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 VENICE

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VENICE

which Vettor Pisani blockaded the Genoese fleet at Chioggia, forcing it to surrender (1380). By the Peace of Turin, however, Venice had to cede all Dahnatia to Hungary, Trieste to the Patriarch of Aquileia, Treviso to the Duke of Austria, Tenedos to Byzantium. But the loss was soon recovered. The Genoese were defeated near Modono in 1403; in 1406 Padua and all the possessions of Francesco Carrara were taken and the prince and his sons strangled in prison. Then the Emperor Sigismund seized the Dalmatian coast, while Verona and all the Scala possessions were annexed between 1403 and 140.5 by Venice, which not long after took FriuU, Udive, Feltre, and Belluno from the Patriarch of Aquileia. In the meantime the Venetian possessions had been growing in the Morea and Albania (1390-1400), and the repubhc was co-operating with the Christian princes against the Ottomans.

In 1423 the republic joined the league of Francesco Gonzaga, Nicolo d'Este, and Florence against FiUppo Maria Visconti. Ve- netian troops routed the Visconti forces at Maclodio (1427), and Filippo Maria ceded Bergamo and Brescia to Venice. The war being renewed, the Venetian squadron defeated the Genoese alUes of the Visconti at Portofino (1431 1. When peace wa-^ made,Venice retains her acquisitions. In 1437 .she again alli' i herself with Flori-ncc against the Visconti, and the war lasted until 1441, when she had taken Ravenna from the Polenta. When Francesco Sforza became Duke of Milan, Vcn

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united with the King of Naples against him, to increase her territory on the mainland; but Nicholas V brought about the Peace of Lodi (14.54), which was designed to ensure Italian equilibrium. So soon was Venice again embroiled with Florence that it seemed as though she aimed at dominating the whole peninsula, but she was forced to keep still (1468). In 1480 a pretext was made to serve for a war against the Duke of Ferrara. Then all the Italian states united against the republic, and even Sixtus IV, after the Venetian victory of Velletri (1482), withdrew from his alliance with Venice. Still, from this war, too, Venice carried off an augmentation of her Italian territory. At the same time, however, the Turks took from Venice the greater part of the ^gean Islands, as well as Negro- pont and all her possessions in the Morea, and pushed their conquests as far as Friuli, threatening the republic's Italian possessions. In J47',) Wnice had to renounce all claims to the territory taken from her by the Turks. Not less disastrous was the war against the Turks from 1498 to 1503. These losses were to some degree compensated by the acquisition of Cyprus, ceded in 1489 by Caterina Cornaro, widow of the last king, and Zante and Cephalonia. But another great blow for Venice was the discovery of the maritime route to India in 1498. To the dis- covery of the New World two Venetians, Giovanni Caboto and his son Sebastiano, contributed; with English vessels they discovered Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia. Still more famous are the travels of the Venetian Marco Polo in the interior

of Asia, extending as far as China, in the thirteenth century.

After the accession of Juhus II and the fall of Cesare Borgia, the Venetians invaded the Romagna. JuUus II then formed the League of Cambrai, which, besides the pope and the princes of Southern Italy, included the emperor, Spain, and France, at that time mistress of the Duchy of Milan (1508). At first it seemed that the last hour of Venice had come; in Apu- lia the Spanish took the coast towns which Venice had occupied during the wars between France and Spain for the possession of Naples; at Agnadello the French defeated the bulk of the Venetian army, and Brescia, Cremona, and Peschiera were occupied by France (1509); the Venetians were driven out of Romagna, while other portions of their territory w'ere seized by the Gonzaga and the Duke of Ferrara. Maximilian had the imperial standard raised at Ve- rona, Vicenza, and Padua. But the pope and Spain, having accomplished their purpose, withdrew from the league, and the emperor was obHged to recross the Alps the same year. The poi)e formed another league, the Holy League (1511), against the French and their ItaUan allies, especially the Duke of Ferrara. On the death of Julius II, \'enice formed an alliance (League of Blois, 1513) with France for mutual assistance against the emjjeror, or against the Turks, or for the roei inquest of the " I ' incse. But the iiiiards and Im- ! lalists, having de- teated the French, occupied all the the mainland. The

LL, \'enICE

Venetian possessions unexpected arrival of Francis I in Italy (1515) made it possible, however, for Venice to recover everything. Again in 1521 and 1525 Venice was the ally of France against Spain, without suffering by the victories of Charles V. The Turks mean- while went on gaining victories; Venice joined the league of Spain and the pope, but, beUeving that she had been betrayed at the battle of Prevesa (1538), concluded an unfavourable peace with the Turks, paying them a tribute for the islands which she still retained. In 1569 the Sultan Selira II set about the conquest of Cyprus, which was heroically defended; the city of Famagosta was the last to surrender (18 August, 1571). Meanwhile an alliance had been formed with the pope and Spain, and the alUed fleet defeated the Turks at Lepanto (October, 1571). Venice, however, making peace on her own account, surrendered her claims to Cyprus. The republic was beginning to decline politically and commercially. The habits and customs of the feudal nobility had been introduced among the Venetian nobles, and thus an aristocracy had been formed without wealth, and which it was no longer possible to provide with offices in foreign possessions. This ruined nobility, with a keen appetite for luxury and pleasures, was a con- stant element of political disturbance and of foreign intrigue.

A serious difficulty with Pope Paul V arose out of the trial of certain priests by lay tribunals, contrary to the provisions which had then recently been made. Gaining nothing by an interdict, the pope prepared