Recaps

Vitus inspected three newly commissioned warships and discussed plans to expand the navy despite a shortage of funds. He bought Jean Coeur’s struggling exchange and appointed him an adviser as Coeur prepared to start a shipping insurance business.

• After receiving news from the east, Vitus attended the commissioning ceremony for three warships and inspected their equipment and accommodations.
• Vitus learned that the Eastern Roman Empire had sixty main warships and expected to commission twelve more that year and over thirty the next, while Venice’s fleet remained larger.
• Vitus visited the stock exchange and learned from Jean Coeur that it was losing money and lacked a way to enforce honest accounting.
• Vitus offered to buy Coeur’s exchange and reorganize it as the Rome Stock Exchange, while establishing exchanges to regulate trade in securities and commodities.
• Coeur sold the exchange for money and prime land, planned to establish a shipping insurance business, and accepted a post as adviser to the Rome Exchange Commission.

Vitus’s campaign to discredit Venice prompted the Venetian Governor to send Jacob Foscari to seek papal support. Pope Eugene IV refused to join either side’s coalition and urged Venice to negotiate with the Palaiologos family, leaving the threat of war unresolved.

• Vitus spread claims that Venice had helped force the Eastern Roman Empire to abandon its planned campaign to retake Jerusalem and called on the Holy See to oppose Venice.
• The Venetian Governor sent Jacob Foscari to Rome to win the pope’s support against the Palaiologos family.
• Jacob arrived in Rome, settled in the Venetian merchants’ quarter, and requested an audience with Pope Eugene IV.
• Cardinal Julian Cesarini received Jacob, who offered a donation for the Apostolic Palace and argued that the Palaiologos family could not be trusted.
• After consulting with the pope, Cesarini told Jacob that the Holy See would join neither coalition and urged Venice to surrender weapons smugglers, return certain territories, and negotiate with the Palaiologos family.

Constantine received a warning from the central government to prepare the Balkan frontier army for a possible northern attack, though he suspected Venice would be the Empire’s only real enemy. After ordering inspections and arranging the transfer of exiles to Cappadocia, he surveyed agricultural officials working across Moesia.

• Constantine watched the Danube at Ruschuk as Giovanni Giustiniani delivered a letter from the empress dowager and official dispatches from the central government.
• The empress dowager urged Constantine to take another wife, while the official dispatch ordered the frontier army to report its strength and enter level-two war readiness.
• Constantine rebuked senior officers who dismissed the threat and ordered units to report their readiness and inspect Moesia’s strongpoints and supplies.
• Constantine concluded that the Jagiellon Dynasty was unlikely to join a war against the Empire and suspected Venice would fight alone.
• Constantine checked the roster of 905 exiles and ordered his subordinates to send them by ship to Cappadocia without delay.
• Constantine surveyed farmland and waterwheels outside the city and observed central-government officials gathering information and introducing new crops across Moesia.

On August 10, 1445, Felix and the Scala fought a Venetian warship over a captured smuggling ship, turning a contest for its prize into a naval clash. Fabius reported the encounter to Constantinople, and war between Venice and the Eastern Roman Empire appeared inevitable.

• The Scala and a Venetian warship pursued the same smuggling ship, and both opened fire until its crew surrendered.
• Felix agreed to his crew’s demand to keep the smuggling ship rather than turn it over to maritime court, and the Scala and Venetian warship faced off over the prize.
• The Venetian warship fired a ranging shot, Felix ordered the Scala to respond, and the two ships exchanged cannon fire for more than ten minutes.
• The Scala drove off the Venetian warship, took over the smuggling ship, and sailed to Monemvasia Harbor.
• Fabius reprimanded Felix and the other officers, dismissed the junior officers, convened senior command, and reported the clash to Constantinople.

After a Venetian smuggling ship provoked a naval clash, Vitus convened a war council and approved a campaign against Venice. Constantinople’s citizens eagerly supported the war with donations and volunteers, and the emperor authorized privateers to attack Venetian shipping.

• Vitus received the Aegean Fleet’s report and summoned the Cabinet and department ministers to a war council.
• The council planned attacks on Euboea, Modon, and Coron, while the Eastern Roman Navy would raid Venetian shipping in the Ionian and Adriatic seas.
• Carlo Santis proposed borrowing from merchants and selling eastern properties to cover falling commercial tax revenue, while Ilya was reprimanded for lacking agricultural data.
• After hearing that Constantinople’s residents were celebrating the declaration of war, Vitus learned that donations to the churches had already exceeded sixty thousand Florins.
• Vitus ordered the Finance Minister to collect war donations and authorized armed merchant ships to privateer against Venice under Admiralty oversight.

Krezer led the Roman campaign to seize Euboea, using a bombardment of Chalcis to draw Venetian attention while the marines attempted a covert landing on the island’s northwestern coast. The chapter ended as the marines crossed the strait by longboat in rough, dark waters.

• Krezer outlined a plan to land on Euboea’s sparsely defended northwestern coast and assigned the Varangian Legion to distract the Venetians near Chalcis.
• On August 26, Greek troops sent a declaration of war across the strait, and the Eastern Roman Batteries began bombarding Chalcis.
• The Varangian Legion moved toward the Euboean Gulf while the Aegean Fleet fought Venice’s squadron outside it.
• Fabius told Krezer that the fleets had exchanged fire without sinking many ships and that Cretan reinforcements had forced the Aegean Fleet to withdraw.
• In the Maliakos Gulf, 480 marines crossed toward Euboea in twenty longboats, guided by five local fishermen through rising waves.

The Marine Battalion secured the northwestern coast of Euboea, allowing the Roman army to land and begin its advance toward Chalcis. Boranov’s force captured a town after its mercenary garrison surrendered, while the castle garrisons continued to resist.

• The Marine Battalion crossed the strait, hid its boats, and signaled that the coast was secure.
• The Hermes Brigade and Dragon Cavalry Brigade crossed to Euboea, and six thousand soldiers landed with field guns and militia.
• The Varangian Legion’s Military Tribune met with the brigade and battalion commanders to plan their advance toward Chalcis and nearby strongholds.
• Boranov marched with the Dragon Cavalry Brigade as local children questioned why its Dragoons had no mounts.
• Boranov’s Third Battalion surrounded a town, and its mercenaries surrendered after seeing the cannons.
• Boranov observed that town garrisons surrendered readily while castle garrisons fought on, and he judged the old fortifications unable to stop the Roman advance.

The Eastern Roman Empire besieged Chalcis and gradually gained the advantage as its heavy artillery battered the city. Rumors that Venice planned to surrender spread through the demoralized garrison, and Governor Paolo Erizzo suspended Cesare while investigating the rumor’s source.

• Marcello Canal said the Venetian Fleet could not send reinforcements to Chalcis before October and blamed Euboea’s inadequate garrison for the crisis.
• Boranov and his soldiers dug trenches around Chalcis while the allied Hermes Brigade attacked coastal defenses.
• On September 6, Eastern Roman siege guns began bombarding Chalcis, and their fire increasingly suppressed the defenders through mid-September.
• After Cesare rebuked a mercenary who spoke of surrender, rumors spread that Cesare and other Venetian officers intended to surrender.
• Cesare denied contacting the Greeks when Paolo Erizzo and the officers questioned him, and Erizzo suspended him from duty while he recuperated at the official residence.

Under pressure from the mutinying mercenaries, Cesare negotiated Chalcis’s surrender to the Eastern Roman army and arranged to go overland to Bohemia instead of returning to Venice. The city passed into Eastern Roman hands, while Paolo Erizzo and the surviving garrison waited in captivity for their fate to be decided.

• While under house arrest, Cesare learned that the mercenaries were mutinying and demanding that he serve as an envoy.
• With the city under bombardment and the residence threatened, Paolo Erizzo and his colleagues forced Cesare to leave Chalcis and negotiate with the besiegers.
• Cesare secured terms guaranteeing the city’s people and property, then asked to travel overland to Bohemia rather than return to Venice.
• The Eastern Roman army took over Chalcis, and its commander arranged for a Venetian ship to collect the officers and civilians while considering how to disperse the mercenaries.
• Boranov questioned Paolo Erizzo about Euboea’s small garrison, and Erizzo reflected on Venice’s military disputes and the blame awaiting him at home.

After the garrison surrendered, Krezer secured the strait, surveyed Euboea’s records and resources, and ordered its manganese mines taken over. He then left the island for the Peloponnese after Modon and Coron fell to the imperial forces.

• Krezer ordered iron chains stretched across the strait and engineers to build a pontoon bridge between Attica and Chalcis.
• Krezer reviewed Euboea’s records, learned that its population had fallen after years of war, and rode through the Lelantine Plain to inspect the island’s manganese mines.
• Krezer ordered soldiers to take control of the mines and record their details for his report.
• Krezer visited the Red Fort, where Orlando reported failed assaults and the loss of twenty-one soldiers; Krezer ordered a continued siege and militia reinforcements.
• Krezer left Euboea in late September and headed to the Peloponnese after Modon and Coron’s Venetian defenders fled by ship following artillery attacks.

Venice sent a powerful fleet into the Aegean Sea, but Fabius avoided a decisive battle and used smaller ships to raid Venetian trade. Vitus responded to the effects on Greek fishermen and Constantinople’s supplies while preparing for a prolonged war of attrition.

• Venice reinforced Crete with warships, armed merchant vessels, and more than ten thousand mercenaries, then Marcello Canal sailed into the Aegean Sea seeking the Greek fleet.
• Fabius withdrew from battle and sent nimble cruising vessels to attack enemy trade routes, preserving the main fleet but devastating fishing and commerce in the Aegean.
• Vitus convened the Cabinet and allocated grain to fishermen and others affected by the war.
• The Patriarch told Vitus that Constantinople’s citizens feared a Venetian attack through the Dardanelles, and Vitus said he welcomed a land battle against the mercenaries.
• Vitus heard that grain, fish, livestock, and wool supplies remained stable, while olive, wine, and copper prices had risen; he ordered copper purchases from Hungary and priority for the arsenals.
• Vitus judged that the war would last for years and that Venice’s dependence on trade would make it more vulnerable to prolonged attrition than the agrarian Eastern Roman Empire.

Vitus agreed to investigate claims against Jean Coeur’s shipping insurance business, while Coeur planned to shift trade to the Black Sea. In Candia, Giovanni Loredan and Marcello Canal planned a mercenary raid on western Greece as the Venetian fleet struggled to meet its orders.

• Vitus learned that shipowners were demanding insurance refunds for war losses, examined Jean Coeur’s agreements, and sent an official to investigate the company.
• Jean Coeur decided to focus his shipping business on the Black Sea route between Constantinople and Chersonesus.
• Giovanni Loredan wrote to Venice requesting two hundred thousand Ducats to buy grain for Crete’s growing population and military burden.
• Giovanni Loredan met Marcello Canal and discussed the order to cripple the Eastern Roman fleet within six months.
• Giovanni Loredan persuaded Marcello Canal to plan raids on the western coast of Greece, with two thousand mercenaries supported by Venetian ships.

Venetian mercenaries raided three coastal villages, but their pursuit of plunder left them vulnerable to Eastern Roman cavalry. Boranov and the Dragoons caught the fleeing raiders, while Boranov recognized that his men still needed better riding training.

• Venetian officers on Cephalonia divided the troops into small groups and sent them to raid coastal villages for supplies and loot.
• A mercenary captain led three hundred soldiers to a fishing village, where most residents had fled after a clergyman warned them of the approaching Venetians.
• The soldiers searched two more villages, seized goods, and spent the night in the second village before setting out with their plunder at dawn.
• The captain heard approaching hoofbeats, but his men scattered when they realized they could not form a defensive wagon enclosure.
• Boranov led more than a hundred Dragoons in pursuit and cut down several fleeing mercenaries, then reflected that his troops needed more riding drills.

After driving a Venetian transport fleet from a fishing village, Boranov escorted its displaced residents to Agrinion and worried about how the town would support the growing number of refugees. Days later, a shepherd’s warning led him to a sea cliff, where he witnessed a Roman cruiser battling six Venetian warships around a fleet of transports.

• Boranov pursued the mercenaries to a fishing village, drove the transport fleet away with gunfire, and promised the villagers an escort to Agrinion.
• Boranov brought the refugees to Agrinion, assessed the town’s capacity to support them, and sent a detailed combat report to brigade headquarters.
• After three days of rest, Boranov followed coastal signal fires and learned from a shepherd that a Venetian fleet was heading south.
• Boranov reached a sea cliff and saw six Venetian warships closing on an isolated Roman cruiser as it attacked the transport fleet.

The stranded Roman cruiser Scala’s crew joined Boranov’s Dragoons to ambush Venetian marines trying to plunder the ship. The marines fled, but the Venetian fleet destroyed the Scala with cannon fire before withdrawing.

• The Roman cruiser rammed and sank a galley, damaged two more, then ran aground on the southeastern beach after taking heavy damage.
• Boranov met Felix and the surviving crew of the Scala in the woods, gave them supplies, and agreed to help recover the ship’s cargo.
• When Venetian longboats approached the beach, Boranov told Felix to lure the sailors toward the woods while the Dragoons prepared an ambush.
• Felix’s crew fired on the landing party, then retreated into the woods as Venetian marines pursued them under cover of cannon fire.
• Boranov led 105 Dragoons in a foot charge against the marines, and Felix’s crew joined the attack, routing the Venetians.
• The marines escaped to their ships, and the Venetian fleet abandoned its plundering attempt and bombarded the Scala until it was beyond repair.

Felix and the surviving Scala crew salvaged what they could, traveled to Constantinople, and reported to the Admiralty for an inquiry into their mission. As they waited, Felix noticed officer candidates and suspected the navy had launched new warships that needed officers.

• Felix and his crew salvaged the Scala’s cannons and supplies before abandoning the ship and returning to Agrinion with Boranov’s help.
• Felix received orders to report to Constantinople for a new assignment, and Boranov reassured him that the crew’s accomplishments outweighed the loss of the Scala.
• Felix and the surviving crew traveled overland to Constantinople and entered the city after the guards checked their orders.
• The Admiralty summoned Felix and the surviving officers for a routine inquiry, and they arrived at headquarters on December 26.
• Felix saw four officer candidates studying in the waiting room and suspected the Admiralty needed officers for newly launched warships.

Felix chose to remain a cruiser captain, received a new crew, and took command of a rebuilt warship named Scala. Meanwhile, Marcello rejected Venice’s plan to attack Cyprus unless more troops were sent to defend Crete.

• Felix chose to command a cruiser rather than serve as first officer, and accepted the reassignment of some of the Scala’s crew.
• Felix welcomed ninety recruits, assigned them duties alongside his experienced sailors, and led them to the mess hall.
• Felix took delivery of the new Scala, which had an improved hull, copper sheathing, and thirty nine-pounder guns.
• Felix ordered his first officer to collect supplies before the ship began its two-month readiness workup in the Sea of Marmara.
• Foscari read Marcello’s report, in which Marcello refused to attack Cyprus without additional troops to defend Crete.

The Governor worried that Venice’s naval war against the Palaiologos was draining its supply of Venetian sailors, while Jacob gauged public resentment over war taxes and the fleet’s performance. In January 1446, Vitus exercised at Blachernae Palace and recalled his swordsmanship training and the implausible rumors about his battlefield exploits.

• The Governor calculated that Venice might need a second public bond issue and feared its dwindling Venetian manpower would weaken the fleet against the Palaiologos.
• The Governor asked Jacob to find out what people thought of the public bonds, and Jacob went by gondola to listen to residents around a small square.
• Jacob heard that residents disliked the war tax and that some questioned why Venice’s larger fleet had not defeated the enemy; he judged that the enemy was avoiding a decisive sea battle.
• At Blachernae Palace in early January 1446, Vitus exercised while Agnes slept and recalled learning swordsmanship from Phil Di Maggio and an instructor.
• Vitus wondered whether rumors of his personal cavalry charges were meant to diminish his command or praise his bravery.

Vitus listened to ministers argue over wartime shortages before reviewing the Eastern Roman Empire’s finances, fleet, and borders. The Nogai Khanate’s new defenses caught his attention, and he considered a northern campaign, though the prime minister expected him to wait until the war with Venice ended.

• Vitus practiced archery, then told Agnes he had no way to make money for the annual meeting.
• Ilya and the naval, trade, and foreign affairs ministers argued over rising grain prices and delayed copper shipments while Vitus listened outside the Cabinet chamber.
• Vitus reviewed the 1445 accounts and learned that donations had limited the empire’s deficit to 74,000 florins despite falling revenue and high expenditure.
• Vitus read that the navy had lost ships and was building seven heavy two-deck warships as Venice also developed new vessels.
• Vitus examined reports of stable borders and the Nogai Khanate’s defenses in Sarai, and he mused about campaigning north to hunt along the Volga River.
• The prime minister judged that a northern war would lose money and expected Vitus to postpone it until after the war with Venice.

Fabius reviewed Volos’s defenses and received word that the Venetian Fleet was heading north to blockade the harbor. Worried that criticism from officials could weaken Emperor Vitus I’s trust in him, he went to the cathedral to pray for Rome and for a chance to defeat the enemy.

• Fabius recommended sending newly commissioned ships to raid Venice’s increasingly busy trade route and inspected Volos’s fortified harbor.
• Fabius assessed Volos as the best long-term naval base, noting its defensible bay and advantages over other ports.
• A messenger from Attica reported that the Venetian Fleet’s main force was heading north after pursuing the Ephesus near Crete.
• Fabius ordered coastal towns to remain vigilant and worried that complaints about his refusal to fight could turn the emperor against him.
• Fabius went to Volos’s Cathedral and prayed that Vitus I would continue to trust him and that he could defeat the Venetian Fleet.

Venetian forces attacked the bay’s defenses with fireships and then fought floating batteries three and four in a prolonged cannon exchange. After losing ships and the element of surprise, Marcello judged victory unlikely and ordered the fleet to withdraw from the bay.

• Thirty fireships approached the first defensive line under cover of darkness, but a galley crew spotted them and raised the alarm.
• The fireship crews ignited their vessels and escaped; one burning fireship struck a galley, which caught fire and exploded after its crew abandoned ship.
• The burning galleys sank and opened a gap in the first defensive line, allowing Venetian warships to attack floating batteries three and four.
• Floating batteries three and four endured the Venetian bombardment and held their positions, while several Venetian two-deckers withdrew with damage.
• Marcello rejected using fireships against the prepared defenses and later estimated Venice had less than a forty percent chance of victory.
• At two in the morning, Marcello ordered the Venetian fleet to withdraw from the bay.

Fabius inspected the badly damaged floating battery three and reorganized the defenses after the Venetian Fleet withdrew. The Venetians then reconnoitered the Dardanelles, bombarded its coast for five days, and left after Admiral Marcello judged the fortified strait impossible to force.

• Fabius found that battery three had suffered heavy casualties and was still taking on water, so he ordered it to be towed to the harbor's dry dock for repairs.
• Fabius assigned the Smyrna to replace the damaged batteries and spent the day restoring two defensive lines at the bay's entrance.
• Reports showed that the Venetian Fleet had sailed north toward Lemnos to rest and refit before returning to Crete.
• Three Venetian warships entered the Dardanelles to scout its defenses but turned back after coming under fire from shore cannons.
• Admiral Marcello ordered the Venetian Fleet to bombard coastal settlements instead of attacking the fortified strait, then blockaded its western entrance for five days.
• Marcello concluded that modern heavy cannons and the Empire's fortifications had made the Dardanelles and Bosphorus impossible for Venice to force.

Marcello returned to Crete to find Venetian officials investigating the navy’s losses, but their report cleared him even as the Great Council dismissed him. His successor, Lucca Soranzo, took command and concluded that the Palaiologos navy outclassed Venice in ships and personnel, leaving him determined to force a decisive battle.

• Marcello returned to Crete and learned that ten Venetian merchant ships had been lost while fourteen warships needed repairs.
• Marcello declined to bribe the six investigators, and their report found no evidence of misconduct or disloyalty.
• The Great Council dismissed Marcello and appointed Lucca Soranzo, who arrived in Candia on May 10.
• Marcello chose to retire to a country estate near Rome, and the duke approved of his plans.
• Soranzo questioned veteran captains and learned about the Palaiologos fleet’s armored ships, experienced crews, and Navy School.
• Soranzo judged that Palaiologos held the advantage in ship design and personnel, and resolved to force its navy into a decisive battle.

Lucca Soranzo tried to persuade Venice’s leaders to attack Cyprus, but the mercenaries refused to risk the operation. He abandoned the plan and returned to the city regretting that he had opposed Marcello’s proposal for a standing army.

• Lucca Soranzo proposed attacking Cyprus, but the duke and Vettore Cappello initially opposed the plan.
• Soranzo spent three days arguing that Venice had to act before the enemy fleet grew stronger, and the duke began to be persuaded.
• Rumors of the Cyprus attack spread through the mercenary camp, where soldiers feared the operation and began raising an uproar.
• Cappello and Soranzo met with the mercenary officers, and Michele Attendolo argued that landing and besieging Cyprus would expose the troops to heavy losses.
• Most mercenary leaders agreed with Attendolo, leaving only three commanders willing to fight with a force of five thousand men.
• Soranzo and Cappello abandoned the attack, and Soranzo regretted opposing Marcello’s proposal for a standing army.

Soranzo’s raids and Venetian diplomacy brought the Mamluks into conflict with the Palaiologos, though the sultan chose to attack Antioch rather than join Venice’s plan to seize Cyprus. After Vitus learned of a suspected arms shipment to Egypt, he appointed Romanus to command at Konya and ordered him to hold the eastern frontier.

• Soranzo persuaded Duke Capello to send Elion Daltino to Egypt to seek the sultan’s support against the Palaiologos.
• Elion met the sultan, who rejected Venice’s proposal to occupy Cyprus and chose instead to attack Antioch for his own gain.
• A mercenary commander warned Elion that the newly trained Mamluk soldiers were inferior to mercenaries.
• Vitus received word that transport ships from Crete had carried suspected firearms to Egypt, and Romanus volunteered to command the Konya Legion.
• Vitus approved Romanus’s appointment and advised him to build experience against an easier opponent while holding the frontier and avoiding a deep advance.