On the other hand, the old jealousy of Venice was by no means dead, and the Ragusans were suspicious of her every movement, fearing that by a coup de main she might capture the city, and thus unite her Dalmatian possessions with Cattaro and gain an unbroken line of posts all down the Adriatic. That Ragusa’s fears of Venetian hostility were not groundless became manifest the following year. Venice was then at war with Alfonso of Ferrara; the causes of that war offer a curious parallel with those of Venetian hostility towards Ragusa. Like Ragusa, Ferrara was an independent State placed between the main Venetian possessions and an outpost—in this case Ravenna. In addition there were disagreements on account of the salt monopoly and the navigation dues, as in the case of Ragusa. A Venetian flotilla was blockading the entrance to the Po and besieging the city. Some Ragusan galleys happened to be up the river, and were detained by Ippolito d’Este, who utilised them and their crews for the defence. When the Venetian fleet under Angelo Trevisan attempted to sail in it was repulsed by the shore batteries, with the help, it is said, of the Ragusan gunners. The Venetian Government out of revenge issued a decree which greatly hampered Ragusan trade with Venice and her possessions (September 21, 1484). Ragusan residents and merchants were expelled from Venice, and all Ragusan ships forced to pay 100 ducats as anchorage dues, while some of them were seized as compensation for the damage suffered at Ferrara.[426] Other impositions were also levied, and although the dispute was settled soon after, mutual distrust continued as before.
In 1490 Matthew Corvinus died, and the disappearance of that able and warlike monarch caused a recrudescence of Turkish activity in all directions. In 1492 the Republic suffered from the raids of Kosača’s renegade son Achmet. Kosača had left large sums of money at Ragusa in trust for his sons, and Achmet, who had already received his share, now demanded that it should be paid over again, and accused the Republic before the Sultan of having robbed him. Although the Ragusan ambassadors showed Bayazet Achmet’s receipt, the Sultan ordered the Republic to pay 100,000 ducats at once. The new King of Hungary, Ladislas II., promised help, but as it was not forthcoming the Republic had to pay.
In 1499 the city was again in danger of a Turkish attack, and envoys were sent to Hungary to raise a force of mercenaries. The reasons for this hostility, besides the usual desire on the part of the Turks to occupy so excellent a port, were due to the fact that many of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian nobles who had taken refuge at Ragusa frequently made raids into the conquered territory, doing much damage to its new occupants. The Turks also believed that the Ragusans sometimes helped even the Venetians. In fact, the reports of the Ragusan “exploratores” (spies) and traders in all parts of the Ottoman dominions were often transmitted to other Christian potentates besides the King of Hungary. On this occasion the Venetians were informed that the Turkish fleet was to be ready in May, and that bridges were being built across all the rivers in Albania.[427] But apparently the Sultan put off his expedition, and decided to send only four ships to Apulia to fetch the body of Djem.[428] He altered his plans again in June, got ready a large fleet, and concentrated the army at Üsküb. In July the land force had advanced northward to Pirot; by August it had crossed into Albania, and was encamped on the coast opposite Corfu. The fleet left Gallipoli, and artillery was sent to Albania and the Morea.[429]
The last years of the fifteenth century and the first of the sixteenth were marked by plagues and earthquakes at Ragusa. Razzi mentions epidemics of various kinds in 1500, 1503, and 1505, when 1600 persons died; and earthquakes in 1496 and 1504. The Republic’s trade was also harried by the numerous corsairs which infested the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. In 1510 seven Candiot pirate barques captured two Ragusan galleys laden with Ragusan goods worth 30,000 ducats, as well as valuable property belonging to some Florentines; but the stolen goods were recovered through the action of the Venetian Senate. The Sultan of Egypt, who, like other Muhamedan potentates, did not always distinguish between one Christian race and another, detained five Ragusan vessels at Alexandria as a reprisal for the capture of some Moorish ships by the Knights of Rhodes. But the Sultan was pacified, and he returned the ships and granted the Ragusans permission to trade with the East Indies through Egypt and Syria. In 1509 the Republic had availed itself of Venice’s difficulties consequent on the League of Cambrai to obtain the removal of trade restrictions, and it provided Venice with grain and war stores in return.[430] The following year it informed the Venetian Government that the Sultan had made a truce with Hungary in order to wrest Dalmatia from them. In 1512 the Sultan once more raised the tribute from 3000 to 5000 ducats, and threatened the city with an expedition of 500 sail, probably in consequence of the assistance given to Venice; but again the danger passed off.
In 1520 an earthquake, far more severe than any shock hitherto experienced, occurred, and did damage valued at 100,000 ducats in the town, and 50,000 in the neighbourhood. The Monte Bergato seemed about to fall and overwhelm Ragusa, “but the city was saved through the intervention of the San Biagio and of the Blessed Virgin.”[431] Twenty persons were killed and many injured. The little chapel of San Salvatore was erected as a votive offering to express the gratitude of the citizens at the salvation of the town. Six years later a terrible pestilence broke out, and wrought fearful havoc in spite of the precautions taken to isolate the sick. The death-rate was about 100 a day,[432] and in all 164 nobles, 184 monks and nuns, and 20,000 other citizens died. The city was abandoned by all save a guard of soldiers and the crews of two galleys remaining in the port. The Senate held its sittings at Gravosa, and the population only returned after twenty months.[433] Shortly after a pirate fleet of twenty-four sail appeared off Molonta threatening the town. But in spite of the disorganisation caused by the plague the Government was able to fit out a fleet of ten large ships, two galleys, one barque, and eighteen brigantines, under the command of Marino Zamagna, who, with the help of two Venetian ships, drove the pirates out of the Adriatic.
The year 1526 was a momentous one for Christendom. The Turkish wars with Hungary had been going on intermittently for many years, now one side gaining the advantage now the other, but no decisive operations had taken place recently. In Bosnia, the fortress of Jajce became the centre of the fighting, and was again and again besieged by the Turks, who were again and again repulsed with heavy loss. Besides Jajce, the Hungarians held a strip of territory south of the Save, including the fortresses of Zvornik, Szabács, and Belgrad. When Suleiman the Magnificent ascended the throne of Othman in 1520, he determined to seize these strongholds so as to open the way into Hungary. He collected a powerful army, and led it in person into the Banate. Szabács was the first to fall, in 1521; Semlin, Slankamen, Mitrović, Zvornik, Tešanj, and Sokol were next captured, and after a long siege Belgrad was taken by treachery. But the attack on Jajce, which was defended by the gallant Peter Keglević, failed completely. A second attack on Jajce was equally unsuccessful, owing to the arrival of a Croatian force under Frangipani. In 1526 Suleiman again invaded Hungary, and on August 29 the great battle of Mohács was fought, in which the Hungarians were totally defeated and 20,000 of them, including their King, killed. This disaster marks the end of Hungary for the time being. The Sultan conquered all that remained of Bosnia, including Jajce, in 1528, as well as a large part of Croatia and southern Hungary.
Ragusan dependence on Hungary now ceased, and the Republic refused to recognise any claim to allegiance on the part of either John Zapolya, who succeeded to what remained of the kingdom, or of Ferdinand of Austria, the German Emperor. In 1527 Ferdinand wrote to the Senate, requesting them to remain faithful to him as overlord of Hungary, as they had been to his predecessors. But no attention was paid to this demand, and the Republic remained more or less under Turkish protection until its fall.[434] But it obtained from the Turks all the commercial privileges granted by the King of Hungary, and its trade in the latter country flourished under the Crescent as well as under the Cross. After the capture of Buda some Ragusans actually farmed the taxes of the city.[435]
Bird’s-eye View of Ragusa and the Neighbourhood
(From an Old Map, 1670)