29 November 2013
His sworn brother
Detail
from icon of Ag. Menas, ca. 1600.
After
a battle at Itylo killed 700 Turks,1
Kladas was pursued further south and was within a couple of days of
being captured. But when Kladas arrived at Porto Quaglio/Πορτο-Κάγιον
three ships were waiting. Stefano Magno says they had come from Ferdinand II, King of
Naples and Apulia -- , to learn Mehmed's intentions
towards Apulia, although Mehmed had been besieging Otranto since the
previous July -- and on one of the ships was a Zuane Francesco Zanco
from Venice, fratello
zurado
or ἀδελφοποιητὸς
of Kladas.Kladas,
and many of his followers, escaped. Minio says, Et
scampò el Clada
. . ..
With an extensive use of subjunctives, it is possible to work out a scenario, apparently unmentioned at the time: Kladas made his effort at revolt under the impression that he would receive extensive aid.
Kladas had been
in Venice as recently as September when he received a knighthood from
the Doge. It was not only his fourth trip, but he had just spent a
whole year in Venice. He turns out to have had this Venetian sworn-brother of whom we have no
earlier record, possibly a relationship created and solidified in
Venice, although Zanco could well have turned up in Koroni earlier
and, given that he was working for the King of Naples, he probably
had. Nearly all of Magno's information comes from Koroni sources.
Kladas’ last trip to Venice had been to protest the loss of lands through the peace settlement. When he met Dario and Halil Bey in Koroni, they confirmed to him what was already known, and that the Signoria’s equivocal responses to him had been outright lying. It is a reasonable assumption that when Kladas returned to Koroni after receiving his knighthood, he was planning a revolt.
Kladas’ last trip to Venice had been to protest the loss of lands through the peace settlement. When he met Dario and Halil Bey in Koroni, they confirmed to him what was already known, and that the Signoria’s equivocal responses to him had been outright lying. It is a reasonable assumption that when Kladas returned to Koroni after receiving his knighthood, he was planning a revolt.
In
this scenario, Francesco Zanco, his sworn brother, in the employ of
Naples' Ferdinand II, was an agent-provocateur
who encouraged Kladas to think that aid might be forthcoming from
Ferdinand who was deeply interested in creating Venetian discomfort,
as well as Ottoman. The Kingdom of Naples had taken an
intense interest in Byzantine and Moreote affairs for forty years, on more than one
occasion offering aid that never materialized -- John was to have a fleet, Constantine was to have troops and settlers in the Morea, Constantine, Thomas, and Theodoros were to have Spanish brides. There were always tantalizing offers, sympathetic agents.
In
late July of 1480, an Ottoman fleet had attacked and besieged
Otranto, raiding as far as Lecce. A few days before the attack,
Ferdinand had signed an alliance with Milan, Florence, and Ferrara,
against Venice and the Pope, and when he then asked Venice for aid at
Otranto, Venice decided that peace with the Ottomans was preferable
to rescuing Apulia. So Venetian-Ottoman hostilities offered a hopeful possibility that fall for Naples and Otranto.
Subsequent events
do nothing to contradict this. The Apulian ships first offered Kladas
aid in the King's name, and then took him off Mani and to Apulia where he was given the title
of magnifico
from Ferdinand II and a generous allowance. In Apulia he met the Duke
of Calabria, a cousin of the late George Castrioti of Albania, and
Castrioti's son, John, who were taking advantage of the Ottoman
concentration on Otranto to attack Valona. Castrioti was married to Eirene Branković,
granddaughter of the Despot Thomas who had been Kladas' overlord until 1460.Another
participant was Thomas' son, Andreas Palaiologos, whom Kladas must
have met as a child in the Morea twenty years earlier.This effort was a failure, and the Kladas and Kastrioti followers
then served the Kingdom of Naples in Italy.
Unless someone can spend time in the Neapolitan archives, that single mention is all we have for the sworn brother.
1 The
number of 700 is intriguing: during the 15th
century, 700 and 800 turn up continually in reports of Ottoman
killings in battle. Eight
hundred were beheaded at Tavia in June 1423. Eight hundred were
beheaded at Negroponte on 12 July 1471. Eight hundred were beheaded
at Otranto on 14 August 1480. Eight
hundred were beheaded at Methoni 9 August 1500.
22 November 2013
Lancer, Lace, Lyric, Lark
When
that thin veil of grief descended on November 22, 1963, irrevocably
dividing hope from the future, I could not have anticipated that the
grief would come again so fresh fifty years later. I have lost, this
country has lost, the art of language in political discourse, the
love of rhetoric in the service of justice. Our basic cultural myth
is, essentially, creation by the word, and I have seen in these fifty
years the degradation of political process and commonality by the insistence on a increasingly simplistic vocabulary. Language creates ideas, creates our reality.
Take
this one example of language: where once the President and First Lady were known
to the Secret Service as Lancer and Lace, they have now for several
administrations been known at POTUS and FLOTUS -- sounds that can
only evoke public lavatories.
These
were the Secret Service codes fifty years ago:
The
First Family:
Lancer
Lace
Lyric
Lark
Vice
Presidential Group:
Volunteer
Victoria
Velvet
Venus
Vigilant
Places:
Castle
Crown
Angel
Charcoal
SS
100 X
Halfback
Varsity
Cabin
Hamlet
Chateau
Crossroads
Acrobat
Calico
Carpet
Cork
Central
Volcano
Official
Family:
Wand
Willow
Wayside
Market
Watchman
Warrior
Wing
Witness
Tiger
Freedom
Secret
Service Agents:
Domino
Suplex
Deacon
Dazzle
Dandy
Digest
Daylight
Debut
Dusty
Dagger
Dancer
Dresser
Drummer
White
House Communications:
Star
Satchel
Sturdy
Shadow
20 November 2013
13 November 2013
On vacation: My left knee
My left knee.
My left knee was replaced yesterday by a new polyethylene and steel knee. Scroll halfway down on that link & look at Part 7 to see the elegant saw used to trim the bone, a miraculous improvement on the hammer and chisel my son-in-law tells me was used on his mother's knee.
In October 1989, I fell in the street on a banana peel. Despite the comic tradition, it was not humorous. The injury has been a source of constant pain and progressive debilitation, and an erosion of the many pleasures my knee and I had shared.
My knee and I have great memories. Together we cycled hundreds of miles in Nigeria and the Argolid. We hiked Yorkshire and Cornwall, the Argolid, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Pyrenees. We fenced. We knelt to polish floors, to weed and plant bulbs in the garden, to track earrings under furniture. We knelt in churches (we recommend the kneelers in St George, Venice). We explored most of the calli of Venice, the streets of Manhattan, great areas of Athens and London and Washington, Rimini and Ravenna and Otranto. We bounced babies. We once engaged in self-defense. We climbed a lot of Greek mountains. We crawled under and behind a lot of furniture, through the tunnels of Nauplion, and in the Altamira Caves. We want our life back. I have promised my knee a trip to Greece, once we are recovered, where we fully intend to be leaping from mountaintop to mountaintop.
Wish us well.
My knee and I have great memories. Together we cycled hundreds of miles in Nigeria and the Argolid. We hiked Yorkshire and Cornwall, the Argolid, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Pyrenees. We fenced. We knelt to polish floors, to weed and plant bulbs in the garden, to track earrings under furniture. We knelt in churches (we recommend the kneelers in St George, Venice). We explored most of the calli of Venice, the streets of Manhattan, great areas of Athens and London and Washington, Rimini and Ravenna and Otranto. We bounced babies. We once engaged in self-defense. We climbed a lot of Greek mountains. We crawled under and behind a lot of furniture, through the tunnels of Nauplion, and in the Altamira Caves. We want our life back. I have promised my knee a trip to Greece, once we are recovered, where we fully intend to be leaping from mountaintop to mountaintop.
Wish us well.
06 November 2013
On vacation: Light
Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1900.
Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1900.
With appreciation to Irene Connelly who introduced me to this artist.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)