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The Fall of Candia
fications of Crete; and the Republic was requesting the help of friendly
states all over Europe – and in Asia – in the defence of this bastion of
Latinity, But Venice’s own record in the Levant was not one to inspire
Christian states to lend arms; and besides, the great nations of Europe
had pressing engagements of their own in 1645.
As so often, the attack came in the west. Canea fell after two months’
siege; the unfortunate Turkish Commander, loussuf Pasha, was
strangled at the Sultan’s orders after his return to Constantinople,
whether for his prodigious wealth or because of the terrible losses sustained
by his army (estimated at over 40,000). Rethymnon fell soon
afterwards. In 1648 the Turks were before the walls of Candia. During
the next twenty-one years, the duration of this most gruelling of wars,
all the resistance of Venice was concentrated in the city. The country
areas did not count; in any case they favoured the Turk. Candia was
defended with a despairing tenacity. At home, the Republic imposed
extraordinary taxes, sold peerages to raise money. To divert the enemy
she launched expeditions against Turkish parts in the Aegean, Paros,
Melos Chios. Her ships attacked Turkish convoys on their way to
Crete as they left the Dardanelles. The war dragged on; Venice was
holding out, but it was impossible to say with what prospect of gain.
The Grand Vizier Ahmed Koprili arrived in 1666 to take command
in person and risk his reputation, perhaps his life, on a successful outcome.
Soon the garrison was in difficulties. They were a motley collection,
less than 10,000 strong, of Venetians, Greeks, and foreigners,
whether volunteer or mercenary, including Savoyards, French,
German, Italian, and Knights of Malta. It was not easy to feed them
and the civilian population, nor to keep up the incessant supply of
powder and shot; even though until the end Venice kept open her
communications by sea. Her fleet lay off the island of Dia (then called
Standia) opposite the town.
Francesco Morosini, who was to do further good service to the
Republic in the Peloponnese many years later, organized the defence.
The town, by 1669, was a shambles; the streets strewn with bullets,
cannonballs, and debris; the earth pitted with craters from the grenades
which were consumed so prodigally; there was hardly a building whose
walls were not holed by cannon shot. On every side the eye encountered
soldiers, killed, wounded or maimed.
At the eleventh hour Europe took notice. The Pope supported the
Venetians’ pleas for aid; and in response King Louis XIV sent the
Dukes of Beaufort and Navailles with a fleet and some seven thousand
men. They arrived on 19 June to find the defenders hard pressed. The
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