Lodovico, the illegitimate son of the Venetian Doge Andrea Gritti, was born in Constantinople in 1480, where his father was the Venetian ambassador to the Porte. Although he moved back to Venice in 1496 and enrolled at the University of Padua, the young Lodovico remained a stranger to the city. So, at 28, he settled in Istanbul, where he engaged in trade.
His time came in 1523 when his father was elevated to the Doge of Venice. Sultan Suleiman appointed the Greek-born Paragli Ibrahim, born in Pargo, a Venetian dominion, as Grand Vizier. It is not known when the friendship between Gritti and Ibrahim began, but by 1527 they were already in close contact.
Gritti, an adventurer who lived like a grand duke but was also easygoing, charming, generous, and multilingual, became an unofficial expert on the Western world in 1527 when King Szapolyai János’s envoy appeared at the Porte. Gritti was also the contact person through whom Venice kept in touch with the Porte.
In 1529, Gritti arrived in Hungary with the Sultan’s army, where he became a representative of the Porte’s demands in the entourage of King Szapolyai János. It was largely thanks to Gritti that Suleiman had supported King Szapolyai János against King Habsburg Ferdinand with his army. King Szapolyai gave him positions as royal councilor, treasurer-general, and bishop of Eger. The treasury allowed him to amass considerable wealth himself. He became friends with Nádasdy Tamás, who, as a follower of Ferdinand, was taken prisoner by Szapolyai in 1529 after the capture of Buda, and according to some historians owed his life to the castellan of Buda who was Gritti.
In early 1530 he returned to the Porte, and in October he came again to Buda. Just in time, as King Ferdinand’s general, Wilhelm von Roggendorf, had besieged King Szapolyai’s seat. Gritti then behaved bravely, inspiring the defenders, setting up his Turkish tent on the castle wall, but also acting as a soldier. When the siege ended after almost two months, on 23 December, a grateful King János appointed the Venetian adventurer as Comes of Máramaros and Governor. Most of the Hungarian Estates protested, but János was adamant. Gritti took Nádasdy as his deputy.
At the beginning of 1531, the new governor left for the Porte again and did not return to Hungary for a year. In the spring of 1532, he arrived in Hungary again via Wallachia, this time more as a general. The Sultan had again gone to war against the Habsburgs, and while his armies were besieging Kőszeg, Gritti and the Hungarian armies surrounded Esztergom, but to no avail. In a month and a half, he failed to capture the archbishop’s headquarters, and on hearing of the failure of the Sultan’s siege at Kőszeg, he too hastily retreated. In mid-October, he met Suleiman near Belgrade, who sent him back to Buda with Janissaries and army troops to support King János.
When Gritti returned to the capital, King János was no longer there. Only after several months of absence did he arrive in Buda, where he and his governor had almost a separate court. While János tried to negotiate a longer treaty with Ferdinand, Gritti did his best to prevent it. As the Sultan seemed to recognize Ferdinand as King of Hungary, the governor thought it better to use his influence personally. János was not unhappy that his increasingly burdensome governor left Buda on 25 March 1533.
At the Porte, however, Gritti was bitterly aware that his influence was waning, and that his negotiations with Ferdinand’s envoy had led him to betray his master, János. The position of his main supporter, Ibrahim, had also been shaken by this time. The sultan did not take kindly to his negotiations with the Habsburg monarch, and Gritti thought it better to leave Istanbul and return to Hungary in July 1534 after more than a year in Istanbul.
The governor again approached Transylvania from the direction of Wallachia. By this time, the Hungarian court had already heard of his disgrace and political machinations in the Porte. Czibak Imre, Bishop of Várad, was at the head of the aristocratic group plotting against him. He invited the high priest to Gritti’s camp in Brassó, and he went to meet him. However, Gritti’s men, including Dóczy János and Batthyány Orbán, ambushed and murdered the bishop in his camp in Felmér.
This prompted Gritti’s opponents to take strong action, led by the pro-Ferdinand Transylvanian Voivode Mayláth István. Meanwhile, the governor set off for Medgyes, where he had called a Diet, but the gates of the Saxon town remained closed to him. By this time both kings, Ferdinand and János, had moved away from him, and they watched the Doge-son adventurer’s fate with their hands folded.
The town of Medgyes opened its gates only after Dóczi threatened it, and by then Gritti and his entourage needed to get inside the walls, as his opponents’ armies were approaching. On 23 August, Gritti occupied Medgyes, where the armies of the rebellious Estates were slowly arriving. The besiegers were soon joined by the army of Moldavian Voivode Petru Rares so some 40,000 soldiers were camped around the Saxon city.
Mayláth led an assault on 28 September, but the ragtag army failed to succeed. He then began to shell the walls, which in one place collapsed in large pieces. Although the Turks, who were standing beside Gritti, were determined to resist, the townspeople attacked them from behind. Both Batthyány Orbán and the Hungarian cavalry prepared to defect, and let the besiegers in through the side gates. The large overwhelming force quickly overwhelmed the resistance. Gritti’s two sons, Pietro and Antonio, were led away by the Moldavians, while he was seemingly released. They then attacked him, killed his escort, and led the governor to Mayláth. They pronounced the death sentence on him and took his head in the dust of the road. Dóczy, who had killed Czibak, was also beaten to death.
Gritti’s head was given to the Moldavian Voivode, and his body was buried in the Franciscan Church of Medgyes. Her murderers came into possession of vast treasures.
Source: Szibler Gábor
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