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Chapter 11: the future of Apulia
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April 1512, on board of galley "Duchess Antonia"

The ship was sailing northward in a placid Adriatic Sea, followed by the transport fleet. Few clouds didn't represent a menace and Gabriele knew that enemy vessels couldn't venture so far from their docks. The galley was actually overcrowded of soldiers and this fact didn't facilitate Gabriele attention. For a while again he considered the fact that the ship that carried him and other 3.000 soldiers to fight was named after his beloved mother Antonia. Commissioned three years before for more than 11.000 ducats (a huge amount of gold, corresponding to two years of earnings), the galley was the prize of Apulian fleet, but the Duchess wasn't able to see it in action: actually, she had died two years before, leaving Duke Raimondo in a pitiful state. Together with the loss of the mother, also the discreditable dismissal of his elder sister Laura from the court of Chambery was another sad episode of his youth. Actually, after the Apulian access to the French alliance, Laura had gone promised spouse to the younger Savoyard heir Charles le Bon to build up a blood relationship with the allied Italo-French house. After three years among the icy valleys and people of Savoy, when the duchy fell under the control of Paris the Valois Kings of France imposed another wife for their future vassal Charles and thus he repudiated Laura. She was not fond of her experience there and thus accepted with favour the chance to come back home, but the shock for the court of Taranto was significant.

But on the whole the last decade had been joyful for Gabriele and the nation, a decade of peace and general prosperity. Their fate started to converge since 1503, when Duke Raimondo introduced an important innovation with the title of Count of Lecce. That was the title he got from his father when he was young and defended against Ferrante's wishes. As a result, when his first male son and heir to the ducal title was twenty years old and married Lavinia Sanseverino, he decided to award him as matrimonial gift the County of Lecce, the town he moved from to conquer his status. Everyday Gabriele remembered with pride that day, culminated in a ceremony attended by Pope Julius II: the spouse, marvellous in the white dress, his joyful parents, and the crowd…

His father's generation was gradually fading away. Raimondo was a lonely old widow; almost all his dearest friends had died: Antonello Sanseverino, Lavinia's father, died during the outbreak of syphilis, actually the last that fell over the country with an extreme virulence; Malo, the Castellan, died in mysterious circumstances (his body was found in a well) in 1505 and six years later Mino, the manager of Brindisi port, reached his friends in Heaven. Also Raimondo's worst enemies had passed away: in 1504 with the death in exile of Fredrigo – the last King of Naples – there were no more pretenders to the crown of the Kingdom. A new generation was emerging from the previous one: Antonello's son, Roberto, was a clever captain of the Ducal Guard. Marco, one of the numerous Malo's illegitimate sons, was Gabriele's cadet onboard, showing a good degree of commitment and skill. And another generation was just blooming: two births brought happiness in the court four years before. Both Lavinia and Roberto's wife bore two vital and healthy babies, Raimondo (II) and Ferdinando [go back to the genealogy on 1st post if you need an overall picture]. The future of Apulia was developing in their cradles.

But Gabriele, standing up in front of the sea, felt that something was still missing in his life. He learnt everything about the glorious war of independence against Naples and his father's glory on the battlefields of Apulia and Calabria. What Gabriele missed was just there: a mission. His twenties had gone away without action. Now, on the brink of the thirties, he was a pleased husband and father, beloved by the subjects and rich (oh, the excellent ministry of Pietro "the bailiff" had reached new summits of careful management in those years – 58.000 ducats in the coffers couldn't be a chance – and Benjamin Levi's mercantile activities in Venice had been basically outstanding). But … what he had to fight for, or against?

… In the meanwhile, in Levi's headquarters…

Apparently, Benjamin couldn't be more satisfied: Levi's grasp on Venetian business activities had increased during all the decade. Upon inheritance of his uncle Aaron's concern, the Levis were only one of the dozens mercantile enterprises trading in Venice, and not among the most important. In few years Benjamin's management produced a radical change: by 1504 the Levis had five traders who dealt with 1/4 of total shipments; twice in a year red & white (which were the colours of the ducal coat of arms) flagged vessels cruised Adriatic Sea packed with Apulian salt, wine and wheat and came back with textiles, luxury goods and German wood. Profits were notable, even if Venetian authorities prevented with any kind of instrument the emergence of a monopoly in their marketplaces. Yet, the Jewish merchant was anxious: not about the market share, rather about the total size of transactions executed in the Adriatic emporium. His ancestors knew the impact of the fall of Constantinople in the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Spice and silk trade with Asia was cut–off, export of foodstuff and luxury goods to the Imperial city ended. Ottoman Sultans imposed their own ships to Eastern Mediterranean merchants and buccaneers often attacked Christian vessels.

At that moment, the story seemed to repeat itself: Doge Leonardo Loredano's campaigns had been really poor and a series of military setbacks where hammering Venetian projection outside the Adriatic. After the loss of Mantua to the Duchy of Milan, the Ottomans were devouring one after the other Venetian outposts in Eastern Mediterranean. Particularly disrupting had been the conflict lasted from 1503 until the Treaty of Zara in 1508. Pressed also by north, where the Austro-Hungarian alliance was always eager to regain an access to sea, the Most Serene Republic had to give up to the Infidels all its overseas provinces: the treaty had officially sanctioned the conquest of Crete, Cyprus, Ragusa and Corfu by the Ottoman armies. And after janissaries had come an army of beys, merchants and bureaucrats who gradually shifted the economy of those territories under the sphere of influence of the Sublime Porte.

As if the loss of the Mediterranean islands was not enough, early signs of increasing competition from the Iberian ports alarmed even more Benjamin. Spice and silk had always been among the most profitable trades in the "lagoon" since the times of Marco Polo. But Portuguese explorations to India and the discovery of the New World were at that time hampering the monopoly of Venice. Vasco da Gama had returned from his unbelievable voyage around the Cape of Good Hope with pepper, cinnamon and ginger. Then King Manuel's cannons were doing their job in order to consolidate his control over the spice trade in the Ocean Indian. Spaniards ventures in the New World were heavily funded by the Fuggers and their conquistadors' robberies in the Aztec Empire were becoming legendary (in 1506, few Spaniards adventurers captured a treasury worthy over 200.000 ducats). With all this gold, Iberian colonists in the Americas were starting the production in large scale of allspice, vanilla and red peppers, traded only by Spanish merchants on the other side of the Atlantic. In July 1506 with the Treaty of Tordesillas the Kings of Spain and Portugal had agreed a partition of the known (and unknown) world along a meridian crossing the Ocean. Benjamin had no doubts: the tiny background of Venice in the Mediterranean basin wouldn't survive eternally to the resolutions of Zara and Tordesillas.
 
Interesting two-part update. A very reflective first half, but generally positive. The second half however, while also reflective, and is positive at first reveals itself slowly to be one of impending unsease. Not crisis - not yet anyway, nothing so blatant, but rather just a sense of something not right, something looming. Perhaps not a thing that will bother Benjamin in his life-time, but will certainly effect those to come. I like that rather understated contrast.
 
Thanks. Having played some more years on since 1512, I must admit that Benjamin's concerns were really right (even more than I suspected when I was writing this chapter). Unfortunately he will test "on his own skin" the effects of the commercial crisis of Venice.

I took advantage of this last moments of peace before a bunch of warfare to gather some general info in Benjamin's thoughts...
 
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Chapter 12: death in the heat
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The Apulian expedition – strong of 3.000 men-at-arms – landed in the region of Po delta in the middle of May 1512. Four months before the "warrior Pope" Julius II had excommunicated and gone to war against Emperor Maximilian I and his cohort of puppets seated in Munich, Cleves and Milan (then in the hands of Massimiliano Sforza after the death of his father Ludovico in 1508), calling for a Crusade against them.

Without any expectation of particular benefits, Duke Raimondo accepted to join the fight and sent a small expeditionary force, commanded by his son Gabriele. He set up camp between Mantua and Padua in a wet area full of mosquitoes, really unfriendly for the summer heat; enemy troops had already taken shelter in the strongholds to the West, waiting for the bulk of the troops advancing from the Papal States and directed firstly over Milan. The first skirmish was favourable to the Apulian troops. On 16th June the expeditionary force met with an 8.000 men–strong force on the way to Mantua. Just-trained peasants composed Milanese troops, thus Gabriele's experienced soldiers had an easy task in breaking down their ranks in open field. Without enough forces to besiege Mantua, Gabriele stopped again in its neighbourhood, waiting for reinforcements.

The day was sunny and the tent really hot. Gabriele put a hand on his brow and wiped down the sweat. His corpulence certainly wasn't helping him.

Gabriele "Unbearable. The heat is unbearable in this place. I miss Apulia and its shores, my dear Marco"

Marco "My lord, can I arrange a cold bath?"

Gabriele "No thank you. I'm just waiting for the captains; they are to report the findings of our surveyors. You could bring some wine, even if this warmth reduces the pleasure of a good drink. And also cold baths are not so satisfying. After a while the body humours mix again with those in the air, and I start sweating again."


Marco left the tent when Roberto Sanseverino came in with another captain.

Gabriele"Welcome in my tent, captains. Unfortunately the heat is awful, but I hope our meeting won't last too much"

Roberto "Count, we are not so sure. The captain brings remarkable news from the scouts"

Gabriele "Please sirs, sit down and tell me everything. I think we should move from here, every movement of the Milanese that we can anticipate is very useful."

Captain "The squads we dispatched along the Garda Lake reported the advancement of a cavalry battalion, perhaps 1.000 mounted knights. Around the northern passes through the Alps, the Duke of Milan Massimiliano is coming back from Austria with fresh forces totalling 17.000 soldiers, partially composed by spiteful German mercenaries”

Gabriele "Damned guy, just like his father. When in despair, he is only capable of begging support from the Habsburg. What about our allies?"

Roberto "Oh, there is just the Papal army, but after crossing the Po River they moved north towards Milan. They have managed to defeat the Milan garrison and now are besieging the town. They won't come to help…"

Gabriele "No sign of a single French archer or arquebus, right?"

Roberto "None, my lord"


Gabriele stood up, astounded. His nature was generally affable, a consequence of a refined and charming youth. But he couldn't disguise the irritation against the allies, particularly against Louis XII and Charles III le Bon. French policy towards the various allies had radically changed since the death in 1498 of Charles VIII, who expired heirless and left the royal title to his cousin. The new ruler confirmed the traditional policy aimed at consolidating royal authority over the periphery of the French speaking area, but adopted a new strategy: the direct assimilation in royal domains of these territories. The success of the "Father of the people" (the label his subjects gave him) was as quick as well achieved [look at the map hereunder]. The Kingdom of Navarra and the Duchies of Lorraine and Savoy pledged allegiance to Paris in 1500 delegating in full their foreign policy to French representatives. Twelve years later, someone willing to spot Lorraine on a map of Europe wouldn't find it: Louis XII had accomplished the goal of every French king – reaching the Rhine River –absorbing the Duchy. [And, but this is only an anticipation, also Navarra and Savoy would be annexed to France in a little while]. Other less dependent allies (just the Holy See and Apulia), were neither notified nor engaged in these affairs. The consequence was a general dissatisfaction against both French tactless diplomacy and its scant support in the war effort because of the management. As a consequence of such fracture in the allied front, Pope Julius II and Raimondo were fighting against the Habsburg and Milan practically alone.

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Dampened by the lack of support, Gabriele decided to leave the camp early on the morning of 30th June. Few days after, the Apulian rearguard met with the Milanese cavalry battalion and managed to resist despite the surprise. The enemies (actually only 1.000) were fought back, but casualties on the Apulian side began to increase: Gabriele's official estimated with a quick census a total loss of 400 infantrymen out of 3.000 in less than two months of campaign. At that point irresolution prevailed in Gabriele's heart. He knew Massimiliano Sforza was approaching from the Alps with a new army six times bigger than his own. At the same time, the siege of Milan was progressing regularly and the Castello Sforzesco [hereunder in a modern day context] was close to surrender to the Papal forces.

milano9iv.jpg

Conflicted about what to do, he stayed again, but on a southern position, with an easy access to either the Apulian navy or the Papal borders, with Po River at his back. Meanwhile the Duke of Milan had crossed the Mincio River and was forcing his way in direction of the Apulian ranks. The vanguards reached Gabriele's site on a warm 18th August morning, charging against the flanks of the army, which hardly managed to hold on the line. Gabriele soon understood the overwhelming number of the enemies wouldn't save him a severe defeat. When the chunk of the Milanese troops appeared on the battlefield, before the confusion prevailed in the Apulian frontline he ordered to withdraw on the other side of the Po River defending only the bridge his soldiers crossed in disarray. A hundred bodies were left on the other side.

But the Duke of Milan showed himself inclined for peace. The garrison in Milan was at the last pinch against the Papal troops and was on the verge of capitulation. Maximilian I Habsburg, aged and tired of going around Europe to fix the mess provoked by his adjuncts, on 5th September concluded a peace treaty with Julius II on the following terms: borders were left in status quo, but Austria and allies had to pay war indemnities for an amount of 176.000 ducats (around 29.000 for the coffers of Apulia). Gabriele took his slice of cake when he reached Bologna, just before embarking again on the navy for a long homecoming, opposed by a stormy wind. Only on 5th January 1513 the navy entered the port of Taranto among the salutations of the populace. Differently from the treasurer Pietro who had seen almost doubling his reserves, Gabriele couldn't be too much proud of his achievements: seven hundreds men were missing after 10 months of war, his role in the overall campaign had been undoubtedly negligible and there were no territorial gains to offer to his old father Raimondo. The first adventure was over: the outcome had been controversial at best, but Gabriele thought he had time to achieve something special in the future.

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A welcome peace by the sounds of things. Perhaps this mishandling ny the French will cause a shift in alliances at some point?
 
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Chapter 13: David vs. Goliath
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Pope Leo X couldn't believe it: after decades spent in vain by the Vicars of Christ invoking in every European court a Crusade against the infidel Ottoman Turks, he couldn't expect that only a tiny David had actually moved against them. With the falling of the last Venetian bastions in Dalmatia and Corfu, their evil legions had already come into sight on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. Missions of countless nuncios had tried to solicit without any success either the distracted Holy Roman Emperors or the reluctant Kings of France, Spain or England – too busy in their national conquests to assign resources for the holy war. But the Providence had assigned to a minor Duchy in the heel of Italy such task, and to the illegitimate nephew of an Albanian leader the privilege of being the casus belli.

The honoured man was Pardo Kastriot Skanderbeg. His precursor Gjergy had been the last standard of Christianity to give up to the Ottomans, before moving in Italy during the last period of King Ferrante's rule. Many Albanians had fled with him, resettling in Apulia and Calabria (total figures are estimated in 40.000 people). Some of them constituted unruly brigades that were finally organised and incorporated in the Ducal army by Raimondo's officials, in particular after the end of the war against Milan, which had taken away hundreds of lives.

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Albanian soldiers in their typical dressing​

Among them was Pardo, a valiant but unmanageable warlord whose only desire was to emulate his ancestor's deeds. Sadly (for peace), also Gabriele was looking for military glory under the large shadow projected by his old father Raimondo. And all those clerics and priests who had found an easy access to his loose heart were encouraging this disposition and directing it towards the Ottoman danger.

Soon the chance showed up. The new Sultan Selim, emerged from the succession battle against his brother Ahmed, had inaugurated a series of naval raids, which moved from the sheltered coves of Albania to ambush Christian ships sailing in the Straits of Otranto. On their side, Pardo's men were doing the same with Muslim feluccas, engaged in a privateering war that could assure nothing more than troubles. Gabriele, absolutely insensible to the economic costs of these activities, was paying attention only to the armed forces (in two years he spent one fourth of the ducal treasury for recruiting 2.000 more soldiers). Thus, when in March 1514 a small scouting group of Turkish galiots, while engaged in a clash against Venetian vessels, captured an Apulian ship and took in hostage crew and passengers, it was clear that the situation was progressively falling into a real war.

Although negotiations went on for months, people could easily predict the upcoming future on the basis of few signs:
  • Raimondo's desperate attempt to calm down his son's impulsiveness failed: even if the Duke had asked only for the liberation of the hostages, Sultan Selim rudely rejected the Apulian envoy;
  • Technical improvements to soldiers' weapons and defence practices brought the army well into the Renaissance standards; furthermore, other soldiers were raised to join the Ducal Guard, in order to get a strength over 5.000 units;
  • In spite of his father's appeasement efforts with Selim, in Spring 1514 Gabriele sent some camouflaged ships toward the islands of Corfu and Crete in order to test the enemy forces (even if successful, the mission confirmed the presence of tough garrisons and navies in their ports).

Hence, when in September 1514 Gabriele actually moved war against the Muslim Goliath many took the event with a mix of resignation and sorrow. Neither his father, nor the community (apart the priests) were pleased with a war just after two years after the end of Gabriele's ineffective campaign against Milan. In any case, the last word was in his hands, and those of the first 3.000 Apulians who reached the coast of Albania on 27th October. Among them, Roberto Sanseverino (promoted to major) and Pardo Skanderbeg with his Albanian squads.

What's happening around: North-Eastern Europe​
The first twenty years of the century were a period of chaotic developments in the Northeastern part of the continent, a sort of prelude of what would come after the publication of the 95 schismatic theses of Martin Luther in August 1519 (more details following). Troubled with internal and external enemies, some kingdoms (primarily Denmark and Hungary) left room to the growth of small dynamic principalities, which managed to expand beyond their traditional borders in this age of disorder.

King Hans of Denmark fought a long conflict against the Duke of Cleves without significant gains, before engaging his countries (nominally the Kalmar Union with Norway and Sweden was still alive, even if opposition in Stockholm against the Danish King was rapidly increasing) in a series of wars against Pommern, Scotland and the other remnants of the once glorious Hanseatic League. During the first conflict (1507-1508) the Danes suffered a heavy setback by the valiant Duke of Pommern Boguslaw X, which reaped them the wealthy province of Mecklemburg. This first-rate character would dominate the second decade of the century with his military achievements and groundbreaking religious developments. After the victorious battle of Oldenburg against Johann II of Cleves (1513) and the triumphant second conflict (1517) against King Christian II (Hans' son) of Denmark, the domains of the Duchy of Pommern would extend along the whole coastline of the German world – except for the allied city-state of Bremen – and represent the emerging power of the area. First among the German princes, just few months after Martin Luther's schism he would leave the Roman Catholic faith and embrace the new one, offering refuge to the increasing number of Reformed believers.

Even more tribulations surrounded the fratricidal fight among the Jagello kings Zygmunt I (of Poland) and Ulaszlo II (of Hungary). Let's recapitulate their story. In 1492 their father Kazimierz IV left four sons and insufficient thrones for their ambitions:
  • Ulaszlo II was King of Hungary,
  • Jan Olbracht was King of Poland but died in 1501,
  • Aleksander was King of Lithuania and got Poland from Jan Olbracht, but died in 1506.
Zygmunt, as the youngest brother, hadn't got nothing until 1506, but with the death of his elder brothers suddenly found himself with the crowns of Poland and Lithuania at hand. Astute and ambitious, he understood that Ulaszlo's difficulties could become his own strengths in the fight. Given his financial constraints on military expenses due to the opposition of the magnates of the Polish Sejm, which had imposed the king the "Nihil Novi" rule, he found valiant and relatively cheap support by the Prussian forces, a relatively new actor in the area just spun-off from the tutelage of the Teutonic Knights with the backing of the Poles.

Prussian militias were organised and resolved – a rarity for the period. Once Zygmunt got their assistance sanctioned in an alliance treaty, he felt enough strong to wage war with the brother. Frictions went on for years after his ascension to the throne and the war finally came in spring 1509, as a consequence of another mediocre campaign of Ulaszlo against the Turks. With the excuse of defending Christians against the Muslim menace, he crossed the Carpathians and stepped in the Hungarian plains. Ulaszlo II, who in those bad waters had temporarily bound his fate to the Habsburgs, called in vain for their support. Soon he was engaged on two fronts, virtually alone. The Poles advanced in a hurry with the support of the Lithuanians and the Prussians. Soon they took back Galizien and moved towards the centre of the country. In the meanwhile, the Turks humiliated the Hungarians in the South and stormed all over the plains until – showing a singular kindness, perhaps motivated by the concern of a mightier Poland – asked only the restitution of Wallachia (1510). Regrettably (for the Turks), Ulaszlo's kingdom was too broken and unstable to survive: one after the other all the provinces fell under Zygmunt's control and finally he seized the capital, Buda. When the brothers finally met in January, their entourages couldn't believe: the elder was down to the knees of the younger. Zgymunt had less piety than the Ottoman Sultan: he didn't take the Crown, instead prepared the succession of his ten years old nephew Laios II, who succeeded his father just one year later. But he inherited a wounded kingdom and a small tribute to pay: the uncle kept Galizien and Carphatia for Poland and Moldova for Lithuania, whereas the intrepid Prussians were recompensed with the city of Oldenburg.

Shifting eyes further East towards the chilly lands of Russia, the Grand Duke of Muscowy, Vasily III, had been very successful against the wrecked remnants of the Golden Horde. It was during his father Ivan's reign that the Grand Duchy of Muscowy had rejected the Tatar joke. Thirty years later, the son managed to complete his father's task: after a superb military campaign lasted four years and helped also , in 1511 the Grand Duke reached the banks of the Volga River and crushed the last descendants of the Tartar Khans, seizing the most valuables provinces in the area. Vasily's emerging power would lead to increasing frictions with the other Baltic powers, Sweden and Denmark, which would result in intermittent conflicts fought in the white, known as Great North Wars.

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stnylan said:
A welcome peace by the sounds of things. Perhaps this mishandling ny the French will cause a shift in alliances at some point?
Your expectations were right. The declaration of war against the Ottos was followed by a calling up of the allies. Diplo-annexations had had a heavy effect on the French-Apulian relations (gone negative) and they decided not to help in this sort of Crusade. Then they went with another alliance, while the Pope and Brittany supported the war effort.
 
A crusade! A crusade! I want to see what you can do with 5000 troops against the Ottos. Looks like conquering Corfu is mission impossible.
 
Plucky little Apulia, taking on the Ottoman beast. What fortunes and failures await!

A very interesting little aside as to what is going on elsewhere. Sometimes I find observing those regional happenings more interesting that the game I am actually playing.
 
Dear Hastu,
i'm really impressed by the huge amount of time you're dedicating to what seems to be your first duty... ruling the world starting from a small (well, not so small for my standards) apulian village....

Good luck in "this" world domination and see you soon on the other thread...
 
Chapter 14: expedition in the "country of eagles"

This is a story with an unhappy end; it's the story of Major Roberto Sanseverino, Gabriele's brother-in-law fallen at 31 age on the battlefield of Pharsalos, just three months ahead of the final victory against the Turks. He kept a diary, which was among the few belongings Gabriele was able to take back to his own wife Lavinia in remembrance of her brother. Let's have a look to the most fascinating pages before describing his last hours in the worst defeat of the whole campaign in Albania, the "country of eagles". Here is a map of the war theatre for your convenience.

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Valona, April 1515
"Spring is cold in Valona and everyone here appreciates this strange liqueur made by wild berries; locals call it raki and it's really strong. The surroundings are hilly and covered by forests, where our soldiers seldom venture because of the ambushes of Turkish sided bands. Our contacts are not so friendly as we could expect: Pardo is unmanageable and Gabriele doesn't have a full control on him and his gangs. Sometimes I feel lack of confidence in him, perhaps motivated by being in an unreceptive country. Hracovec, the chief of the natives, is quite vulgar but reliable. When we landed here in October we wouldn't expect such stalemate... The conquest of the town in January was easy and quick, but then? We spent by the seaside the whole winter – actually the idea of staying over there on the mountains scared many of us – and someone starts to be impatient. Did we come here for this useless port? Furthermore, Turks are becoming more aggressive: without reinforcements we are not able to move towards Durres and their forces get bigger day after day. The last attack on Valona has been illustrative. God knows how they managed to transport 20 pieces of artillery in front of the walls. Our troops were not so impressed, because we were well prepared for the siege and the ships continued to supply us thanks to the valued help of the navies of Leo X and Venice. After nine days of siege, we sent out the garrison and inflicted them a severe defeat, destroying their cannons and forcing them out of reach. But I wouldn't like to die here, defending this secondary port."

Durres, January 1516
"God's will is smiling to Christian armies and navies. Turks are encountering big troubles in every area and the signs of Providence appear bright in front of us. Zygmunt I of Poland has entered the battlefield, helped by Lithuanians and Prussians. Reports from the Black Sea are scrappy, but certainly Selim I shifted some forces to protect his second front and facilitated our advancement in Albania. Then, during the summer our capital ship, the "Duchess Antonia", has been involved together with a squad of Venetian and Papal vessels in some skirmishes against Selim's ships, coming out always undamaged and victorious. Since then, the Ottoman galleys have been blockaded in the harbours of Albania without any chance of coming out safely, while the reinforcements sent across the sea gave us the possibility to march quickly toward Durres. Enemy opposition has become weaker and weaker, because of the poor coordination among the several ethnic groups composing the Turkish army – we captured also Greek, Balkan and Georgian conscripts during the last operations.

We found the last serious resistance in Fier, halfway between Valona and Durres. In October we spent almost a week to subdue that garrison, but they finally surrendered on the All Souls' Day. We found the small town in precarious conditions and thus moved on towards Durres, trying to reach it as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, Papal troops were landing in the neighbourhood of Ragusa, distracting more forces from the defence of the port that we reached in December. Again, Turkish resistance was not fierce and the natural harbour soon fell under the control of joint Christian navies: finding themselves isolated by land and sea and troubled with a persistent Albanian uprising within the walls of the town, they surrendered to our commander Gabriele on 4th January. After the conquest of Durres, Gabriele sent his envoys to Selim I to deal with him, but the arrogant refused to acknowledge him and insulted the man. I suppose we are going to spend here on the coast the coldest months of the year… hoping that Selim someday finds acceptable Gabriele's conditions."


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Pharsalos, night of 25th March 1516
Fires were still burning in the cloudy night. Gabriele and Roberto sat in the open space together with other companions. The small town of Pharsalos, in Thessalia, was on their way to Athens, and the soldiers seemed quite content because of the glorious target they were fighting for. Being hundreds of miles far away from Apulia – and surrounded by enemies – seemed a minor point that night.

Gabriele took is wine, drank it down and spoke: "When we departed one year and half ago from our ports I wouldn't have bet nothing on this. Athens! The homeland of lawgivers and philosophers is now within our reach! Few days more and we will rest under the columns of the Parthenon, the vestige of its great past!"

Roberto couldn't believe it. He recalled his father's impulsiveness opposed to Duke Raimondo's legendary caution. The sound of the improvised band of the town suddenly went down when he stood up and began to speak:

Roberto "My lord, God gave the sons what he had refused the fathers. You are promising us great things" - his hands where floating in the air depicting his dreams - "but I'm worried. Our troops are tired. Since the crossing of the peaks of Epirus we lost the help of the Albanians. They didn't find valuable coming with us here, their war ended just outside their villages…"

Gabriele stretched over the seat, someone noticed a sign of annoyance on his face: "We would do the same, dear Roberto: Greece is not their homeland. Anyway, we are here now, with Athens at hand. What should I do, embark every soldier back on the ships? The war we started with the reluctant support of my father is turning into a celebrated campaign. All the sovereigns of Europe are taking an encouraging look at us. Perhaps someone is even jealous of us"

Roberto "It's not a matter of fear or anything else, my Lord. Scouting is extremely difficult here, and we are slow. Thessalonica is not so far and we cannot have a precise estimate of enemy forces in Morea. Turk cavalry can produce us a big damage in these plains..."

Distantness came down on the group of persons. Everyone could see the rightness of Roberto's words but the principal was Gabriele. Antonio, a young officer whose sycophancy was renown among the soldiers, made one of his tributes to the foresight of the leader when the exhaustion of the men was overcoming them: nobody paid attention to his worthless speech. Roberto got up and went towards one of the small streets departing from the court. Moving away from the fires, the darkness didn't allow a fair sight but he felt calm. The town had offered a decent welcome and there was nothing to fear. The street went uphill and white houses ran on both sides, somewhere a kind woman had put flowers next to the door; a peaceful place just a little bit desolated.

Suddenly he heard a sound of swift steps behind. "Stupid me" – Roberto thought in a moment – "the sword!" He had left it near the seat, but the anxiety vanished when he turned the head: a girl, perhaps twenty years old, was approaching with unexpected confidence.

Roberto "Girl, what are you doing here? It's not safe walking around here in the darkness"

She couldn't understand. Then Roberto tried with the few words he had learnt in the Grecian communities in southern Apulia. Differently from the Albanian ones, their settlements dated back long before, but a steady influx of immigrants had kept their contacts with homeland alive. After his words, she approached even more. At minimum distance, he was able to recall her face. She was the girl he saved few hours before, when with a couple of companions got rid of some bullies that were threatening the pleasant girl on her way from the fields to home: terrified, she ran away before he could assist her. Now that she was in front of him, Roberto couldn't avoid observing her beauty. long black hair, blue eyes, elegant dresses and bronzed skin.

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After the initial reserves, Roberto noticed her behaviour was strangely changing, in a … warm? … intimacy. The man was experienced. Familiar with the Ducal court, he knew the slight manoeuvres of women and – even if the girl didn't look a patrician – he intimately believed that all Eve's descendants had the same traits. Just for one minute, he tried to give a reason to her conduct but without losing the path of pleasure she was indicating. They made love there, on the stepped street. At dawn Roberto left her with a last kiss and came back to the headquarters, where soldiers were waking up for one more day of marches. Roberto's last day was starting…
 
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Sorry for some delay on this AAR. Hard work and the scaring decision of opening a second AAR (here the link) based on an "Revised Axis & Allies" PBEM game are depriving me of the time necessary to complete my next post here.

Unfortunately (for me) and hopefully (for this AAR) my A&A game is not going to be so long, and I will dedicate all my attentions back to Apulia.
 
Chapter 15: the battle of Pharsalos

Roberto was right being concerned about the arrival of a big Turkish army. Its vanguards reached the left rearguard of the Apulian army by mid morning, completely unnoticed. The army was composed mainly of cavalry, outnumbering Gabriele's soldiers by 2 to 1. Only by midday he managed to deploy the troops to face the impeding enemies, when some infantrymen deserted and left uncovered the right wing where the spahis led a cavalry charge and succeeded in crushing the wing of the Christian army. Roberto, who had come to support the routed wing, was thrown from the horse and killed. The central section offered a stronger opposition to the Janissaries coming after the cavalry, but was finally defeated by the enemy firepower and retreated. At the end of the day, Gabriele was forced to flee to north; he would never reach Athens.

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The impressive firepower of the Janissaries​

Apulian army lost at Pharsalos about 2.800 men – a number equivalent to almost 50% of the expeditionary force – including the valiant Roberto Sanseverino. The voyage back to Albania was a difficult Odyssey, afflicted by Turkish attacks and diseases. Whereas Christian superiority at sea couldn't be contested (as confirmed by another victory in March), the demoralised remnants of the Apulian army suffered a series of defeats in the region comprised between Thessalonica and Durres. Moreover, fortified towns closed their gates and the countryside was really poor and unable to sustain the troops. In such conditions Gabriele reached the surroundings of Durres, ready to embark on the ships before the enemy armies could catch up. In the last days of April the Turkish generals designed their astute manoeuvres. While the land forces entrapped the Christians next to the coastline, their vessels moved out of the ports to block their retreat onboard.

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In despair because of the locked way-out, Gabriele tried to force his way through the enemy lines, managing to break them and escape eastward, in direction of the mountains and the few Albanian patriots living there. That hopeless getaway recovered the destinies of the conflict: its final end was the town of Kruja, hometown of the Skanderbegs and mighty stronghold in the hands of the Albanian patriots. After almost two years of struggles in those hostile lands, Raimondo's son finally found a friendly acceptance. Scared by the Ottoman resurgence after the battle of Pharsalos, the natives welcomed him as "Defender of the Albanians" (a title Gabriele would keep until he died) and ran to reinforce the Christian ranks. When they went out of the fortress, their attitude was extremely positive, differently from that of the Muslims.

It was since the victory of Pharsalos that Sultan Selim was mulling over a peace settlement with the Duchy of Apulia in order to free forces to fight back the Poles in the Black Sea. After having refused for weeks Gabriele's envoys, he thought about approaching him from a stronger position. In less than three months the situation changed again: the combination of a revival of the Albanian nationalism, the continuous defeats at sea (another one, in June, costed the Turks some vessels and precious geographical maps stolen by the Apulians), the inability to take Kruja where Gabriele had found shelter, convinced the Sultan to solicit a peace treaty. Gabriele, aware of the briefness of his upside, resolved it was time the make peace and sent an envoy with his conditions: he just required the Turks to yield the province of Albania, which would put under the rule of the Duchy of Apulia. On 24th June 1516 Selim accepted the Gabriele's conditions. War was over, Gabriele finally brought back to his aged father a victory and a new title: "Defender of the Albanians". But it had costed almost 4.000 losses.

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Outcome
Thus, less than twenty years after the achievement of a full independence the Duchy of Apulia had managed to expand its borders to encompass Albania. Gabriele ruled as de facto duke over the Apulian domains due to the Raimondo's infirmity, which would bring him to death in September 1519. In addition to an adolescent Raimondo II, Lavinia bore another healthy child just nine months after his arrival from Albania – a clear sign of enthusiastic passion between the two partners. They named him Roberto, in memory of Lavinia's brother fallen in the recent military campaign.

Gabriele hadn't much time to enjoy his family, because the conquest of Albania required immediate measures. The country was very poor, even compared with a not-so-rich Apulia. With a population slightly above 5.000 inhabitants, Durres was the capital of a region of mountains and scattered villages, their only resource with some value being the wool. Duke Raimondo's treasury couldn't expect any particular profit from there; perhaps some costs for keeping minimal garrisons against potential Turkish threats and nationalist outbreaks. Notwithstanding the prestige of the victory against the Turks, celebrated all over the Christianity, the figures were quite desolating if seen with the old eyes of Pietro "the bailiff": given the poorness of the area and the absence of any fiscal system he estimated a revenues potential comprised between one fourth and one eighth of the monies collected in Apulia.

Even if the leadership of Pardo Skanderbeg and Hracovec over their respective clans seemed to be robust, Gabriele visited many times the newly acquired province and left there for a while as garrison the victorious troops (wasn't he after all the "Defender of the Albanians?). Without any useful support from the locals to raise troops, he had to reassign 1.000 men from Italy to increase the garrison up to a full strength of 3.200 soldiers. Anyway, the defensive efforts gave some work to the shipbuilding industry based in Durres, as testified by the launch of a second galley in June 1517. In general, Apulian administrators and soldiers were told to behave friendly and respectfully with the locals, also in matters of faith. Orthodox worship was somewhat tolerated and overall the presence of the foreigners was peacefully accepted by the Albanians. Anyway, the conquest of Albania was just a sign of the increasing potential of the Duchy of Apulia. Still a minor, it demonstrated towards the end of Raimondo's life an interesting capability in economic affairs and consequently in mobilising resources for war.

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Chapter 16: the dark decade

When Raimondo died in September 1519, Taranto and the whole Duchy cried for the loss of a great leader. The crowd attended in gloomy silence the burial in the Dome (where the body of man was placed next to the remnants of his wife Antonia) and many perhaps recalled the day, almost thirty years before, that he came back from Naples with the freedom as gift for his subjects. Gabriele, after having actually ruled as duke for five years because of the progress of Raimondo's illness, became the legitimate sovereign at the end of the period of grief and would remain in power for just a decade. Overall that short period, characterised by economic crisis and religious conformism, was very unlucky and later recalled with the evoking term of "dark decade".

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This painting (Carrà, 1908) shows the knights of the Apocalypse Death, Famine, War and Disorder: a wonderful portrait of the dark decade

Gabriele hadn't behaved poorly during the sort of regency period before his father's death. Relatively mature – he was 36 years old when ascended to the throne – the man had grown in a pleasant and sheltered environment. Despite some irresoluteness during the war against Milan and an imprudent tendency to warring, he had revealed good military and diplomatic capabilities. The liberation of Albania from the Ottoman yoke granted him a certain celebrity across the Christianity and the praises of Pope Leo X.

Actually, it was his zeal and closeness to the Papal policies during that period of religious turmoil one of the main reasons of the "dark decade". The special relationship between the Holy See and the Duchy of Apulia had been for twenty years an axis of Raimondo's foreign policy. But in his view, notwithstanding the morale standing of the Vicar of Christ, it was a sort of friendship among peers, at least among peer states. A fervent Catholic, Gabriele reversed his father's vision and from the religious authority of Rome deduced a political prominence, a sort of revival of the political theories formulated by theologians during the Middle Ages, which probably Gabriele's tutors – almost all priests – stressed during his education. Thus, a consolidated policy of reciprocal support became an unwise foreign policy, with Apulian needs often sacrificed to a misunderstood regard to the role of "secular arm of Christ".

It was during the short but intense papacy of Adrian VI (1522-1523) and the following papacy of Clemens VII that such inclination emerged in Gabriele. When those Popes – and particularly the Dutch Adrian – understood that danger inherent in Luther's heresy, they tried to reform internally the Church, but without success. Anyway, they imposed a tight supervision over religious and morale matters, requesting full obedience to their fellow princes. Gabriele himself condemned as deviating the Lutheran opinions, prohibiting the meetings of the – actually very few – followers of the German priest. A layer of suspicion and conformism covered the whole region; proceedings against alleged Protestants were held in the public place and sometimes ended with capital executions. In such gloomy Inquisitorial picture, many foreigners left Taranto, bringing about a depression in trading activity.

Moving back to the allegory of the Apocalypse, the red knight ("War") appeared in 1523 as a consequence of the muddling affairs of the Medicis in Rome. Both Leo X and the future Clemens VII were members of the influential Florentine dynasty. The latter had been one of the most intimate confidants of the former, sharing with him both political ability and an excessive attention to luxury and worldliness, all typical traits of the family. After the death of his cousin Leo X, Giulio de' Medici (Clemens VII) wanted to remain the real eminence grise in Saint Peter, taking advantage of the contrasts among the elective Cardinals in the conclave. He favoured the election of an ageing Adrian VI just to be ready to collect his legacy in few months, but unfortunately left Florence in the hands of his own illegitimate son Alessandro while waiting for the death of Adrian VI. Tuscany was always in a state of turmoil, which sometimes resulted in big troubles for the Medicis. Alessandro had secretly cultivated the ambition of becoming Duke of Florence, even against the will of his father. In order to achieve this result, Alessandro levered on the traditional enemies of the Papacy: the Duke of Modena Alfonso I, the Genoese and the Knights, assisted by the King of Hungary Lajos II. With the Modenese/Florentine joint attack on Bologna, which in December 1522 replicated Ercole d'Este's move happened 30 years before, the hostilities were officially opened.

In a dark decade there were just two bright moments: in February 1524 Gabriele and Lavinia had their third child, a wonderful daughter named Antonia after the Duke's mother, and on 10th December 1525 Raimondo II (18 years old) married Catherine of Habsburg, sister of Carlos I (Karl V). The marriage, ardently requested by the King of Spain and Archduke of Austria, established for the first time a familial link with the crown of Spain, which, noteworthily, had always opposed the independence of the Duchy of Apulia from the Aragonese-Neapolitan domain. Thirty years after the events that brought to the end of the Aragonese dynasty, it was time to shift again partnerships. And the marriage with the sister of the ruler of a "realm in which the sun does not set" was just a prelude of the change of alliances occurred in 1529.

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Adrian VI called for a support from European princes; Gabriele and the traditional ally Brittany came to help. Another unpredicted support came from the north, where an irate Zygmunt went to war with his Pole/Lithuanian troops against the evilest of the kings, Layos II of Hungary. The war kept going just 18 months without any involvement of Apulian land forces, but ended with a penalising outcome for Gabriele. His decrees of mobilisation brought an increasing dissatisfaction in the populace, whereas trades were seriously closed down by the enemy victories in the central Mediterranean. Raimondo II, sixteen years old and thus ready to enter the adulthood, started to criticise his father tendency to end up engrossed in these useless adventures in the name of God. War chronicles didn't show many interesting points of discussion. Despite Gabriele's big spending in two more galleys equipped in Durres with the most up-to-date Renaissance expertise and maintained in full force during the hostilities, Apulian fleet gathered a couple of soundly defeats against the well-trained squads of the Knights of Saint John. Just once, in March 1523 a naval battle in the Straits of Otranto ended up with a victory for the Apulian colours against the ships commanded by Andrea d'Amaral.

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The situation hastened in autumn 1523. Left alone and internally criticised by his Cardinals because of his moralistic guidance, Pope Adrian VI died in September. The following conclave was held in a peculiar condition: with the Florentine and Modenese troops controlling Bologna and moving towards Ancona, only Giulio de' Medici could aspire to win the election and try to stop his illegitimate son Alessandro, who in turn had already taken the title of Duke: thus he was elected in November with the name of Clemens VII. In January 1524 the military front began to collapse: Zygmunt grabbed some Hungarian territories for his own Polish and Lithuanian crowns (together with 110.000 ducats of indemnity paid by Layos II of Hungary and his allies) and left the clash.

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Finding himself alone as his predecessor, the Pope was forced to surrender and accept the terms Alfonso I d'Este and Alessandro de' Medici imposed him in Ancona. Alessandro was to be acknowledged as the only hereditary Duke of Tuscany and the victorious league received war indemnities equalling to the considerable sum of 84.000 ducats; Gabriele was liable for one third of such payment, a huge sum corresponding to roughly 4-5 years of ducal revenues. There is an episode that properly renders the idea of the hardships of those times: an exceptional painter, Polidoro da Caravaggio, reached Taranto from Rome after the war, seeking for an employment. But Gabriele refused to accept his services when he asked 25.000 ducats for a Crucifixion. Thus, exactly in the years when many courts of Italy hosted and supported Renaissance artists, Gabriele's one became a conformist and unfeeling place, where only clerics spoke to the heart of the Duke.

What's happening around: Karl (V) and Martin (Luther)

When Martin Luther exposed his "95 Theses" to a church door, a long progression of discontent for the corruption of the Roman Curia came to an end. The sale of indulgences was just the biggest misconduct, in a situation where from the Pope to the humblest priest vices and greedy had taken the place of virtues and kindness. Although Pope Leo X had tried to tone down "the drunken German", his Reformation ideas, supported by many local rulers and translated in German, spread all over the nation. If doctrinal issues could fire the minds of polemists and theologians, there were other subjects more appealing for mundane people, including a strictly German control of remittances to Rome. Furthermore, the turmoil was fed by the continuing contrast between the different "souls" of the Holy Roman Empire: the strong and centralised Austrian territories in the Southeast and the independent principalities in the Northwest, even more exacerbated by the ascension to the throne in Wien of a young Iberian king, Carlos I (Karl V), who had inherited from his parents both Spain and the Habsburg domains in Austria and Netherlands. When faith, economic interests and nationalism against the predominance of the Habsburg joined in a single movement, Lutheranism became even stronger and replaced Catholicism in a vast area of Northern Germany. The first principalities to acknowledge the new religion were those, which had witnessed Martin Luther's early doctoral discussions. Among them there were also the Electorates of Pommern and Saxony, where not only the titular electors Boguslaw X and Friedrich III decided to protect the progress of the Protestantism but also established it as the state church and even personally adhered to the deviating doctrine.

Karl V was already at war with some of these Protestant princes. Ludvik II of Bohemia [who actually was the same Layos II of Hungary], supported by the Electorates of Saxony and Wurzburg, had already attacked in 1518 Austria after the death of Maximilian I to get the title of Holy Roman Emperor, which until then was vacant. When dynastic and religious matters mixed together during the years 1518-1522, Karl V was perceived as the defender of the Catholic faith and get the support of all the traditionalist forces of Europe. His armies advanced in the middle of Germany to reintroduce expelled bishops and reinstate the Roman Church in its legitimate land possessions. One after the other rebel territories were invaded and occupied by the armies sent from Wien. The smaller Wurzburg was the first to succumb, ceding to Karl V the province Hannover, then came Saxony. Supported by a stronger economy, Bohemia resisted until spring 1522 even if its lower territories had been steadily invaded and looted by the mercenaries fighting for the Catholic forces. With the decisive battle of Brno, fought in March, the fate of Bohemia changed completely. An agreement was reached two months later with the cession of Moravia to Austria, but with the Turkish menace pending over the heads of the last members of the Jagello dynasties of Hungary and Bohemia it was clear to anyone its temporary nature. Ludvik II was obliged to marry one of the dozens of Habsburg princesses (in that case, Maria, Karl V's younger sister) even if he was left with the right of choosing a different state religion for his kingdom – and actually he exercised the right in 1523, accepting only for its Bohemian subjects the Protestant faith. But when in August 1526 the young king died at Mohacs against the Turks, Karl V inherited his lands and swiftly suppressed freedom of religion, expelling Protestants. As a consequence of the increasing Habsburg pressure a defensive pact among Protestant princes was assembled at Schmalkalden (and since then know as Schmalkaldic League) on 24 June 1523. The original members were the former allies of Ludvik II, the Electors of Saxony and Wurzburg, but in the following months also the more sizeable Electorate of Brandenburg and the Kingdom of Sweden (finally freed from the formal union of Kalmar with Denmark after the successful rebellion led by Gustav Vasa, who in contrast with the Papal authority started from 1524 to take upon himself the power of appointing new bishops) joined the League.

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The chart shows the diffusion of Protestantism at the end of 1523 (when the Kingdom of Denmark under Frederik I was still Catholic, before changing state religion in 1524, followed by the Teutonic Order four years later). The inheritance of the throne of Bohemia strengthened Karl V's grip over the German nation, but the future (the past?) could store other surprises…
 
Chapter 17: the bankruptcy of the Levis

Levis' merchant company reached its most profitable period during the first years after the conquest of Albania. The trade of Apulian salt and Albanian wool, combined with the shipping activities and an extensive moneylending to the Republic of Venice, made Benjamin the richest person in Taranto. Wealthy and refined, he became soon the centre of every serious conversation and popular chitchat. Sometimes, kidding with his own friends out of the synagogue, he liked to say to be "esteemed by the Christians as an Hebrew and beloved by the Hebrews as a Christian" signifying the troubles he had as a consequence of the cultural differences between the two Apulian communities. Anyway, the envy couldn't obfuscate the results of Baruch's and Aaron successor. Dozens of Christian sailors, agents, farmers worked and got a pay from his businesses.

His elder son, Simone, looked after the various affairs but showed a clear predilection for banking, "the fastest and simplest way to multiply gold" he said. During the happiest years of their experience in every Italian capital there was a small agency office full of their letters of credit and dusty books of record. Instead Benjamin's second son, Yosef, didn't show any interest in such activities, causing his father's disapproval. His countryside manor in the Valle d'Itria, a wonderful plateau halfway from Taranto and the Adriatic coast, scattered of modest farmers' houses trulli, could resemble a ship, so full as it was of nautical charts.

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Here's a typical trullo (abandoned)​

The man was fond of explorations and related issues. The passion dated back since his childhood, when Benjamin came back from a business voyage to the court of Juan II in Navarre with a atlas that showed the vastness of the empty Atlantic Ocean and the archipelagos colonised by the Spaniards and Portuguese that were acting as extraordinary stations for their explorers. Once adult, Yosef kept on acquiring books, diaries and charts across the peninsula: starting since 1518, he resided four years in Milan and Modena, where Sforzas and Estes had gathered in their libraries decades and decades of cartographic research. There Yosef spent his time dipping into volumes and maps.

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For a while Benjamin thought the young man's efforts could be worthy also for commercial purposes. With the Turkish vessels controlling the ports of East Mediterranean and an intense competition in the European centres of trade, spotting some new business opportunity in the remote lands of America, Persia or India could be valuable. Unfortunately, the maps collected by the son were quite useless for his mercantile intentions: drawn before the discovery of the New World, they showed nothing more than sea to the West. A real pain, in Benjamin's view, that a continent discovered and explored by so many Italian sailors had been completely closed by the Atlantic powers to the Italian cartographers, merchants and adventurers. The nautical maps of the Indian Ocean, even if more detailed than the Atlantic ones, weren't precise enough to chart the interior of Africa, Persia and India, where millions of native civilisations lived and thrived without any contacts with Christianity. "All in all" – Benjamin concluded – "those maps are useless" and began to consider negatively the lazy passion of his son.

Crisis and default

The banking activity was the first to show some signs of suffering: Simeone's policy of easy credit towards all proved terribly wrong. He had been particularly generous with Venetian shippers and with the Most Serene Republic itself. Even if the loans were sometimes secured by pledges over assets – ships, jewels and the like – the continuing setbacks of the Venetian forces against the Turks and the federation of Italian principalities made the debtors' payments less timely. Unfortunately for the Levis their collections weren't so easy because Duke Gabriele, whose relations with the Doges had never been particularly warm, couldn't support them. Little by little, their credit exposure to Venice shifted to longer maturities; still Benjamin had not reasons to be anxious, until their primary businesses remained lucrative.

The first symptoms of weakness in one of their core businesses (the wool trade) came in 1522. Exports of Albanian wool had some profitability in the early stages of development because of its proximity to the end markets of Italy. However the production system was far from perfection and couldn't endure the competition of either British or Spanish wool. In January 1522 Benjamin had a sudden perception of the troubles, when he lost two important dealers to foreign competitors. With some export toll facilitations granted by Duke Gabriele, he managed to engage in a markdown commercial battle and regain some of the customers, but the episode strengthened the sensation that wool was another business running at a loss.

Real troubles for their biggest activity, shipping, came with the war against the federation of Italian principalities and their most dangerous allies, the Knights of Rhodes. With their fast vessels ruling on the Mediterranean and inadequate opposition by the Papal or Apulian fleets, those corsairs seized and plundered all the mercantile ships they found on their way. For years the cruises to Venice became tremendously dangerous and insurance costs surged; ships without valuable freight were simply sunken and people onboard kidnapped for ransom. For the first time, the spectre of ruin came into Benjamin's sight. Even after the peace treaty the situation did not improve: assaults against the ships went on for a while, whereas the costs for military upkeep and the obligation to pay war indemnities to the winner coalition dampened the traditional support granted by the Duchy with tax exemptions and licences… and there were other calamities just round the corner.

Dismissed the aging Pietro Pendinelli as ducal treasurer still in the middle of the conflict (someone says because of Pietro's opposition to the increasing military expenses of the Duke), Gabriele had taken upon himself the responsibility for economic affairs as well as all other activities [ :D a peculiar way to view a shift in DP sliders towards centralisation, isn't it?]. A ruinous choice because of his total lack of management capabilities: in truth, his tries to restore somewhat the funds were even more destabilising than the naval defeats against the Knights. He minted a lot of new ducats in order to pay for recruitment and shipbuilding, thus provoking a devaluation of Apulian currency and an inflation of costs for traders, just like the Levis. Thus their business of last resort, mercantile activities in Venice, collapsed in few years after the end of the war, Duke Gabriele being still alive. By 1526, when Benjamin was no more able to collect his loans to Venice and repay his debts to suppliers and financiers, only one dim agent of the once glorious company kept on working in Venice.

When Benjamin defaulted, the loans arranged with other smaller companies and private individuals involved many other people in the bankruptcy, both Jews and Christians. Many Christian who were actually debtors to the Levis profited of their weakness and paid back a small percentage of their dues. Panic ruled for weeks. There were no certain sources of law to regulate what had happened. The rabbis tried to apply the Talmud, which established a privilege in favour of the older obligations marked and witnessed by a notary. Many opposed such procedure because of the presence of private unsecured contracts signed with the Levis in the moment of their greatest solvency. An arrangement was ultimately arrived at and signed with the patronage of Duke Gabriele, which also lost money in the affair. A plan of distribution was finally approved and three syndics were appointed in the name of creditors and decided the Levis had to pay 1 ducat per 3, representing about 33% of recovery for the claimants. Levis' debtors were forced to pay back money by ducal decree and the proceeds were applied to the claims of the creditors. After the end of procedure, the merchants retired to private life and were prevented from engage in any trade. Simeone left the Duchy to try to make his fortune elsewhere, perhaps simply to get back some more gold from Venetian debtors. Benjamin, who would survive his company for nearly 20 years assisted by the community until the remarkable age of 77 years, moved to a small house together with his younger son Yosef and perhaps (who knows?) ended by loving his maps. We would like to imagine him spending his last days examining under an olive tree in a sunny day a chart of oceans he never sailed.

Thus, as a corollary of the general misfortune during the "dark decade", ended also the parabola of the Levis', the biggest mercantile company of the Duchy straddling the centuries, collapsed for a clear deficit of differentiation.

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Chapter 18: son against father

Raimondo detested all those prayerful priests surrounding his father. And secretly he thought they were actually the reason of Gabriele's melancholy.

Raimondo"I don't trust them. They say the excess of black bile can cause this condition. But in my opinion they are depressing him even more. We should throw away a number of these friars and get back our father."

His mother Lavinia was still bringing up Roberto and Antonia, respectively 11 and 4 years old, but she felt Raimondo was already a complete adult.

Lavinia "My son. Don't be too harsh with your father. He loves us, but the humours in is body are completely messed up"

Depression had caught Gabriele years before and had reduced him in a miserable state: scared of illness and death, he spent his time in penances with his confessors and praying for having his perceived mortal sins forgiven by the Lord. His fears and practices were soon abused by the priests, who started to extort him privileges and gold as a necessary instrument to absolve him. In such context, it was inevitable that the relationship between Pope Clemens VII and Duke Gabriele became even more stringent. A positive outcome was the settlement, which the Pope sponsored in July 1529, with the King of France about his dynastic claims over Apulia (recognising a de facto impossibility to claim all the territories of the former Reame, Francois I decided to drop its supposed privileges).

Few days after the French settlement, Clemens VII called for help when the tension with his ambitious son Alessandro (Grand Duke of Tuscany) and his Genoese and Modenese allies reached new highs and eventually led to another open conflict between Rome and Florence. Raimondo II quarrels with his father erupted when the Papal envoys reached Taranto on 17 July. After an afternoon of doubts and mystical suggestions inspired by the role of Papal defender (and by his disturbed intellect), the Duke called Raimondo alone into his rooms late in the evening.

Gabriele "We can arm a couple of galleys in few days, and send them to protect Rome. The troops of Florence and Modena will attempt to take Emilia first, as they did seven years ago. We have enough time to entrench in the region north of Rome and protect the Holy Father"

Raimondo"Dear father, you should reconsider your plans. Our people don't want to fight another useless war for the sake of this Pope more interested in worldly than in spiritual things. Who came in his support? None. This corrupted Church has already lost the favour of half Christianity, and the other half doesn't show so much willingness in supporting it"

Gabriele "Your words hit me like a knife. I didn't expect such betrayal! Son, who has deviated you from the one true Faith? Who inspired your heretic thought?"

Raimondo"Father, you have been influenced too much by the priests who stuff this court, or their incense is obfuscating our mind. My faith is not our problem, now. It's avoiding another ineffective war our purpose!"


The atmosphere soon became nervous. Then someone said that at the end of the argument Raimondo slapped his father, but nobody could know the truth on this subject, because none was attending the meeting at that point. In point of fact, Gabriele called in two guards to hold Raimondo, but unfortunately – for the Duke – the son had already taught them what to do. Actually, the subsequent events confirmed the anecdote of the slap. The guards took Gabriele and locked him in his rooms, where only his wife could assist him. His spiritual advisors were banned from the court. Increasingly disheartened and sick, Duke Gabriele spent there his last months, before dying exactly 360 days after in a gloomy environment, while his son seized the power and ruled Apulia in his name, with the realistic pretext of the father's madness.

Let's leave Gabriele in his loneliness and go back to the day he was brought down by Raimondo. The new sovereign considered all available options during a sleepless night. When the sun rose again, he called up the most eminent personalities of the Duchy, including the same age Ferdinando Sanseverino, and put out his own decisions: simply speaking, Apulia wouldn't help the Pope, this time. Raimondo took up full powers in the name of the sick father and declared his resolute intention of binding the fate of the Duchy to the two friendly kingdoms of Iberia, Spain and Portugal. Concerned by the Papal reaction and conscious about the need of allies, he would leave in the following days for Madrid and Lisbon to ratify an alliance with Carlos I / Karl V [same person] and Joao III. He revealed his intentions to reach also London, where he could find a valid support also from Henry VIII, founder of the new Anglican Church and determined opponent to the Church of Rome.

Raimondo's voyage

Raimondo reached the port of Lisbon in the afternoon of 14 September, welcomed by the blooming vivacity surrounding the banks of the Tejo. Moving towards the court of King Joao III, his astounded eyes kept on observing all the strange things that had reached the capital from the most remote lands of the Portuguese Empire. Marketplaces abounded of exotic fruits and spices, vessels entering the bay were full of brazilwood and spices, lots of moors, employed in the humblest activities, crowded the streets. When Raimondo had access to Joao's hall, he found wonderful and colourful birds, captured in the newly colonised provinces of Brazil. Anyway, let's go back to the diplomatic matters. An adjunct to the original alliance treaty was drawn and signed the day after. The agreement was that the Duchy of Apulia accessed on a peer basis a defensive and offensive alliance directed against anyone involved in a conflict against the other three participants: the Kingdoms of Portugal, Spain and England.

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As a sign of benevolence towards the new ally, both Carlos I and Henry VIII invited Raimondo. After a stop in Toledo, Raimondo reached the Northern port of Santander and went onboard. In mid-December he arrived in London, where he found again a thriving city on the edge of becoming the capital of an intercontinental empire.

Differently from the Iberian powers, English sovereigns had concentrated their efforts on the northern lands of the New World. Starting from simple fishing settlements in Newfoundland a series of colonies had been established along the coasts of the region called Canada, in competition with only few French colonists who had founded the town of Stadacone on the estuary of St. Lawrence River. The foundation of the Admiralty had given further developments to English discovery ventures. Responsible for the command of the Royal Navy, the Lord Admiral started to fund a series of endeavours in the Northern and Central Atlantic, which resulted in a quite precise (even if incomplete) drawing of nautical maps.

Raimondo's fortune was that among his staff there was also Yosef Levi, son of the defaulted merchant Benjamin. During the days spent in London he had the opportunity to meet an assistant of Henry Fitzroy. The little boy, one of the bastard sons of the king, had been appointed High Admiral four years before, but the office was actually in the hands of his subordinates. With a mixture of intelligence and courtesy, Yosef managed to have access to the Admiralty library of nautical maps. In front of him, there was information probably never disclosed to any foreigner. In few hours, he took note of every – even negligible – detail about English discoveries. None suspected of this espionage and the visit went on among feasts and banquets. On the way to Italy, Yosef proudly showed to the Duke the map he had written down…

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Chapter 19: the New World

The settlement of Apulian trading posts in the New World was a consequence of the conflict erupted against Henry VIII. Before moving forward to the [imaginary] history of the first Apulian colonisation enterprises, let's briefly recap the main events, which resulted in that war.

As you may remember, Henry VIII was allied to the Iberian countries in a pact that was underwritten by Raimondo II when in 1529 he broke with Pope Clemens VII. The rightness of the Apulian move was confirmed just one year later when – died the disturbed Duke Gabriele – Raimondo II inherited his father's titles in concomitance with the final stages of the Este dynasty, whose domains in Emilia were being conquered and absorbed in the Papal territories. Strengthened by the friendship of Spain, Portugal and England, Raimondo II could condemn the violent behaviour of Clemens VII without fearing retaliation. At that point of history, just Apulia, Genoa and Florence (together with a Venetian Republic ruthlessly shattered by the continuous wars against the neighbouring powers) could be considered authentically autonomous in a context characterised by the Papal predominance and foreign interventions (with French, Austrians and Spaniards well-established – directly or through puppets – in Savoy, Lombardy and Sicily).

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Despite the political disputes with the Popes as "temporal" sovereigns (and actually an increasing number of people were contesting their status, from the schismatic Lutherans to some interested kings), the leaders of Spain, Portugal and Apulia remained in the Catholic camp, even if with different degrees of zeal. In fact, also Joao III would institute the Holy Inquisition on the Spanish model few years later, whereas in spite of external pressures Raimondo II would allow in 1533 the presence of the Jesuits but not of the Inquisitors, perceiving the legal status of their religious tribunals inconsistent with the centralised judicial system then prevailing in his Italian provinces, dating back to the long-established tradition of the Norman-Swabian Kingdom of XII-XIII centuries, untouched by the following Angevine and Aragonese dynasties.

Given their adherence to the Catholic sphere, when in early 1534 Henry VIII broke with the Catholic community and founded the Anglican Church for a sentimental caprice (but also for other material goals; anyway, this should be a well-known history, my readers), Spain, Portugal and Apulia sent him a joint letter asking him to retract and – upon his refusal of any sign of repentance – went to war against him.

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Duke Raimondo II thought he could take another benefit from the war: fishing rights in Newfoundland. The area, originally discovered and colonised by the Englishmen, had already proven a precious source of seafood that, salted and dried, could represent an important resource for not only the increasing population of Raimondo's domains, but also for trading activities all over the continent. And with the organisation of a board of trade on the model of the Aragonese and Portuguese examples, fully dedicated to handle in a centralised way economic and commercial affairs, Apulia was ready to enter the race of overseas expansion. A stronger economy allowed a more profitable employment of financial resources: by mid '30s Apulian merchants and entrepreneurs regained their key standing in Venice and soon even ventured farther to Seville and Lisbon, where the goods coming from the New World were traded. Thus, an increasing number of Apulians became accustomed with oceanic trades and long range navigation.

Furthermore, in 1532 an exceptional year in grain farming had a dual effect in boosting an interest in colonisation efforts. On one side, the excess inventories had to be sold on the Italian markets with a big toll profit for the Ducal customs (Raimondo's officers estimated even 100.000 ducats of additional revenues in that incomparable period); on the other side, overproduction depressed sale prices of food and made difficult for small peasants to meet their expenses and loans. In the rural areas characterised by lower productivity the number of people unable to get subsistence began to grow. The accumulation of capital in the Ducal coffers and the presence of underemployed people made available to the board of trade two decisive resources for colonisation enterprises: gold and manpower.

The war by itself does not deserve too much consideration. Hostilities lasted slight more than one year and never concerned Raimondo's territories in Southern Italy and Albania (just once the Apulian fleet patrolling the Gulf of Taranto clashed with an English navy, being defeated despite the presence of a newly built warship technically superior to the galleys). Nevertheless, in those few months the first overseas expedition was accomplished with success. Under the command of a low-grade captain coming from the town of Reggio, on the tip of Calabria, a transport ship filled with soldiers, defaulted peasants and other bad guys of the same kind left Taranto in spring 1534 for an adventure hard to believe. Among them, there was also Enzo Scudiero, an impoverished fisherman, nephew of that Mino Scudiero who had been appointed by Raimondo I manager of the port of Brindisi.

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Buccaneering and fighting enemies or neutral ships they reached the Balear Islands in July. In September they got involved in a naval battle together with a Spanish fleet against the English in the Straits of Gibraltar, being defeated and finding a safe haven in Lisbon. After few weeks the turbulent crew was expelled from the city and put out to sea again, stopping again at the Azores.

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After having provisioned and made some repairs to their ship, they sailed again westward, finally reaching in February the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Therefore started their legendary deeds. In March they landed in the Anticosti province and occupied the undefended English settlement of Fort Edward. The melting of ices favoured their advancement along the coast. On 6th May 1535 the expedition arrived in Fort William (another isolated English station in the region of Belle Isle Straits) and seized it with minimal losses.

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From there, the company embarked again to reach Newfoundland, landing in on the southern part of the island the day of the Summer solstice. That region was almost completely inhabited, with the exception of few families of English fishermen living in a small settlement they had named Placentia. At that point, in Europe parties were close to arrange a peace treaty. Henry VIII was forced to do so by the loss of two important colonies on the mainland plus the small fishing station in Newfoundland (and another fur trading post had been burnt by the Portuguese on the estuary of St. Lawrence River). In July he finally chose to settle the clash with the Catholic league giving up the southern part of Newfoundland to Raimondo II and 75.000 ducats of war indemnities to Spain, Portugal and Apulia.

Some of the men that composed the Apulian expedition in that distant and cold region decided to stay in Placentia, attracted by the opportunities coming from fishery and the related export to England and continental Europe. Some even marry local women, establishing a small community. Those who decided to come back home experienced a sort of Odyssey. Inexplicably the Portuguese inhibited them to access the port of Angra do Heroismo in the Azores archipelago. When their vessel finally arrived in Sevilla, many of its occupants were thirsty and hungry. Assisted and fed by the charitable citizens of the Spanish town, many of them soon recovered, while others – the most damaged by more than one year of troubles – died far from their families. Someone even settled in Seville and started some kind of business there… When the expedition sailed back to Taranto, one half of the men who had left Italy were missing. Many had died, but some were simply trying to get a better life on the other side of the Ocean, in a place called Nova Apulia. Few months later Enzo Scudiero took his family and followed the same path to settle his own fur trade activity on the mouth of St. Lawrence River. But this is another story…

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Just read from where I left off to Chapter XV, but am having to take a quick break and may not resume catching up till tomorrow. Great stuff.
 
A nice read and a real challenge trying to be successful with Apulia. Keep it up!
 
Just finished catching up. Well done sneaking into the New World. This Raimondo looks be quite the opportunist.