War of Saint-Sabas
| date | 1256 to 1270 |
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| place | Levant and Aegean |
| output | Peace treaties in 1258 and 1270 |
| consequences | Loss of Venice's monopoly in the Aegean Sea. Expansion of Genoa into the Black Sea. Status quo ante bellum in the Levant. |
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The War of Saint Sabas was a military conflict between the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice , which has become a civil war in the Crusader states of Levante expanded. The war began in 1256 and ended in 1270, the civil war among the Christian barons was resolved as early as 1258.
background
Genoa vs. Venice
In the 13th century, competition between Genoa and Venice over control of maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean increased. Both republics as well as Pisa were represented with their own branches in the seaports of the Levant, where they fought against each other over trade privileges, which was not infrequently carried out violently. The competition was particularly fierce in Acre , whose port was the most important Christian trading center for goods from the Orient. Already in the spring of 1249 there were violent riots between Genoese and Pisans, which, however, were mediated by King Louis IX. could be contained by France , which was just beginning the Sixth Crusade from Cyprus . The continued presence of the French king prevented any further conflict, but after he had traveled back to his homeland in 1254, the pent-up differences between Genoese and Venetians erupted.
Political situation in Outremer
The Lord of Akkon was formally Konradin von Hohenstaufen as King of Jerusalem . Since he, like his father, had never entered the kingdom, the government was officially led by the Cypriot queen widow Plaisance of Antioch . Since she was mainly in Cyprus, she was represented in Acre by Baron John of Arsuf as her Bailli . At that time, however, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was far from a central government, since both the feudal lords and the knightly orders ultimately pursued their own interests. Although the barons and clergy of the country had a judicial body in the Haute Cour , the political day-to-day events were marked by feudal anarchy, to which the lack of territorial integrity of the kingdom contributed. It was concentrated in a few coastal cities in what is now Israel , Syria and Lebanon , while the surrounding areas were controlled by the Muslim Ayyubid Sultan of Damascus an-Nasir Yusuf . Furthermore, the two largest orders of the knights, the Templars and the Johanniter , had been in a rivalry for political and economic influence for almost two decades.
The war
Breakout and alliances
The immediate cause of the outbreak of war was a dispute over the power of disposal over the church Saint-Sabas, which was located in the middle of Acre on the border of the Genoese and the Venetian quarter. More important than the church itself, however, is the Montoje hill on which it was built. Control over him gave one party a high strategic advantage over the other and was consequently claimed by both Genoese and Venetians. Both sides cited obscure documents in which the Pope allegedly granted them ownership of Saint-Sabas. After a period of verbal controversy, the Genoese of Acre took up arms in league with the Pisans in 1256. They occupied Saint-Sabas and attacked the Venetian quarter.
The outbreak of fighting immediately led to the side of the barons and orders of knights for one of the sides. Although the Templars and Johanniter tried to mediate between the Italian republics at first, they quickly fought on opposing sides after realizing the inevitability of war. The Templars, and with them the Teutonic Knights , decided in favor of Venice, the Johanniter in Genoa. The Bailli Johann von Arsuf and his cousin, Count Johann von Jaffa , also sided with Genoa, but after a Genoese committed an assassination attempt on the Count of Jaffa, the latter switched to Venice. Furthermore, the Catalan merchants and the Greek bourgeoisie opted for Genoa.
In response to the news of the fighting in Acre, the city lord Philip of Montfort used the opportunity in Tire to drive the Venetians out of the city. Venice has had extensive trading privileges here since 1124, through which Montfort saw itself economically disadvantaged. By driving them out, he intended to gain control of trade in Tire. The inflamed conflict also sparked political waves in the county of Tripoli , which did not belong to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Count Bohemond VI. took sides with Venice, whose vassals from Gibelet remembered their Genoese origins and accordingly took sides against their master. The only neutral authorities were the regent Plaisance and the Seneschal Geoffroy de Sergines with his French knights in Acre. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacques Panteléon , was in Europe, which left the clergy largely uninvolved.
Struggles
After Venice had lost almost all of its positions in the Levant within a year, it dispatched a larger fleet to Acre in the spring of 1257 under Admiral Lorenzo Tiepolo . In expectation of this military power, the Venetian Podésta von Akkon, Marco Giustiniani, succeeded in convincing the Pisans to change sides, whereupon the Genoese conquered the Pisan quarter together with John of Arsuf. Admiral Tiepolo, however, was able to sail into the port of Acre and land unhindered with his force. In the alliance with the Templars and Germans, his forces represented a military preponderance with which he succeeded after heavy fighting to liberate the Venetian and Pisan quarters and bring Saint-Sabas under his control. However, the conquest of the Genoese quarter failed because of their strong resistance.
The mother city of the Genoese responded to the Venice offensive by sending a fleet under Rosso della Turco . In order to finally defeat the Venetians in Acre, Genoa also agreed with Philipp von Montfort a combined attack from land and sea on the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. While the Genoese fleet was sailing along the Levant coast, Montfort marched in league with the Hospitallers in parallel with them with his army of Tire in front of the walls of Acon. On June 23, 1257, the Genoese, outnumbered by 50 galleys, appeared in front of the port of Akkon. The Venetians under Tiepolo prevented them from landing by casting off with their 39 galleys and fighting the Genoese at sea. Despite their inferiority, the Venetians were able to achieve a complete victory, the Genoese lost half of their ships through capture and sinking, and around 1700 men were lost. The defeat of the Genoese forced Philip of Montfort on June 24th to give up the siege of Acre, which was defended by the Templars and Germans. The Genoese had to finally give up their quarter and withdrew to Tire, which from then on was their new main base in the Levant. The defeated Genoese were banished in 1257 and had to swear not to return before three years, after which they stored their possessions in the Johanniterkommende Akkon .
According to legend, when the Venetians took possession of the Genoese quarter of Acre, they captured two magnificent pillars, which they sent to their mother city as a trophy for victory, where they were erected in front of St. Mark's Basilica . In fact, the so-called “pillars of Akkon” (Pilastri Acritani) are looted items from the church of St. Polyeuktus in Constantinople , which had been brought to Venice in 1204.
End of the civil war
At the end of 1257, the political situation in the Middle East began to change after the expansion of the Mongols into the Mesopotamian and Syrian areas became apparent. Inner peace was now more necessary than ever among the Outremers Christians. In February 1258, the regent of her brother, Bohemond VI. from Antioch-Tripoli, into the devastated Acre, where they called up the barons and the orders of knights to the Haute Cour. The assembly finally agreed to end the armed struggle among themselves in anticipation of new clashes with the Muslims. Furthermore, the regent succeeded here in persuading the barons to recognize their underage son, King Hugo II of Cyprus , as the legal heir of Jerusalem to King Konradin. A premature dismissal of Konradin in favor of Hugos II of Cyprus prevented only Philipp von Montfort and the Johanniter. Regent Plaisance confirmed on the Haute Cour the Genoese-minded Mr. Johann von Arsuf as her Bailli in Acre. After he died towards the end of 1258, however, she took the opportunity to appoint the neutral Geoffroy de Sergines on May 1, 1259 as her deputy in the government of the remainder of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The restored peace among the barons and orders of knights did not, however, hide the manifestations of the disintegration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem as a cohesive state structure, which the war had revealed. From now on, the barons of the mainland acted more independently than before and secured their fragile rule through separate alliances with neighboring Muslims. In 1259, the Count of Jaffa concluded an agreement with the Syrian Ayyubid Sultan an-Nasir Yusuf, but with this he bet on the wrong card, since the Egyptian Mamelukes conquered Syria as early as 1260 . The Lord of Jaffa, as well as those of Arsuf and Beirut , as well as the Johanniter then secured their continued existence through agreements with the Mameluks.
However, the peace of 1258 did not affect the principality of Antioch-Tripoli, where the prince continued to fight his vassals from the Embriaco family for the next twenty years. In addition, he joined forces with the Mongols and Armenia against the Mameluks on foreign policy, but this led to the loss of Antioch by Baibars I in 1268 .
The war of Saint-Sabas threw a negative light among contemporaries, especially the rivalry between the two great orders of knights, the Templars and the Knights of St. John. From around 1270, discussions about a union of the two orders arose in Christian Europe, which was also discussed at the second council of Lyon (1274). But there was no closer to a solution, and so the problem was only resolved with the dissolution of the Templar Order and the transfer of ownership of its property to the Johanniter in 1312.
Continuation of the naval war
While the barons came to rest in Outremer, Genoa and Venice continued their war at sea, which also expanded into the Aegean region , where Venice had had a monopoly position since the fourth crusade in 1204 and the backing it gained in the Latin Empire of Constantinople . In order to dispute this, Genoa overcame denominational differences and in 1261 concluded a trade agreement in Nymphaion with the Byzantine emperor in exile of Nikaia , Michael VIII. Palaiologos . As early as July 1261, Constantinople was conquered by Michael VIII , which ended the Latin Empire and with it the supremacy of the Venetians in the Aegean. For Genoa, on the other hand, there were prospects of expanding its trade to the ports of the Black Sea and the Crimea .
For the next few years, both Maritime Republics continued their war in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. In 1261 the Genoese admiral Simon Grillo captured a convoy in front of Tire, whereupon Venice carried out an attack on Tire in return, which was unsuccessful. On August 16, 1267, the Genoese attacked under Lucchetto Grimaldi Akkon, captured the "Tower of Flies", which controlled the entrance to the port, and burned down some of the houses of the Johanniter, who were formerly allied with them. After a few days he withdrew with part of his fleet for repair work to Tire, which the Venetians used to a successful counterattack on the Genoese remaining in Acre, who they drove to Tire.
End of war
In view of the increasing threat from the Mameluks, who had conquered Antioch and Jaffa in 1268, King Louis IX intended. of France to lead another crusade to relieve the Christians in the Holy Land. Because he needed the support of the maritime republics, especially the Genoas, in the spring of 1270 he urged them to settle the war by treaty. The Genoese were able to occupy part of their quarter in Acre again, which was granted to the Venetians in Tire from 1277 onwards. The headquarters of both republics in the Levant, however, remained spatially separated in Tire (Genoa) and Acre (Venice).
literature
- Alain Demurger: The last Templar. The life and death of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52202-5 , pp. 43, 62 f., 203 ff.
- Jaroslav Folda: Crusader art in the Holy Land. From the Third Crusade to the fall of Acre, 1187-1291. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2005, ISBN 0-521-83583-6 .
- Jonathan Riley-Smith: The crusades. A history. 2nd edition. Continuum, London et al. 2005, ISBN 0-8264-7269-9 .
- Kenneth M. Setton (Ed.): A History of the Crusades. Volume 2: Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard (Eds.): The later Crusades, 1189-1311. 2nd edition. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI et al. 2005, ISBN 0-299-04844-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adam Wienand, "Die Johanniter und die Kreuzzüge", in: Der Johanniter-Orden - Der Malteser-Orden: The knightly order of St. John from the hospital in Jerusalem - His tasks, his story , Adam Wienand (ed.) With Carl Wolfgang Graf von Ballestrem and Christoph Freiherr von Imhoff, Cologne: Wienand, 1977, pp. 32–108, here p. 88.