The Cretan War, also known as the War of Candia or the fifth Ottoman–Venetian war, was a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta, the Papal States and France) against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States largely fought over the island of Crete, Venice's largest and richest overseas possession. The war lasted from 1645 to 1669 and was fought in Crete, especially in the city of Candia, and in numerous naval engagements and raids around the Aegean Sea, with Dalmatia providing a secondary theater of operations.
Although most of Crete was conquered by the Ottomans in the first few years of the war, the fortress of Candia (modern Heraklion), the capital of Crete, resisted successfully. Its prolonged siege, "Troy's rival" as Lord Byron called it, forced both sides to focus their attention on the supply of their respective forces on the island. For the Venetians in particular, their only hope for victory over the larger Ottoman army in Crete lay in successfully starving it of supplies and reinforcements. Hence the war turned into a series of naval encounters between the two navies and their allies. Venice was aided by various Western European nations, who, exhorted by the Pope and in a revival of crusading spirit, sent men, ships and supplies "to defend Christendom". Throughout the war, Venice maintained overall naval superiority, winning most naval engagements, but the efforts to blockade the Dardanelles were only partially successful, and the Republic never had enough ships to fully cut off the flow of supplies and reinforcements to Crete. The Ottomans were hampered in their efforts by domestic turmoil, as well as by the diversion of their forces north towards Transylvania and the Habsburg monarchy.
The prolonged conflict exhausted the economy of the Republic, which relied on the lucrative trade with the Ottoman Empire. By the 1660s, despite increased aid from other Christian nations, war-weariness had set in. The Ottomans on the other hand, having managed to sustain their forces on Crete and reinvigorated under the capable leadership of the Köprülü family, sent a final great expedition in 1666 under the direct supervision of the Grand Vizier. This began the final and bloodiest stage of the Siege of Candia, which lasted for more than two years. It ended with the negotiated surrender of the fortress, sealing the fate of the island and ending the war in an Ottoman victory. In the final peace treaty, Venice retained a few isolated island fortresses off Crete, and made some territorial gains in Dalmatia. The Venetian desire for a revanche would lead, barely 15 years later, to a renewed war, from which Venice would emerge victorious. Crete, however, would remain under Ottoman control until 1897, when it became an autonomous state; it was finally united with Greece in 1913.
Background
After the loss of Cyprus to the Ottomans in the fourth Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573), the island of Crete (the "Kingdom of Candia") was the last major overseas possession of Venice. Its important strategic position made it an obvious target for future Ottoman expansion, while its size and fertile ground, together with the bad state of its fortresses, made it a more tempting prize than Malta. On the Venetian side, the Serenissima, with its weak military and great dependence on uninterrupted trade, was anxious not to provoke the Ottomans. Hence Venice scrupulously observed the terms of its treaty with the Ottomans, securing over sixty years of peaceful relations. By the early 17th century moreover, Venetian power had declined considerably. Its economy, which had once prospered because of its control over the Eastern spice trade, had suffered as a result of the opening of the new Atlantic trade routes, and from the loss of the important German market because of the Thirty Years' War. In addition, the Republic had become embroiled in a series of wars in northern Italy like the Mantuan War and was further weakened by an outbreak of the plague in 1629–1631.
The potential for conflict between the Ottomans and Venice was still present, as evidenced in 1638, when a Venetian fleet attacked and destroyed a fleet of Barbary pirates that had sought protection in the Ottoman port of Valona, bombarding the city in the process. Sultan Murad IV was enraged: he threatened to execute all Venetians in the Empire, and put an embargo on Venetian trade. Eventually, and given that the Ottomans were still engaged in a war with the Persians, the situation was defused with the Republic paying the Ottomans an indemnity of 250,000 sequins.
A similar episode however in 1644 had an entirely different outcome: on 28 September, the Knights of Malta attacked an Ottoman convoy of sailing ships on its way from Constantinople to Alexandria, aboard which were a number of pilgrims bound for Mecca, including the exiled Kızlar Ağa (Chief Black Eunuch) Sünbül Ağa, the kadi of Cairo and the nurse of the future sultan Mehmed IV. During the fight, Sünbül Ağa and most of the important pilgrims were slain, while 350 men and 30 women were taken to be sold as slaves. The Knights loaded their loot on a ship, which then docked at a small harbor on the southern coast of Crete for a few days, where it disembarked a number of sailors and slaves. The Ottomans were enraged at the incident, and the Porte accused the Venetians of deliberate collusion with the Knights, something the Venetians vehemently denied. With the hawkish party being then dominant in the Ottoman court, the incident was seen as a perfect pretext for war with a weakened Venice. Despite a long period of negotiations, which lasted until well into 1645, and against the objections of the Grand Vizier Sultanzade Mehmed Pasha, war was decided upon. An expedition was quickly assembled with over 50,000 troops and reputedly 416 vessels, under Kapudan Pasha Silahdar Yusuf Pasha, the Sultan's son-in-law. The Ottoman armada sailed from the Dardanelles on 30 April, heading towards the harbor of Navarino in the Peloponnese, where it remained for three weeks. The fleet's target was not announced, but the Ottomans, to allay Venetian fears, implied that it would be Malta.
War
Early operations
The Venetians were indeed fooled by the Ottoman subterfuge and were taken by surprise at the arrival of the Ottoman fleet at Crete on 23 June 1645. Despite the efforts of the recently appointed provveditore generale, Andrea Corner, the Venetian defenses were still in a bad state. The island's fortifications were substantial, but they had been long neglected, and much effort was put into repairing them. Anxious about Ottoman preparations, the Republic reinforced Crete in late 1644 with 2,500 troops and provisions, and began arming its fleet, while assistance was promised in the event of war by the Pope and Tuscany.
The Ottomans first landed 15 miles west of Canea (Chania), where the local militia fled before them. They then attacked the small island fortress of St. Todero, the commander of which, the Istrian Blasio Zulian, blew himself, the fortress and its garrison up rather than let it fall to the Ottomans. The Ottoman army next advanced to the city of Canea itself, which fell on 22 August, after a siege that lasted for 56 days. At the same time, however, the Venetians were strengthened, as the promised help started to arrive in the form of galleys from the Papal States, Tuscany, Malta and Naples. In September, the Ottoman fleet was in disarray, but the allied Christian fleet, under the cautious command of Niccolò Ludovisi, the Pope's nephew, failed to exploit the opportunity for a decisive strike. When the Christian forces finally moved to retake Canea on 1 October, with a fleet of about 90 ships, the stout Ottoman defense and the Allies' lack of cooperation doomed the attack. Soon thereafter, the Venetian allies returned to their bases.
In November, Silahdar Yusuf Pasha left behind a strong garrison and returned to Constantinople for the winter. There however, he fell foul of the Sultan and was executed. Nevertheless, Ottoman preparations continued in order to renew and expand the war, while the Venetians were frantically trying to raise money and men, and attempting to induce other European powers to join them against the Ottomans. However, as most of Europe was locked into the fierce antagonisms of the Thirty Years' War, their pleas fell mostly on deaf ears. The Venetians were hard pressed by the financial demands of the war: besides placing taxes on the Italian mainland possessions (the Terraferma), they resorted to the sale of nobility titles and state offices to fill their war coffer. To lead the effort against the Ottomans, the Senate initially appointed the 80-year-old doge Francesco Erizzo, but after his death in early 1646, he was replaced by the 73-year-old Giovanni Cappello as Captain General of the Sea.
Cappello's performance in 1646 was distinctly lackluster: he failed to interdict the arrival of Ottoman reinforcements under Koca Musa Pasha in June (see below), and an attack on the Ottoman fleet at Chania Bay in August failed, as did his attempt to break the Ottoman blockade of Rettimo (Rethymno). As a result, the city fell on 20 October, while the citadel held out until 13 November. During the winter of 1646–1647, both sides suffered from an outbreak of plague, and throughout the spring of 1647, operations did not make much headway. In mid-June however, a small Ottoman force routed a larger body of Venetian mercenaries. This Ottoman success paved the way for Gazi Hüseyin Pasha, the local commander, to conquer the eastern half of the island, except for the fortress of Siteia. The Venetians and the local population suffered some grievous losses: it is estimated that by 1648, almost 40% of the Cretan population had perished of disease or warfare, and in 1677, the island's pre-war population of ca. 260,000 had dropped to about 80,000. By the beginning of 1648, all of Crete, except Candia and a few strongholds like the island of Gramvousa, was in Ottoman hands.
Siege of Candia begins
The siege began in May 1648. The Ottomans spent three months investing the city, which included cutting off the water supply. Eventually, it would last until 1669, the second longest siege in history after the Siege of Ceuta (1694-1727) by the Moors under Moulay Ismail. The Ottoman besiegers were adversely affected by the bad supply situation caused by the activity of the Christian fleets in the Aegean, who intercepted Ottoman convoys carrying supplies and reinforcements to the island. In addition, the overall Ottoman war effort was severely hampered by increased domestic instability caused by Sultan Ibrahim's erratic policies and his summary execution of leading state officials. It ultimately led to his deposition in favor of his son Mehmed IV, ushering in a further period of confusion within the Ottoman government.
The lack of supplies had forced the Ottoman commander Gazi Hüseyin Pasha to lift the siege in early 1649, but it was renewed for a short period of two months after the arrival of the Ottoman fleet in June. The Ottomans assailed the fortifications, exploding over 70 mines, but the defenders held firm. The Ottomans lost over 1,000 men, and the subsequent withdrawal of 1,500 Janissaries and the lack of any further reinforcements over the course of 1650 left Hüseyin Pasha with little option but to continue maintaining as tight a blockade as possible. The Ottomans strengthened their positions with the construction of three forts in the Canea area, and the arrival of reinforcements in late 1650 allowed them to keep up their tight blockade. Despite the Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles and the political turmoil at the Ottoman court, the Ottoman forces were kept well supplied enough to sustain themselves, although too weak to engage in offensive actions against Candia itself. In 1653, the Ottomans took the island fortress of Selino in Suda Bay, and San Todero, captured a few years previously, was refortified. The Venetian naval successes over the next few years further reduced the offensive ability of the Ottoman army in Crete, but the blockade of Candia continued, and the Ottomans retained possession of their other conquests on the island, until the arrival of a new Ottoman expeditionary force in 1666.
Naval war
Early clashes, 1645–1654
Venice could not directly confront the large Ottoman expeditionary force on Crete, but it did possess a fine navy, that could intervene and cut the Ottoman supply routes. In 1645, the Venetians and their allies possessed a fleet of 60–70 galleys, 4 galleasses and about 36 galleons. The Venetians were also superior in their use of a mixed fleet of both galleys and sailing ships, while initially, the Ottoman navy relied almost exclusively on galleys. In order to bolster their forces, both opponents hired armed merchantmen from the Netherlands, and later from England (especially the Ottomans), to augment their forces.
The first Venetian operation was an attempt to blockade the Dardanelles in 1646. To interdict the supplies headed to the Ottoman forces in Crete, a force of 23 Venetian ships under Tommaso Morosini scoured the Aegean for Ottoman shipping, and attempted to capture the strategically important island of Tenedos at the entrance of the Dardanelles. The Kapudan Pasha Koca Musa led a fleet of 80 warships against the Venetians, but his fleet was driven back into the Dardanelles on 26 May. However, the blockading fleet was unable to stop the next exit of the Ottoman fleet on 4 June, when the lack of wind enabled the Ottoman galleys to evade the Venetian sailing ships. The Ottomans were thus able to land new troops and supplies on Crete unopposed. The efforts of the Venetian fleet to counter the Ottoman land operations in Crete likewise failed, through a combination of timidity on behalf of their commanders, the delays in payment for the crews, and the effects of a widespread plague.
On 27 January 1647, the Venetians lost Tommaso Morosini, when his ship was forced to face the entire Ottoman fleet of 45 galleys. In the ensuing fight, Morosini was killed, but managed to cause significant casualties to the Ottomans, including Koca Musa Pasha himself. The ship itself was rescued by the timely arrival of the Venetian fleet under the new Captain General, Giovanni Battista Grimani. This stand-off, where a single ship had caused such damage and casualties to the entire Ottoman fleet, was a major blow to Ottoman morale. Despite some successes like a raid in Çeşme, the remainder of the year was a failure for the Venetians, as several attempts to blockade Ottoman harbors failed to stem the flow of supplies and reinforcements to Crete.