Battle of Settepozzi
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Settepozzi was fought sometime in May–July 1263 off Settepozzi (the Italian name for Spetses
Spetses
Spetses is an island and a municipality in the Islands regional unit, Attica, Greece. It is sometimes included as one of the Saronic Islands. Until 1948, it was part of the old prefecture of Argolidocorinthia, which is now split into Argolis and Corinthia...

) between a Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....

-Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 fleet and a smaller Venetian
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...

 fleet. The resulting Venetian victory had important political repercussions, as the Byzantines distanced themselves from their alliance with Genoa and restored their relations with Venice.

Background

In early July 1261, the Nicaean emperor
Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...

 Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus reigned as Byzantine Emperor 1259–1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453...

 (r. 1259–1261) had allied himself with the Genoese in the Treaty of Nymphaeum
Treaty of Nymphaeum (1261)
The Treaty of Nymphaeum was a trade and defense pact signed between the Empire of Nicaea and the Republic of Genoa in Nymphaion in March of 1261...

. This alliance, whose terms were very advantageous to Genoa, was necessary for the Nicaeans and their aim of successfully recovering Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, the seat of the moribund Latin Empire
Latin Empire
The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...

. The Latin emperors were backed by the naval might of Venice (with whom Genoa was already at war
War of Saint Sabas
The War of Saint Sabas or San Saba was a conflict between the Mediterranean maritime republics of Genoa and Venice .The war began when the Venetians were evicted from Tyre in 1256 and war grew out of a dispute concerning land in Acre then...

), and without a strong navy to counter it, the city would not fall, as two previous attempts in 1235
Siege of Constantinople (1235)
The Siege of Constantinople was a joint Bulgarian-Nicaean siege on the capital of the Latin Empire. Latin emperor John of Brienne was besieged by the Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. The siege remained unsuccessful.-Prelude:After Robert of Courtenay died...

 and 1260
Siege of Constantinople (1260)
The Siege of Constantinople in 1260 was the failed attempt by the Nicaean Empire, the major remnant of the fractured Byzantine Empire, to retake Constantinople from the Latin Empire and re-establish the City as the political, cultural and spiritual capital of a revived Byzantine...

 had demonstrated.

In the event, the city was recovered by Alexios Strategopoulos
Alexios Strategopoulos
Alexios Strategopoulos was a Byzantine general during the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos, rising to the rank of megas domestikos and Caesar. He is most notable for leading the reconquest of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261.- Early life :...

 barely a fortnight after the treaty was signed, without the need for Genoese naval aid. For a year thereafter, both Venice and Genoa remained rather passive. Venice hesitated to confront the numerically far superior fleet that Genoa had dispatched in the Aegean and awaited political developments in the West, while Genoa suffered from internal turmoil with the deposition of the autocratic Captain of the People Marino Boccanegra and the assumption of power by a collective leadership from among the noble houses. In summer 1262, the Venetians ordered a 37-galley fleet into the Aegean, which met the Genoese fleet of 60 ships at Thessalonica, but the Genoese refused to engage. A piratical foray, however, by the nobles of Negroponte
Lordship of Negroponte
The Lordship of Negroponte was a crusader state established on the island of Euboea after the partition of the Byzantine Empire following the Fourth Crusade. Partitioned into three baronies run by a few interrelated Lombard families, the island soon fell under the influence of the Republic of...

, allied with Venice, into the Marmara Sea was confronted and defeated by a Byzantine-Genoese squadron.

The battle

Meanwhile, hostilities broke out in the Morea
Morea
The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.-Origins of the name:...

, where Michael VIII dispatched an expeditionary force (in late 1262 or early 1263) against the Principality of Achaea
Principality of Achaea
The Principality of Achaea or of the Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica...

. Despite initial successes, Byzantine attempts to conquer the entirety of the principality were decisively defeated at Prinitza
Battle of Prinitza
The Battle of Prinitza was fought in 1263 between the forces of the Byzantine Empire, marching to capture Andravida, the capital of the Latin Principality of Achaea, and a small Achaean force...

 and Makryplagi
Battle of Makryplagi
The Battle of Makryplagi or Makry Plagi was fought between the forces of the Byzantine Empire, and the Latin Principality of Achaea. The Byzantines had been weakened and demoralized by the defection of their numerous Turkish mercenaries to the Achaeans...

. In May–June 1263, a Byzantine-Genoese fleet of 38 or 39 galleys and 10 light cutters (saettie), sailing to the Byzantine fortress and naval base of Monemvasia
Monemvasia
Monemvasia is a town and a municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town is located on a small peninsula off the east coast of the Peloponnese. The peninsula is linked to the mainland by a short causeway 200m in length. Its area consists mostly of a large plateau some 100 metres above sea level, up to...

 in the southeastern Morea
Morea
The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.-Origins of the name:...

, encountered a Venetian fleet of 32 galleys sailing north to Negroponte.

The details of the engagement are not clear. The Genoese Annales Ianuenses claims that when the signal to attack was given, only fourteen Genoese ships advanced, while the rest stood back and then suddenly fled. The Venetian chronicler Canale, however, records that the Venetian ships attacked first, while the Genoese were trying to ambush them. The battle ended in a clear Venetian victory: the Genoese fleet, half of which failed to engage at all, lost many men, including an admiral and two of their flagships, before breaking off and fleeing. Canale claimed 1,000 Genoese losses as compared to 420 Venetian casualties. At any rate, the outcome was clearly the result of both the divided command of the Genoese fleet, and the reluctance, consistently displayed in earlier and later engagements, of the Genoese admirals to risk their ships: this was because the Genoese ships were fitted by private contractors, usually the rich noble merchants who ran the city, and thus constituted valuable assets for which the admirals were answerable.

Repercussions

Although most of the Genoese fleet survived the battle, their defeat had major political ramifications, as Michael VIII began to reconsider the alliance with Genoa, which was very costly but had so far brought little in return, chiefly due to the Genoese admirals' timidity. As a sign of his dissatisfaction, soon after the battle Michael VIII dismissed sixty Genoese ships from his service. The Byzantine-Genoese rift widened further in 1264, when the Genoese podestà
Podestà
Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...

in Constantinople was implicated in a plot to surrender the city to Manfred of Sicily
Manfred of Sicily
Manfred was the King of Sicily from 1258 to 1266. He was a natural son of the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen but his mother, Bianca Lancia , is reported by Matthew of Paris to have been married to the emperor while on her deathbed.-Background:Manfred was born in Venosa...

, whereupon the emperor expelled the Genoese from the city. Michael signed a treaty with the Venetians on June 18, 1265, but it was not ratified by the Doge. In the face of the threat from Charles of Anjou after 1266, Michael was forced to renew his alliance with Genoa, but also maintained his détente with Venice, signing a five-year non-aggression pact in June 1268.
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