Stavrides|63The Venetian Scheme
On December 22, 1470, the Venetian Council of Ten, which oversaw the re-
public’s security, discussed a proposal of cooperation submitted by Mahmud
Pasha, admiral of the Ottoman fleet, through the mediation of an Albanian
nobleman, Alessio Span. In this proposal, Mahmud Pasha offered to surrender
to Venice some castles in the Bosphorus Strait as well as the Ottoman fleet in
return for receiving an annual salary of 40,000 ducats until he became master
of the Morea.
The Council of Ten accepted the proposal and promised to pay annual sala-
ries to the persons involved in the negotiations, including the former grand vi-
zier’s brother, Michael Angelović, who was to receive 10,000 ducats annually. The
two main intermediaries used by Mahmud Pasha were both of Balkan Christian
aristocratic origins: Like the grand vizier, Serbian aristocrat John Kantakouze-
nos was a native of Novo Brdo and had profitable financial dealings with the
Ottomans until his execution in 1477. Alessio Span (1442–1495) was an Albanian
nobleman, who, like Mahmud Pasha, was descended from the Byzantine impe-
rial family of the Angeloi.
After two years of inactivity, toward the end of 1472 Span and Kantakouze-
nos conveyed renewed proposals, which were more ambitious, indicating that
Mahmud Pasha, recently reappointed as grand vizier, aimed at “taking over the
city and empire of Constantinople, and the domain of the Turk from here to
the Straits.” A few months later, the Council of Ten formally promised to help
the grand vizier with a fleet and money, while stating that Venice would keep the
Morea, Negroponte, Lesbos, and all the islands off the strait. However, Mahmud
Pasha was dismissed and executed the following year.
Although this affair had no practical conclusion, it is revealing of the poten-
tia l threat posed to the Ottomans by networks of Ba lkan aristocrats that sur vived
the Ottoman conquest and may be used as a counterpoint to the beneficial effects
of these networks by the Ottomans as described above.
Were these proposals sincere? Besides their face value, their authenticity is
reinforced by the subsequent fate of the people involved in the affair: the ex-
ecution of Mahmud Pasha and John Kantakouzenos and the flight of Span to
Venice. On the other hand, the members of the Council of Ten expressed doubts
about Mahmud Pasha’s intentions, especially since the sounding of the Venetians
through false proposals was a regular Ottoman diplomatic practice during the
Ottoman-Venetian War of 1463–1479.
Whatever the case, these proposals and their reception by the Venetians in-
dicate the power of Mahmud Pasha, who could mobilize a state like Venice to
negotiate with him as if he were an autonomous prince. Beyond his Christian
network, by virtue of his offices and his proverbial generosity, Mahmud Pasha