MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

Summer 1128: The defence of Crete.

The King had ordered the Thieves Guild on Crete destroyed almost as soon as the city of Iraklion had fallen to his assault. Kyle had a clear vision of Crete as a centre for trade in the eastern Mediterranean and he recognised that the existence of a den of thieves in the city would dissuade merchants from establishing their own guild houses.

Since then Iraklion had produced one merchant who had sailed for Africa with the King on Dougall’s fleet and had constructed a port to increase its trade income by exporting local timber.

These efforts were rewarded when a guild of merchants requested permission to establish a merchants’ guild in the city and things seemed to be going well.

However, the King had also predicted that Scottish occupation of Crete would not go unchallenged and in the winter of 1128 this proved to be true when a Byzantine fleet blockaded the newly constructed port.

There had been a small force of Byzantine knights on the island since before its capture a year ago and it was assumed that this force was the remnants of the former city garrison which had been ejected by the rebels when they took over the island. The knights were commanded by Prince Volkanos, the Byzantine faction heir and Kyle had spoken with him several times before he left the island and had assumed that eventually the Prince would call on a fleet to collect himself and his men and return to the mainland.

He had therefore left instructions with the Crusader garrison that no action was to be taken against the Prince or his army and that any Byzantine ships approaching the island were to be left in peace unless they were clearly carrying an invasion force.

However, having let a fleet approach only to have it blockade the islands only port convinced the garrison that the Byzantine intentions were far from honourable and unable to strike back at the blockade due to a lack of ships they chose instead to vent their wrath on the unfortunate Prince and his knights.

In a short but bloody battle the crusader garrison first drove Prince Volkanos and his knights to the far eastern tip of the island and then forced them to give battle.

The Prince fought bravely leading several effective charges against the crusader spear wall. But a combination of accurate crossbow fire and resolute spear walls eventually wore his numbers down and he eventually fell along with all his knights. No quarter was asked or given, the Prince and every one of his 82 knights died on the field.


The Crusaders carefully collected the Princes body and carried it out to the fleet blockading the harbour. The death of their Prince did little to improve relations between Scotland and the Byzantine Empire which were now at their lowest ebb.

The garrison expected to be besieged by a Byzantine Army at any moment, but instead a year later in the winter of 1129 they found unexpected relief with the arrival of a Venetian fleet which scared off the blockade and landed a small Venetian army on the island.

The garrison were wary of the newcomers assuming that Venice also had desires to capture the island. However, they did nothing to provoke the Venetian Army allowing it to camp outside the city walls without hindrance. Over this period the garrison of Crete had not been idle. By the end of 1129 they had already constructed the first of the holks needed to defend the port and had recruited a diplomat called Brain of Caithness who sailed immediately to try and negotiate a truce with the Byzantines.


In the summer of 1130 Venice declared war of the Byzantine Empire and in the same season Brain met with Emperor Alexius and agreed a ceasefire with the Byzantine’s in return for extending trade rights with the island and the rest of the Scotland.

The defenders also sent an emissary to the commander of the Venetian Army which was still camped on Crete to discuss a possible alliance particularly as Venice was already allied with both France and Sicily, two of Scotland’s loyalist friends. These negotiations did not go well. Whether the Venetians were upset that Scotland had not aided them in their war against the Byzantine or whether they were merely waiting for their reconciliation with the Pope is not clear, but whatever they reason four years later in the winter of 1134 the Venetian’s decided to blockade Iraklion.

However, this proved to be a very short war. Almost immediately the diplomat Donnchadh Broune requested an audience with Clario Selvo and pointing out the somewhat unfavourable situation which both his army and fleet would find themselves in should the Cretan fleet and army choose to attack he quickly secured a ceasefire in return for trade rights. This action effectively ended the crisis without a shot being fired, the Venetian blockade was immediately lifted, and the fleet sailed away leaving Clario and his army stranded on the island.

Crete was left in peace, albeit with some unwanted Venetian squatters who seem to have nothing better to do. The ceasefires negotiated with the Byzantines and Venetians were destined to hold for the next six years and no further threats have been made to the island.

So, perhaps God meant for Scotland to keep it after all.