piracy 173
large enemies, the Uskoks supported their town by aggressive, systematic piracy
throughout the Adriatic and Aegean Seas; they also fought as naval mercenaries,
indeed playing an important role in the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of
Lepanto in 1571. Uskok pirates used small, rapid vessels (the harbor at Senj is too
shallow to admit either large merchant ships or galleys) to make lightning raids on
trade ships; like the Vikings of the ninth and tenth centuries in western Europe.
Uskok pirates also engaged in up-river campaigns and they were successful enough
that piracy provided the living for the entire town (perhaps 4000 people) even after
paying one-tenth of the plunder to both of the local Dominican and Franciscan
chapters that blessed each raid as it launched.
Senj was not the only Uskok outpost. By 1522, a loose network of pirate garrisons
was formed, under Habsburg patronage, called the Military Frontier (Militärgrenze).
It stretched along the Croatian and Dalmatian coasts, the spill-over area between
Ottoman and Venetian belligerence. The Uskoks were organized into 50-member
units under a commander known as a vojvoda in Croatian. Two of the most-renowned
vojvodas were the father-and-son pair both named Juraj Daničić (the Elder, d. 1571;
the Younger, d. 1591). Both excelled at raids and plunder, regularly bringing large
shipments of cattle and captives to the auction blocks in Senj. The Younger Daničić,
however, owed his success in equal parts to his piratical daring and to his ability to pit
local Ottoman frontier commanders against one another. A letter of his from 1582
describes an arrangement he had made with two local officials, whereby his forces
could pass their jurisdictions in peace, in order that he might attack other Turkish
officials who were career rivals of the pair:
To the greatly honored Saba-aga and Mustafa-aga, worthy of every praise and honor,
and to all the other heroes of Karin, as neighbors and honored knights, obeisance and
salutation ...
We have understood your request that we be content not to visit your subjects as often
as we have been doing up to now ... and have also understood the promise that you, the
agas and the other heroes of Karin, have made in these letters, pledging by your faith as
Muslims that when our men need to pass below Karin you will not cause them any trou-
ble or impediment, but will show them every courtesy and good fellowship, and further,
if there arises the necessity of pursuit, during the chase we may count on you, knowing
that both there and in any other place you will be quick to aid them and show them the
right road, and to send their persecutors in the wrong direction.
As for your suggestion that we should not take it ill if we find that you are forced to let
off one or two gunshots for your honor when you have news of us: all this you may do,
if it will not damage your honor, and you will be excused in this case with no damage or
prejudice to yourselves,
If all this is true and agreed, we the vojvodas of Senj, with all the other heroes, pledge
our faith as Christians that we will uphold your proposal honorably. (Bracewell, 2011:
183–184)Daničić and his fellow vojvodas signed the letter with the phrase, “Your good friends
in all things.” Reports from seven to eight years following this agreement describe
the Uskoks bypassing Karin in order to raid other jurisdictions and sometimes
stopping in Karin to dine and lodge with the trusted agas “as if they were Turks
themselves.”