides only a basic outline of the Order’s involvement, yet served as a convenient reference text, whilst the latter title goes into certain detail only up to 1685. Ubaldini squeezes the rest of his account of the Morean War into a few pages. Publications on the Morean War have been written in a purely narrative and descriptive manner. Several texts of this nature exist, and although they are too many to mention, I will make reference to some of them. These include: Roberto Cessi’s Storia della Marina di Venezia Storia della Repubblica di Venezia and George Finlay’s The history of Greece under Othoman and Venetian domination (Edinburgh, William Blackwood and Sons, 1856). One of the most problematic aspects surrounding the historiography of the Morean War is the fact that any reference to endeavors made by the Hospitaller forces in this war are either entirely omitted or kept to a minimum. Instead these works show a particular bias towards the efforts made by the Venetian forces. Such texts are also in abundance and, notwithstanding the aforementioned titles; there are others – such as Althea Wiel’s The Navy of Venice (London, John Murray, 1910) and John Julius Norwich’s A History of Venice (London, Pengiun Books, 2003). I have therefore taken great interest in filling the academic gap by including, throughout the course of the dissertation, first-hand accounts of Hospitaller contributions and engagements throughout the several campaigns, while complimenting these first-hand accounts with the contributions made by the other forces. As a result I felt I had to highlight the Hospitaller role which had been either ignored by most authors or produced information on the Morean War with limited detail as these authors who have had to dedicate chapters on other themes and subjects in their works. I have tried to fill in such yawning gaps researching the various manuscripts found at Malta’s National Library in Valletta. The most crucial and necessary manuscripts however were the Libri Concillorum Status (AOM262 and AOM263) which contain the highly important relazioni, or after-action reports drawn up by the captains-general of the Order. These reports contain detailed information on how each campaign had progressed. The dissertation has also found useful information in other relevant manuscripts, such as AOM1767 (Originali degli instruzioni agli ambasciatori, generali e capitani delle galere della Religione) containing various instructions issued to the captains-general of the Order, prior to their departure for battle, and AOM1759 (Sopra il buon governo delle galere). The accounts written by the captains-general were then verified against the writings found in Bartolomeo Dal Pozzo’s Historia della S. Religione Militare di S. Giovanni Gerosolimitano detta di Malta which also served as a convenient and detailed text for reference. Dal Pozzo’s only pitfall is that his works lack any citations whatsoever; however his writings seem to be an exact duplicate of what is written in the manuscripts. Most importantly however, authors on the subject treat the Morean War as an entirely isolated event. They fail to make any comparisons whatsoever with efforts made during the sixteenth century to capture the whole or parts of the Morea. Furthermore, they fail to postulate possible reasons as to why the Morean War was a success, as opposed to these sixteenth century engagements. There are also no attempts made to suggest what might have caused the Morean War to have taken as long as it did. The dissertation has been divided into two sections. The first section, made up of the first seven chapters, provides a descriptive and narrative account of the engagements in the Morean War as written by the captains-general of the Order. The second section, covering the eighth chapter, takes an analytical approach and discusses various issues in an attempt to explain the success of the Morean War, bearing in mind what went wrong for those sixteenth century Christian combatants attempting to secure such a victory in and around the Morea. This same chapter will also discuss why the war had to drag on for fifteen years. Chapter Nine, the concluding chapter, will then briefly make reference to the Seventh OttomanVenetian war (1714-1718) attempting to explain why this time the Ottomans emerged victorious. The chapter then concludes with a brief discussion on where the Morean War stands in the historiographical debate on the Venetian Republic’s decline. I would like acknowledge first and foremost Professor Victor Mallia-Milanes for his limitless patience and advice throughout the formulation of this dissertation. Acknowledgements also go to Andrew Abela who dedicated a great deal of his time in helping me with translating the manuscripts (due to my limited command of the Italian language); without his help this dissertation would have taken much longer to complete. I would also like to thank my friends John Grech, Maria Gatt, Godfrey Bailey and former post-secondary tutors Stephen Florian, Evelyn Pullicino and John Mangion for their unwavering support and faith in my abilities; all have infused in me the perseverance and courage to carry on despite several personal hardships.