Message #104768

[Bianca]

                                                  THE TURNING WESTWARD






After the War of Chioggia and with Genoa out of the way, Venice felt restored in power and prosperity. Yet, the Lord of Padua had not given up his ambition to humble Venice. His aggressive policy became a real menace when he threatened to cut Venice off from the Alpine passes leading to Germany.
The Republic could no longer remain aloof from all that was taking place behind her back.

 At the turn of the 14th C in fact we shall see a shift in the Venetian strategy: the turning westwards and Venice's expansionism on mainland Italy
If sea lanes of the eastern Mediterranean were the foundation of Venice's wealth, its dominance as a trading centre depended on the possibility of reaching other markets, relying on free access to the rivers and mountain passes of northern Italy. Thus, although Venetian foreign policy was predominantly eastward-looking, a degree of intervention on the mainland was inevitable, especially with the rise in the 14 C of ambitious dynasties such as the Scaligeri in Verona, the Carrara in Padua and the Visconti in Milan.

The political and military intrigues of northern Italy in this period are extremely complicated: alliances were regularly made and betrayed, and cities were changing hands with bewildering frequency. Venice formed an alliance with F lorence to counter the expansionistic campaign of the Scaligeri of Verona (gaining control on Treviso and the surrounding areas).

At the close of the 14th C the Doge and Senate were watching with increasing alarm the Carraras of Padua eager to expand their territory. The Senate checked them for a while by supporting their opponents and finally took the extreme step of allying with the ruler of Milan, the dangerous Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Together they overthrew the Carraras and shared their lands. Yet the Venetians realized that the Visconti could now become the real threat... luckily their concern didn't last long for Gian Galeazzo was carried off by a plague and Venice could take advantage of the vacancy in the Milanese state and gain control on vast portions of territories.

Having once turned to the mainland, Venice was to end by coveting greater imperialistic ambitions which will later come down on her head.
You Venetians - had warned the Duke of Milan - are wrong to disturb the peace of Italy, and not rest content with the fine state that is yours. If you only knew how everyone hates you, your hair would stand on end!

And a similar warning had come from the 80-year old doge Tommaso Mocenigo in his "Farewell Address" made just before his death. His speech was directed against those who thought Venice could gain wealth from wars in Lombardy, and extolled on the other hand the high prosperity brought by peace.

 The leading advocate of the policy criticized by the old Mocenigo was a man known primarily as an aggressive politician: Francesco Foscari.

"Beware of Messer Francesco Foscari" came the warning of the doge Mocenigo "He is a vainglorious braggart... If he becomes doge" - read his speech - "you will find yourselves constantly at war; you'll fail even to keep your long-johns and will become the slaves of your men at arms and their captains".
Yet Francesco Foscari was elected, and his election marked the beginning of thirty years of almost constant warfare in Lombardy.

These Lombard wars were in part naval wars! The battle to control the city of Brescia fought on Lake Garda is quite remarkable: Venetian galleys were rowed through the rivers and then with 120 oxen to a galley, pulled over hills to reach the lake.

 For warfare of that kind, Venice relied on mercenary captains. They were called condottieri because they operated according to a contract, a condotta which stated the amount of money they received for their services. Bartolomeo Colleoni was one of the most celebrated of all condottieri. At his death he even left 100,000 ducats to Venice on condition that an equestrian monument should be erected to his memory in St. Mark's square... The money was surely needed by the State Treasury whose coffers had been exhausted by the long wars; on the other hand a monument in St. Mark's Square would have been contrary to the traditions of Venice, which had never consented to excessive glorification of single individuals. So they resorted to a cunning diplomatic compromise and erected the monument in front of St. Mark's ... confraternity - in Campo San Giovanni Paolo.

By mid-15th C Venice's so called land-state was formed a territory which reached Bergamo and Brescia on the west and extended eastwards onto Istria and Dalmatia, a state of affairs officially sanctioned in 1454 by the Treaty of Lodi.