The Republic of Ragusa: An Episode of the Turkish ConquestVillari, Luigi
History
The Republic of Ragusa: An Episode of the Turkish Conquest
Villari, Luigi
Dubrovnik (Croatia) -- History
Count Peter’s other son, Don Jorge d’Olisti-Tasovčić, served under
Francisco de Mendoza in various expeditions to Tunis and elsewhere.
With his brother Estevan he provisioned Naples during the famine of
1592-94—a risky operation owing to the perpetual raids of the pirates.
After various encounters with the latter he fell in with a fleet of
them of a hundred sail, commanded by one Cicola, in the Straits of
Messina during a calm. After a very severe engagement, overwhelmed
by numbers, he was forced to surrender, and sent as a prisoner to
Constantinople, losing his three galleons, valued at 80,000 ducats, and
their cargo valued at 20,000. He remained in captivity for three years,
until he managed to raise the 3000 _scudi_ required as his ransom, and
returned to Spain a ruined man. But the King gave him a new command,
and a pension of 40 _scudi_ a month. He served with distinction with
the Levant fleet on the coasts of Anatolia and of Albania in 1605-6,
and later with the Western fleet. He died, loaded with honours, in 1625.
Another member of this family, Don Juan d’Olisti-Diničić-Tasovčić, was
equally conspicuous, and fought under Stephen and George, and then
under Don Luiz Faxardo in the attack on the coast of the Sea of Marmara
(1614). He subsequently commanded twenty-six galleys in Catalonia,
fought with the corsairs, and was appointed Captain-General of the
Neapolitan Vice-regal fleet in 1639.
With the death of Count Peter in 1599 the male line of the Counts
of Tuhelj became extinct, but some years previously he had arranged
a match between his daughter Aurelia and Andrea Ohmučević-Grgurić,
of the cadet branch of the family, also a captain in the Spanish
service. The marriage did not take place until 1617. Andrea’s brothers
were all sea-dogs in the Spanish service. One of them, Don Pedro,
led a successful expedition to Brazil, and was afterwards appointed
Spanish consul at Ragusa (1623-1631). Don Pablo, after knocking about
in various parts of the world, ended his life in retirement at the
family place at Slano. Don Andrea himself served Spain for fifty-seven
years, commanding various fleets, and was created Spanish Admiral of
the Neapolitan fleet, which position he held during the Masaniello
rebellion. In 1614 the Tuhelj estates in the Herzegovina, which after
the Turkish conquest had been confiscated and then restored to the
family on payment of a tribute, were once more confiscated on account
of the part which its members had played in the Spanish wars against
the Turks. Don Andrea tried in vain to obtain redress from the Pasha of
the Herzegovina, and then appealed to the King of Hungary, who in two
rescripts of 1650 and 1654 recognised Don Andrea’s rights and those of
his heirs, but there was no hope of enforcing them until the country
should again be under the rule of a Christian Power; 224 more years
were to elapse before this consummation came to pass!
[Illustration: ISOLA DI MEZZO]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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