Stradioti, Cappelletti, Compagnie or Milizie Greche 325

Chapter 15 Stradioti, Cappelletti, Compagnie or Milizie Greche: ‘Greek’ Mounted and Foot Companies in the Venetian State (Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries)

Stathis Birtachas

By the fifteenth century the political presence of in both the Italian Peninsula and the Levant had become incontrovertibly dynamic. Already from the first decade of the century the Republic embarked on its territorial expan­ sion, by conquering a large part of the North Italian hinterland (the surrounding land and parts of Lombardy), which constituted henceforth the Venetian Ter­ raferma. As the century progressed, it consolidated its role in the Adriatic, by maintaining or gaining footholds on the Dalmatian and the Albanian coast. In the Hellenic territories and the eastern Mediterranean, after the Fall of Con­ stantinople to Mehmed II, it was confronted directly by the Ottoman onslaught and suffered the loss of some of its possessions. However, these setbacks were offset by the conquest of other territories, mainly in the Ionian Sea and the , as well as by the annexation of the particularly profitable King­ dom of . Consequently, here too Venice remained powerful not only at the political level but also in the sector of economic and mercantile activity. In short, at the end of the fifteenth century Venice was one of the mightiest states in the Italian Peninsula, as well as the greatest maritime power in the Mediter­ ranean. Nonetheless, the cost of its expansion and reinforcement was proved to be heavy. First of all, inordinately large sums of money had to be expended on the upkeep, modernization or even the design from scratch of fortification works, which were to secure the defence of an enormous empire on land and sea. Secondly, military corps had to be formed and armed in order to curb the conquering ambitions of much larger states with which it was difficult to com­ pete. The outbreak of hostilities between Venice and the Ottoman Turks, in the eastern Mediterranean in 1463, and the crushing military defeat of Venice by the forces of the League of Cambrai, at Agnadello in 1509, are events indicative of the pressures that the Republic of Saint Mark was to face here­after.1

1 Mallett, “Part I: c.1400-1508”, pp. 20-64; Hale, “Part II: 1509-1617”, pp. 221-27; Birtachas, Κοινωνία, πολιτισμός και διακυβέρνηση, pp. 19-22; Arbel, “Venice’s Maritime Empire”, pp. 131-36.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004362048_017 326 Birtachas

Within the framework of the Republic of St Mark’s embroilment in succes­ sive martial operations, as well as of its defence strategy in the Terraferma and its Maritime State (Stato da mar) in the Levant, from the fifteenth to the eigh­ teenth century,2 the paper examines its recruitment firstly of the so-called stradiots (stradioti), mercenary corps of Greek, Albanian, and Slav origin, as well as of the likewise mounted cappelletti, which are the develop­ ment of the stradiots from the seventeenth century; and secondarily of the mercenary groups of ‘Greek’ infantry named compagnie or milizie greche.

Mounted Companies: the stradioti and cappelletti

Recruitment of the first of these mercenary companies, the light cavalry stradi­ ots (stradioti),3 began during the second half of the fifteenth century. They introduced into Italy and the West in general a mixture of Byzantine, Slav,

2 For Venetian military organization during those centuries see Concina, Le trionfanti et invitis­ sime armate venete; Hale, “From peacetime establishment to fighting machine”; Concina, La macchina territoriale; Mallett/Hale, The Military Organization; Marchesi, Fortezze veneziane; Redolfi, Venezia e la difesa del Levante; Hale, “Venezia e la ‘rivoluzione militare’ europea”; Chambers/Clough/Mallett, War, Culture, and Society; Prelli, L’esercito veneto; Favaloro, L’esercito veneziano; Perini, “Le milizie della Τerraferma”; Del Negro, “La milizia”; Perini, La difesa mili­ tare della Terraferma; Cacciavillani, La milizia territoriale; Del Negro, “La politica militare di Venezia”; id., “Il leone in campo”; Concina/Molteni, “La fabrica della fortezza”; Pezzolo, “Fonti e problemi”; Panciera, Il governo delle artiglierie; Pezzolo, “Stato, guerra e finanza”; Tamburrini, “L’organizzazione militare”; Del Negro, ‘Prefazione’; Porto, Una piazzaforte in età moderna, pp. 17-25; Birtachas, Κοινωνία, πολιτισμός και διακυβέρνηση, pp. 49-66; Arbel, “Venice’s Maritime Empire”, pp. 203-13. 3 The types stradiotti, strathioti, stratioti are also encountered in the sources. For these see the following bibliography: Ricotti, Storia delle compagnie di ventura, pp. 248-49; Μνημεία Ελληνικής Ιστορίας, vols. 1, 4, 5-9; Barbarich, “Gli Stradiotti”; Oman, A History of the Art of War, pp. 41, 92, 109-11; Babinger, “Albanische Stradioten”; Vakalopoulos, Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού, vol. 3, pas­ sim; Ducellier, “Les Albanais à Venise”; id., “Les Albanais dans les colonies Vénitiennes”; Chassiotes, Οι Έλληνες στις παραμονές της ναυμαχίας της Ναυπάκτου, pp. 37-48, 76-85, 135-226; Concina, Le trionfanti et invitissime armate venete, pp. 70-78; Kolyva, “Θεόδωρος Παλαιολόγος”; Mallett, and Their Masters, pp. 119, 152, 198, 232; Zakythinos, Le despotat grec de Morée; Mallett/Hale, The Military Organization, passim; Kyrris, “Mercenaires Albanais”; Sathas, Έλληνες στρατιώται εν τη Δύσει; Tucci, “Venezia e i prigionieri di guerra nel Medioevo”, pp. 86-88; Netto, “Per una biografia di Mercurio ”; Ploumides, “Νικόλαος († 1528) και Ιωάννης († 1529) Παλαιολόγοι stradioti”; Nicolle, Fornovo 1495, passim, esp. 28-29, 33; Petta, Stradioti soldati al­ banesi; Bires, Αρβανίτες, 113-203; Patapiou, “Η κάθοδος των Ελληνοαλβανών”; Pilidis, “Morire per honor di la Signoria”; Concina, “Strathiotti palicari”; Maltezou, ‘Stradioti’; Bugh, “Andrea Gritti”; Pappas, ‘Stradioti’; Birtachas, “La memoria degli stradioti”.