Property, piracy, and pugnacity

Abstract

This chapter seeks to understand why and how Venice exploited the Hospitaller lands in response to the disorderly and unruly activity of Western pirates and privateers in the Levant, including the Knights Hospitaller and their Maltese subjects. The history of the Grand Priory’s relations with the Most Serene Republic in early modern times is in part the story of that notably large branch of Mediterranean piracy which operated from its base on Hospitaller Malta under cover of the eight-pointed cross. From the indications gleaned from surviving documentation, it would appear historically inaccurate to entertain the perception that the story of the Grand Priory of Venice was marked by an inherently natural disposition towards pugnacity. Venice’s pugnacity towards the Order of the Hospital was deep-rooted and may well have had its origins in the traditional tension, at times deep antagonism that existed between ‘the city of the doges and the city of the popes’.