War with the Ottomans At the time of his accession to the dogeship, Venice was engaged in the
Second Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503). During the conflict, Loredan had lost his cousin
Andrea Loredan, a naval officer, in the disastrous
Battle of Zonchio (1499), and the war had proceeded badly on land too, with the Venetians losing considerable territory. This included the strategic city of
Modon (1500), which was the site of a bloody battle involving hand-to-hand combat, followed by the beheading of hundreds of Venetians after the Turkish victory. Shortly before Loredan's accession, the Ottomans took
Durazzo, the capital of
Venetian Albania on 17 August 1501, and also plundered
Venetian Dalmatia. The war took a heavy toll on the Venetian economy and in 1502–1503 Loredan agreed a peace treaty with the Turks. He was helped in the negotiations by
Andrea Gritti, a Venetian who had been conducting trade in
Constantinople and would later become doge of Venice himself. Venice paid a high price for this treaty including loss of land and a requirement to pay an annual
tribute to the Turks. In 1509, the
Battle of Diu took place, in India, where the Portuguese fleet defeated an Ottoman and Mamluk fleet, which had been transferred from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea with Venetian help. The defeat marked the end of the profitable Spice trade, which was bought by Venetians from the Mamluks in Egypt and in turn monopolised its sale in Europe, reaping great revenues from it.
War with the Emperor In January 1508, emperor
Maximilian I undertook an
Italienzug, and in February attacked the Republic by invading the
Terraferma. Venetian troops were victorious at the
Battle of Cadore (2 March), also occupying
Trieste (6 May) and several other cities in the neighboring imperial regions. The war ended favorably for the Republic, in June 1508, by the conclusion of a three year truce between the doge and the emperor.
War of the League of Cambrai , featuring Doge Leonardo Loredan Upon the death of
Pope Alexander VI in 1503, Venice occupied several territories in the northern
Papal States. When
Julius II was elected as Alexander's successor, the Venetians expected their seizure of papal territory to be tacitly accepted, as Julius had been nicknamed
Il Veneziano for his pro-Venetian sympathies. Those expectations turned out to be unrealistic, since the new pope aspired to restore all of lost possessions. Although willing to reach a compromise, based on paying an annual tribute to the pope, the Republic refused to surrender the disputed regions, thus alienating itself from the pope. In December 1508, the anti-Venetian
League of Cambrai was formed by the emperor
Maximilian I and the
French king
Louis XII, who were joined by king
Ferdinand II of Aragon and pope Julius II. Already in January 1509, the doge Loredan received the farewell visit from the residing French ambassador
Janus Lascaris, who was leaving Venice, and by April a special envoy of the French king arrived, informing Loredan that the state of war was formally declared to the Republic. On 27 April, pope Julius II issued the
interdict against the Venetians, provoking a series of protests from the doge, who responded by questioning the validity of pope's use of such religious instruments in settling purely political and territorial disputes. After losing to the league's forces at the
Battle of Agnadello, Venice found its holdings in Italy shrinking drastically. Soon
Padua, Venice's most strategically vital
Terraferma holding, had fallen, and Venice itself was threatened. Loredan united the population, calling for sacrifice and total mobilisation. Padua was retaken, though Venice was still forced to accept a reluctant peace with the pope. It was concluded on 15 February 1510, and already on 24 February pope Julius II officially revoked the
interdict, that was imposed on the Venetians in 1509. In the summer of 1510, doge Loredan and pope Julius concluded an aliance against the French. The alliance was on the verge of victory, but a dispute arose over territory. Emperor
Maximilian refused to surrender any Imperial territory, which in his eyes included most of the Veneto, to the Republic; to this end, he signed an agreement with the Pope to exclude Venice entirely from the final partition. When the Republic objected, Julius threatened to reform the League of Cambrai. In response, Venice turned to Louis; on 23 March 1513, a treaty pledging to divide all of northern Italy between France and the Republic was signed at
Blois. Under this alliance with the French King
Louis XII, the Venetians achieved a decisive victory over the Papal States, and were able to secure back all the territories they had lost. In addition, the
Papacy was forced to repay many outstanding debts to the
Loredan family totaling approximately 500,000
ducats, an enormous sum of money. In December 1516, by the
Treaty of Brussels, the emperor Maximilian I agreed to end hostilities by concluding the truce with Venice, and already by January 1517 main provisions of the treaty were put in effect, by ceasing all military operations and surrendering
Verona to the Venetians. The end of war was marked by various celebrations in Venice, that took place from January to March 1517, thus marking the high point of doge Loredan's rule.
Post-war years The end of the war and the behavior of the doge, who perhaps thought he should enjoy the last years of his life rather than dedicate them to the administration of the state, led to a certain frivolity in Venetian society. Financial scandals were the order of the day and many public offices were bought at disproportionate prices rather than obtained on merit. In this period the doge bought titles and offices for children and relatives, making the most of his influence. Despite Loredan's wishes, he could not lead this pleasant life for long as he began to suffer from health problems. Around the first days of June 1521 his health began to deteriorate and soon gangrene developed in his leg. Any intervention was useless and the gangrene spread, killing him in the night between 20 and 21 June. It is said that, to warn the councilors and regents of the state, the news of his death was silenced by the doge's own son and was communicated only in the late morning. Interestingly, the commercialism and non-exemplary behaviour of his final years did not escape the watchful eye of the Inquisitors of the Dead, a magistracy created after the death of
Francesco Foscari, charged with investigating the final "account" of the doge. Perhaps the trial was artfully mounted for political purposes but certainly there were incriminating motives, because the heirs of the doge, despite being defended by the lawyer Carlo Contarini, one of the best of the time, were sentenced to a hefty fine of 9,500 ducats. == Death ==