Battle of Motta (1412)

Battle of Motta
Part of Sigismund's Venetian war of 1411-1413
DateAugust 24, 1412[1]
LocationMotta di Livenza, Veneto
Result Venetian victory[1][2][3][4]
Belligerents
Republic of Venice
[1][5][6]		 Kingdom of Hungary
[1][2][3]
Commanders and leaders
Carlo Malatesta
Ruggero Cane Ranieri
Taddeo dal Verme
[4][7][8][9]		 Pippo Spano
Miklós Marczali †
Niccolò di Prata (POW)
[7][8][9][10]
Strength
12,000 Troops[11]
Assembled on the Livenza by late August		 3,000 Cavalry[8]
Hungarians, Bohemians,
Germans & Friulians [5]
Casualties and losses
Heavy[7]
Carlo Malatesta was severely wounded [2][5]		 1,300 killed[3][6][9]
400 captured[7][8]
several standards[12]

The Battle of Motta was fought in late August 1412, when an invading Hungarian army led by Pippo Spano and Voivode Miklós Marczali [13] attacked the Venetian positions at Motta[11] and suffered a heavy defeat.[14]

Prelude

The Republic of Venice subjugated Verona and Vicenza after the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and took control of Padova by having its count, Francesco Carrara, executed in Venice.[2] This, and the Republics refusal to pay the annual fee of 7,000 ducats to the Crown of Hungary drove Sigismund, king of Hungary to declare war upon Venice.[2]
On April 20, 1411, 12,000 Hungarian cavalry and 8,000 foot crossed the Tagliamento under Pipo of Ozora.[12] The initial Hungarian success[4] and the heavy losses that the Venetians sustained[9] forced the Republic into a peace negotiation (March 24, 1412)[12] in which King Sigismund demanded the city of Zadar, reinstatement of the Scaliger and Carraresi to their fiefdoms and a reparation of 600,000 ducats.[9][10] This proposition was not accepted by the Republic of Venice [12] and the war was resumed by both sides with great passion.[2]

Battle

The Venetians increased their army[9] and at the head of 35,000 men, Carlo Malatesta reentered the field in Friuli conquering the castles of Polcenigo and Aviano.[3] Pandolfo Malatesta, brother of Carlo, joined the Venetian force with 1,000 lances[11] and by late August, the Venetians had an army of 12,000 men assembled along the Livenza river,[11] with Carlo Malatesta laying siege to Motta.[9]

On April 24, 3,000 Hungarians (including Germans, Friulians and Bohemians) [15] under Pippo Spano[9][10] assaulted the Venetian camp from three sides.[15] The Venetian camp was taken by surprise and the Hungarians created a slaughter[5] and started to plunder what they could.[15] Only Carlo Malatesta and the other|Venetian generals together with Ruggero Cane Ranieri and his company of 600 horse held off the Hungarians.[5][8] The Venetian fortunes completely changed when Pietro Loredan burned down the bridges so that the fleeing Venetian troops could not escape,[3] and thus rallied them back into combat.[12] In the fierce encounter the Hungarians were driven off,[11] with the loss of over 1,300 men and their general killed, several standards and 400 men captured.[3][6][8]

The Venetians won a hard fought victory,[3][12] having lost a lot of men killed.[8]

Aftermath

After being severely wounded, Carlo Malatesta, was forced to surrender his command over the Venetian troops to his brother Pandolfo.[7] Motta was forced to surrender[3] after Pietro Loredan and Martino da Faenza bombarded it, killing 60 and capturing 200 Hungarians.[8] In October, King Sigismund arrived in person with a force of 40,000 men,[6][10] but continued the war with little success.[4] After the failed siege of Vicenza, which decimated the Hungarian force,[2] a truce for five years with exchange of prisoners was finally concluded on April 17, 1413.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Townsend, George Henry (1862). The manual of dates. London.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Szalay, László (1869). Geschichte Ungarns: Vol II. Pest.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 von Studenitz, Carl W. (1833). Kriegsgeschichte. Berlin.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Rehm, Friedrich (1837). Handbuch der Geschichte des Mittelalters. Kassel.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 di Manzano, Francesco (1868). Annali del Friuli: Vol VI. Udine.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Daru, Pierre (1840). Histoire de la république de Venise: Vol II. Brussels.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Bonifacio, Giovanni (1744). Istoria di Trivigi. Venice.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Muratori, Ludovico Antonio (1733). Rerum Italicarum scriptores. Milan.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fessler, Ignácz Aurél (1869). Geschichte von Ungarn: Vol II. Leipzig.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Kerékgyártó, Árpád (1867). Magyarország történetének kézikönyve: Vol I-II. Pest.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 M. E. Mallett & J. R. Hale (1984). The Military Organisation of a Renaissance State. Cambridge.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hazlitt, William Carew (1860). History of the Venetian Republic: Vol III. London.
  13. ↑ Engel, Pál (2001). The realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary/895-1526. New York.
  14. ↑ Baum, Wilhelm (1993). Kaiser Sigismund: Hus, Konstanz und Tuerkenkriege. Vienna.
  15. 1 2 3 Verci, Giambattista (1791). Storia della Marca Trivigiana e Veronese. Venice.

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