Siege of Monopoli

Siege of Monopoli
Part of War of the League of Cognac
Map of Monopoli from 1700
Date 15 March–28 May 1529 Location Monopoli, Italy 40°57′N 17°18′E / 40.950°N 17.300°E / 40.950; 17.300 Result Italian victory
Belligerents
Republic of Venice	Holy Roman Empire Supported by : Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Andrea Gritti Camillo Orsini	Alfonso d'Avalos Fabrizio Maramaldo
Strength
1700 men	8000 men
Casualties and losses
5 killed	1500 killed
class=notpageimage| Location within Italy Show map of Italy Siege of Monopoli (Europe) Show map of Europe

The Siege of Monopoli^[1] in March-May 1529 was an episode of the War of the League of Cognac. This last episode was very important for the reconquest of several ports in Puglia, which for years had been in the hands of the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of France. The siege, which saw the Republic of Venice as the effective victor. However Monopoli was surrendered to the Spanish a few months after this victory.

Background

The situation in Puglia

Imperials

In December 1528 Alfonso III d'Avalos, Marquis of Vasto, descended into Puglia with a strong army to subjugate the cities still occupied by the French and the Venetians who represented a thorn in the side of the imperials as they forced them to commit troops that should instead have been used to definitively take Lombardy away from them. On 3 February 1529 Alfonso d'Avalos, Ferrante Gonzaga and Count Borrello held a war council at Pietramontecorvino in which it was probably decided to besiege Monopoli in accordance with the will of the Marquis of Vasto, although there were certainly divergent opinions on the matter since such an action was seen more as a personal enterprise of the latter than as a military operation for the benefit of the Empire.^[2]

Venetians (Italians)

By the end of 1528, the Franco-Venetian coalition had only a few Apulian port cities left. The most important was Barletta, held by Renzo degli Anguillara, but there were also Trani, governed by Vittore Soranzo and where the general provveditore Giovanni Vitturi was based, and Monopoli, governed by Andrea Gritti. Since the hinterland was largely occupied by the imperials, the Venetians could send supplies to their strongholds only across the Adriatic, where they were virtually unopposed.^[3] The situation of the Apulian cities was precarious as supplies of food, weapons, and ammunition, ravaged by frequent winter storms and the severe famine of the preceding months, were slow in arriving or were lost due to shipwrecks; furthermore, the governors were continually short of money to pay the soldiers who risked mutiny and desertion at any moment. Despite these difficulties, towards the end of December the mercenary companies in the service of Gritti, led by Orazio da Carpegna and Giulio da Montebello, first managed to ambush the imperial troops near Fasano and then to defend the men and cargo of a shipwrecked galley near Mola di Bari, managing to capture Giulio di Acquaviva and forty men who were just half a mile from the city walls. Renzo degli Anguillara instead captured Monte Sant'Angelo, ensuring control of the urban centres on the Gargano coast up to Lesina.^[4]

First signs

On the night between 3 and 4 March 1529, Giovanni Vitturi, while in Trani, was informed by a messenger sent by Renzo dell'Anguillara (who in turn had been informed by a prisoner) that Alfonso d'Avalos was moving with men and artillery towards Monopoli. Vitturi immediately called a council of war together with the condottiero Camillo Orsini and the governor Vittore Soranzo, following which he decided to send Almorò Morosini, captain of the Golfo, to that city on the galley Marcella together with the infantry captain Felice da Perugia and his 160 men, in order to reinforce the garrison in preparation for a possible siege. It was also established that Giovanni Contarini, the fleet's provider, was to assist the city as soon as possible with his galleys, also taking soldiers from the Trani garrison, if necessary. Finally, messengers were sent to warn Trevisan and governor Gritti of the impending threat. Vitturi, although considering Monopoli a well-fortified town, explored the possibility of an attack on Nardò or Castro in order to distract the enemy from the possible siege of Monopoli and make the Salentines rise up. This route was however abandoned due to the chronic shortage of food and money for the soldiers' wages. The mercenary companies stationed in Barletta, not having been paid for days, had just rebelled and had threatened to sack the city and had been tamed with difficulty by Renzo dell'Anguillara. The following day the galley Marcella, having arrived off the coast of Giovinazzo, was caught in the middle of a storm and strong sirocco winds which forced it to take refuge in the port of Trani.^[5]

Defenses of Monopoli and Polignano

On the evening of March 9th, Vitturi and Contarini, after having received confirmation of the enemy's movements and having arranged the defences of Trani, entrusting them to Soranzo, and since the sea had finally returned to calm after days of storms, decided to go in person to Monopoli on the galley Bondimiera, loaded with 100 infantry, artillery and ammunition. On March 11th the two arrived in Monopoli, started some fortification works on the city walls and organised the disposition of the troops. Contarini, together with the company of Angelo Santo Corso, would have garrisoned the stretch of walls around the Pignate tower, considered the most vulnerable point, the other 600 infantry of Orazio da Carpegna and Giulio da Montebello and the 100 knights of Piero Frassina and Alvise Matafari the rest of the walls. The company of Felice da Perugia was sent by Trevisan to defend Polignano. On the same day, a spy learned that on the evening of March 10, about ten pieces of artillery formerly belonging to Odet de Foix had arrived in Conversano and that Alfonso d'Avalos would soon lay siege to Monopoli. The Venetians then decided to send the Trevisan and the Morosini to Trani with the Marcella and the Bondimiera to collect the 300 infantrymen of Ricciardo's company from Pitigliano, two pieces of heavy artillery and to ask Renzo dell'Anguillara to prepare a force of at least 1,000-1,500 men to attack the enemy artillery from behind while the siege was underway. The two ships left Trani only during the night between August 16 and 17 due to storms.^[6]

Movements of the Imperial Troops

Between the end of February and the first days of March, the soldiers of Fabrizio Maramaldo 's mercenary company took up quarters in Irsina, Grottole, Ferrandina and Craco after having plundered the surrounding countryside. On 5 March, two companies, each of 500 Spanish soldiers, reached Rutigliano and Noicattaro where there were already 400 knights sent by Count Borrello, partly detached from the garrison of Andria. On the same day Alfonso d'Avalos, surrounded by an escort of 1,000 infantry and 300 knights, carried out a reconnaissance of the defences of Polignano and on 7 March tried to surprise a Venetian contingent outside the walls of Monopoli without appreciable results.^[7] On March 12, an informant, one Matteo de la Calvara, warned the Venetians of Maramaldo's movements in Lucania in the previous days and that the imperial troops were now gathering between Rutigliano and Noicattaro and consisted of approximately 2,500 Spaniards and 3,000 Italians. The Marquis of Vasto, however, had just arrived in Conversano, gathering with artillery and a thousand sappers, whom he had sent into the surrounding countryside to stock up on food and sheets and tarpaulins to build tents and pavilions for the siege. The constant robberies only increased the aversion of many Apulians towards the Spanish. He also reported that the enemy soldiers threatened to kill the Marquis unless he immediately paid them six months' arrears plus an increase, since such military action was not approved by Naples and should be considered his personal undertaking. Eventually an agreement was reached whereby the Spanish would be granted half of the arrears and the Italians nothing. Inevitably the disagreements between the two nationalities worsened even further and played a role in the failure of the siege. On the same day Scipione della Somma, governor of Bari, arrived in Conversano and offered to capture Polignano, personally taking charge of the costs. The Spanish soldiers, however, refused to submit to his orders out of pride, so he was forced to leave behind a hundred sappers.^[8]

Siege

Alfonso d'Avalos lays siege

On March 15, Vitturi sent 400 men under the command of Giulio da Montebello into the countryside around Monopoli to procure wood to make fascines for the siege. On the way back, the Venetians were intercepted and charged by the imperial cavalry and two companies of Spanish infantry but managed to defend themselves valiantly and return to the city with few losses. The enemy, however, did not retreat from the field and during the evening other companies joined those present. Towards midnight, the entire army of the Marquis of Vasto had already encamped about two miles south of the city walls. Monopoli was alarmed and Vitturi immediately sent messengers to Trevisan to warn him to withdraw another company as well as a greater quantity of artillery and gunpowder since the besiegers were about three times as numerous as the besieged. On March 16, the Marquis of Vasto ordered his sappers to begin digging trenches and, during the night, personally went beneath the tower of San Rocco to assess its defenses.^[9] On March 17, the Venetians learned from a French cavalryman that Alfonso d'Avalos had insisted on Monopoli because it had been promised to him as a fief if conquered. He also reported that the house of a certain Camillo Dentice, who had contacts with the Marquis of Vasto, contained a complex of caves and tunnels in the basement that connected to the moat and would allow the Spanish to emerge suddenly and capture the city. Vitturi had Dentice arrested and the passages sealed. During the night between March 17th and 18th, the trenches reached within a hundred paces of the walls with the intention of undermining them. However, the sappers' work here was slowed down, partly because they encountered rocky ground that made excavation difficult and that flooded as soon as they attempted to dig deeper, and partly because, being now within range, they could be targeted by Venetian artillery and arrows. Around nine o'clock the next morning, three galleys (Bondimiera, Mosta, and Marcella) arrived in port, led by Trevisan and Camillo Orsini, carrying Ricciardo da Pitigliano's company and the promised supplies; the three vessels had encountered a violent storm off Bari and narrowly avoided shipwreck. After lunchtime, the war council (now composed of Vitturi, Gritti, Trevisan, Contarini, and Orsini) convened again. Orsini announced Renzo dell'Anguillara's intention to support them by sending infantry to assault the enemy artillery at the appropriate moment.Late in the night Contarini was sent to Barletta together with Sebastiano Salamone with four galleys and the Marcella to coordinate with him; he returned there on the evening of the 19th with reinforcements of about 500 infantrymen bringing the total forces in the city to about1,300 paid infantry, excluding the citizens of Monopoli. In Monopoli there was once again a shortage of money to pay the soldiers and there began to be fears of disorder, which was kept under control by the ability of Gritti and Morosini.^[10]

The artillery opens fire

On the night of 19 March the imperial troops prepared two pointed bastions, one in front of the Pignate tower and the other near that of Santo Stefano, behind which they planted the artillery. The cannons began to bombard the port area, firing a total of about 25 shots each, which caused light damage to the walls. The Venetians responded to the fire with two falconets which instead inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. They also fortified the sections of the walls that were the target of the enemy cannons, aided by the Monopolitans, 800 of whom had taken up arms.^[11] The following night the imperials strengthened the bastions and the shelters to protect the artillery and the sappers and began to bombard the towers on which the falconets were positioned to neutralise them. Nevertheless the Venetians managed to put two cannons out of action. Alfonso d'Avalos was forced to ask Scipione da Somma for two more cannons and as many mortars. The Marquis of Vasto had thus far underestimated Monopoli's defenses, partly because he was misinformed by spies and deserters, who had reported that the city's fortifications were weak, and partly because he was counting on his contacts to capture it with a coup, costing him only a handful of days. On March 22, the trenches reached the walls, and cannons began pelting ships attempting to enter or leave the port, thus cutting off the city's already depleted sea supplies. Contarini, after unloading food and ammunition from the galleys, sailed out to sea with the Mosta and the Salomona to prevent them from being destroyed. To address the supply problem, small boats began to shuttle between the city and the ships offshore. Contarini was then sent to Trani with the Salamona and the Mosta to replenish ammunition and pick up another 300 infantry from Barletta.^[12] Between 22 and 23 March the imperial artillery managed to knock down both the tower and the bell tower where the two falconets were located, without however damaging them. During the following night the tower was uncovered, creating a terrace and the two light artillery pieces were repositioned. The following day the Bondimiera, coming from Valona , arrived in port, from which two culverins were unloaded and the Venetians were informed by a Gascon deserter that the Marquis of Vasto intended to build a battery of cannons and then attempt an assault.^[13]

First Siege

At 3:00 a.m. on March 25, the imperial troops began firing mortars at the city walls, causing only modest damage, while the Venetian artillery remained inactive due to a shortage of ammunition. Meanwhile, the besieged discovered that Marco Antonio Palmier's house, built against the walls, contained a false door through which the enemy intended to enter. Vitturi had him arrested and sent to Venice along with other suspects for treason. Around 9:00 p.m., a council of war was convened to decide what to do, since the sappers, having reached the walls, were likely preparing to mine them. It was decided to build a bridge across the moat under cover of darkness and to man it with 50-60 men, covered by artillery. Late that night, the Venetians entered the enemy trenches, catching the sappers and Spanish soldiers off guard and massacring them, partly with the aid of fireworks. The imperial camp rose up and rushed towards the walls to massacre the exiles but they managed to get to safety at the cost of only a few wounded. The sortie cost the imperials the loss of at least 500 men between dead and wounded and raised the morale of the besieged. In the following days the sorties continued in order to keep the besiegers busy, although less effective than the first.^[14]

During the night between 26 and 27 March the imperials dedicated themselves to the construction of the cannon battery which was positioned in front of the tower of San Rocco. The Venetians tried to disturb the operations by firing artillery in order to delay the preparation as much as possible. Vitturi sent a messenger to Zara to ask the provveditore Pesaro to supply him with as much ammunition and gunpowder as possible since Monopoli was now short of them and without them it would not have been able to resist for long.^[15]

The sinking of the Mosta and Pisana and the situation at the end of March

On March 27, the Pisana landed 130 infantrymen, but two hours later the Mosta foundered, running aground on the rocks near Porta Nuova. The disaster cost the lives of 30-40 men from Giovanni Calabrese's company and resulted in the total loss of the cargo, which included money to pay the soldiers and 50 barrels of gunpowder and cannonballs.^[16] Vitturi attempted to remedy the situation by sending Morosini to Cattaro and Ragusa to recover gunpowder and ammunition. Meanwhile, he ordered that fire be only fired at safe targets, despite Orsini's protests. The lack of money to pay the soldiers only made the situation worse, although the protests, up to that point, had been limited to the men sent by Renzo dell'Anguillara and some of the Monopolitans. Between 27 and 30 March the imperials widened the trenches and reinforced the cannon battery which was almost unopposed and Morosini was unable to set sail for Cattaro due to the sea conditions. Vitturi then had the intuition to exploit the low morale of the enemies and increase the disagreements between the Italians and the Spanish.^[17] He announced a proclamation preceded by trumpet blasts in which, in the name of the King of France , he invited the Italian soldiers to go over to the Venetian side, promising that they would be paid and treated well.^[18]

During the night between March 31st and April 1st, three galleys arrived in Trani: one commanded by Contarini with 80 men, one by Giovanni Corrado Orsini with 100 men, and one by Giacomo da Mosto with another 100 men. The next morning, a storm broke, snapping the cables and causing one galley to take on so much water that it sank, losing several men but saving much of its cargo; two other galleys drifted and were unable to return to port. By April 2nd, only the Pisana and the Marcella remained in Monopoli (since the Bondimiera was in poor condition and could only be repaired at great expense), and Vitturi asked the Pesaro proveditor to provide him with two or three galleys. Morosini was less fortunate, having still not managed to find sufficient ammunition in Ragusa by April 6th. Meanwhile Alfonso d'Avalos, after having lost around 1,500 men between dead and wounded and 3 cannons since the beginning of the siege, decided to move the camp back by a mile, thus bringing himself to about three miles from the walls.^[19]

By the end of the month, Monopoli was defended as follows: Camillo Orsini with his paid retainers, Orazio da Carpegna with 250 infantry, Giulio da Montebello with 250 infantry, Ricciardo da Pitigliano with 270 infantry, Angelo Santo Corso with 80 infantry, Giulio da Macerata with 120 infantry, Raffaele da Ravenna with 110 infantry, Paolo Antonio Ferrarese with 140 infantry, Cherubino da Spoleto with 110 infantry, Giovanni Calabrese with 130 infantry (90-100 after the Mosta shipwreck), Augusto with 130 infantry, and approximately 800 Monopolitans, for a total of approximately 2,350 men. Added to these were the small cavalry contingent consisting of Piero Frassina with 70 horsemen and Alvise Mattafari with 40 horsemen, for a total of 110 men. The artillery consisted of at least two culverins and two falconets, finally the city could have 4-5 galleys and a galliot.^[20]

Trench warfare

On April 2nd, Vitturi and Orsini had three false gates, several counter-ditches, and a trench built parallel to the moat to intercept any mined enemy tunnels and collect the rubble caused by enemy bombardment. Orazio da Carpegna distinguished himself once again, managing to steal fascines from the Spanish while encountering little resistance. That same day, the Imperial fleet managed to intercept and capture a Marciliana ship entering Monopoli, along with a brigantine and three boats that had sailed out to load fascines, with two ships from Mola.^[21] On April 6th, the battery near San Rocco managed to sink a Venetian brigantine. During the night between April 2nd and 3rd, a five-foot section of the wall near the Pignate tower collapsed due to the natural cavities beneath and the additional weight of the shelters; the breach was quickly repaired by the defenders.^[22] In the enemy camp, the Italians, unpaid for many days and prevented from working in the trenches for fear of desertion, began to defect to the Venetians in small groups; for safety, Vitturi sent them to Barletta. On April 6, one of the enemy trenches reached the San Rocco tower, but the Venetians were unable to effectively counter the sappers due to a shortage of ammunition. Vitturi clashed with Orsini, who planned to launch a sortie with 300-400 men to prevent the Imperials from breaching that section of the wall. Eventually, three hundred sappers were dispatched, who deepened the ditch until it reached sea level, threatening to flood it if the enemy attempted to fill it with fascines and debris to level it with the ground above. By April 10th the number of sappers active in the trenches had been greatly reduced since on the one hand the imperials did not trust the Italians, on the other the Venetian sorties and artillery had massacred Spanish sappers and it was therefore difficult to recruit new ones.^[23]

Second Siege

On 18 April Vitturi asked the provveditore Pesaro to pass through Barletta to load his galleys with the 1,500 men placed at the disposal of Renzo dell'Anguillara. The latter, in order to lift the siege of Monopoli, believed that Molfetta and Giovinazzo should be attacked . Vitturi however asked him to have them disembark in Monopoli because he considered it a priority to defeat the besiegers so as to inflict a mortal blow on the enemy's morale, already compromised by over a month of siege. Attacking the two towns would also have entailed a consumption of food, ammunition, gunpowder and money that could not have been afforded.^[24] On May 2nd, after a war council, it was decided to have the trenches on the side of the Pignate tower assaulted by Paolo Antonio da Ferrara , the best of the captains of the Barletta army, together with 30 other men, and those in front of the Porta Vecchia by Angelo Santo Corso together with 120 infantrymen; so that the allies could be distinguished from the enemies, it was ordered to place a white band on the weapons. The enemies put up a strenuous resistance near Porta Vecchia because one of the batteries was located there.^[25] After a few days there was a new sortie of 100 armed infantrymen on the side of the walls called the Pignate : a fire devoured the enemy positions and a month's work was wasted.^[26]

From 3 to 9 May, according to some eyewitnesses, Alfonso d'Avalos did not leave his pavilion, discouraged by the progress of the siege. Spies reported to the Venetians that the marquis had met with Filiberto di Chalons who, although somewhat annoyed by a siege that had lasted much longer than expected, had ordered him to continue it since giving in would have meant causing revolts to explode throughout Puglia and would have been dishonourable. On 9 May the imperials were reinforced by seven companies of Maramaldo for a total of about 500 men and by another three Spanish ones but Avalos did not have the money to pay them and thought of using them to cover the retreat.^[27]

Conclusion

The imperials, on May 28, 1529, seeing their efforts in vain, discouraged by the defection of many of the Italians and of Maramaldo's troops (who, short of food and poorly paid, had in the meantime devoted themselves to the plundering of the territory^[28]), abandoned the ground and moved to Conversano and from there finally to Naples.^[29]

Doge Andrea Gritti

Guicciardini, in describing these events and the great difficulties encountered by the Imperials at the first assault, adds among other things:^[30]

At the beginning of April, Guasto attacked Monopoli, where he lost more than five hundred men and many sappers, and destroyed three pieces of artillery. He withdrew a mile and a half because the artillery from the land was causing him a lot of damage.

— Historia d'Italia,Book XIX

As the danger receded, riots broke out in the city, caused by a lack of supplies and chronic delays in wages. Two warehouses were looted; Orsini immediately hanged two of the men guilty of the crime and decided to send the discontented back to Barletta.^[31]

Aftermath

In November 1529 Venice signed a peace with Charles V , handing over the cities of Monopoli , Barletta and Trani to the Emperor . In 1530 Monopoli was ceded by Venice to Charles V : the Spanish imperials thus entered the city, among them Diego Borrassa or Borrassà, a nobleman from Valencia , who was entrusted with the command of the Monopoli square.

References

1. BREWER, pp. 2491.
2. Sanudo Vol XLIX 1882, pp. 455–463.
3. Sanudo Vol XLIX 1882, pp. 462–463.
4. Sanudo Vol XLIX 1882, pp. 481–482.
5. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 98.
6. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 113–114.
7. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 115–116.
8. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 116–119.
9. Guicciardini, pp. 100–104.
10. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 119–122.
11. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 135.
12. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 142–143.
13. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 155–156.
14. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 157–158.
15. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 160–161.
16. Great Britain 1969, pp. 14.
17. Great Britain 1969, pp. 15.
18. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 161–162.
19. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 162–163.
20. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 163.
21. Henry VIII, pp. 2491.
22. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 220–226.
23. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 252–253.
24. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 257–259.
25. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 331–333.
26. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 350–352.
27. Sanudo Vol L 1882, pp. 352–353.
28. Pepe 1897, pp. 100.
29. Guicciardini, pp. 100–102.
30. Guicciardini, pp. 102–103.
31. Guicciardini, pp. 103–104.

Bibliography

• Sanudo Vol XLIX, Marin (1882). Diarii. Venezia: Tipografia del Senato.

• Sanudo Vol L, Marin (1882). Diarii. Venezia: Tipografia del Senato.

• Pepe, Luigi Finamore (1897). Monopoli e la Monarchia delle Puglie. Monopoli.

• Guicciardini, Francesco. The History of Italy. Constable & Co.

• BREWER, J.S. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green.

• Henry VIII. Calendar of State Papers. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

• Great Britain (1969). 1529–1533. HMSO.