Genoa versus Venice, Part 3

After the Battle of Curzola in 1299, in which Venice lost dozens of ships and thousands of men against Genoa, Venice was subdued for decades. Genoa maintained dominance in Black Sea trade, but Venice still had a presence there and throughout the Mediterranean. Constantinople's dislike of Venice helped Genoa establish a merchant colony across the Golden Horn from the city. This colony, Pera, became so powerful a trading town that it pulled trade away from Constantinople itself. 

In 1345, rebel Genoese called the Grimaldi were in Monaco, and Genoa wanted to take Monaco. The Grimaldi abandoned Monaco for Marseille, and the fleet needed a new goal. Admiral Simone Vignoso led 29 galleys toward the Aegean Sea to deal with Venetian presences.

Vignoso learned that Humbert II of Viennois intended to capture the island of Chios (its ancient citadel is pictured above)and use it as a base to attack Turks as part of something called the Second Smyrniote Crusade. Humbert asked Vignoso to aid him in the venture, but Vignoso refused. Humbert was allied with Venice, and Vignoso wouldn't do anything to potentially aid Venice.

Vignoso chose to attack Humbert's fleet, taking horses and equipment, and capturing Chios. This move angered the Venetians and the Byzantines (who owned Chios), as well as Pope Clement VI who had called for the Smyrniote Crusade. Constantinople was dealing with a civil war, and so could not afford to worry overmuch about Chios.

In August 1350 Venice declared war on Genoa. At the end of August, 35 ships set sail for the Aegean. This was after a few devastating years of the Black Death, causing both Genoa and Venice to lose up to half their citizenry. The galleys were less well-manned than they would have been just a few years before, so Venice conscripted men from their other territories. This meant they went into a naval battle with inexperienced men who had not trained for war.

In the first encounter between the two navies, Venice attacked a merchant fleet, but once some of the non-ar-ready ships were captured, the undisciplined conscripts abandoned fighting to plunder the Genoese ships, allowing the rest of the merchant fleet to escape and spread the word of the attack.

The senate in Venice was not happy with the behavior of the conscripts, but realized it could not dissuade them from desiring plunder with the risk of them mutinying. Riches had been one of the things offered to them during the drafting process.

The ships that had escaped joined with more at Chios. This small fleet then went and attacked the city of Negroponte, which was a Venetian base. Its Venetian governor fled and was later tried for cowardice.

We'll see what happened after starting tomorrow.