Hungarian-Venetian Wars
The Hungarian-Venetian Wars were a series of conflicts primarily fought during the 14th century, centered around the control of Dalmatia, a strategically important region along the Adriatic Sea. King Louis I of Hungary sought to expand his realm and secure Mediterranean access, leading to clashes with the Venetian Republic, which had maintained dominion over Dalmatia since the 11th century. The wars saw significant battles, including the Siege of Zara (Zadar) and the Battle of Fossa-nuova, where both sides experienced victories and defeats.
Initially, Louis achieved partial success, capturing Zara and forming alliances with regional powers like Padua and Genoa. However, the conflict escalated into broader hostilities, intertwining with the War of Chioggia against Venice's rival, Genoa. Despite some early advantages, the tide turned against Louis's coalition, culminating in the surrender of Chioggia in 1380, which marked a significant setback for the Hungarian cause.
After Louis's death, control of Dalmatia shifted, and Venice regained influence in the region, further complicating the political landscape of Central and Eastern Europe. The legacy of these wars reflects the intricate dynamics of power, territorial ambitions, and shifting alliances in medieval Europe.
On this Page
Hungarian-Venetian Wars
At issue: Possession of Dalmatia
Date: May, 1346-August, 1381
Location: Eastern Lombardy and Dalmatia
Combatants: Hungarians and allies vs. Venetians
Principal commanders:Hungarian and allied, Conrad of Croatia, Stephen of Transylvania (d. 1427), Francesco da Carrara, Luciano Doria; Venetian, Marino Falier (1278?-1355), Pietro da Canale, Taddeo Giustiniani, Pietro della Fontana, Vettore Pisani
Principal battles: Luca, Fossa-nuova, Pola
Result: Hungary gained Dalmatia
Background
Venice had controlled Dalmatia since the eleventh century to enable safe Adriatic passage to the east. King Louis I of Hungary expanded his Balkan possessions and wanted control of Dalmatia for Mediterranean access and communication with the Anjou Neapolitan kingdom.
Action
After regaining Croatia in 1345, Louis made Zara (Zadar) revolt in May, 1346. Venetian Marino Falier beat the Hungarians at nearby Luca (July 1, 1346), and Pietro da Canale, commanding forty galleys, broke into the harbor. Zara surrendered in November. In August, 1348, Louis signed an eight-year peace treaty. In August, 1356, after an understanding with Francesco da Carrara, lord of Padua, a Hungarian army under Conrad of Croatia besieged Venetian Treviso, and in September, Zara was betrayed to Louis. In a peace mediated by Carrara on February 18, 1358, Venice ceded Dalmatia and retained Treviso and its march.
Carrara, Louis’s partner in weakening Venice, fomented sedition in the city, while Louis was engaged on the Balkans, expanding into northern Bulgaria (1365–1369) and Bosnia (1366). In 1372, Venetians countered Carrara by hiring the mercenary chief Reniero del Guasco to lay waste to Paduan territory. In spring, 1373, Louis sent 5,000 troops under his nephew, Stephen of Transylvania, in support of Carrara. Stephen won at Nervesa, near the Piave, twelve miles north of Treviso, and Carrara at Fossa-nuova, six miles west of Treviso, against the Venetian commander, Taddeo Giustiniani. However, his successor, Pietro della Fontana, with spiked clubs and barbed pikes against the Hungarian cavalry, beat Stephen in the second Battle of Fossa-nuova (July 1) and took Stephen prisoner. Carrara made peace on September 22.
Preoccupied with securing Dalmatia for Hungary permanently, Louis aimed at destroying Venice with a coalition of Austria, Padua, and Genoa. In spring, 1376, Leopold II of Austria, who had fought with Venice over Trieste in 1369, invaded the march but accepted an armistice in November. The war now merged into the War of Chioggia (1378–1380) between Venice and Genoa. A quarrel over the Byzantine island of Tenedos escalated in a declaration of war in April, 1378. Louis again sent his nephew to Italy to aid Carrara. Stephen laid siege to Mestre, opposite Venice, but was rebuffed by its commander (July, 1378). In the following spring, however, Venice lost its home fleet under Vettore Pisani against the Genoese admiral, Luciano Doria, at Pola (May 7, 1379). As a new Hungarian army surrounded Treviso, and a joint Paduan and Genoese land and naval force conquered Chioggia (August 16), dominating the Lagoon of Venice, Louis came close to his goal. However, the tide turned. Doge Andrea Contarini and Pisani isolated the enemy in Chioggia through obstructions in the surrounding canals and a new fleet in the arsenal, increased on January 1, 1380, by the Eastern Fleet detached from Pisani before Pola.
On June 24, Chioggia surrendered. Genoa lost its fleet, but the coalition still stood. Venice broke into it by giving Treviso to Leopold on May 2, 1381, on condition that he restrain Carrara from entering the march. Louis, who was dealing with a revolt in Naples, concluded a peace at Turin on August 8, dissolving the coalition but confirming Louis in Dalmatia.
Aftermath
After Louis’s death, Venice backed his daughter Mary as his successor. As wife of Emperor Sigismund, her concerns shifted to central Europe. A local chief, Tuartka of Croatia, with whom Venice could deal, added most of Dalmatia to his Bosnian possessions. Venice regained Treviso in 1400.
Bibliography
Hazlitt, W. Carew. The Venetian Republic. 2 vols. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1900.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice: A Maritime Republic. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.
Praga, Giuseppe. History of Dalmatia. Pisa, Italy: Giardini, 1993.
Vardy, S. B., et al., eds. Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland. Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1986.
Varga, Domokos. Hungary in Greatness and Decline: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Atlanta: Hungarian Cultural Foundation, 1982.