Cyprus in The Middle Ages - Venetian Period 1489-1571

Venetian Period 1489-1571

Caterina Cornaro left her kingdom on the doge's ship in 1489, apparently against her will as she was well loved by the inhabitants. She survived almost 20 years after her reluctant abdication, and the rule of Cyprus passed over to the Venetian Signory. Venice had been accumulating land, despite its early success solely as a sea power, and Cyprus came under its jurisdiction. In a model like Pericles in Thucydides, or George Washington's farewell address in American History, the Venetian Doge Moncinego had long ago warned Venice not to overextended itself in a land empire. In all of these cases, this advice was of course, ignored.

The Signory had great repute in Venice itself, indeed supposedly matching up to the Venetian myth, but in its colonial administration it was corrupt. The island was run by three men; the lieutenant and two councillers collectively known as the three rectors, as well as a captain for the army. The signory feared these men becoming too powerful, so these positions changed every two years. As a result this administration was greedy, lethargic, and overall inadequate, and although taxes were high they were still not enough to run the island. One pilgrim noted that "all the inhabitants of Cyprus are slaves to the Venetians."

Salt was the major item of production on the island in this period, taken from Larnaca. In earlier times it was used in the cult of Aphrodite, as the salt lake produces around a 1-inch-thick (25 mm) deposit. It was said that Larnaca provided enough salt to fill 34 ships, all of this profit went not to the island, but straight back to Venice. In 1562 the Greeks raised a failed revolt. In 1566, Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Turks was succeeded by his son Selim "the fool", an epithet given to him by western historians. Suleiman had been advised by his grand vizier to leave Cyprus alone, due to friendly relations with the signory and the prosperity that the Ottomans were enjoying as a result of trade with them. Because it was customary for the new ruler to conquer new territory, and Selim didn't care for the advice of this vizier, he sent an insulting request for cession of the island to the signory. This request claimed for the immediate ceding of the island, citing the condominium of 649-965AD and the debts of James the Bastard to the Caliphate as reasons why this island was the property of the Muslims; this was pure instigation citing these rather bogus reasons. The Venetians prepared for invasion, updating sites as Nicosia, Kyrenia, and Famagusta. The Lusignan walls were restored; they were made shorter and thicker to adjust to more formidable artillery of the period. Earth was also put on top of the walls, to better handle the impact. Nicosia indeed was perhaps the vangaurd of military technology at the time. Bastions stationed around the roughly circular plan allowed the gunners collectively full range of 360 degrees.

General Lala Mustafah landed near Larnaca on July 1, 1570. The writer Paruta is a good source for the activities of this invasion, and to him I am much indebted for this following information on the invasion. The island suffered from incompetent military leadership; there was only one capable leader on the island who defended Famagusta. Nicosia was defended by the bumbling Matteo Dandolo, who held his troops within the walls leaving Mustafah free range of the island, which he plundered.

The Venetians also couldn't rely on the Cypriots themselves, who hated their overbearers. Mustafah, in an unexpected moves, pursued the nobility of the island and attacked Nicosia first. Though Nicosia had adequate supplies and great architecture, its undoing proved to be its leadership, led by Dandalo. The fort was surrendered after only 6 weeks, perhaps Dandalo thought he himself would get special treatment from the enemy. There was none to be found, and the city was massacred, save for the Cypriot peasants who during the course of the battle had hauled down the Venetian flag and had raised the Ottoman. A mosque was erected in honor of the deceased standard bearer, who had been the first to set upon the walls. The heads of Dandalo and the other nobles were sent to Kyrenia, which surrendered without a fight.

Mustafah next doubled his army to almost 200,000 for the siege of Famagusta, attracting people with promises of booty multiple times better than that of Nicosia. Famagusta was led by the only great leader on the island, the Venetian Marc Antony Bragodino though the fort itself was undersupplied, and the harvest hadn't been brought in for the year as well. Bragodino had only about 10,000 men defending. The Venetian gunners had to fire sparingly as their powder supply was quickly dwindling, and the best tactic against the enemy were fireworks shot at them. Wealthy Venetains offered financial incentive to those who fought the Turks in single combat. After about a year, the ravelin fell, and Bragodino surrendered, seeing further defense as useless. He came to agreeable terms with the Turks, securing safe passage of the inhabitants from the island. However, these terms were rescinded; the Venetians say that Mustafa was angry at seeing the pathetic status and numbers of the army that had troubled him while the Ottomans say that the Venetians mistreated Turkish prisoners. The prisoners were kept, and Bragodino himself had his eyes and nose cut off, was flayed alive, and stuffed with hay to be paraded around Istanbul. Later his body was recovered and brought back to Venice. Good feeling in Istanbul wasn't to be found, as the Turks had suffered a defeat in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, ending Ottoman westward expansion. But the declining empire lived on and ruled the island of Cyprus until 1878, the beginning of the British occupation.