STRADIOTI: BALKAN MERCENARIES IN FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURY ITALY
By Nicholas C. J. Pappas
You can find out about him here: http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/
The
stradioti, mounted troops of Albanian and Greek origin who initially
entered Venetian military service during the Republic's wars with the
Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century, were among pioneers of light
cavalry tactics in European armies in the early modern era. These
warriors, who had previously served Byzantine and Albanian rulers,
initially found asylum and employment in the Venetian strongholds of
Napoli di Romagna, Corone, Modone, and Malvasia in the Peloponnesus.
Later they were also stationed in Venetian holdings at Trau, Sibenico,
Castellonuovo, and Zara in Dalmatia, and the islands of Corfu, Zante,
Cephalonia, Crete and Cyprus. They were also introduced into Italy by
the Venetians in the 1470's and participated in wars in Italy through
much of the 16th century, not only for Venice, but also for other
employers. It was in these wars that the stratioti made an impact on
warfare in Italy and the west, chiefly by their style of fighting and
tactics. The stradioti were armed and fought as light cavalry in a
manner that developed from warfare among Byzantine, Slavic, Albanian
and Ottoman forces. They carried spear, a long saber, mace, and dagger,
and were attired in a mixture of oriental, Byzantine and western
military garb. The stradioti continued the Balkan traditions of cavalry
warfare, which used hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, feigned retreats,
counterattacks and other tactics little known to western armies of the
time.
A number of contemporary writers and later historians,
notably Charles Oman,[1] Coriolano Cippico,[2] Marino Sanuto[3], Philip
de Comines,[4] F. L. Taylor,[5] Konstantinos Sathas,[6] John Hale,[7]
M. E. Mallett,[8] and others, have recounted the activities of
stradioti in Italy and the west. Some of these authorities even claimed
that the stradioti were instrumental in the reintroduction of light
cavalry tactics in western armies. In the sixteenth century, stradioti
troops expanded their service to the armies of Milan, Genoa, Spain,
France, the Holy Roman Empire, and England. Aside from their military
activities, the stradioti were instrumental in the establishment of
Greek Orthodox communities in Venice and Dalmatia.
This paper
will investigate the origins of the stradioti, their ethnic and
regional composition, their role in the armies of the15th and 16th
centuries, and their participation in the founding of Greek Orthodox
Communities in the Italy and elsewhere.
In the late fifteenth
century, companies of stradioti were brought to Italy and served in
Venice's armed conflicts on the terrafirma. They entered service in
Italy at the crucial period in which the military system of the Italian
states, as well as their independence, were being threatened by
transalpine armies in the late 15th century. One observer, Marino
Sanuto, described the stradioti and their arrival in Venice thusly 9]
On
22 April [1482] the first ship of cavalry arrived which carried seven
stradioti from Corone, who, when they disembarked at the Lido, paraded
in their accustomed way before the unaccustomed crowd which marvelled
at the speed of their horses and the skill of the horsemen... the
stradioti are Greeks and they wear broad capes and tall caps, some wear
corselets; they carry lance in hand, and a mace, and hang a sword at
their side; they move like birds and remain incessantly on their
horses...They are accustomed to brigandage and frequently pillage the
Peloponnesus. They are excellent adversaries against the Turks; they
arrange their raids very well, hitting the enemy unexpectedly; they are
loyal to their lords. They do not take prisoners, but rather cut the
heads of their adversaries, receiving according to their custom one
ducat per head.
In another work Sanuto describes them again 10]
They
have sword, lance with pennant, and mace. Very few wear cuirasses,
generally they wear cotton cloaks, sewn in a particular fashion. Their
horses are large, accustomed to hardships, run like birds, always hold
their heads high and surpass all others in maneuver of battle.
Countless of these stradioti are found in Napoli di Romagna and other
areas of Greece which are under the signoria and they consider their
fortified towns as their true armor and lance.
The French Memoirist, Philip de Commines, describes the stradioti that opposed the French at the Battle of Fornovo 11]
Marchal
de Gie sent to the king word that he had passed the mountains, and that
having sent out a party of horse to reconnoitre the enemy, they had
been charged by the Estradiots, one of them called Lebeuf being slain,
the Estradiots cut off his head, put it on top of a lance, carried it
to their proveditor, and demanded a ducat. These Estradiots are of the
same nature as the Genetaires [Spanish light cavalry]; they are attired
like Turks both on horse and on foot, except they wear no turbans on
their heads. They are a rugged people, couched all the year round on
their horses. They were all Greeks, coming from places possessed by the
Venetians, some from Napoli di Romagna [Nauplion], others from Albania
at Durrazzo, and their horses are good and are all from Turkey...I saw
them all at their first arrival at Venice, and they mustered on an
island...numbering a good fifteen hundred, and they are stout, active
men who greatly harry an opposing force when they set themselves to it.
There are some discrepancies in both primary and secondary
sources as to how the stradioti were armed. The majority of sources
indicate that they were armed with sabres, or one-edged swords, maces
and a short lance with iron points on each end known as an arzagaye or
assagaye.[12] Other sources indicate that they may have been armed with
bows as well. They also seemed to have carried a type of eared dagger,
which saw wide use in Italy. The stradioti are reputed to have
introduced this dagger into western Europe, which came to be known
generally as an estradiot. [13]2
According to most sources the
stradioti wore little or no armor. If they did, it was usually padded
linen tunics or shirts of chain mail. Contemporary authors indicate
that they were attired and armored like the Turks except that they wore
no turban.[14]3 Since there was much intermingling of military styles,
tactics, garb, and weaponry in the Balkans in the 14th and 15th
centuries, it is difficult to say what aspects of weaponry; armor and
attire were adopted from or lent to the Ottoman Turks. This writer
believes it is safe to say that the stradioti were armed and attired in
a mixture of Balkan and Turkish styles. There is no doubt that they
later adopted some western arms and garb the longer they remained in
service in Western Europe and in the Venetian-held areas of the Balkans
and the Levant.
Two versions of the name stradioti have been
cited by sources, while scholars have debated which of these versions
is accurate. According to some authorities, the terms stradiotto and
stradioti (plural) are Italian variants of the Greek stratiots or
stratiotai which generally means soldier, but in later Byzantine times
meant cavalry man who held a military fief (pronoia). Other authors
assert that stradioti came from the Italian root strada (road) and that
the term stradiotto meant a wanderer or wayfarer, thus denoting an
errant cavalrymen or warrior.[15] The question of the etymology of the
appellation stradioti is further complicated by the various spellings
and versions of the term in the primary sources. The few Greek sources,
such as the Andragathmata tou Merkouriou Boua, use
stratiotes/stratiotai, the Greek word for soldier.[16] Latin sources,
such as the dispatches of Jacomo Barbarigo, use the variant
stratiotos/stratiotorum or strathiotos/strathiotorum[17] The bulk of
primary sources in Italian, such as Coriolano Cippico, Marino Sanuto
and Venetian state documents, use stradiotto/stradioti, adopted by this
paper, or strathiotto/strathioti.[18] French sources, such as Philip de
Comines, use the variation estradiot/estradiots.[19] Although arguments
on the side of the wayfarer theory predominate, the fact that some of
the older Latin sources from the early 15th century use a variation of
the Greek stratiotes tends to make this writer favor the "soldier"
theory. Be as it may, the term indicated light cavalry forces of Balkan
origin, chiefly from Greece and Albania.
Most modern, as well as
a good number of early authors have indicated that the stradioti were
Albanian. This is true to a certain extent but has to be qualified. A
Greek author made a study of the names of stradioti found in the most
extensive documentary collection of materials dealing with the
stradioti and found that some 80% of the names were of Albanian origin,
while the rest were of Greek origin.[20] This writer looked over lists
of stradioti in the same source, Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias:
Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, edited by
Konstantinos Sathas, as well as the indices of the fifty-odd volumes of
I Diarii di Marino Sanuto. This investigation found that indeed many of
the names were Albanian, but a good number of the names particularly
those of officers, were of Greek origin, such as Palaiologos,
Spandounios, Laskaris, Rhalles, Comnenos, Psendakis, Maniatis,
Spyliotis, Alexopoulos, Psaris, Zacharopoulos, Klirakopoulos,
Kondomitis, etc. Others seemed to be of South Slavic origin, such
Soimiris, Vlastimiris, and Voicha.[21] The study of names does not
indicate that most of these troops came directly from Albania proper,
as has been asserted by some authors. Fernand Braudel, for example, in
his classic study of the Mediterranean in the 16th century somewhat
kaleidoscopically describes the stradioti's history in the following
manner 22]
The story of the Albanians deserves a study in
itself. Attracted by the 'sword, the gold trappings, and the honours',
they left their mountains chiefly in order to become soldiers. In the
sixteenth century they were to be found in Cyprus, in Venice, in
Mantua, in Rome, in Naples, and Sicily, and as far abroad as Madrid,
where they went to present their projects and their grievances, to ask
for barrels of gunpowder or years of pension, arrogant imperious,
always ready for a fight. In the end Italy gradually shut its doors to
them. They moved on to the Low Countries, England, and France during
the Wars of Religion, soldier-adventurers followed everywhere by there
wives, children, and priests.
This description and others do
not take into account that most of the stradioti did not come from
Albania proper, but from the Venetian holdings in southern and central
Greece, that is Malvasia (Monemvasia), Modone (Methone), Corone, Napoli
di Romagna (Nauplion), the Mani, and Lepanto (Naupaktos). Most of the
stradioti who entered Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries,
together with their families, had been born in the Peloponnesus, their
progenitors having immigrated there in the late 14th and early 15th
century. They had settled in southern Greece through the encouragement
of the Byzantine Despots of the Morea, Theodore I Palaiologos
(1384-1407) and Theodore II Palaiologos (1407-1443). The Albanians
served as military colonists in the Peloponnesus in the attempt of the
Despotate, an appanage of the moribund Byzantine Empire, to survive the
expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.[23] In addition, the
Venetians began to settle Albanians in Napoli di Romagna (Nauplion) in
the Argos region.[24] With the demise of the Byzantine state in 1453
and the dissolution of the Despotate of the Morea through civil war in
the 1450's and 1460's, more and more of the Albanian and Greek
stradioti found refuge and employment with the Venetians. The Venetians
increasingly used them as troops in their conflicts with the Ottomans
in Greece and the Levant in the second half of the 15th and throughout
the 16th century.
In time the Venetians introduced some of these
stradioti into their forces in Italy. Three factors probably played a
role in the extensive use of these troops by the Venetians. One
important factor was that there was an abundance of these troops. The
small Venetian holdings in Greece could not employ the large number of
refugee stradioti that sought asylum and employment. By the end of the
15th century some stradioti companies were transferred and reassigned
to the Venetian-held Ionian Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, and
Zante.[25] Soon afterwards, other stradioti were sent to Italy, to the
Venetian-Ottoman border in Friuli, and to the Dalmatian holdings of
Sebenico (Sibenik), Spalato (Split), Zara (Zadar), Trogir, and Bocca di
Cattaro (Kotor).[26] As the Venetians lost one stronghold on the
mainland Greece after the other in the Veneto-Turkish conflicts of
first half of the 16th century, more and more military colonists
resettled on the Ionian Islands, Dalmatia and Italy.[27] One Greek
writer has estimated that the number of Albanian and Greek stradioti
that settled in Venetian territories and in Italy reached 4500 men,
together with their families they numbered about 15,500. If one
includes those settled in Southern Italy and Sicily, the numbers reach
about 25,000.[28]
A second factor in the widespread employment
of stradioti by the Venetian Republic was economy. The pay of the
stradioti was lower, at least until 1519, than western mercenaries, be
they Italians, Swiss, Germans or others.[29] The stradioti were not
mercenaries in the strictest sense, they were refugees who maintained
themselves and their families in exile by their skill at arms. Wherever
they were garrisoned or deployed, they brought their families and
settled them at or near their place of duty. Indeed the stradioti
seemed to appreciate honors and privileges over pay. The stradioti
actually sought out favors in the form of parades and titles, and the
frugal Venetian government was only too glad to oblige them. This is
evidenced by the titles their leaders accumulated and the sentiments
expressed in the poems, both in Greek and Italian, which dealt with
their exploits.[30] They also appreciated the right to practice their
religion, the Greek rite, be it Orthodox or Uniate. The stradioti were
instrumental in the founding of Greek Churches in Venice, Naples and
the towns of Dalmatia, as will be elucidated later.
The third
factor in the Venetian preference in employing stradioti was the
troops' unorthodox tactics and methods of fighting, which could be
utilized in different ways. The stradioti's light cavalry tactics
matched those of Ottoman sipahi (feudal) and akinci (irregular)
cavalry, which made them an asset to Venice in the garrisons of its
Balkan and Levantine possessions, where they were maintained well after
the 16th century. In Italy and elsewhere in Western Europe they proved
to be useful in scouting reconnaissance, and in raiding forces in
disarray or retreat, as seen in the descriptions above. According to
the most important study of the Venetian army, "They may have been
especially praised for raiding deep into enemy-occupied country where
opportunities for loot were freest"[31] However the style and conduct
of the stradioti was criticized, according to some Venetian officials,
they were "Anti-Christian, perfidious, born thieves and potential
traitors..." and "...so disobedient that they can do us no good."[32]
The
most notorious example of their reputed unreliability was in the
crucial battle of Fornovo of 1494 in which they wasted their tactical
advantage by looting the French baggage train. According to one
description of the battle [33]
In the rout of the baggage train
the Stradiots had captured thirty-five pack horses, including those
with the richest loads, and it will be estimated that, when all was
reckoned up, spoils up to the value of at least 100,000 ducats had
fallen into the hands of the Italians. The losses included, the King's
sword and helmet, two Royal standards, several royal pavilions, the
King's prayer book and relics,...the rich fittings and vessals of his
chapel,...[and] an album full of portraits of the mistresses to whom
Charles had given his affections in the various cities of Italy. The
rich booty served as a pretext upon which the Venetian signory
proceeded to set up a claim of victory, decreeing to their general a
triumphal entry and a splendid reward.
The battle of Fornovo
was not a victory for Venice and its allies but rather a serious
turning point in Italian history, according to Charles Oman 34]
...[T]he
stradiots, from whom much had been hoped, turned out to be savages who
lost their heads when they saw plunder available, and forgot the
purpose for which they had been told off. It was clear, after July 6,
1495, that the Italian states could not survive if defended by
mercenary armies who fought on the old principles of much pay, no
casualties, and the pleasant chance of rich ransoms.
Nevertheless
in subsequent campaigns the stradioti impressed the Venetians and their
adversaries with their tactics, which included repeated attacks and
disengagement, which enticed opposing forces to pursue. Enemy forces
would lose formation and become even more vulnerable to the stradioti
attacks. Opponents would have to deploy infantry armed with arquebus,
or artillery in defense against the stradioti.[35]
Other states
also discovered these tactical assets and began to wean away stradioti
from Venetian service by better pay or conditions of service. According
to Comines and others, France under Louis XII recruited some 2000
stradioti in 1497; some two years after French forces in Italy
encountered them at Fornovo. Among the French they were known as
estradiots and argoulets. The use of the two names has led some
historians to consider that there were two separate corps of light
cavalry in service to the French king.[36] However it seems that the
two terms were initially interchangeable, and only later indicated
separate forces. Some historians have identified the term argoulet with
the Greek argetes or Argive, because it seems that a significant number
of troops who went over to the French service originally came from
Napoli di Romagna (Nauplion) on the Argive plain near the ancient Greek
city of Argos.[37] The French maintained a corps of light cavalry known
as estradiots or argoulets until the reign of Henry III.[38]
Naples
under Spanish suzerainty also recruited stradioti in the late 15th and
early 16th century. The first entry of stradioti into Neapolitan or
Spanish service occurred in the 1470's in the wake of a revolt in the
Mani under one Korkodeilos Kladas. A Neapolitan ship picked up the
rebels and brought to them Neapolitan territory, where together with
Albanian refugees under the son of Scanderbeg, John Kastrioti, they
participated in fomenting a revolt in the Himara (Cheimarra) region of
Epirus. After the failure of this insurrection, most of Kladas' and
Kastrioti's men, together with other refugees from Himara, served the
Spanish in Italy.[39] Later in 1538, after the Venetians abandoned
Corone, the Spanish government in Naples accepted many refugees from
that Peloponnesian town and region, some of whom had served the
Venetians as stradioti. These troops now took on service with the
Spanish in Naples. Spain continued to employ stradioti in the 16th and
17th century, chiefly in Naples and elsewhere in Italy. The most
important recruiting area for these troops was Cheimarra.[40]
Since
Spain and Naples were connected with the Holy Roman Empire through the
person of Charles V in the first half of the 16th century, stradioti
were soon found serving the Habsburgs not only in Italy, but also in
Germany and the Netherlands. Among those who distinguished themselves
in Habsburg service and became knights of the Holy Roman Empire were
the captains Iakovos Diassorinos, Georgios Bastas, the Brothers
Vasilikos, and the redoubtable Merkourios Bouas. Bouas was given titles
by the Venetians and French as well.[41] Henry VIII also employed
Stradioti in France and England, notably under the captains Thomas Buas
of Argos, Theodore Luchisi, and Antonios Stesinos. The former was named
colonel and commander of stradioti in Henry's service at Calais.[42]
There is also some evidence that Greeks served as cavalrymen, together
with Serbs, in the Muscovite armies in the late 16th and early 17th
century, during the notorious "Time of Troubles."[43]
By the end
of the 16th century, however, the number of stradioti companies
employed in Italian and other western armies dwindled. The creation of
light cavalry formations, borrowing from the traditions of the
stradioti, as well as those of the Spanish genitours (genitaires) and
the Hungarian hussars, replaced the stradioti in many European armies.
These new units, made up of natives or various ethnic groups, also
added firearms to their panoply, and the mention of stradioti,
argoulets, estradiots, Albanese, Albains, Greci, Levantini, etc. become
less and less frequent. Western armies had formed their own light
cavalry units and relied less and less upon the stradioti.
There
are indications that the stradioti were called both Albanians and
Greeks in various sources for good reason. While the bulk of stradioti
rank and file were of Albanian origin from Greece, by the middle of the
16th century there is evidence that many had become Hellenized or even
Italianized. The most telling examples of this phenomenon are in the
works of Tzanes Koronaios and Manoli Blessi. The former work is a long
epic poem in vernacular Greek on the exploits of one of the most famous
of stradioti, Merkourios Bouas, in the armies of Venice, France, and
the Holy Roman Empire. The author, Koronaios, seems to have been
stradiotto-troubadour of Zantiote origin that was a companion of
Merkourios Bouas. In his poem, which is a paean to Merkourios Bouas,
Koronaios gives Bouas' mythological pedigree, which includes Achilles,
Alexander the Great and Pyrrhus. The language of the poem, the pedigree
and other allusions, give an indication of the process of Hellenization
of the Albanian stradioti.[44] Manoli Blessi's poetic works, songs of
the stradioti, are in Italian with many words and phrases in Greek,
very colloquial Greek. There are no Albanian words in his poems.[45]
Hellenization was perhaps well on its way prior to service abroad,
since Albanian stradioti had settled in Greek lands for two generations
prior to their emigration to Italy. Since many served under Greek
commanders and served together with Greek stradioti, the process
continued. Another factor in this assimilative process was the
stradioti's and their families' active involvement and affiliation with
the Greek Orthodox or Uniate Church communities in Naples, Venice and
elsewhere. Hellenization thus occurred as a result of common service
and church affiliation.[46]
Stradioti were still employed by
some Italian states, notably Venice and Spanish Naples. The hiring and
maintenance of stradioti troops was continued in Naples until the early
18th century. Most of these troops were later recruited from Epirus and
Southern Albania, in particular from the Greco-Albanian region of
Cheimarra. According to histories of the Reggimento Real Macedone, a
Balkan light infantry force which served the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies between 1735 and 1820, its first commander and organizer was
one Count Strates Gkikas, who is described as a veteran stradiotto.
This may be further indication of stradioti in Neapolitan service into
the eighteenth century.[47]
Likewise stradioti continued to be
employed by Venice as capelatti (rural gendarmes) in the Terra Firma
well into the seventeenth century. Stradioti companies also continued
to be garrisoned in some of the towns of Dalmatia (Sibenik, Trogir,
Zadar, Split, and Kotor), and on the Ionian Islands of Cephalonia,
Corfu and Zante.[48] On the Ionian Islands the stradioti continued
their service through the 18th century. This stradioti were descendents
of refugees from the lost Venetian holdings on the mainland who had
settled on the islands in the 15th and 16th centuries. They received
land and privileges, and served as cavalry and participated in Venice's
conflicts with the Turks throughout the 17th century. Eventually these
units became anachronisms, their ranks virtually a hereditary caste.
Some of the stradioti or their descendents became in time members of
the Ionian nobility, while others took to farming and other pursuits.
By the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Venetian authorities found
it necessary to reorganize the stradioti companies. On Zante, for
example, they reduced their numbers and privileges because of
absenteeism and discipline problems in the rank and file. Nevertheless
the stradioti formations remained in nominal service through the 18th
century. The Corfiote Stradioti Company existed until the end of
Venetian rule and the French occupation in 1797.[49]
One can say
that the stradioti in time were assimilated into the local Italian,
South Slavic and Greek populations of the areas in which they were
settled. But nonetheless they did leave their impact upon the areas in
which they sojourned. As mentioned earlier, the stradioti were
instrumental in the founding of Greek churches, Uniate or Orthodox (or
both in some cases) in Venice and Naples in Italy, as well as Pola,
Trogir, Zadar, Split, and Sibenik, in Northern Dalmatia. In all of
these regions, the stradioti and their families melted into the milieu
of the church communities and eventually into the society at large. In
northern Dalmatia, there was, as one authors calls it in German, a
kirchensymbiose; a slow acculturation of Greek (stradioti) and South
Slav elements in the Orthodox Church communities in predominantly
Catholic Dalmatia until most of the old stradioti families eventually
identified themselves as Serbs by the 19th century. Similar processes
may have occurred in the Greek Church communities in Italy as well. The
stradioti were first integrated into the Greek church community and
then assimilated into the general society of the Italian towns.[50]
As
we have seen in this brief study, companies of stradioti were brought
to Italy in the late fifteenth century and served in Venice's armed
conflicts on the terrafirma. It was in these wars that the stratioti
made an impact on warfare in Italy and the west, chiefly by their style
of fighting and tactics. The stradioti were armed and fought as light
cavalry in a manner that developed from warfare among Byzantine,
Slavic, Albanian and Ottoman forces. They carried spear, a long saber,
mace, and dagger, and were attired in a mixture of oriental and
Byzantine military garb. The stradioti introduced the Near Eastern
methods of cavalry warfare, which used hit-and-attacks, ambushes,
feigned retreats, counterattacks and other tactics little known to
western armies of the era. The activities of the stradioti has been
noted by a number of historians, notably Charles Oman, Mario Sanuto,
Coriolano Cippico, Erculi Riccoti, Daniel Hardy, Konstantinos Sathas,
John Hale, Franz Babinger and others, some even claiming that the
stradioti were instrumental in the reintroduction of light cavalry
tactics in western armies. In the sixteenth century, stradioti troops
also served the armies of Milan, Genoa, Spain, France, the Holy Roman
Empire, and England. Aside from their military activities, the
stradioti were instrumental in the establishment of Greek Orthodox
communities in Venice and Dalmatia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sir Charles Oman, The History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1937), pp. 41, 92, 109-111.
Coriolano Cippico, Della guerre de' Veneziani nell' Asia dal 1470 al 1473 (Venice, 1796), p. 10.
Marino
Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia , ed. R. Fulin (Venice,
1883), pp. 313-314; idem, Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara (Venice,
1829), p. 115.
Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and
Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of
Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis
XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp.
200-201.
F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
Konstantinos
Sathas, Hellenes stratiotai en tei dysei kai he anagennesis tes
hellenikes taktikes (Athens, 1885). Originally published in the journal
Hestia.
M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a
Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge
University Press, 1984), passim.
Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State, passim.
Marino Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia , ed. R. Fulin (Venice, 1883), pp. 313-314.
Marino Sanuto, Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara (Venice, 1829), p. 115.
Philippe
de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and
Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of
Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings
of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by
Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201;
the term
assagaye does not seem to be of Balkan origin, but rather from the
Portugese. The genitaires or genitours, the iberian light cavalry of
moorish origin, seem to have used a similar lance, which was common in
the Near East and the Islamic world. This type did not have two
spearpoints, as indicated by some sources, but rather had a spike on
the butt end. This spike was used to keep the lance upright in the
ground in camp when not in use. This not only kept the lance ready for
action, but also kept the lance head from wear and lance as a whole
from being bent by leaning it against something. They were much shorter
an lighter than western European lances. The spike at the butt
counterbalanced the lance head which made it maneuverable in a melee.
See George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration,
and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and at All Times (New York:
Jack Brussel, 1961), pp. 77, 408-409.
Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor , pp. 214-215.
Contemporary illustrations of stradioti can be found in Sathas, Hellenes stradioti, passim.
Mnemeia
Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au
Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 4 (Paris, 1880-1890), pp.
LIV-LVI.
"Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika
Anekdota--Anecdota Graeca, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 1 (Athens,
1873), pp. 1-153.
Jacomo Barbarigo, "Dispacci della Guerra di
Peloponneso," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a
l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstan-tinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 6
(Paris, 1885), pp. 1-92.
See materials published in Mnemeia
Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9; Commis-siones et Relationes
Venetae, vols. 5, 7, Annorum 1591-1600, 1621-1671, Grga Novak, ed.
Monumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, vol. 48, 50
(Zagreb: Jugoslovenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, 1966, 1972);
and Secrets de l' Etat de Venise, Vladimir Lamanskii, ed. (St.
Petersburgh, 1884.
Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
Kostas Mpires, Oi Arvanites, oi Dorieis tou neoterou Hellenismou. (Athens, 1960), pp. 191-192
Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9;
Fernand
Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of
Philip II, vol. 1, Sian Reynolds, tr. (New York: Harper and Row, 1975),
pp.48-49.
Nicholas Cheetham, Medieval Greece (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1981), pp. 195-207; M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The
Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 47, 50; Denis
Zakythinos, Le Despotat grec de Moree. vol. 2. Vie et institutions.
London: Variorum, 1975, pp. 31-37, 135-145.
Peter Topping,
"Albanian Settlements in Medieval Greece: Some Venetian Testimonies,"
in Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charanis, ed. by Angelike
E. Laiou Thomadakis (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press,
1980), pp. 261-271.
Mpires, Oi Arvanites, pp. 156-162; Apostolos
Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike,
1968), pp. 79-88; Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos
en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas
Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972;
Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes
douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8; Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, p. 173.
William
Miller, The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece
(1204-1566) (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1937), pp. 489-511;
Mpires, Oi Arvanites (Athens, 1960), pp. 172.
Mallet
and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp.
375-380. See pages 447-447, 451 on pay scales of stradioti.
Mallet
and Hale, pp. 376-377; Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," in Mnemeia
Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au
Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-465;
Blessi, "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di
un Greco et di un Fachino," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8,
pp. 466-470, Blessi, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes
Historias, vol. 9, pp. 262-280.
Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 376-377.
Mallet and Hale, p. 376.
John S. C. Bridge, A History of France from the Death of Louis XI, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 263.
Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, p. 114.
F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
Sathas, Hellenikoi Stratiotai , pp. 11-14
Gabiele
Daniel in his Histoire de la Milice Francaise vol. 2 (Paris, 1721), pp.
168, divides the stradiots in the 16th century French army into two
seperate corps of argoulets and estradiots.
1P. Aravantinos,
Chronographia tes Epeirou ton te homoron hellenikon kai Illyrikon
choron diatrechousa kata seiran ta en autais symbanta apo tou soteriou
etous mechri tou 1854, vol. 1 (Athens, 1856), p. 191.
Ioannes K.
Chasiotes, "La comunita greca di Napoli et i moti insurrectionali nella
penisola Balcanica meridionale durante la seconda meta del XVI secolo,"
Balkan Studies 10 (Thessalonike, 1969): 279-288; Vincenzo Giura, "La
Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," in Storie de Minoranze Ebrei,
Greci, Albanesi nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1982), pp. 119-156;
Attanasio Lehasca, Cenno storico dei servigi militari prestati nel
Regno delle Due Sicilie dai Greci, Epiroti, Albanesi e Macedoni in
epoche diverse (Corfu, 1843), pp. 3-15.
Sathas, Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. xiv-xxviii.
Millar,
"The Albanians," pp. 470, 472; idem, Tudor Mercenaries and Auxiliaries
1485-1547 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980), pp.
44, 48, 69, 73, 133, 146, 148-149, 151, 161, 164-165; Apostolos
Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike,
1968), p. 191
B. N. Floria, "Vykhodtsy iz Balkanakh stran na
russkoi sluzhbe," Balkanskia issledovaniia. 3. Osloboditel'nye
dvizheniia na Balkanakh (Moscow, 1978), pp. 57-63.
"Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota, vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
Manoli
Blessi, "Balzeletta," and "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin
con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino,"in Mnemeia Hellenikes
Historias, vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-470; and idem, "La presa di
Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9 (Paris, 1890), pp.
262-280.
Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia
historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La
Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die
Griechisch-Serbische kirchen-symbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum
XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
Dissertazione
istorico-cronologica delle Reggimento Real Macedone nella qualle si
tratta sua origine, formazione e progressi, e delle vicissitudini, che
gli sono accadute fino all' anno 1767. ed. 2. (Bologna, 1768), pp.
201-203, 205-209; Raoul Manselli, "Il Reggimento Albanese Real
Macedonia durante il Regno di Carlo di Borbone," Archivio Storico per
le Provincie Napoletane, n.s. vol. 32 (1950-1951), pp. 143-145;
Nicholas C. Pappas, " Balkan Foreign Legions in Eighteenth Century
Italy: Reggimento Real Macedone and Its Successors" in Nation and
Ideology: Essays in Honor of Wayne S. Vucinich. Ivo Banac, John C.
Ackerman and Roman Szporluk, eds. (Boulder, Colorado: East European
Monographs, 1981), pp. 35-39.
Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380, 426-427, 447-451.
Laurentios
Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton
Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17
of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos
lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14
(1911): 367-371.
Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en
Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura,
"La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic,
"Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchensymbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis
zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
Credit must be given to my friend for helping find this article.
Edited by Iskender Bey ALBO