Triadan Gritti

Triadan Gritti was a 15th-century Venetian nobleman who was the Venetian captain general and commander-in-chief of Scutari.

Triadan Gritti
Born	1390
Died	1474
Nationality	Venetian
Occupation	diplomat and military officer
Known for	being Venetian captain-general

Diplomatic and military career

In 1451 Gritti served as the Venetian ambassador to the Papal States.[1]

When the news of Ottoman preparations for the siege of Scutari reached Venice in early 1474, Triadan Gritti, who was 84 years old then, was appointed as the Venetian captain general instead of Pietro Mocenigo.[2] Gritti commanded the Venetian fleet of six galleys that sailed early in May 1474 to protect the coasts of Albania, Veneta, and especially the mouths of the Bojana River.[3] By summer Gritti's forces were joined by the fleet commanded by Mocenigo, who left Cyprus after first installing Caterina Cornaro as queen of the island.[2] Gritti and Mocenigo were later co-commanders of the Venetian relief forces sent to Scutari.[4]

Ottoman forces attempted to blockade the Venetian fleet in the Bojana by clogging the mouth of the river with tree trunks, just as the Serbian voivode Mazarek did during the Second Scutari War. Gritti returned down the river with his fleet and destroyed the Ottoman forces on 15 June 1474.[5] In Scutari, Gritti and Mocenigo ordered Leonardo Boldu to find Ivan Crnojević and urge him to mobilize as many of his men as possible to help the Venetians during the siege. Boldu was also ordered to transport Crnojević's cavalry and infantry over Lake Scutari.[6]

After the discovery of the treason committed by Andreas Humoj, a member of Humoj family, during the Siege of Scutari, Gritti sentenced him to death and had him executed by a man from Tuzi.[7] In spite of his efforts, however, Gritti was not able to deliver to Scutari all the goods that his fleet carried because many of his ships were trapped in the shallow waters of the Bojana near Sveti Srđ.[8]

Death

Gritti and Bembo died of malaria in 1474 in Kotor. They both contracted it during the siege of Scutari when they participated in several skirmishes with Ottoman forces near the mouth of the Bojana River.[9]

References

1. Godišnjica Nikole Čupića. Štampa Državne štamparije Kraljevine Jugoslavije. 1888. p. 157. Retrieved 7 December 2013. Баш је у то доба био на шапином двору млетачки посланик Тријадан Грити. 27. Новембра 1451. сакупи се вијеће и одлучи, да Гриту пошљу пријепис папиног писма...
2. Franz Babinger (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-691-01078-6. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
3. Babinger, Franz (1992), Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, Princeton University Press, p. 334, ISBN 9780691010786
4. John Freely (2009). The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - conqueror of Constantinople, master of an empire and lord of two seas. I.B. Tauris. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-84511-704-7. Retrieved 4 December 2013. When news of the Ottoman attack reached Venice, the Senate sent a fleet under the joint command of Triadan Gritti and Piero Mocenigo, who sailed seven of their galleys up the Bojana to Shkoder, leaving the rest on patrol off the Albanian coast.
5. Božić 1979, p. 380

   У близиниушћа покушали су да затворе реку, као што je 1422. годинечинио и деспотов командант Мазарек. Једноставно су насе-кли дрвеће и побацали га у реку да би затворили излаз. Три-јадан Грити није смео дозволити да му непријатељ блокирафлоту у реци

6. Imber, Colin (1990), The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1481, Istanbul: Isis Press, p. 219, ISBN 9789754280159, OCLC 22297448, When the commanders of the fleet — Triadan Gritti and his predecessor as Captain-General, Piero Moccnigo — met in Albania, they commissioned a certain Leonardo Boldu to find one of the lords of the country to the north of Lake Shkoder, John Chcrnojcvich, "a man of great following and authority," and exhort him to gather as many men as possible. They ordered Leonardo to transport these, with his own infantry and cavalry, across the lake to relieve Shkoder,...
7. Schmitt, Oliver Jens (2001), Das venezianische Albanien (1392-1479), München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag GmbH München, p. 492, ISBN 3-486-56569--9, Rätselhaft erscheint vor diesem Hintergrund das Schicksal Andreas Humojs: Er beging verrat und wurde von Generalkapitan Triadan Gritti zum tode verurteilt. Das urteil vollstreckte ein Tuzi.
8. Božić 1979, p. 380

   ни Тријадан Грити није могао опседнутом граду дапошаље помоћ којом су били натоварени бродови укотвљенипод Светим Срђом

9. Franz Babinger (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. pp. 335–. ISBN 978-0-691-01078-6. Retrieved 4 December 2013.

Sources

• Božić, Ivan (1979), Nemirno pomorje XV veka (in Serbian), Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga, OCLC 5845972