Original scientific paper
The Siege of the City of Hvar by the Commoners, 1-7 August 1514
Joško Bracanović
orcid.org/0000-0002-9923-2025
; Diocese of Hvar - The Archive of the Diocese Hvar, Hvar, Croatia
Abstract
On the basis of primary and secondary sources, this article investigates the causes, the course of events and the consequences of the siege of the city of Hvar conducted by the commoner insurgents lead by Mathias Ivanić. The siege started on 1 August 1514, a day shortly before the feast of the city patron, St. Stephen, the king. Opinions on the reasons for the commoners’ attack on the communal centre were often contradictory in both primary and secondary sources. The discovery of the names of nobles who died on 6 and 7 August 1514, that is, the day before and on the day of ending of the siege, indicate a possible reason for the insurgents’ action. The men in question were John Piretić, Nicholas Dojmio, Mark Jurjević, Michael Dujmičić and Marin Hektorović, father of the poet Peter. Since some of these nobles belonged to the group that fled from Hvar at the beginning of the insurrection, we can assume that most of the fugitives returned to Hvar, probably during the expedition of Sebastian Giustiniano, and stayed in the city. While enjoying the protection of Venice, the noblemen again started to act badly towards the commoners, and this led to the latter group’s reaction. A contributing factor was also Count Vicenzo Donado, who can be considered the cause of every evil, according to Provisor Vicenzo Capello. With mutual action by naval and land forces, the insurgents after an eight-day siege made a breach in the harbour and city gate, and 200 commoners began patrolling through the city houses trying to find more noblemen. In total 31 noblemen were killed, while others were captured. Even after this event, the commoners tried to accomplish their demands using diplomatic and military skills. Near Omiš, they demonstrated their military force in order to intimidate the petty noblemen of Poljica into not assisting the Venice and Hvar noblemen in further confrontations, while sending a letter to the Hvar noblemen asking for reconciliation. However, it was too late, because Venice, having just recovered from the crisis caused by the war of the League of Cambrai, could not risk any further uprisings in Dalmatia, so they sent a substantial military force, with fifteen galleys led by Provisor Capello, to suppress a rebellion. After a month of fighting, the island was pacified; twenty commoners’ leaders were hanged and ten more were punished. Ivanić, the commoners’ leader, managed to escape into exile, but, in spite of many efforts, he was not able to restart the uprising.
Keywords
the city of Hvar; Venice; Dalmatian city-communes; the insurrection of the commoners on Hvar; Mathias Ivanić; Marin Hektorović; Peter Hektorović
Hrčak ID:
95091
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2012.
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