Siege of Candia

Siege of Candia
	Part of the Cretan War (Fifth Ottoman–Venetian War)
	; The siege of Candia by N. Visscher, c. 1680
Date	1 May 1648 – 27 September 1669; (21 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 5 days)
Location	Heraklion, Crete
Result	Ottoman victory
Territorial; changes	Crete ceded to Ottomans
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire; Republic of Algiers (1667)	Republic of Venice; Knights of Malta; Kingdom of France;
Commanders and leaders
Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed	Francesco Morosini
Strength
60,000 soldiers; 20,000 workers and miners; 80 Algerian ships	10,000 European allies; 12,000 Cretan & Venetian citizens;
Casualties and losses
118,754 soldiers (Venetian reports)	30,985 Venetian soldiers (Venetian reports)

The siege of Candia (now Heraklion, Crete) was a military conflict in which Ottoman forces besieged the Venetian-ruled capital city of the Kingdom of Candia.^[4] Lasting from 1648 to 1669, or a total of 21 years, one of the longest sieges in history. It ended with an Ottoman victory, but the effort and cost of the siege contributed to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, especially after the Great Turkish War.

Background

In the 17th century, Venice's power in the Mediterranean was waning as Ottoman power grew. The Republic of Venice believed that the Ottomans would use any excuse to pursue further hostilities.

In 1644, the Knights of Malta attacked an Ottoman convoy of sailing ships on its way from Constantinople to Alexandria. They landed at Candia with the loot, which included the former Chief Black Eunuch of the Harem, the kadi of Cairo, among other pilgrims heading to Mecca.

In response, 60,000 Ottoman troops led by Yusuf Pasha disembarked on Venetian Crete with no apparent target, with many suspecting them heading for Malta. Instead, the Ottomans surprisingly struck against Crete in June 1645, besieging and occupying La Canea (modern Chania) and Rettimo (modern Rethimno). Each of these cities took two months to be conquered. Between 1645 and 1648, the Ottomans occupied the rest of the island and prepared to take the capital, Candia.

Siege

The siege of Candia began in May 1648. The Ottomans spent three months laying siege to the city, cutting off the water supply, and disrupting Venice's sea lanes to the city. They would bombard the city for the next 16 years to little effect.

The Venetians, in turn, sought to blockade the Ottoman-held Dardanelles to prevent the resupply of the Ottoman expeditionary force on Crete. This effort led to a series of naval actions. On 21 June 1655 and 26 August 1656, the Venetians were victorious, although the Venetian commander, Lorenzo Marcello, was killed in the latter engagement. However, on 17–19 July 1657, the Ottoman navy soundly defeated the Venetians. The Venetian captain, Lazzaro Mocenigo, was killed by a falling mast.

Venice received more aid from other western European states after the 7 November 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees and the consequent peace between France and Spain. However, the Peace of Vasvár (August 1664) released additional Ottoman forces for action against the Venetians in Candia.

In 1666, a Venetian attempt to recapture La Canea failed. The following year, Colonel Andrea Barozzi, a Venetian military engineer, defected to the Ottomans and gave them information on weak spots in Candia's fortifications. On 24 July 1669, a French land/sea expedition under Francois de Beaufort not only failed to lift the siege, but also lost the fleet's vice-flagship La Thérèse, a 900-ton French warship armed with 58 cannons, to an accidental explosion. This dual disaster was devastating to the morale of the city's defenders.

Venetians abandon Candia. Illustration by Giuseppe Lorenzo Gatteri, 1863.

Chastened by their failed relief effort and the loss of so valuable a warship, the French abandoned Candia in August 1669, leaving Captain General Francesco Morosini, the commander of Venetian forces, with only 3,600 fit men and scant supplies to defend the fortress. He, therefore, accepted terms and surrendered to Ahmed Köprülü, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire on 27 September 1669. However, his surrender without first receiving authorization from the Venetian Senate made Morosini a controversial figure in Venice for some years afterward.

As part of the surrender terms, all Christians were allowed to leave Candia with whatever they could carry. At the same time, Venice retained possession of Gramvousa, Souda and Spinalonga, fortified islands that shielded natural harbors where Venetian ships could stop during their voyages to the eastern Mediterranean. After Candia's fall, the Venetians somewhat offset their defeat by expanding their holdings in Dalmatia.

Proposed biological warfare attack

Data obtained from the Archives of the Venetian State, relating to an operation organized by the Venetian Intelligence Services, describes a plan aimed at lifting the siege by infecting the Ottoman soldiers with plague; this was to be done by attacking them with a liquid made from the spleens and buboes of plague victims. "Although the plan was perfectly organized, and the deadly mixture was ready to use, the attack was ultimately never carried out."^[5] According to a scholar from the USA's National Defense University, information about this planned attack was previously unknown to historians of biological warfare until published in December 2015.^[6]

Other participants

Knights of Malta fought at the siege of Candia (in Crete) in 1668
François de Beaufort, who died there
Philippe de Montaut-Bénac, marshal under the duke of Beaufort
Philippe de Vendôme, the nephew of the duke of Beaufort
Vincenzo Rospigliosi, admiral of the fleet and Pope Clement's nephew
Georg Rimpler, German engineer
Charles de Sévigné
Louis de Buade de Frontenac

In fiction

The siege of Candia is an integral part of the background to the historical novel An Instance of the Fingerpost, where a significant protagonist is a Venetian veteran of that siege and several plot developments become clear through extensive flashbacks to the Candia events.

In season 6, episode 3 of the HBO series Silicon Valley, Gilfoyle (incorrectly) states that the Siege of Candia was only ended by use of biological warfare, where the Ottomans were defeated when they became infected with the plague-infested lymph nodes of the dead.

References

^ Louis PIESSE (1862). Collection des Guides-Joanne. Itinéraire historique et descriptif de l'Algérie, comprenant le Tell et le Sahara, etc.
^ ورقات جزائرية. 2000.
^ ^a ^b Paoletti, Ciro (2008). A Military History of Italy. p. 33.
^ Mason, Norman David (1972). The War of Candia, 1645–1669 (PhD). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. doi:10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.2351.
^ Thalassinou, Eleni; et al. (December 21, 2015). "Biological Warfare Plan in the 17th Century—the Siege of Candia, 1648–1669". Emerg Infect Dis. 21 (12): 2148–2153. doi:10.3201/eid2112.130822. PMC 4672449. PMID 26894254. Citing public domain text from the CDC
^ Carus, W. Seth (September 2016). "Letter to the Editor-Biological Warfare in the 17th Century". Emerg Infect Dis. 22 (9): 1663–1664. doi:10.3201/eid2209.152073. PMC 4994373. PMID 27533653.

The War for Candia, by the VENIVA consortium.
Venice Republic: Renaissance Archived 2015-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, 1645–69 The war of Candia, by Marco Antonio Bragadin.
The Cretan War – 1645–1669 by Chrysoula Tzompanaki (in Greek).

35°20′N 25°8′E / 35.333°N 25.133°E / 35.333; 25.133

[1] Louis PIESSE (1862). Collection des Guides-Joanne. Itinéraire historique et descriptif de l'Algérie, comprenant le Tell et le Sahara, etc.

[2] ورقات جزائرية. 2000.

[Paoletti-3] Paoletti, Ciro (2008). A Military History of Italy. p. 33.

[4] Mason, Norman David (1972). The War of Candia, 1645–1669 (PhD). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. doi:10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.2351.

[5] Thalassinou, Eleni; et al. (December 21, 2015). "Biological Warfare Plan in the 17th Century—the Siege of Candia, 1648–1669". Emerg Infect Dis. 21 (12): 2148–2153. doi:10.3201/eid2112.130822. PMC 4672449. PMID 26894254. Citing public domain text from the CDC

[6] Carus, W. Seth (September 2016). "Letter to the Editor-Biological Warfare in the 17th Century". Emerg Infect Dis. 22 (9): 1663–1664. doi:10.3201/eid2209.152073. PMC 4994373. PMID 27533653.

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v t e Major sieges involving the Ottoman Empire by century
13th-14th	1285 Kulaca Hisar 1326 Bursa 1328–1331 Nicaea 1333–1337 Nicomedia 1360s Adrianople 1385 Sofia 1393 Tarnovo 1394–1402 Constantinople
15th	1411 Constantinople 1422 Constantinople 1422–1430 Thessalonica 1428 Golubac 1440 Belgrade 1440–41 Novo Brdo 1448 Svetigrad 1450 Krujë 1453 Constantinople 1455 Berat 1456 Belgrade 1461 Trebizond 1462 Mytilene 1463 Jajce 1464 Jajce 1466–67 Krujë 1467 Krujë 1470 Negroponte 1474 Scutari 1477–78 Krujë 1478–79 Scutari 1480 Rhodes 1481 Otranto 1484 Chilia
16th	1500 Cephalonia 1517 Cairo 1521 Belgrade 1522 Knin 1522 Rhodes 1529 Peñón of Algiers 1529 Vienna 1531 Diu 1532 Güns (Kőszeg) 1532 Maribor 1533–34 Coron 1534 Tunis 1534 Baghdad 1537 Klis 1537 Corfu 1538 Diu 1539 Castelnuovo 1541 Buda 1543 Nice 1543 Esztergom 1548 Aden 1548 Van 1551 Tripoli 1552 Muscat 1552 Hormuz 1552 Temesvár 1552 Eger 1556 Oran 1559 Bahrain 1563 Oran 1565 Malta 1566 Szigetvar 1570–71 Famagusta 1574 Tunis 1578 Gvozdansko 1592 Bihać 1593 Sisak 1596 Eger
17th	1601 Nagykanizsa 1621 Khotyn 1638 Baghdad 1663 Uyvar 1664 Novi Zrin 1648–1669 Candia 1672 Kamenets 1683 Vienna 1684 Buda 1684 Santa Maura 1685 Érsekújvár 1686 Buda 1686 Pécs 1688 Negroponte 1688 Belgrade 1690 Belgrade 1695 Azov 1696 Azov
18th	1711 Brăila 1715 Nauplia 1716 Corfu 1716 Temeşvar 1717 Belgrade 1733 Baghdad 1734–35 Ganja 1737 Ochakov 1739 Belgrade 1788 Ochakov 1788 Khotin 1789 Belgrade 1789–90 Izmail 1799 El Arish 1799 Jaffa 1799 Acre
19th	1801 Cairo 1806 Belgrade 1821 Patras 1821–22 Acropolis 1821 Tripolitsa 1822 Missolonghi 1823 Missolonghi 1825–26 Missolonghi 1826–27 Acropolis 1828 Kars 1828 Varna 1854 Calafat 1854 Silistra 1854–55 Sevastopol 1855 Kars 1877 Plevna
20th	1912–13 Scutari 1912–13 Adrianople 1915 Van 1915–16 Kut 1916–1919 Medina
Ottoman defeats shown in italics.