Marco Sanudo, Conqueror of the Archipelago
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K. F< V ^MARCO SANUDO CONQUEROR OF THE ARCHIPELAGO BY JOHN KNIGHT FOTHERINGHAM M.A., D.Litt. FELLOW OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD READER IN ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON LATE BRASSEY STUDENT ASSISTED BY LAURENCE FREDERIC RUSHBROOK WILLIAMS B.Litt., B.A. FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF MODERN INDIAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1915 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY PREFACE The present work professes to be not history, but historical research. It is intended primarily for those who may have occasion to write on some subject on which it throws light, and the author will be well satisfied if it is used without being read through by such students. No attempt has been made at proportion, and the amount of space devoted to different parts of the subject is determined solely by the character and quantity of the evidence and the discussions to which it gives rise. For the benefit of historical students and the biblio- graphers who may guide them, I have thought it advisable to enumerate in this preface the subjects on which I have attempted to throw light. These include the origins of the Venetian families of Candiano and Sanudo, and, incidentally, the legend of the foundation of Venice and of Heraclea, and the of the of the topography neighbourhood Ravenna ; relations of Guglielmo and Raynerio of Montferrat to the court of Con- and the nature of their fief or fiefs stantinople at Thessalonica ; the policy of Venice in promoting the election of Baldwin as emperor and in negotiating the treaty of Adrianople with Boniface of Montferrat the relations of the Venetian ; colony at Constantinople to the mother-city, and the policy adopted by Venice for conquests to be made either by the city or by its citizens the made to secure a ; attempts by Genoa foothold in Romania the and of the ; conquest organization Archipelago ; the different Venetian, Genoese, and Naxiote expeditions to Crete during the career of Marco Sanudo, and, of course, the whole career of Marco Sanudo himself. One of the excerpts contained in the appendix is from a Cronica Antica di Venetia iv PREFACE to the fourteenth and (pp. 109, no infra), belonging century, may conceivably be of interest to students of the Venetian dialect. A large part of the matter contained in the present for a of work was published in a form intended wider class readers in the English Historical Review, xxv (1910), pp. 26-57. I also hope that my references to published works and manuscripts may be of use to those who do not find my own contributions of special value. Care has been taken to make these references, which do not extend beyond the year 191 1, exact and readily identifiable. The absence of certain well- known works is deliberate. This work has grown out of a study begun in 1906 under the terms of a Brassey Studentship, and my thanks are due to Lord Hythe for the foundation of this studentship, which not only suggested the study, but contributed materially to meeting the expenses. I have also to thank the British Treasury for a grant administered through King's College, London, and the Delegates of the Press for the generous terms on which they have consented to publish this work. More personal thanks are due to Mr. William Miller, author of The Latins in the Levant, and of many learned articles on portions of that subject, who suggested the Duchy of the Archipelago as a suitable scheme, and to whom I owe advice on authorities and numerous suggestions, together with permission to repro- duce from his copy the excerpt from Sauger's Histoire de l'Archipel, which will be found on pp. 113-25. I also owe thanks to Madame della Rocca of Naxos, for permission to make extracts from Grimaldi's 'Io-ropia rfjs Nd£ov, a selection from which is printed on pp. 122-5 of this work, to Cav. Gerola, Keeper of the National Museum at Ravenna, for lending me for reproduction Berti's map of the environs of Ravenna, and to Dr. Headlam, late Principal of King's College, London, for the gift of a copy of Hopf's Chroniques Greco- Romanes. I have also to thank Dr. Gerland for kind answers to inquiries, Miss Gimingham, late of St. Hilda's Hall, Oxford, PREFACE v for assistance in the preparation of Appendix II, and numerous friends in Naxos, among whom I may specify Mr. Chrysanthus Sommaripa, Madame Antonio Sommaripa, and Mr. Roch Barozzi, for much assistance kindly given during my visit to Naxos. The last chapter was originally written by Professor Williams, from material which I had collected. It was revised by me, and I am fully responsible for the opinions expressed in the chapter in its present form. Professor Williams has also assisted me in the transcription and decipherment of extracts from autho- rities. With the exception of the excerpts from Grimaldi, these have all been verified by comparison with photographs. Last but not least, I must record my indebtedness to my wife, who has shared my journeys and performed a large share of the clerical work involved in the preparation of this volume, and who is specially responsible for the index, which, in a book not intended to be read as a whole, is the part on which the utility of the rest depends. J. K. FOTHERINGHAM. July 7, 1915. CONTENTS PAGE I. The House of Sanudo i II. Venice and the Fourth Crusade . .16 III. Boniface and the Treaty of Adrianople . 26 IV. The Struggle with Genoa 39 V. The Conquest of the Archipelago . .56 VI. Marco Sanudo and Crete 81 Appendix I. Extracts from Authorities . 104 Appendix II. List of Works to which reference is made 125 MAPS PAGE Ravenna and Environs vii NAXOS viii Crete 134 10 Miies ~*7>ra. RAVENNA AND ENVIRONS N A X O S CHAPTER I THE HOUSE OF SANUDO The family of Sanudo has been rendered illustrious by two eminent men of letters, as well as by the long line of the Dukes of the Archipelago. But even before the days of those members of the family whose names are to be found in every history of Venice, the Sanudi had achieved an honourable position in that his city. The highest authority for the pedigree of house ought to be the famous Marino Sanudo Torsello, best known for his Secreta fidelium crucis, but also author of a work written about 1328 and preserved in an Italian translation under the 1 title of Istoria del Regno di Romania. All that can be gleaned from him concerning the ancestry of the conqueror of the ' Archipelago is that he was Fiol de Miser Marco Sanudo 2 Costantinopolitani \ A prouder pedigree appears for the first 3 time in the Chronicle of Andrea Dandolo, where a list is given of the families descended from tribunes and primates of the city of Heraclea who settled in Malamocco, Rialto, Torcello, and the neighbouring islands after the destruction of Heraclea about 810. The third family in this list is thus entitled: 1 Candiani, qui hodie secundum plurimos Sanuti vocati sunt.' There would be nothing strange in the change of name, but the ' ' phrase secundum plurimos suggests that the genealogy was questioned in Dandolo's day, unless the sentence merely means that Sanudo had become the commoner designation of the family. Another chronicle of the latter half of the fourteenth 4 century states this descent without qualification, and calls all ' the Candiano doges by the alternative name of Sanutus \ Afterwards this is the accepted story, and the Sanudi rank ' among the ' case vecchie which are supposed to be descended from the ancient tribunes. It is difficult in the light of the limited evidence before us to determine whether this genealogy is true or false. Marino Sanudo is making no attempt to trace the origins of his family, and it is therefore impossible to press his silence. Only one list 1 Printed in Hopfs Chroniques Greco-Romanes (1873), pp. 99-170. 2 Ibid., p. 99. 3 Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xii (1728), 156. 4 a Cod. Venet. Marc. Lat. x. 36 and x. 237. P 2961 B 3 THE HOUSE OF SANUDO of Venetian families older than that in Dandolo has been pre- us this is to be found in that curious served to ; patchwork 1 known as the Chronicle of Altino. Here it is true that the Candiani are mentioned without any words to identify them with the Sanudi, whose name nowhere appears, but the refer- ences come in a part of the chronicle which was composed in the ninth or tenth century, when the family of Candiano still bore its ancient name. Happily there are many documents, some of them with numerous signatures, in which the names of Venetian families may be traced. The last Candiano whom I have been able to trace under that name is Stefano, who is mentioned in 2 a document of April 1087. The first Sanudo who bears that name in a contemporary document appears to be Giovanni, who 3 is one of the signatories to the Patto di Cittanova in 1009. But the name Sanudo is of comparatively rare occurrence before the middle of the twelfth century, when the family appears to rank with the noblest of Venice and it is to ; interesting observe that soon after the position of the family is established, a certain Candianus Sanutus appears among the eleven electors who chose 4 the doge Sebastiano Ziani in 1173.