By Nicholas C. J. Pappas, profesor in the Department of History
4. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201.
5. F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
6. Konstantinos Sathas, Hellenes stratiotai en tei dysei kai he anagennesis tes hellenikes taktikes (Athens, 1885). Originally published in the journal Hestia.
7. M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), passim.
8. Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State, passim.
9. Marino Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia , ed. R. Fulin (Venice, 1883), pp. 313-314.
10. Marino Sanuto, Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara (Venice, 1829), p. 115.
11. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201;
12. the term assagaye does not seem to be of Balkan origin, but rather from the Portugese. The genitaires or genitours, the iberian light cavalry of moorish origin, seem to have used a similar lance, which was common in the Near East and the Islamic world. This type did not have two spearpoints, as indicated by some sources, but rather had a spike on the butt end. This spike was used to keep the lance upright in the ground in camp when not in use. This not only kept the lance ready for action, but also kept the lance head from wear and lance as a whole from being bent by leaning it against something. They were much shorter an lighter than western European lances. The spike at the butt counterbalanced the lance head which made it maneuverable in a melee. See George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and at All Times (New York: Jack Brussel, 1961), pp. 77, 408-409.
13. Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor , pp. 214-215.
14. Contemporary illustrations of stradioti can be found in Sathas, Hellenes stradioti, passim.
15. Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 4 (Paris, 1880-1890), pp. LIV-LVI.
16. "Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota--Anecdota Graeca, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
17. Jacomo Barbarigo, "Dispacci della Guerra di Peloponneso," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstan-tinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 6 (Paris, 1885), pp. 1-92.
18. See materials published in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9; Commis-siones et Relationes Venetae, vols. 5, 7, Annorum 1591-1600, 1621-1671, Grga Novak, ed. Monumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, vol. 48, 50 (Zagreb: Jugoslovenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, 1966, 1972); and Secrets de l' Etat de Venise, Vladimir Lamanskii, ed. (St. Petersburgh, 1884.
19. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
20. Kostas Mpires, Oi Arvanites, oi Dorieis tou neoterou Hellenismou. (Athens, 1960), pp. 191-192
21. Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9;
22. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, vol. 1, Sian Reynolds, tr. (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), pp.48-49.
23. Nicholas Cheetham, Medieval Greece (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 195-207; M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 47, 50; Denis Zakythinos, Le Despotat grec de Moree. vol. 2. Vie et institutions. London: Variorum, 1975, pp. 31-37, 135-145.
24. Peter Topping, "Albanian Settlements in Medieval Greece: Some Venetian Testimonies," in Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charanis, ed. by Angelike E. Laiou Thomadakis (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1980), pp. 261-271.
25. Mpires, Oi Arvanites, pp. 156-162; Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike, 1968), pp. 79-88; Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
26. Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8; Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, p. 173.
27. William Miller, The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece (1204-1566) (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1937), pp. 489-511;
28. Mpires, Oi Arvanites (Athens, 1960), pp. 172.
29. Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380. See pages 447-447, 451 on pay scales of stradioti.
30. Mallet and Hale, pp. 376-377; Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-465; Blessi, "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8, pp. 466-470, Blessi, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. 262-280.
31. Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 376-377.
32. Mallet and Hale, p. 376.
33. John S. C. Bridge, A History of France from the Death of Louis XI, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 263.
34. Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, p. 114.
35. F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
36. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
37. Sathas, Hellenikoi Stratiotai , pp. 11-14
38. Gabiele Daniel in his Histoire de la Milice Francaise vol. 2 (Paris, 1721), pp. 168, divides the stradiots in the 16th century French army into two seperate corps of argoulets and estradiots.
39. 1P. Aravantinos, Chronographia tes Epeirou ton te homoron hellenikon kai Illyrikon choron diatrechousa kata seiran ta en autais symbanta apo tou soteriou etous mechri tou 1854, vol. 1 (Athens, 1856), p. 191.
40. Ioannes K. Chasiotes, "La comunita greca di Napoli et i moti insurrectionali nella penisola Balcanica meridionale durante la seconda meta del XVI secolo," Balkan Studies 10 (Thessalonike, 1969): 279-288; Vincenzo Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," in Storie de Minoranze Ebrei, Greci, Albanesi nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1982), pp. 119-156; Attanasio Lehasca, Cenno storico dei servigi militari prestati nel Regno delle Due Sicilie dai Greci, Epiroti, Albanesi e Macedoni in epoche diverse (Corfu, 1843), pp. 3-15.
41. Sathas, Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. xiv-xxviii.
42. Millar, "The Albanians," pp. 470, 472; idem, Tudor Mercenaries and Auxiliaries 1485-1547 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980), pp. 44, 48, 69, 73, 133, 146, 148-149, 151, 161, 164-165; Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike, 1968), p. 191
43. B. N. Floria, "Vykhodtsy iz Balkanakh stran na russkoi sluzhbe," Balkanskia issledovaniia. 3. Osloboditel'nye dvizheniia na Balkanakh (Moscow, 1978), pp. 57-63.
44. "Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota, vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
45. Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," and "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino,"in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-470; and idem, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9 (Paris, 1890), pp. 262-280.
46. Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchen-symbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
47. Dissertazione istorico-cronologica delle Reggimento Real Macedone nella qualle si tratta sua origine, formazione e progressi, e delle vicissitudini, che gli sono accadute fino all' anno 1767. ed. 2. (Bologna, 1768), pp. 201-203, 205-209; Raoul Manselli, "Il Reggimento Albanese Real Macedonia durante il Regno di Carlo di Borbone," Archivio Storico per le Provincie Napoletane, n.s. vol. 32 (1950-1951), pp. 143-145; Nicholas C. Pappas, " Balkan Foreign Legions in Eighteenth Century Italy: Reggimento Real Macedone and Its Successors" in Nation and Ideology: Essays in Honor of Wayne S. Vucinich. Ivo Banac, John C. Ackerman and Roman Szporluk, eds. (Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1981), pp. 35-39.
48. Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380, 426-427, 447-451.
49. Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
50. Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchensymbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
Sam Houston State University
By
Nicholas C. J. Pappas
The
stradioti, mounted troops of Albanian and Greek origin who initially
entered Venetian military service during the Republic's wars with the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century, were among
pioneers of light cavalry tactics in European armies in the early modern era. These
warriors, who had previously served Byzantine and Albanian rulers, initially
found asylum and employment in the Venetian strongholds of Napoli di Romagna,
Corone, Modone, and Malvasia in the Peloponnesus. Later they were also
stationed in Venetian holdings at Trau, Sibenico, Castellonuovo, and Zara in
Dalmatia, and the islands of Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, Crete and Cyprus. They
were also introduced into Italy
by the Venetians in the 1470's and participated in wars in Italy through much of the 16th century, not only
for Venice, but
also for other employers. It was in these wars that the stratioti made
an impact on warfare in Italy
and the west, chiefly by their style of fighting and tactics. The stradioti were
armed and fought as light cavalry in a manner that developed from warfare among
Byzantine, Slavic, Albanian and Ottoman forces. They carried spear, a long
saber, mace, and dagger, and were attired in a mixture of oriental, Byzantine
and western military garb. The stradioti continued the Balkan traditions
of cavalry warfare, which used hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, feigned retreats,
counterattacks and other tactics little known to western armies of the time.
A
number of contemporary writers and later historians, notably Charles Oman,[1]
Coriolano Cippico,[2] Marino Sanuto[3], Philip de Comines,[4] F. L. Taylor,[5]
Konstantinos Sathas,[6] John Hale,[7] M. E. Mallett,[8] and others, have
recounted the activities of stradioti in Italy and the west. Some of these
authorities even claimed that the stradioti were instrumental in the
reintroduction of light cavalry tactics in western armies. In the sixteenth
century, stradioti troops expanded their service to the armies of Milan, Genoa, Spain, France,
the Holy Roman Empire, and England.
Aside from their military activities, the stradioti were instrumental in the
establishment of Greek Orthodox communities in Venice and Dalmatia.
This
paper will investigate the origins of the stradioti, their ethnic and
regional composition, their role in the armies of the15th and 16th centuries,
and their participation in the founding of Greek Orthodox Communities in the
Italy and elsewhere.
In
the late fifteenth century, companies of stradioti were brought to Italy
and served in Venice's armed conflicts on the terrafirma. They entered
service in Italy at the crucial period in which the military system of the
Italian states, as well as their independence, were being threatened by
transalpine armies in the late 15th century. One observer, Marino Sanuto,
described the stradioti and their arrival in Venice thusly:[9]
On 22 April [1482] the first
ship of cavalry arrived which carried seven stradioti from Corone, who,
when they disembarked at the Lido, paraded in their accustomed way before the
unaccustomed crowd which marvelled at the speed of their horses and the skill
of the horsemen... the stradioti are Greeks and they wear broad capes and tall
caps, some wear corselets; they carry lance in hand, and a mace, and hang a
sword at their side; they move like birds and remain incessantly on their
horses...They are accustomed to brigandage and frequently pillage the
Peloponnesus. They are excellent adversaries against the Turks; they arrange
their raids very well, hitting the enemy unexpectedly; they are loyal to their
lords. They do not take prisoners, but rather cut the heads of their
adversaries, receiving according to their custom one ducat per head.
In another work Sanuto describes them again:[10]
They have sword, lance with
pennant, and mace. Very few wear cuirasses, generally they wear cotton cloaks,
sewn in a particular fashion. Their horses are large, accustomed to hardships,
run like birds, always hold their heads high and surpass all others in maneuver
of battle. Countless of these stradioti are found in Napoli di Romagna
and other areas of Greece which are under the signoria and they consider
their fortified towns as their true armor and lance.
The French Memoirist, Philip de Commines, describes
the stradioti that opposed the French at the Battle of Fornovo:[11]
Marchal de Gie sent to the
king word that he had passed the mountains, and that having sent out a party of
horse to reconnoitre the enemy, they had been charged by the Estradiots, one of
them called Lebeuf being slain, the Estradiots cut off his head, put it on top
of a lance, carried it to their proveditor, and demanded a ducat. These Estradiots
are of the same nature as the Genetaires [Spanish light cavalry]; they are
attired like Turks both on horse and on foot, except they wear no turbans on
their heads. They are a rugged people, couched all the year round on their
horses. They were all Greeks, coming from places possessed by the Venetians,
some from Napoli di Romagna [Nauplion], others from Albania at Durrazzo, and
their horses are good and are all from Turkey...I saw them all at their first
arrival at Venice, and they mustered on an island...numbering a good fifteen
hundred, and they are stout, active men who greatly harry an opposing force
when they set themselves to it.
There are some discrepancies in both primary and
secondary sources as to how the stradioti were armed. The majority of
sources indicate that they were armed with sabres, or one-edged swords, maces
and a short lance with iron points on each end known as an arzagaye or assagaye.[12]
Other sources indicate that they may have been armed with bows as well. They
also seemed to have carried a type of eared dagger, which saw wide use in
Italy. The stradioti are reputed to have introduced this dagger into
western Europe, which came to be known generally as an estradiot. [13]2
According
to most sources the stradioti wore little or no armor. If they did, it
was usually padded linen tunics or shirts of chain mail. Contemporary authors
indicate that they were attired and armored like the Turks except that they
wore no turban.[14]3 Since there was much intermingling of military styles,
tactics, garb, and weaponry in the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries, it
is difficult to say what aspects of weaponry; armor and attire were adopted
from or lent to the Ottoman Turks. This writer believes it is safe to say that
the stradioti were armed and attired in a mixture of Balkan and Turkish
styles. There is no doubt that they later adopted some western arms and garb
the longer they remained in service in Western Europe and in the Venetian-held
areas of the Balkans and the Levant.
Two
versions of the name stradioti have been cited by sources, while
scholars have debated which of these versions is accurate. According to some
authorities, the terms stradiotto and stradioti (plural) are
Italian variants of the Greek stratiotês or stratiotai which
generally means soldier, but in later Byzantine times meant cavalry man who
held a military fief (pronoia). Other authors assert that stradioti came
from the Italian root strada (road) and that the term stradiotto meant
a wanderer or wayfarer, thus denoting an errant cavalrymen or warrior.[15] The
question of the etymology of the appellation stradioti is further
complicated by the various spellings and versions of the term in the primary
sources. The few Greek sources, such as the Andragathêmata tou Merkouriou
Boua, use stratiotes/stratiotai, the Greek word for soldier.[16]
Latin sources, such as the dispatches of Jacomo Barbarigo, use the variant stratiotos/stratiotorum
or strathiotos/strathiotorum[17] The bulk of primary sources in
Italian, such as Coriolano Cippico, Marino Sanuto and Venetian state documents,
use stradiotto/stradioti, adopted by this paper, or strathiotto/strathioti.[18]
French sources, such as Philip de Comines, use the variation estradiot/estradiots.[19]
Although arguments on the side of the wayfarer theory predominate, the fact
that some of the older Latin sources from the early 15th century use a
variation of the Greek stratiotes tends to make this writer favor the
"soldier" theory. Be as it may, the term indicated light cavalry
forces of Balkan origin, chiefly from Greece and Albania.
Most
modern, as well as a good number of early authors have indicated that the stradioti
were Albanian. This is true to a certain extent but has to be qualified. A
Greek author made a study of the names of stradioti found in the most
extensive documentary collection of materials dealing with the stradioti
and found that some 80% of the names were of Albanian origin, while the rest
were of Greek origin.[20] This writer looked over lists of stradioti in
the same source, Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a
l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, edited by Konstantinos Sathas,
as well as the indices of the fifty-odd volumes of I Diarii di Marino
Sanuto. This investigation found that indeed many of the names were
Albanian, but a good number of the names particularly those of officers, were
of Greek origin, such as Palaiologos, Spandounios, Laskaris, Rhalles, Comnenos,
Psendakis, Maniatis, Spyliotis, Alexopoulos, Psaris, Zacharopoulos,
Klirakopoulos, Kondomitis, etc. Others seemed to be of South Slavic origin,
such Soimiris, Vlastimiris, and Voicha.[21] The study of names does not
indicate that most of these troops came directly from Albania proper, as has
been asserted by some authors. Fernand Braudel, for example, in his classic
study of the Mediterranean in the 16th century somewhat kaleidoscopically
describes the stradioti's history in the following manner:[22]
The story of the Albanians
deserves a study in itself. Attracted by the 'sword, the gold trappings, and
the honours', they left their mountains chiefly in order to become soldiers. In
the sixteenth century they were to be found in Cyprus, in Venice, in Mantua, in
Rome, in Naples, and Sicily, and as far abroad as Madrid, where they went to
present their projects and their grievances, to ask for barrels of gunpowder or
years of pension, arrogant imperious, always ready for a fight. In the end
Italy gradually shut its doors to them. They moved on to the Low Countries,
England, and France during the Wars of Religion, soldier-adventurers followed
everywhere by there wives, children, and priests.
This
description and others do not take into account that most of the stradioti
did not come from Albania proper, but from the Venetian holdings in southern
and central Greece, that is Malvasia (Monemvasia), Modone (Methone), Corone,
Napoli di Romagna (Nauplion), the Mani, and Lepanto (Naupaktos). Most of the stradioti
who entered Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, together with
their families, had been born in the Peloponnesus, their progenitors having
immigrated there in the late 14th and early 15th century. They had settled in
southern Greece through the encouragement of the Byzantine Despots of the
Morea, Theodore I Palaiologos (1384-1407) and Theodore II Palaiologos
(1407-1443). The Albanians served as military colonists in the Peloponnesus in
the attempt of the Despotate, an appanage of the moribund Byzantine Empire, to
survive the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.[23] In addition,
the Venetians began to settle Albanians in Napoli di Romagna (Nauplion) in the
Argos region.[24] With the demise of the Byzantine state in 1453 and the
dissolution of the Despotate of the Morea through civil war in the 1450's and
1460's, more and more of the Albanian and Greek stradioti found refuge
and employment with the Venetians. The Venetians increasingly used them as
troops in their conflicts with the Ottomans in Greece and the Levant in the
second half of the 15th and throughout the 16th century.
In
time the Venetians introduced some of these stradioti into their forces
in Italy. Three factors probably played a role in the extensive use of these
troops by the Venetians. One important factor was that there was an abundance
of these troops. The small Venetian holdings in Greece could not employ the
large number of refugee stradioti that sought asylum and employment. By
the end of the 15th century some stradioti companies were transferred
and reassigned to the Venetian-held Ionian Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, and
Zante.[25] Soon afterwards, other stradioti were sent to Italy, to the
Venetian-Ottoman border in Friuli, and to the Dalmatian holdings of Sebenico
(Sibenik), Spalato (Split), Zara (Zadar), Trogir, and Bocca di Cattaro
(Kotor).[26] As the Venetians lost one stronghold on the mainland Greece after
the other in the Veneto-Turkish conflicts of first half of the 16th century,
more and more military colonists resettled on the Ionian Islands, Dalmatia and
Italy.[27] One Greek writer has estimated that the number of Albanian and Greek
stradioti that settled in Venetian territories and in Italy reached 4500
men, together with their families they numbered about 15,500. If one includes
those settled in Southern Italy and Sicily, the numbers reach about 25,000.[28]
A
second factor in the widespread employment of stradioti by the Venetian
Republic was economy. The pay of the stradioti was lower, at least until 1519,
than western mercenaries, be they Italians, Swiss, Germans or others.[29] The stradioti
were not mercenaries in the strictest sense, they were refugees who maintained
themselves and their families in exile by their skill at arms. Wherever they
were garrisoned or deployed, they brought their families and settled them at or
near their place of duty. Indeed the stradioti seemed to appreciate
honors and privileges over pay. The stradioti actually sought out favors
in the form of parades and titles, and the frugal Venetian government was only
too glad to oblige them. This is evidenced by the titles their leaders
accumulated and the sentiments expressed in the poems, both in Greek and
Italian, which dealt with their exploits.[30] They also appreciated the right
to practice their religion, the Greek rite, be it Orthodox or Uniate. The stradioti
were instrumental in the founding of Greek Churches in Venice, Naples and the
towns of Dalmatia, as will be elucidated later.
The
third factor in the Venetian preference in employing stradioti was the
troops' unorthodox tactics and methods of fighting, which could be utilized in
different ways. The stradioti's light cavalry tactics matched those of
Ottoman sipahi (feudal) and akinci (irregular) cavalry, which
made them an asset to Venice in the garrisons of its Balkan and Levantine
possessions, where they were maintained well after the 16th century. In Italy
and elsewhere in Western Europe they proved to be useful in scouting
reconnaissance, and in raiding forces in disarray or retreat, as seen in the
descriptions above. According to the most important study of the Venetian army,
"They may have been especially praised for raiding deep into
enemy-occupied country where opportunities for loot were freest…"[31]
However the style and conduct of the stradioti was criticized, according
to some Venetian officials, they were "Anti-Christian, perfidious, born
thieves and potential traitors..." and "...so disobedient that they
can do us no good."[32]
The
most notorious example of their reputed unreliability was in the crucial battle
of Fornovo of 1494 in which they wasted their tactical advantage by looting the
French baggage train. According to one description of the battle:[33]
In the rout of the baggage
train the Stradiots had captured thirty-five pack horses, including those with
the richest loads, and it will be estimated that, when all was reckoned up,
spoils up to the value of at least 100,000 ducats had fallen into the hands of
the Italians. The losses included, the King's sword and helmet, two Royal
standards, several royal pavilions, the King's prayer book and relics,...the
rich fittings and vessals of his chapel,...[and] an album full of portraits of
the mistresses to whom Charles had given his affections in the various cities
of Italy. The rich booty served as a pretext upon which the Venetian signory
proceeded to set up a claim of victory, decreeing to their general a triumphal
entry and a splendid reward.
The
battle of Fornovo was not a victory for Venice and its allies but rather a
serious turning point in Italian history, according to Charles Oman:[34]
...[T]he stradiots, from whom
much had been hoped, turned out to be savages who lost their heads when they
saw plunder available, and forgot the purpose for which they had been told off.
It was clear, after July 6, 1495, that the Italian states could not survive if
defended by mercenary armies who fought on the old principles of much pay, no
casualties, and the pleasant chance of rich ransoms.
Nevertheless
in subsequent campaigns the stradioti impressed the Venetians and their
adversaries with their tactics, which included repeated attacks and
disengagement, which enticed opposing forces to pursue. Enemy forces would lose
formation and become even more vulnerable to the stradioti attacks. Opponents
would have to deploy infantry armed with arquebus, or artillery in defense
against the stradioti.[35]
Other
states also discovered these tactical assets and began to wean away stradioti
from Venetian service by better pay or conditions of service. According to
Comines and others, France under Louis XII recruited some 2000 stradioti
in 1497; some two years after French forces in Italy encountered them at
Fornovo. Among the French they were known as estradiots and argoulets.
The use of the two names has led some historians to consider that there were
two separate corps of light cavalry in service to the French king.[36] However
it seems that the two terms were initially interchangeable, and only later
indicated separate forces. Some historians have identified the term argoulet
with the Greek argetes or Argive, because it seems that a significant
number of troops who went over to the French service originally came from
Napoli di Romagna (Nauplion) on the Argive plain near the ancient Greek city of
Argos.[37] The French maintained a corps of light cavalry known as estradiots
or argoulets until the reign of Henry III.[38]
Naples
under Spanish suzerainty also recruited stradioti in the late 15th and
early 16th century. The first entry of stradioti into Neapolitan or
Spanish service occurred in the 1470's in the wake of a revolt in the Mani
under one Korkodeilos Kladas. A Neapolitan ship picked up the rebels and
brought to them Neapolitan territory, where together with Albanian refugees
under the son of Scanderbeg, John Kastrioti, they participated in fomenting a
revolt in the Himara (Cheimarra) region of Epirus. After the failure of this
insurrection, most of Kladas' and Kastrioti's men, together with other refugees
from Himara, served the Spanish in Italy.[39] Later in 1538, after the Venetians
abandoned Corone, the Spanish government in Naples accepted many refugees from
that Peloponnesian town and region, some of whom had served the Venetians as stradioti.
These troops now took on service with the Spanish in Naples. Spain
continued to employ stradioti in the 16th and 17th century, chiefly in Naples
and elsewhere in Italy. The most important recruiting area for these troops was
Cheimarra.[40]
Since
Spain and Naples were connected with the Holy Roman Empire through the person
of Charles V in the first half of the 16th century, stradioti were soon
found serving the Habsburgs not only in Italy, but also in Germany and the
Netherlands. Among those who distinguished themselves in Habsburg service and
became knights of the Holy Roman Empire were the captains Iakovos Diassorinos,
Georgios Bastas, the Brothers Vasilikos, and the redoubtable Merkourios Bouas. Bouas
was given titles by the Venetians and French as well.[41] Henry VIII also
employed Stradioti in France and England, notably under the captains Thomas
Buas of Argos, Theodore Luchisi, and Antonios Stesinos. The former was named
colonel and commander of stradioti in Henry's service at Calais.[42]
There is also some evidence that Greeks served as cavalrymen, together with
Serbs, in the Muscovite armies in the late 16th and early 17th century, during
the notorious "Time of Troubles."[43]
By
the end of the 16th century, however, the number of stradioti companies
employed in Italian and other western armies dwindled. The creation of light
cavalry formations, borrowing from the traditions of the stradioti, as
well as those of the Spanish genitours (genitaires) and the
Hungarian hussars, replaced the stradioti in many European
armies. These new units, made up of natives or various ethnic groups, also
added firearms to their panoply, and the mention of stradioti, argoulets,
estradiots, Albanese, Albains, Greci, Levantini,
etc. become less and less frequent. Western armies had formed their own
light cavalry units and relied less and less upon the stradioti.
There
are indications that the stradioti were called both Albanians and Greeks
in various sources for good reason. While the bulk of stradioti rank and
file were of Albanian origin from Greece, by the middle of the 16th century
there is evidence that many had become Hellenized or even Italianized. The most
telling examples of this phenomenon are in the works of Tzanes Koronaios and
Manoli Blessi. The former work is a long epic poem in vernacular Greek on the
exploits of one of the most famous of stradioti, Merkourios Bouas, in
the armies of Venice, France, and the Holy Roman Empire. The author, Koronaios,
seems to have been stradiotto-troubadour of Zantiote origin that was a
companion of Merkourios Bouas. In his poem, which is a paean to Merkourios Bouas,
Koronaios gives Bouas' mythological pedigree, which includes Achilles,
Alexander the Great and Pyrrhus. The language of the poem, the pedigree and
other allusions, give an indication of the process of Hellenization of the
Albanian stradioti.[44] Manoli Blessi's poetic works, songs of the stradioti,
are in Italian with many words and phrases in Greek, very colloquial Greek. There
are no Albanian words in his poems.[45] Hellenization was perhaps well on its
way prior to service abroad, since Albanian stradioti had settled in
Greek lands for two generations prior to their emigration to Italy. Since many
served under Greek commanders and served together with Greek stradioti,
the process continued. Another factor in this assimilative process was the stradioti's
and their families' active involvement and affiliation with the Greek Orthodox
or Uniate Church communities in Naples, Venice and elsewhere. Hellenization
thus occurred as a result of common service and church affiliation.[46]
Stradioti
were still employed by some Italian states, notably Venice and Spanish Naples. The
hiring and maintenance of stradioti troops was continued in Naples until
the early 18th century. Most of these troops were later recruited from Epirus
and Southern Albania, in particular from the Greco-Albanian region of
Cheimarra. According to histories of the Reggimento Real Macedone, a
Balkan light infantry force which served the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
between 1735 and 1820, its first commander and organizer was one Count Strates
Gkikas, who is described as a veteran stradiotto. This may be further
indication of stradioti in Neapolitan service into the eighteenth
century.[47]
Likewise
stradioti continued to be employed by Venice as capelatti (rural
gendarmes) in the Terra Firma well into the seventeenth century. Stradioti
companies also continued to be garrisoned in some of the towns of Dalmatia
(Sibenik, Trogir, Zadar, Split, and Kotor), and on the Ionian Islands of
Cephalonia, Corfu and Zante.[48] On the Ionian Islands the stradioti
continued their service through the 18th century. This stradioti were
descendents of refugees from the lost Venetian holdings on the mainland who had
settled on the islands in the 15th and 16th centuries. They received land and
privileges, and served as cavalry and participated in Venice's conflicts with
the Turks throughout the 17th century. Eventually these units became
anachronisms, their ranks virtually a hereditary caste. Some of the stradioti
or their descendents became in time members of the Ionian nobility, while
others took to farming and other pursuits. By the late 17th and early 18th
centuries, Venetian authorities found it necessary to reorganize the stradioti
companies. On Zante, for example, they reduced their numbers and privileges
because of absenteeism and discipline problems in the rank and file. Nevertheless
the stradioti formations remained in nominal service through the 18th
century. The Corfiote Stradioti Company existed until the end of
Venetian rule and the French occupation in 1797.[49]
One
can say that the stradioti in time were assimilated into the local
Italian, South Slavic and Greek populations of the areas in which they were
settled. But nonetheless they did leave their impact upon the areas in which
they sojourned. As mentioned earlier, the stradioti were instrumental in
the founding of Greek churches, Uniate or Orthodox (or both in some cases) in
Venice and Naples in Italy, as well as Pola, Trogir, Zadar, Split, and Sibenik,
in Northern Dalmatia. In all of these regions, the stradioti and their
families melted into the milieu of the church communities and eventually into
the society at large. In northern Dalmatia, there was, as one authors calls it
in German, a kirchensymbiose; a slow acculturation of Greek
(stradioti) and South Slav elements in the Orthodox Church communities in
predominantly Catholic Dalmatia until most of the old stradioti families
eventually identified themselves as Serbs by the 19th century. Similar
processes may have occurred in the Greek Church communities in Italy as well. The
stradioti were first integrated into the Greek church community and then
assimilated into the general society of the Italian towns.[50]
As
we have seen in this brief study, companies of stradioti were brought to
Italy in the late fifteenth century and served in Venice's armed conflicts on
the terrafirma. It was in these wars that the stratioti made an
impact on warfare in Italy and the west, chiefly by their style of fighting and
tactics. The stradioti were armed and fought as light cavalry in a
manner that developed from warfare among Byzantine, Slavic, Albanian and
Ottoman forces. They carried spear, a long saber, mace, and dagger, and were
attired in a mixture of oriental and Byzantine military garb. The stradioti
introduced the Near Eastern methods of cavalry warfare, which used
hit-and-attacks, ambushes, feigned retreats, counterattacks and other tactics
little known to western armies of the era. The activities of the stradioti
has been noted by a number of historians, notably Charles Oman, Mario Sanuto,
Coriolano Cippico, Erculi Riccoti, Daniel Hardy, Konstantinos Sathas, John
Hale, Franz Babinger and others, some even claiming that the stradioti
were instrumental in the reintroduction of light cavalry tactics in western
armies. In the sixteenth century, stradioti troops also served the armies of
Milan, Genoa, Spain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and England. Aside from
their military activities, the stradioti were instrumental in the establishment
of Greek Orthodox communities in Venice and Dalmatia.
- Sir Charles Oman, The History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1937), pp. 41, 92, 109-111.
- Coriolano Cippico, Della guerre de' Veneziani nell' Asia dal 1470 al 1473 (Venice, 1796), p. 10.
- Marino Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia , ed. R. Fulin (Venice, 1883), pp. 313-314; idem, Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara (Venice, 1829), p. 115.
- Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201.
- F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
- Konstantinos Sathas, Hellenes stratiotai en tei dysei kai he anagennesis tes hellenikes taktikes (Athens, 1885). Originally published in the journal Hestia.
- M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), passim.
- Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State, passim.
- Marino Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia , ed. R. Fulin (Venice, 1883), pp. 313-314.
- Marino Sanuto, Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara (Venice, 1829), p. 115.
- Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201;
- the term assagaye does not seem to be of Balkan origin, but rather from the Portugese. The genitaires or genitours, the iberian light cavalry of moorish origin, seem to have used a similar lance, which was common in the Near East and the Islamic world. This type did not have two spearpoints, as indicated by some sources, but rather had a spike on the butt end. This spike was used to keep the lance upright in the ground in camp when not in use. This not only kept the lance ready for action, but also kept the lance head from wear and lance as a whole from being bent by leaning it against something. They were much shorter an lighter than western European lances. The spike at the butt counterbalanced the lance head which made it maneuverable in a melee. See George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and at All Times (New York: Jack Brussel, 1961), pp. 77, 408-409.
- Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor , pp. 214-215.
- Contemporary illustrations of stradioti can be found in Sathas, Hellenes stradioti, passim.
- Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 4 (Paris, 1880-1890), pp. LIV-LVI.
- "Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota--Anecdota Graeca, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
- Jacomo Barbarigo, "Dispacci della Guerra di Peloponneso," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstan-tinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 6 (Paris, 1885), pp. 1-92.
- See materials published in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9; Commis-siones et Relationes Venetae, vols. 5, 7, Annorum 1591-1600, 1621-1671, Grga Novak, ed. Monumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, vol. 48, 50 (Zagreb: Jugoslovenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, 1966, 1972); and Secrets de l' Etat de Venise, Vladimir Lamanskii, ed. (St. Petersburgh, 1884.
- Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
- Kostas Mpires, Oi Arvanites, oi Dorieis tou neoterou Hellenismou. (Athens, 1960), pp. 191-192
- Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9;
- Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, vol. 1, Sian Reynolds, tr. (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), pp.48-49.
- Nicholas Cheetham, Medieval Greece (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 195-207; M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 47, 50; Denis Zakythinos, Le Despotat grec de Moree. vol. 2. Vie et institutions. London: Variorum, 1975, pp. 31-37, 135-145.
- Peter Topping, "Albanian Settlements in Medieval Greece: Some Venetian Testimonies," in Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charanis, ed. by Angelike E. Laiou Thomadakis (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1980), pp. 261-271.
- Mpires, Oi Arvanites, pp. 156-162; Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike, 1968), pp. 79-88; Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
- Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8; Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, p. 173.
- William Miller, The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece (1204-1566) (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1937), pp. 489-511;
- Mpires, Oi Arvanites (Athens, 1960), pp. 172.
- Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380. See pages 447-447, 451 on pay scales of stradioti.
- Mallet and Hale, pp. 376-377; Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-465; Blessi, "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8, pp. 466-470, Blessi, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. 262-280.
- Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 376-377.
- Mallet and Hale, p. 376.
- John S. C. Bridge, A History of France from the Death of Louis XI, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 263.
- Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, p. 114.
- F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
- Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
- Sathas, Hellenikoi Stratiotai , pp. 11-14
- Gabiele Daniel in his Histoire de la Milice Francaise vol. 2 (Paris, 1721), pp. 168, divides the stradiots in the 16th century French army into two seperate corps of argoulets and estradiots.
- 1P. Aravantinos, Chronographia tes Epeirou ton te homoron hellenikon kai Illyrikon choron diatrechousa kata seiran ta en autais symbanta apo tou soteriou etous mechri tou 1854, vol. 1 (Athens, 1856), p. 191.
- Ioannes K. Chasiotes, "La comunita greca di Napoli et i moti insurrectionali nella penisola Balcanica meridionale durante la seconda meta del XVI secolo," Balkan Studies 10 (Thessalonike, 1969): 279-288; Vincenzo Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," in Storie de Minoranze Ebrei, Greci, Albanesi nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1982), pp. 119-156; Attanasio Lehasca, Cenno storico dei servigi militari prestati nel Regno delle Due Sicilie dai Greci, Epiroti, Albanesi e Macedoni in epoche diverse (Corfu, 1843), pp. 3-15.
- Sathas, Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. xiv-xxviii.
- Millar, "The Albanians," pp. 470, 472; idem, Tudor Mercenaries and Auxiliaries 1485-1547 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980), pp. 44, 48, 69, 73, 133, 146, 148-149, 151, 161, 164-165; Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike, 1968), p. 191
- B. N. Floria, "Vykhodtsy iz Balkanakh stran na russkoi sluzhbe," Balkanskia issledovaniia. 3. Osloboditel'nye dvizheniia na Balkanakh (Moscow, 1978), pp. 57-63.
- "Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota, vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
- Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," and "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino,"in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-470; and idem, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9 (Paris, 1890), pp. 262-280.
- Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchen-symbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
- Dissertazione istorico-cronologica delle Reggimento Real Macedone nella qualle si tratta sua origine, formazione e progressi, e delle vicissitudini, che gli sono accadute fino all' anno 1767. ed. 2. (Bologna, 1768), pp. 201-203, 205-209; Raoul Manselli, "Il Reggimento Albanese Real Macedonia durante il Regno di Carlo di Borbone," Archivio Storico per le Provincie Napoletane, n.s. vol. 32 (1950-1951), pp. 143-145; Nicholas C. Pappas, " Balkan Foreign Legions in Eighteenth Century Italy: Reggimento Real Macedone and Its Successors" in Nation and Ideology: Essays in Honor of Wayne S. Vucinich. Ivo Banac, John C. Ackerman and Roman Szporluk, eds. (Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1981), pp. 35-39.
- Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380, 426-427, 447-451.
- Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
- Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchensymbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
4. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201.
5. F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
6. Konstantinos Sathas, Hellenes stratiotai en tei dysei kai he anagennesis tes hellenikes taktikes (Athens, 1885). Originally published in the journal Hestia.
7. M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), passim.
8. Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State, passim.
9. Marino Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia , ed. R. Fulin (Venice, 1883), pp. 313-314.
10. Marino Sanuto, Commentarii della guerra di Ferrara (Venice, 1829), p. 115.
11. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28; and Philip de Commines (sic), The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton: Containing the Histories of Louis XI and Chales VIII, Kings of France, and of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, ed. and tr. by Anrew R. Scoble, vol. 2 (London, 1856), pp. 200-201;
12. the term assagaye does not seem to be of Balkan origin, but rather from the Portugese. The genitaires or genitours, the iberian light cavalry of moorish origin, seem to have used a similar lance, which was common in the Near East and the Islamic world. This type did not have two spearpoints, as indicated by some sources, but rather had a spike on the butt end. This spike was used to keep the lance upright in the ground in camp when not in use. This not only kept the lance ready for action, but also kept the lance head from wear and lance as a whole from being bent by leaning it against something. They were much shorter an lighter than western European lances. The spike at the butt counterbalanced the lance head which made it maneuverable in a melee. See George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and at All Times (New York: Jack Brussel, 1961), pp. 77, 408-409.
13. Stone, A Glossary of the Contruction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor , pp. 214-215.
14. Contemporary illustrations of stradioti can be found in Sathas, Hellenes stradioti, passim.
15. Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 4 (Paris, 1880-1890), pp. LIV-LVI.
16. "Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota--Anecdota Graeca, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. , vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
17. Jacomo Barbarigo, "Dispacci della Guerra di Peloponneso," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstan-tinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 6 (Paris, 1885), pp. 1-92.
18. See materials published in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9; Commis-siones et Relationes Venetae, vols. 5, 7, Annorum 1591-1600, 1621-1671, Grga Novak, ed. Monumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, vol. 48, 50 (Zagreb: Jugoslovenska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, 1966, 1972); and Secrets de l' Etat de Venise, Vladimir Lamanskii, ed. (St. Petersburgh, 1884.
19. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
20. Kostas Mpires, Oi Arvanites, oi Dorieis tou neoterou Hellenismou. (Athens, 1960), pp. 191-192
21. Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vols. 1,4, 6-9;
22. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, vol. 1, Sian Reynolds, tr. (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), pp.48-49.
23. Nicholas Cheetham, Medieval Greece (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 195-207; M. E. Mallet and J. R.Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State: Venice ca. 1400 to 1617 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 47, 50; Denis Zakythinos, Le Despotat grec de Moree. vol. 2. Vie et institutions. London: Variorum, 1975, pp. 31-37, 135-145.
24. Peter Topping, "Albanian Settlements in Medieval Greece: Some Venetian Testimonies," in Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charanis, ed. by Angelike E. Laiou Thomadakis (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1980), pp. 261-271.
25. Mpires, Oi Arvanites, pp. 156-162; Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike, 1968), pp. 79-88; Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
26. Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8; Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, p. 173.
27. William Miller, The Latins in the Levant: A History of Frankish Greece (1204-1566) (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1937), pp. 489-511;
28. Mpires, Oi Arvanites (Athens, 1960), pp. 172.
29. Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380. See pages 447-447, 451 on pay scales of stradioti.
30. Mallet and Hale, pp. 376-377; Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias: Documents inedits a l'histoire de la Grece au Moyen Age, Konstantinos Sathas, ed. Vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-465; Blessi, "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8, pp. 466-470, Blessi, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. 262-280.
31. Mallet and Hale, The Military organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 376-377.
32. Mallet and Hale, p. 376.
33. John S. C. Bridge, A History of France from the Death of Louis XI, vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1924), p. 263.
34. Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, p. 114.
35. F. L. Taylor, The Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529 (Cambridge University Press, 1921), pp. 72-73.
36. Philippe de Comines, Memoires, vol.2, (London and Paris, 1747), pp. 27-28.
37. Sathas, Hellenikoi Stratiotai , pp. 11-14
38. Gabiele Daniel in his Histoire de la Milice Francaise vol. 2 (Paris, 1721), pp. 168, divides the stradiots in the 16th century French army into two seperate corps of argoulets and estradiots.
39. 1P. Aravantinos, Chronographia tes Epeirou ton te homoron hellenikon kai Illyrikon choron diatrechousa kata seiran ta en autais symbanta apo tou soteriou etous mechri tou 1854, vol. 1 (Athens, 1856), p. 191.
40. Ioannes K. Chasiotes, "La comunita greca di Napoli et i moti insurrectionali nella penisola Balcanica meridionale durante la seconda meta del XVI secolo," Balkan Studies 10 (Thessalonike, 1969): 279-288; Vincenzo Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," in Storie de Minoranze Ebrei, Greci, Albanesi nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1982), pp. 119-156; Attanasio Lehasca, Cenno storico dei servigi militari prestati nel Regno delle Due Sicilie dai Greci, Epiroti, Albanesi e Macedoni in epoche diverse (Corfu, 1843), pp. 3-15.
41. Sathas, Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9, pp. xiv-xxviii.
42. Millar, "The Albanians," pp. 470, 472; idem, Tudor Mercenaries and Auxiliaries 1485-1547 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980), pp. 44, 48, 69, 73, 133, 146, 148-149, 151, 161, 164-165; Apostolos Vakalopoulos, Historia tou Neou Hellenismou, vol. 3 (Thessalonike, 1968), p. 191
43. B. N. Floria, "Vykhodtsy iz Balkanakh stran na russkoi sluzhbe," Balkanskia issledovaniia. 3. Osloboditel'nye dvizheniia na Balkanakh (Moscow, 1978), pp. 57-63.
44. "Andragathemata tou Merkouriou Boua," in Hellenika Anekdota, vol. 1 (Athens, 1873), pp. 1-153.
45. Manoli Blessi, "Balzeletta," and "Manoli Blessi sopra la presa de Margaritin con un dialogo di un Greco et di un Fachino,"in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 8 (Paris, 1888), pp. 461-470; and idem, "La presa di Nicosia," in Mnemeia Hellenikes Historias, vol. 9 (Paris, 1890), pp. 262-280.
46. Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchen-symbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
47. Dissertazione istorico-cronologica delle Reggimento Real Macedone nella qualle si tratta sua origine, formazione e progressi, e delle vicissitudini, che gli sono accadute fino all' anno 1767. ed. 2. (Bologna, 1768), pp. 201-203, 205-209; Raoul Manselli, "Il Reggimento Albanese Real Macedonia durante il Regno di Carlo di Borbone," Archivio Storico per le Provincie Napoletane, n.s. vol. 32 (1950-1951), pp. 143-145; Nicholas C. Pappas, " Balkan Foreign Legions in Eighteenth Century Italy: Reggimento Real Macedone and Its Successors" in Nation and Ideology: Essays in Honor of Wayne S. Vucinich. Ivo Banac, John C. Ackerman and Roman Szporluk, eds. (Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1981), pp. 35-39.
48. Mallet and Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State:, pp. 375-380, 426-427, 447-451.
49. Laurentios Vrokines, "He peri ta mesa tou IST' aionos en Kerkyrai apoikesis ton Naupleion kai Monem-vaseion," in Erga, Kostas Daphnes, ed. Vols. 16-17 of Kerkyra'i'ka Chronika. Corfu, 1972; Leonidas Zoes, "Hellenikos lochos en Zakynthoi kata tous chronous tes douleias," O Hellenismos 14 (1911): 367-371.
50. Ioannes Veloudos, Hellenon Orthodoxon apoikia en Venetia historikon hypomnema, ed. 2 (Venice, 1893), pp. 16-27; Giura, "La Comunita Greca di Napoli (1534-1861)," pp. 121-127; Dusan Kasic, "Die Griechisch-Serbische kirchensymbiose in Norddalmatien vom XV. bis zum XIX jahrhundert," Balkan Studies 15 (Thessalonike, 1974): 21-48.
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