The ottomons & Donoldo's Execution

The Ottomans & Donoldo's execution

In 1570, the Ottoman Empire invaded Cyprus.

At the time, Cyprus was ruled by the Republic of Venice, and the Venetians had tried to steer a relatively neutral course between the Ottomans and their Christian enemies ever since the end of the last Ottoman-Venetian war in 1540, but that had ended when an Ottoman ultimatum landed in front of the Senate demanding that they hand Cyprus over peacefully.

Instead, the Senate told the Ottomans to come and take it, and the Ottoman delegate had to be hurried out of a back door because of the sudden frenzy of pro-war sentiment that came over Venice. Meanwhile, the Venetians appealed to the Pope for the creation of a new Holy League to help them stop the Ottomans, and a fleet was assembled with contingents from Venice, Spain, various other Italian cities including Genoa, the Knights of Malta and others. However, this fleet was plagued with infighting and suffered serious delays, which gave plenty of time for the Ottomans to strike.

The main Venetian stronghold on Cyprus was the capital, Nicosia. Nicosia was under the command of a Venetian called Nicolas Dandolo, who was remarkably incompetent; for example, he had access to highly competent Albanian cavalrymen called Stradiots, which he could have sent to disrupt the Ottoman landings on the island; not only did he not use them to attack the Ottomans, he gave them express orders not to. Unsurprisingly, therefore, and despite the fancy new walls the Venetians had built there, the Ottomans took Nicosia in only seven weeks. The animosity that Dandolo had generated during his handling of the siege was such that during the final storming of the city at least one Venetian tried to kill him; they failed, but an Ottoman soldier succeeded, striking him down as he tried to surrender.

Dandolo’s head was then put on a plate and sent across the island, to the city of Famagusta. After the fall of Nicosia, nearly every other Venetian stronghold on the island had surrendered without a fight, leaving only Famagusta.

Of course, Famagusta had an advantage over Nicosia in that its commander was actually competent; namely it was Marc’Antonio Bragadin, and his second in command Astore Baglione, who put up an energetic defence; he used his Stradiots to harass the Ottomans, and distributed food and pay evenly. The Venetians managed to sneak a relief fleet in, by baiting the Ottoman galleys with a weak relief fleet and then ambushing them with their own galleys. Bragadin then made the Ottomans think the Venetian fleet had evacuated his men, waited for them to advance on the walls and then fired cannon loaded with grapeshot into their ranks at close range.

However, the Venetian relief fleet also brought a bunch of unfortunate Muslim pilgrims to Famagusta (or it may not have done and it may have been an excuse); It depends on who you believe.

Eventually, Ottoman reinforcements arrived, as the Ottomans responded to the setback of the Venetian relief fleet, and the Venetians ran out of food. This left Bragadin no choice but to expel the non-combatants from the city, but he did give them food for the journey and the Ottoman commander, Lala Mustapha, let them through his lines.

Despite a spirited defence, Bragadin was forced to conclude that his position was untenable; Famagusta was already as good as lost, so he was persuaded to seek terms.

The terms that Lala Mustapha offered were surprisingly generous; The Venetians were to be allowed to leave Cyprus, as were any Greeks who found Ottoman rule unpleasant; though if they stayed they were guaranteed full rights and protections.

The Ottomans duly began embarking the Venetians on to their ships to remove them to friendly territory, but when Bragadin set out to formally hand the keys to the city over to Mustapha it all went wrong. According to the Ottomans, it was because the Venetians had killed the Muslim pilgrims, breaking the terms of surrender which had demanded their safe return. Equally, it may have been the manner in which Bragadin conducted himself, or the fact that Mustapha had promised his men loot in Famagusta, or the fact that he was annoyed the Venetians had held out for so long and inflicted so many casualties, but whatever the reason the two men had an argument and the treaty was judged to have been broken.

Most of the Venetians were executed right then, outside Mustapha’s tent, including Baglione; The Ottomans were about to execute Bragadin too but changed their minds, instead having his nose and ears cut off, a punishment fit for a common criminal.

The Ottomans then spent ages humiliating Bragadin, who was in a lot of pain because of the wounds on his head already; he was paraded through the city, forced to pass earth along the city walls (payback for an earlier taunt in response to an Ottoman call for surrender), was tied to a chair, hoisted to the top of a ship’s mast then thrown in the sea, brought out again and shown to the fleet. He was then brought to a square, stripped, and flayed alive by a butcher. He died before the butcher got to his waist.

However, what the Ottomans had done in killing Bragadin, especially in that cruel, humiliating and painful way, was make him a martyr to the Venetian cause. It generated huge public anger in Venice, and the Venetian contingent at the Battle of Lepanto was motivated in large part by a desire to avenge Bragadin. Two of the galleasses, the huge, heavily armed but cumbersome Venetian warships that put a major dent in the Ottoman front rank at Lepanto, were commanded by relatives of Bragadin.

The monument erected in Venice to Bragadin

Also, Bragadin’s skin was taken back to Constantinople, where it remained for ten years before someone stole it and brought it back to Venice.