1435 Doge Francesco Foscari's state of the Republic address.
Most noble senators,
The information for the period between 1432-1435 has been posted, both in the Summaries and in the Dec. 1433 Report above. But as every Christmas I am giving the state of the Republic speech.
After the terrible trial of Carmagnola, we have had a quiet period of four years, slowly advancing the policies decided by the senate. As suggested by senator Barbarigo, we obtained military access from Savoy, and we continued also arranging marriages for young members of our noble houses in the interest of the Republic. We entered royal marriages with Theodoros, Naples, Bosnia and Hungary.
On 1433 the Black Sheep turks declared war to the Timur empire, and although the muslims in their alliance joined the war, the christians dishonored. Albania, being a vassal of the Ottomans and with bad relationship with us, did not matter, but we offered Bosnia to join our alliance, and they accepted. Soon they granted us military access, and Naples did the same.
On 1434 we promoted condottiero Gattamelata (3,4,4) as general of our army in Thrace. That year we also received the offer of hiring away a military advisor from Palatinate. In our prevision, we had sufficient funds, and despite his steep price (100D), we did hire him because we figured that his military prowess (+4 MIL for 60 months) would pay in military research an estimated 240D in the 5 year period. He will also raise the quality of our army, a valuable asset difficult to quantify, and we didn't care about Palatinate reaction (-25 relationship).
But on 1435, our diplomatic efforts were dwarfed by events. First, the Queen of Naples died without heir, and the government decided to offer the crown to René d'Anjou, Duke of Anjou, Count of Provence and now King of Naples. He decided to rule Provence and Naples as separate countries. Naples became a vassal of Provence, breaking their RM to us. It could have been worse, and they could have been annexed by Aragon.
Then, Stjepan Tvrko II, former king of Bosnia, was able to recover his throne with the help of Murad II of the turks. Murad II appointed Turkish military leaders to "defend and ensure peace" in Bosnia, tightening his grip on the country. Our royal marriage to former king Radivoj stopped being royal, and Bosnia left our alliance and became a vassal of the Ottoman empire.
Finally, upon request from senator Barbarigo, and on account of the five galleys that he generously provided recently to our navy, I ordered our Capitano Generale Fodoroni to conduct an investigation into the military affairs of our rival Genoa. He will present his report to you in person.
Serene Doge, Noble senators,
I have been ordered to use any military means to gather intelligence about the state of Genoa, and in particular of their colony in Kerch. As was reported in 1430, on that year Genoa declared war to Georgia and proceed to invade Azov from Kerch. Although Genoa was able to conquer Azov, the reaction of Georgia and her allies Theodoros and the Knights finally tilted the scales in their favor, and when Kerch was conquered by Georgia in 1433, Genoa had to pay 114D to end the war.
I periodically sent scouts to Kerch, and soon saw that the situation of lack of garrison that the war had provoked, was being used by some greek nobles to raise in rebellion. By 1435 the rebels had taken control of Kerch and gone away, but Kerch was under naval blockade and no genoese troops were disembarked. I then ordered 2000 cavalry to move to Emilia using our military access from Modena and Savoy. From Emilia, our forces were able to recover information from our spies in Liguria. The situation as of December 1435 is that Kerch is still in rebel hands with no genoese troops, Liguria is also devoid of troops, and a genoese fleet of 16 ships is moving through the Aegean towards the Mediterranean. Whatever troops they have must be in Corsica.
As Capitano Generale, I can say that it is militarily feasible to attack Genoa in three or four months, before the genoese can transport their troops. By then we could have 7000 men under command of Gattamelata ready to land in Kerch, and a similar army ready to invade Liguria from Emilia. More troops will have to be raised, since Liguria already has a level two fortress, and it is not advisable to weaken our garrison in the Aegean colonies too much. Although I cannot guarantee the success, it does not appear to be an operation beyond our means. Thank you for your attention.
Noble senators, my friends,
We have heard the military report by our good Fodoroni. I would be a lousy doge if I let optimism carry us too far. We all know the advantages that such operation would report us. The possession of a well placed province and center of trade worth over a hundred ducats a year (60D in tariffs alone). We must also be well aware of the disadvantages. First, the lack of casus belli and the attack on a fellow christian would cause a great loss of stability (-3). The cost of such instability would be big. We might lose most of our merchant network and it can take us several hundred ducats and years to rebuild it with most of our trade revenue lost over that time. Since stability is an expensive issue in our mixed religion nation, we might be forced to invest heavily in stability for several years, losing many hundreds of ducats worth of valuable research and delaying our progress. Moreover, the rest of the nations would not look kindly upon that unjustified aggression (we would increase 6 BB points) and it would tarnish our reputation for many years to come. Finally it would open a new theater of operations in the shores of the Black sea with potential new enemies, like Georgia, Theodoros and the Golden Horde, while stretching our forces even further. I will not call an election on this issue unless the intervention has several supporters.